My first move once inside the Boston Convention centre was straight to Astro Gaming to pick up a wireless mixamp and a 2012 upgrade kit for my A40′s. The gentlemen manning the astro booth was incredibly helpful and even showed me how to place the new ear pieces on my A40′s.

The Wireless mixamp was a breeze to hook up once I got home from my flight. Since I had the previous wired mixamp hooked up. All I had to do was plug in the power source for the new wireless mixamp and than plug in the optical cable and turn it on. Next up was to put three triple A batteries into the RX (receiver), install the belt buckle, plug the headphones into it and the chat cable into the unit, power it up and were done. Once I turned on the Xbox muted my receiver and enjoyed my 7.1 surround sound into my ears.

Gunnar Optiks

On the last day of PAX I wandered over to the Gunnar Optiks booth to try and score a deal on a new pair of glasses. I got a pair last year however my biggest complaint was how heavy the frames were otherwise I enjoyed my purchased. I picked up a pair of MLG Phantom Neptune’s. There blue in colour with the yellow tinted lenses. In case your wandering I use the Gunnars frequently at work to avoid eye strain or after a night of little sleep I wear them to keep me going.

New Trent iCurve IMP70D 7000mah External Battery Pack

Before PAX I listened to the @thevowel discuss on the Major Nelson podcast how he just ordered a new external battery pack for conventions and while we all know how bad the iPhone battery is I decided this was a worthy investment for $45.99 from amazon.com but the kicker was no shipping to Canada. So this device has two USB ports one to charge and Iphone and one to charge an iPad and since I carry both devices this is a win. The good news is I really didn’t have a personal need for it but I did charge a few friends phones. I started writing this article at 1:53 pm with 62% battery on my iPhone and at 2:30 pm I’m 93% charged which is pretty impressive.

I also managed to pick up one of the official PAX shirts.

My Sunday plan off attack was to give the show floor a final walking and checkout Trails Evolution, Gunnar Optiks, The Witcher 2, Minecraft. I also watched people play Max Payne, Borderlands 2, Ghost Recon Future Solider which looked really good but I really didn’t want to spend my last day queuing for hours.

The first game I played was Trails and if you played the original Trails you’ll love this. The demo I got was a 3 player verus race on the same screen. The race consisted of 7 heats with points associated for winning each race but you lose points for crashes. If you somehow manage to crash which you will you’ll be automatically placed at the next checkpoint. You’ll respawn and start driving as soon as the last player goes through the checkpoint.

Next up I wandered to the Gunnar Optiks booth where I booked up a pair of the MLG Phantom Neptune glasses.

I left the show around 3pm, wandered around Boston for a bit, went bowling and called it a night.

Shortly after arriving at the convention centre I got in line for the Epic Games: Past, Present and Future panel hosted by Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski – President Mike Capps. Epic and Mike answered 10 questions from the community as well as a question and answer period at the end of the panel. The best part of this panel was this young lady asked a question when we will we see Gears of War on the Playstation. Cliff immediately said, Should I troll this? in which he did by going on to say when the Dual Shock controller doesn’t suck.

Next up we hit the show floor as we had a few hours to kill and we over to the Robot Entertainment booth to see @Six Okay – Justin Korthof and get a hands on demo of Orcs must Die 2 which was recently announced for the PC. There was a single player and co-op demo going on. Courtney and I got a chance to team up and kill some Orcs in the new co-op mode. The maps are two or three times the size of the original game and feature a new character. Our tactic was simple she would kill everyone and I would manage the tower defense portion by laying all the traps and such. After 7 waves of enemies and a few good laughs this was easily my favorite game of the show.

We had to queue up about a good 2 hours before the Major Nelson Podcast since Felica Day was guest staring on the show but I was excited to see Stepto join the show but there was no mention of puppy talk. If you’ve listened to the show before you know what to expect from this panel which is a lot of laughs. It was good to see the cast I listen too every week.

