Category: Misc


PAX East 2011 Day 2 - 3DS, Child of Eden and more

Posted on Mar 13, 2011

PAX East expo floorDay 1 was spent trying a couple games that I wouldn't play in front of my children. Day 2 of PAX East was spent with my 8 year old son, so everything I tried was "kid safe" (or at least my opinion of kid safe). While this meant that I would miss out on some notable upcoming releases like L.A. Noire, Star Wars the Old Republic and Red Faction Armageddon, I did get to try some of the most anticipated games and devices coming this year including the 3DS and Ubisoft's Child of Eden. In addition, I tried some very soon to be released games including Swarm, Carnival Games, and Pokemon Trading Card Game Online, and some already released games like Need for Speed World, Risk Factions, Raskulls, Pokemon Black and White and Mario Sport Mix. I spent the entire 6 hours on the Expo floor and here's some thoughts about what I saw and tried.

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PAX East 2011 Day 1 - Duke Nukem Forever & Gears of War 3

Posted on Mar 11, 2011

PikachuToday was day one of PAX East 2011 in Boston. For those of you who do not know it, PAX East is a huge gaming conference run by the Penny Arcade folks. Last year was the first East Coast edition which drew well over 60,000 attendees to the Back Bay of Boston - pretty much exceeding the capacity of the Hynes Convention Center where it was being held. This year, in order to accomodate another sellout capacity expected to be well above last year's they have moved the event to the Boston Convention Center which is significantly bigger in size to the prior venue. This meant what felt like an endless walk through cavernous halls just to pick up my lanyard and program. In fact, this year the size feels quite overwhelming.

Before I discuss my, albeit brief, first day experience, I should note that while the conference deals in video games, board games and card games, I am only really interested in the video game portion. Also, I am specifically interested in the console games as I am not a PC gamer. Lastly, I attend these events to see the demos on the expo floor - I generally am not interested in seeing sessions about gaming. Today I spent only a couple hours on the expo floor but I was able to try a couple of high profile games including Gears of War 3 and Duke Nukem Forever. Below are my thoughts on these two games.

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Adam Lehman Speaking to Boston CFUG about Builder

Posted on Mar 21, 2010

Boston is lucky enough to have Adam Lehman, ColdFusion's Product Manager at Adobe, to come to speak at the Boston CFUG about the impending ColdFusion Builder release (no, we don't know any dates yet, but the evidence indicates that it's soon). Now, I'm sure that the fact that this coming weekend is PAX East is a mere lucky coincidence in scheduling for Adam. However, if you are in or around the Boston area, this will be a great opportunity to get all the details about ColdFusion Builder straight from Adam and learn what to expect when it is finally released. If that's not enough, there will be food and prizes. The meeting is this Thursday (3/25) evening at 6pm at the new Adobe offices in Waltham. If you would like to RSVP, go to http://www.eventbrite.com/event/598426911, so register today!

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My Favorite Video Games of 2009

Posted on Jan 06, 2010

I am not a professional reviewer, just a run of the mill gamer but since this blog is about the things I love and one of those is gaming, I figured I'd have some fun and share what games made my year. To give a little background on what I like, I have every system out there (PS3, Xbox, Wii, PSP, DS) but I have limited time to actually play any of them due to the demands of job, kids and a wife who doesn't feel like watching me play video games is an entertaining evening.

Thus, I don't tend to pick up any and all games, and commit my time to only those games I truly enjoy (and I shy away from the survival horror and RPG genres...so no Dragon Age or Left 4 Dead type games typically - I also notably missed Ratchet and Clank's latest and Borderlands, both of which I hope to pick up soon). Nonetheless, it was a great year of games in my mind with some real standouts. In no particular order, here are my favorite games of 2009 along with some honorable mentions and disappointments.

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Review of Defender Chronicles for the iPhone & iPod Touch

Posted on Dec 10, 2009

Defender ChroniclesI caught some flak on my critical review of Star Wars Trench Run the other week. Apparently I am in the minority thinking that the gameplay was somewhat shallow and repetitive for the $4.99 price tag. This week, I want to give a prime example of why I stand by that belief by showing a game that is, in my opinion, amazingly fun and addictive with countless hours ofgameplay for the current price of only $2.99. Defender Chronicles mixes some RPG elements into a classic Castle/Tower defense type game to create a game that is often hard to put down but doesn't require hours of dedication (a la Civilization Revolution).

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About

My name is Brian Rinaldi and I am the Web Community Manager for Flash Platform at Adobe. I am a regular blogger, speaker and author. I also founded RIA Unleashed conference in Boston. The views expressed on this site are my own & not those of my employer.