ArtisticallyChill

I left some feedback on Chicago Comic-Con’s Facebook page last week leaving a few suggestions for next year’s show. It got a lot of ‘Likes’ and when I went to look for it this morning, it seems to have been deleted. All this tells me is that management only cares about non-criticizing comments that show the convention in a positive light when they know they need to work on how this convention is being handled if they ever want to be considered a top tier comic-con like SDCC or c2e2.

That said, I will try and recall the suggestions I made that Wizard World needs to pay attention to in order for Chicago Comic to go back to its roots and actually maybe it will retain some of its former glory and once again be the premiere comic-con of Chicago.

1. I don’t know what Wizard World did to piss off Marvel and DC Comics to vow never to come back to Chicago Comic-con but management needs to fix this. One they do and Marvel and DC come back, the other publishers will follow.
2. Timing. Wizard World scheduled Chicago Comic-con 3 weeks after SDCC. No wonder attendance by publishers and creators was lacking. Having the convention after SDCC forces publishers, creators and vendors to second-guess attending because publishers have deadlines to meet, as do creators, and vendors have trouble selling because fans spent all their money at San Diego. Schedule it before SDCC like you did 2 years ago. Everyone, publishers, creators, and even vendors will benefit from this.
3. Layout of the show was horrible! You had the autograph section immediately on entering the show floor. All this does is cause a bottleneck of fans wanting to get in line and fans wanting to walk through. The convention center has a lot of room. Stick autographs in a separate ballroom.
4. Celebrities are fine but do we need all those old wrestlers? And compensating for the lack of publishers by adding more celebrities (old ones at that) only makes Comic-con less of a comic book industry oriented convention.
5. Where are the indie publishers, small press, and webcomic creators? You should definitely invite them to the show instead of wrestlers and older celebrities. (see SDCC and c2e2)
6. Panels! Where the frell were they? Screening movie trailers doesn’t count as a panel by the way. You’ve got so much space to play with and you can’t setup some decent panels for fans to sit back, take a breather from all the waiting in line for overpriced celebrity autographs, and enjoy an interesting panel? C’mon! (see SDCC and c2e2)
7. Have tournaments and give away prizes! Heroclix, Magic the Gathering, and Monsterpocalypse tournaments should be held in another ballroom and invite vendors to sell the game pieces there as well.
8. Convention cafeteria food sucks. Invite local Chicago favorites i.e. ROBINSON’S to the show to sell food. This also shows that you support the community by having Chicago only restaurants feeding the fans. (see c2e2)
9. Seriously, BLAGO?! WTF?! You want to promote political corruption at one of the highest seat of state government at a show where fans and families worship superheroes? Way to stay classy! What you should have done was have the fans dressed up as superheroes kick that piece of shit in the groin and have the fans and families watch and cheer for Justice!
10. Better upkeep in the restrooms. Is it really that hard to have a clean restroom to walk into?

And there you have it. Despite Serena’s successful appearance in Artist Alley this year, this will most likely be our last trip to Chicago Comic-Con. Next year, we’ll be looking forward to attending c2e2, CHICAGO’S PREMIERE COMIC-CON! And we will be attempting to attend other comic-cons in neighboring states i.e. Mid-Ohio Con, Motor City, Spring Con, Fall Con etc.

Get your act together, Wizard World!

~ LoneWolf

I’m still surprised by the turn of events leading up to and after the midnight launch of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell Conviction. As fan of Ubisoft and the Splinter Cell franchise, I expected them to deliver a game experience that is both memorable and worth talking about with my friends. So far the game has lived up to my expectations and gone beyond it. But their launch of this game has been nothing but a let down.

First the USB drive included with the Collector’s Edition of the game was defective. It just didn’t work when inserting it into a USB port. Ubisoft announced that the Special Edition price would drop to compensate for the defective drive. Originally it was $79.99, but was dropped to $69.99. The materials on the USB drive will be made available for download via SplinterCell.com according to Ubisoft. But I really don’t care any more.

After picking up my Collector’s Edition, I quickly noticed that the mini-comic book was missing. I later found out that the comic book was in PDF format and was supposed to be on the USB drive. The back of the Collector’s Edition reads as: “Digging In The Ashes” Comic Book. There’s no mention of ‘Digital’ or PDF. So now it looks like I paid an extra $10 dollars for 2 stickers, an unimpressive art book, a steel case, and two unlock codes for content that was already on the disc that I could have purchased later with the in-game point system.

What really defined this launch as an EPIC FAIL was the Day 1 patch that cause the game to freeze completely. At first, I had thought it was just my disc, got it exchanged and then when I thought my trouble were over, it froze again. The Day 1 patch was suppose to fix the freezing problems experienced in some co-op multiplayer sessions but it just made it worse. Ubisoft was made aware of this and quickly went to working on a resolution. In the meantime, I sat there with a defective game. I was able to figure out a temporary work-around by clearing out my Xbox 360′s cache and unplugging the console from the internet.

*UPDATE 04/14/2010* This issue has been fixed. I booted up the game after signing in to Xbox LIVE and have had no freezing issues so far.