After the show was over the exhibit floor was closed we headed back to our hotel relax, eat dinner, find @ubersully some clothes at the mall and I went back to try and get into the Giant Bomb podcast but failed which kind of bummed me out a lot.

Our plan of attack for today was to walk around and figure out what was at the show and figure out what we wanted to see. We walked around for hours.

The first panel we decided to check out was an An Uncharted 3 Story: The Chateau, Creation to Ashes which went through the process on how Naughty Dog created the level. The panel was hosted by Justin Richmondc, Game Director, Eric Schatz, Game Designer, and Arne Meyers Community Strategist. The concept for this panel was to walk us through from concept to final product how they created the level. It was very interesting to see how they’ll place a headless drake (more later on this) in a level with cubes and objects to see how there initial concept pans out once in the Uncharted universe. Often times a really cool idea will be made into the game at this stage and get cut because it just isn’t working. They do this they don’t want to invest art assets into something that just isn’t going to work. For example the sequence where you climb down a well actually started as the player climbing out of the well. Another interesting tie bit was when Sully and Drake were running up the stairs that’s actually the same set of stairs used but with the scripting in place it allows each stair case to fire a different mechanic thus providing the player with one hell of an adventure. After the designed the level they didn’t know how to end it and they walked us through the various prototypes they came up with. One was a sequence they Drake and Sully climb up a tower, fight some badass’s and jump into a helicopter and escape. The art assets and time they had didn’t allow for this kind of ending so what they decided to do was have the roof of château collapse and have the player escape it by jumping off and not a pole, slide down and escape it.

That was it for the day just a lot of relaxing after that.

We checked into our hotel to the Colonnande hotel, unpacked and proceeded across the street to the Prudential Centre, did a little bit of shopping at GameStop, Lord & Taylor and Shaw’s to pick up a few snacks for the hotel room. I picked up SSX and FIFA street for $30 bucks each.

We meet up with some friends and headed to Cheers were we waited forever a table all so we can enjoy a good beer, enjoy good company and say we had a beer ate Cheers.

Later we went on to the Microsoft NERD campus to meet up with some fellow Canadians. We than went to a place called Beacon Hill Pub and enjoyed some beverages.

Bed!.

2012 is the year I get my life back on track and a get better sense of my finanical well being. It all starts with a budget and sticking to it. Coming from a family that didn’t have much and who’s parent’s weren’t great with money well that’s rubbed off on me. I’ve spent and not cared or kept track of it. This year that’s changing, it starts with a budget and sticking to it.

This got me thinking, how much did I spend on video games in 2011? The answer is I don’t know. For 2012 I’ve implemented a bit of a modest budget of $1000.00 on video games. This isn’t limited to just games it also includes points card, hardware, Xbox Live subscriptions, iOS,etc. A thousand may sound a bit extreme to some but I strongly believe I spent more than in 2011.

I’m going to use this post and continually update it to track my spending.

January:

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land $4.99
Uncharted: Golden Abyss $56.00
Playstation Vita First Edition Bundle $0.00 ( EB trade promo’s)
Mass Effect 3 – $79.99
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 – $69.99
Mass Effect Infiltrator – $6.99
Fifa Street – $39.99
SSX – $39.99
Yakuza 3, Borderlands, Bioshock & Bioshock 2 -$70.00

Running Balance $367.94

I’ve set out some gaming goals for 2012 that I think our realistic and achievable for myself.

The first gaming resolution I have for 2012 is to control my gaming purchases. By this I mean just because 3 or 4 new releases come out on any given Tuesday that I shouldn’t rush out and buy every single one of those games. So let’s buy a game and finish it before moving on to the next one instead of buying a game and playing a bit and putting it on the shelf and moving on to the next game. If I can achieve this I think I can reduce the number of games I have on the go, my gaming back log and most importantly allow me not rush and finish a game just to get to the next one. There are a lot of great games out there let’s enjoy them a bit more.

