Earlier, I brought you what went on at the preview night of the convention as well as how it has changed quite a bit. For the worse in my opinion. But that didn't keep me or the Aggrogamer team from pressing on to the first official day of the convention. A day that I deemed EA day. A day full of games, small reveals, lounging, and a few extra after hours events. It'll make sense when you continue down.

EA Day

First off, let me make it clear that EA did not pay me or entice me in anyway. Nor am I a fanboy of EA. It was just that they had so many things to show off at the convention and a rather smart way of doing it. They had ten games in total on the floor to be shown. By floor I mean their booth on site as well as their gaming lounge that was being put on by EA and XBox for those gamers who really wanted to get good and handsy with their products. More on that in a bit though.

One of the big things that was shown off at the EA booth was a playable version of Dante's Inferno. Impressions of it can be found here. That wasn't the only thing for the game that they were bring about though. In fact at their panel for the game they brought out a few more things they are going to be producing to go skipping hand in hand with the game straight into Hell. Not to mention Dante himself.

During the panel it was brought out what the 6 issue comic for the game as well a full length featured anime. The anime being done in the format of something akin to the Animatrix. By that I mean 6 different artists and 6 different directors to tackle the 9 different circles of Hell that will be featured in the actual game. Some of which had very spiffy stylized art for their portions of the game.

After all of that, there was a bit of personal QA. By personal, I mean rush up to the panel table and bombard everyone there with inane prattle and questions. But given the disorganization of the event staff with I was able to get a few good question in with the game's executive producer. All paraphrased for ease.

Q1: What exactly has been cut from the game so far to meet rating standards.

A1: Well the big thing has to be the intro into Gluttony. We had our take on Cerberus taking Dante and turning him into a suppository. Cramming him up his ass for those who don't know.

Q2: Having played the game in the booth, it handles almost exactly like God of War. Was that game an inspiration for the gameplay for this one? Everything about the gameplay and HUD is so close.

A2: While it does have close similarities to all other games of this genre, let me make it clear that this is just one of the first demo builds. We plan on changing things up enough to give it a new feel. Look for the controls, HUD, and gameplay to be shaken up enough to where that comparison will no longer viable.

After taking in almost half a days worth of Dante's Inferno, it was time to move on to some of the other games that EA brought for our gaming pleasure. Brütal Legend, The Saboteur, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 1943, Dead Space Extraction, Dragon Age: Origins, and Left 4 Dead 2 to name a few. But here's the interesting thing I spoke of earlier, most of those games were not in the convention proper. You actually had to leave to go play them.

In fact it seemed that more companies were doing this, but EA was the only gaming company that I saw to do it. To either save on booth space or to get the real fans of the product, more companies had spaces in the surrounding hotels open to the general public to wander into and check things out. This of course sounds like it would cause even more congestion for people who want to play or see things, but it did not in the least bit.

This is honestly something that should be employed more by TV, Film, and Game companies that come to the Comic convention. While it requires people to leave the convention space and hunt down another location, it means that it will cut down on people who couldn't careless from taking up booth space. A good example was with Dante's Inferno above. I waited behind four people who looked at the PS3 controller and Xbox controller like they were alien technology while at the EA booth, but in the gaming lounge, I felt like a noob comparative. Like in one case you would get someone walk by and just be killing time, while the private lounge let gamers truly enjoy and get a feel for the game. I hope to see more of this in the future.

The rest of the day was spent getting very physical with some of these games until it was time to roll out for the after hours events. Which was the only time I got to move on from something that wasn't EA, at least for a bit. Also was a good showcase of how after parties don't need to be all rave like parties or can have a perfect theme behind them. I won't go into to much detail of what happened, as I've been a bit wordy already, but a quick overview won't hurt.

Reaching both ends of the spectrum was Sony and the marketing team for Brütal Legend. Sony had a very casual and calm cocktail party with a plethora of games for all of us invited to play and enjoy with a couple of stiff drinks to unwind. Their focus on the games more than the getting plastered and messed up like most other parties I've been to. With the Brütal Legend GWAR concert running the other end. But this was a theme that fit with what the event was for. As they should be, unlike others I've been to. A nightclub setting for Battlefield 1943 is not a proper themed party.

With that, I'll leave you with video and pictures, as they will say the other thousands of words for these events. Check back later for day two impressions and what the two big console power houses, Playstation and XBox, had to bring. The games, or lack there of. The signings. The swag. All in Issue #2 of Comic Con.