I guess I’ll just do a short life update for this edition of BaD, since I have a few small things to talk about since the last blog.
I took my lovely girlfriend Jenny out for our Valentine’s date on Saturday. She wanted to go to a book store, eat at Johnny Carino’s, and see a non-traditional Valentine’s movie. So I let her loose in Half Price Books (which is exactly like seeing Agent Paper in the anime Read or Die), and then we went to see The Lego Batman Movie before dinner.
Lego Batman was really great. I wasn’t sure if a movie starring Will Arnette’s Batman would be that good, because I felt like he was best in small doses in The Lego Movie. This movie was quite a bit more frenetic than the previous one, but I thought it was just as clever, and they went deep on the classic Batman references. I was hoping for some more connections to The Lego Movie than were present, but it kept the same level of wit and zany humor, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My only complaint is that the climax is almost beat for beat identical to The Lego Movie, but it’s a minor quibble.
Sunday, we went to see John Wick Chapter 2. I didn’t think John Wick could get any more badass, but he totally did, and I loved seeing more of this secret world of assassins. It made me want a Hitman level where you team up with John Wick, but then Agent 47 is way subtler in his approach. Jenny and I loved this movie, and for my part Ruby Rose has become one of my new favorite action people. I saw her in XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, which is a big, DUMB action movie, but reminded me of Saints Row in its silliness.
Today is a big deal, because I secured a ticked to E3! They opened it to the public for the first time ever this year, and I decided to see if I could get in. I’ve been to the show four times already: from 2002-2004, and again in 2010. So I was there at the height of the swag bag and booth babe craziness, and also got to see what E3 has become in the years since the heyday.
I’m expecting this E3 to be more like the one in 2010, which means that I’ll be waiting in line for an hour to sit in a theater and watch the game devs play through a demo for the audience, but that’s ok. There’s a certain energy to E3 that I miss, and you never know who you’re going to run into. Back in 2010, I talked to Giant Bomb’s Ryan Davis and Vinny Caravella for a bit, ran into EGM’s James Mielke and Rez developer Mizuguchi san, and talked to Insomniac’s Ted Price for a few minutes. I met Shigeru Miyamoto at my first E3, and Phil LaMarr at my second, so it’s always a surprise seeing who is on the show floor.
I have my flight and hotel booked already. I need to see if Video Games Live is doing a show this year, because that’s always a great time. I’m excited, even though, if I’m being honest, you can get just as much (if not more) out of E3 by just watching the press conferences and trailers at home.
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