I’m a huge first shooter, racing and sports gamer. Plain and simple those are my bread and butter. In 2012 I’d like to expand my gaming genres and enjoy other types of games than I normally would. This year I’ve already started playing Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and MMO developed by Bioware. I’m at level 11 as a Sith Warrior and struggling as I go. I’ve also started Skyrim. I”m only level 2 but I vow to invest more time in the coming weeks to this game. Let’s see if I can become a better RPG player in 2012.

Blog more. Very simple I want to review and write about more games here whether there on PC, console or iOS platforms. I also want to produce my own original content at least bi-weekly.

Establish or join a board game group. In 2011 I started to play board games and started to acquire a nice little collection as well. I picked up Carcassonne, Gears of War, Munchkin Quest, Munchkin Zombies, Arkham Horror, Flux and probably my favorite of Pandemic. I really need to get that expansion pack.

So that’s what I want to accomplish this year. How about you ?

$1.99
Release date: 10/25/2011Price: $1.99

Racing Gear Pack (90 items)
This DLC pack adds racing gear items of famous drivers to your Gran Turismo 5.
Contains helmets and racing suits of 8 famous WRC and NASCAR drivers, 12 helmets and suits in all. In addition there is the Official Gran Turismo helmet, and new gear from Alpinestars and Simpson.

$2.99
Release date: 10/25/2011Price: $2.99

Racing Car Pack (15 Cars)
This DLC pack adds new cars to Gran Turismo 5.
Includes the new model of the X2010 ultimate racing machine, the Red Bull X2011. There is also a lineup of specially tuned touring cars and three new racing karts. Expand your garage with these exciting new racing machines.

$7.99
Release date: 10/25/2011Price: $7.99

Course Pack (2 Tracks, 5 layouts)
This DLC pack adds the new tracks to Gran Turismo 5.
The new Course Pack includes SPA-Francorchamps (with weather effects) and Kart Space layouts I and II (each layout supports normal and reverse).

$4.99
Release date: 10/25/2011Price: $4.99

or all for 11.99?

[Major Changes and New Features]
- Standard Cars now given simplified cockpit views
The over 800 standard cars included in the game are now given simplified cockpit views. You can change your view using the SELECT button when racing, to change your display to the exciting cockpit view.
*Unlike the cockpit view of premium cars, the simplified cockpit is shown in a dark silhouette, and the gauges used for the car will be standard in-game instruments.

- New Opening Movie
A new opening movie is now available from “Gran Turismo TV”. When you download this movie, it will replace the current opening movie. The previous version will be viewable within Gran Turismo TV.

- Addition of the weather change menu
On some tracks with weather changes, it is now possible for the user to set time and weather changes from the Quick Menu in both the Arcade Mode, and “Practice” of the GT Mode. Also, you can make more detailed time and weather changes while editing in the course maker and in the online lounge.

- Multiple car settings/save feature
We’ve added a setting sheet feature that allows you to save multiple car settings.
From the [Setting Sheet] on the lower right of the screen, you can check the current settings. You can switch between 3 settings A, B, and C, allowing you to change between your personal settings easily according to the type of race and your objectives.

- Added 11 NASCAR cars
The newest NASCAR 2011 models have been added to the car dealerships. The added cars are the following:
Toyota 2011 Denny Hamlin #11 FedEx TOYOTA CAMRY ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Tony Stewart #14 Office Depot CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Toyota 2011 Kyle Busch #18 M&M’SR TOYOTA CAMRY ’11
Toyota 2011 Joey Logano #20 The Home Depot TOYOTA CAMRY ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Jeff Gordon #24 Drive to End Hunger CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Juan Montoya #42 Target CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Ford 2011 AJ Allmendinger #43 Best Buy FORD FUSION ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Jimmie Johnson #48 Lowe’s CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Toyota 2011 Brian Vickers #83 Red Bull TOYOTA CAMRY ’11
Chevrolet 2011 Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 AMP Energy/National Guard CHEVROLET IMPALA ’11
Ford 2011 Carl Edwards #99 Aflac FORD FUSION ’11

- Added the Nissan GT-R N24 Schulze Motor Sports
The Nissan GT-R N24 Schulze Motor Sports has been added to the car dealer. This is the car entered in the 2011 Nurburgring 24 hour race by Schulze Motorsports of Germany, and is the very car in which Kazunori Yamauchi drove and achieved a class victory.