What I want to know is how could this have happened, especially from a far more reputable publisher like Ubisoft? They had more than enough time to work on this game, both on the programming side and the marketing side with the Collector’s Edition, since the game’s release date had been pushed back. Was there any QA done at all? It seems like that Ubisoft didn’t even find out about the USB drives being defective until the last minute. This is probably the worst Collector’s Edition game of 2010.

I would rather have the Sam Fisher statue as seen in the Limited Edition sold outside of the US instead of faulty USB drive, two stickers, two codes for in game items I will probably never use, and a steel case.

Seriously, Ubisoft you owe your devoted fans that much and more with future Collector’s Editions.

~ LoneWolf

So yesterday, when I read that the workprint copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine had been leaked onto The Internets, I was just as curious, as everyone else online, to see just how bad the movie was gonna be. Granted it was a workprint, I read that it was missing the additional shot footage (an extra 14 minutes) in order to supposedly make it a better movie, as well as, some CGI and Visual FX weren’t finished. But that certainly didn’t stop me or everyone else online from screening it. And about 106 minutes later, all my previous opinions that I have been making since they announced the cast were justified. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is really bad. IS BY FAR ONE OF THE WORST MARVEL MOVIES EVER TO GRACE THE SILVER SCREEN! This movie sucked so bad it made X3 better. This movie is even worse than Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Hell! I’d even watch Spiderman 3 instead of this piece of $#!t, and I REALLY HATE Spiderman 3!

What went wrong:

• The Cast: Liev Schreiber didn’t sell me on Sabretooth. Gambit was poorly portrayed – more pretty boy douchebag than scruffy cajun thief. Though limited in screentime, Dominic Monaghan’s character of Beak wasn’t true to the comics either. I didn’t even know that was supposed to be Beak. I could’ve sworn they called him something else (Gremlin?) in the movie. Oh and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool!? Just because he ruined Blade with his character’s stupid banter doesn’t mean he would make a great Deadpool. Reynolds doesn’t even make a good Deadpool.
• The first 10 minutes: They should have left this out, including the flash-forwards through the different wars that followed. The opening did no justice to Wolverine: Origin. And the following war sequences showing the odd bond between Sabretooth and Wolverine made absolutely no sense.
• The Script: David Benioff – Thank you for tarnishing one of my favorite Marvel Characters. The script would have done fine back in the 80s. But in this century, it is god-fawking awful! Did you even read any of the comic books?
• DEADPOOL: They completely RUINED this character. First – Ryan Reynolds. Second – the Merc had ‘the Mouth’ but having stupid things to say doesn’t make you Deadpool. The banter has to be funny. Everyone of Deadpool’s lines made me wanna vomit. Third – Deadpool is seriously messed up in appearance and in the head. He wears a mask. And if David Benioff had read a Deadpool comic he would have seen how being jacked up (both physically and mentally), wearing a mask, and saying banter that’s actually funny makes Deadpool a truly unique and memorable character in the comics. The Deadpool in the movie is one that I wish I had never seen. Especially later on, after he gets turned into Baraka from Mortal Kombat that also has Cyclops’ optic blasts and Wraith’s teleportation. At that point in the movie, I face-palmed, jaw dropped in utter disgust.
• Adamantium Bullets to induce memory loss. Think about it. I’ll wait.
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  Yeah it makes absolutely no fooking sense to me either! How does an adamantium bulllet shot at Wolverine’s skull cause memory loss when a regular bullet doesn’t?
• The ending: It just doesn’t work at all. And to think that there could ever be a sequel after the atrocities seen in this film is well beyond me!

How could they fix it:

• Cut the opening and the flash-forward war scenes. Cut the scene of Beak at a carnival ripping people off. Cut the Sabretooth hunt for Scott Summers scene. The movie should run the standard length of 86 minutes for a 2nd rate action flick.
• Sabretooth is a maniacal sociopath. Show me that, not some school bully.
• Amp up the fights involving Wolverine. I wanna see deep cuts, limbs coming off, the occasional decapitation, blood-gushing, lots of blood (see Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2). This is Wolverine not Hello Kitty.
• Un-fook Deadpool. See the above to learn how.
• No adamantium bullets, please. Thanks.

Like I said earlier, I’m not the only one who thinks this movie could be so much better. I’m sure others have posted what they think needs to be done to fix this movie to prevent it from tanking at the box office. Will the studio even consider any more re-shoots? Probably not this late in post production.

What I think should have been done since the movie was announced:

• They should have gotten a better writer/script. I would have loved to see a screenplay nicely adapting Wolverine: Origin and the Weapon X storyline.

If you must waste some money, as well as, torture yourself, by all means go and see the movie when it comes out next month. Even if you’ve never read the comic, the movie just seems like an over-rated action flick that should have went straight to DVD, kinda like Steven Segal’s movies. This movie could easily have been one of those Sci-Fi channel original movies like Python vs. Boa. If you really want to see Wolverine’s origin, read the graphic novels mentioned above.

Wolverine is ‘the best there is at what he does’. And what he does ‘isn’t very nice’. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is proof of that.

X-men Origins: Wolverine is an EPIC FAIL.

~ LoneWolf