Another NDK has come and gone for us here at the Gameslave. We are hard at working ripping our recordings to computers, cleaning up pictures, and writing articles about this year's anime convention. I'm posting just a quick article about my own feelings and experience at this year's NDK as we work on finishing our main articles. Follow this link here to our Anime page for more of my initial thoughts.
With NDK coming up I felt it importent to remind attendee's of the following:
Image © RK MilhollandJust because it is a weekend of panels, anime, and games from sun up to sun down does not give you an excuse not to bathe. Please also remember to sleep, eat, and drink water. No one likes having to go around the EMT's because your dumb ass passed out. Thank you and enjoy the convention.
The Future is Now
It is the year 2027 and technology has started to advance to the point where it is merging with humanity. The line between man and machine has started to blur, and it is in this world that Deus Ex has placed us. You are Adam Jensen, head of security for Serif Industries. Serif is one of the leaders in human augmentation. It is your job to protect your place of business from corporate sabotage and possible terrorism from Purist, a group of people that find augmentation a sin against the human body. They are not necessarily a terrorist group, but there are extremists within any movement. You are first introduced to the world by talking with Dr. Megan Reed (I think she is your girlfriend). While walking around with her you see many of Sarif’s experiments, and eventually talk with the owner David Sarif. That is when things go to hell and an environmental alarm goes off. As the head of security you head on down to take care of things to find some guys that look like a black ops team. They have invaded just as Megan is getting ready to make leave for a conference in DC for a breakthrough announcement. You are even doing a good job holding your own against these soldiers, until an augmented infiltrator throws you through several inches of safety glass almost killing you. You are kinda saved by Megan, but at this point you pass out due to blood loss and fade to black.
The Future is NowThe latest installment in The Slayers series. Check out my review here.
The Slayers series has become a classic of the fantasy anime genre with its balance of slapstick humor, exciting action sequences and battles, and intricate plots. The latest installment of the series is called Evolution R, and picks up were Revolution left off. Lina and her companions are searching for a jar that contains the soul of Rezo, the Red Priest. Along the way they are harrassed by the assassin, so-and-so, and two monsters.
Overall, this series feels very much like Next with a similar balance of comedy, action, and drama. Certainly, this is a worthy heir to The Slayers dynasty and I heartily recommend it. For those who have not previous watched any Slayers series, I would recommend at least watching Revolution. However, all of The Slayers is available on Netflix streaming, so you might as well watch the whole thing.
Look at those sideburns!
I don't have much else to add to this, but I thought it was worth sharing.
That kinda says it all huh?
Yikes! That's a lot of video games and a lot of Benjamin's! Why can't we have some of these games be released during the summer! Obviously, I'm going to have to pick and choose what games I really want, because there is no way I'm going to spend over 1400 dollars. So like I said: it's a great time to be a gamer and it's the worst time to be a gamer, unless you're independently wealthy, which I am not.We're at one week, or more technically eight days away, from the largest anime convention in the Rocky Mountain region. We here at the Gameslave are starting to prepare our schedules for coverage of this year's convention. NDK is celebrating it's 15th year, which seems startling to me. Mostly because I, ZeldaQueen, at least have been attending since 2000, so that'd be NDK number four.
In any case, NDK's main site has done their major update before the start of the con, which is very informative. If you've been before, there isn't too much new stuff, but enough that will catch you off guard if you aren't paying attention. Firstly, the Marriot is charging for parking. Paying for parking is not always ideal, but if you've stayed on location before, you know how terrible parking is in the Marriot lot. It's only $5 a day per car, which really isn't too bad considering the hotel is guaranteeing beginning room rates to not start above $100 the next 5 years. Thank you hotel staff and NDK for that. Hopefully more people will carpool and help let everyone have a spot. Woe to those who leave the lot as spots are hard to get back into. Second, there isn't the early dealer's room privilege for those that pre-register. No longer do pre-regs get in an hour to 30 minutes earlier cause we've finally reached the point where more people pre-register now than not. We do have separate lines though, for those who have props to check and those who don't, to hopefully keep things flowing along. Thirdly, the video game room will be going on 24 hours a day, much like the anime video rooms. That's a lot of gaming playing in a single weekend and tournaments if that's what you like. Lastly, we get to see how the attendance cap plays out this year. Each day is capped at 7,500 people. Unless NDK can get a larger venue, we'll have to get use to this new feature. There can only be so many people crammed into one building and trust me it's already been feeling seam-bursting.
If you are planning on attending or know someone that is and would like the heads up, direct yourselves to the main NDK page here at this handy link. There are PDFs of the Events Schedule and Program Guide so you can start planning out your time spent at the con. The list of potentials for us is long already and will need to be pruned as we can't be in three places at once and will need to do some dividing and conquering as well as passing up some items, for our coverage. It looks like it's another great year for panels and guests as many favorites are returning. (Darn you anime counting contest for always being during the costume contest! Why can't you be on Friday night!)
For those of you unable to attend or just want the highlights, is there anything you'd like us to check out and report on at this year's convention? Send your thoughts in a comment and we'll see if we can't take in the sights and answer the questions for you! Keep your eyes peeled for our coming coverage of NDK!