- Avatar now usable in Photo Travel
An Avatar ON/OFF feature has been added to Photo Travel. Now you can photograph your avatar together with your car.
You can turn the driver avatar ON/OFF by pressing the △ button while positioning the car.

- Replay Fast Forward/Rewind
All replay videos recorded after the 2.0 update will have [Forward] [Rewind] buttons.
You can now easily search for the scene you are looking for and play back a certain section whenever you want to, adding even more fun to the photo mode.

-Improved Online Lounge
[Car Restrictions] has been added in the regulations. You can now limit participants to specific categories such as “NASCAR” and “Super GT”. Also, there are now more cars that can be used in shuffle races, and a new “Shuffle Base” setting allows you to set the performance level of cars allocated to each player.
For details, please see Top screen – [Manual] – [Online Race] – [Event Settings] and the “Regulation Settings”.

- Additional features to Remote Racing
A “Graph Display” has been added to the remote race screen in GT My Home of granturismo.com, where you can enjoy B-Spec racing. This allows you to visually see the changes in positions in each lap. A time difference display for each car in the race has also been added.

- New Photo Stage Added
The “Indy: NASCAR Pit Stop” stage has been added to photo travel. We invite you to come see and capture the energy of NASCAR’s famous pit stops.

- Addition of the Consecutive Login Bonus
When a user logs in consecutively, a bonus will now be applied to experience and race rewards.
It will increase to 110% in the 1st day, 130% in the 2nd day, 150% in the 3rd day, 170% in the 4th, to a maximum of 200% in the 5th day. This will apply to all events both online and offline, so logging in every day will make the game progress faster.

- DLC (Downloadable Content) Compatibility
A [Downloadable Content] button has been added to the lower right of the top screen. Here you can install content purchased from the PlayStation®Store.
Please refer to the product information page of gran-turismo.com for details regarding downloadable content.
*The release of the DLC is planned for 25th October, 2011.

- Official Support for the G25/G27 Racing Wheels
The Logitech G25 Racing Wheel and G27 Racing Wheel are now officially supported. You can now change button assignments for various racing controls on these wheels.

[Other Improvements]
- User interface improvement
- Quick Menu can now be accessed while the race is loading.
- It is now possible to save and resume endurance races.
- Two NASCAR cars selectable in Arcade Mode have been changed from the 2010 models to 2011 models.
- In the Arcade Settings of [Options], AI Car Characteristics settings has been added. You can now change the aggressiveness of the AI against you in Arcade races.
- Some effects of Traction Control have been adjusted. When the TCS level is set to 1, it will not come into effect as much especially in tight corners on dirt tracks.
- Surface Water and Tire Load Indicator displays have been added to the race screen. The Tire Load Indicator can be set from the Quick Options menu that is displayed during the race (when the game is paused using the START button), or the standard Options menu.
- The option to Create Thumbnails for All Cars has been added to the context menu of the Garage. This will update the thumbnails of all cars in the garage.
- Experience gained in online races have been increased by 60%, and rewards have been increased by 66%.
- You can now change the Slipstream Strength settings in the lounge.
- In the Lounge and in [Option] – [General] – [Arcade], it is now possible to turn Visible Damage ON or OFF.
- Drivetrain settings has been added to the regulation settings in the Lounge.
- A setting to prohibit “Tuning” of cars has been added to the regulations settings in the Lounge.
- Adjusted the driving speed of formula cars in banks, and auto-drive when coming onto straights.
- Added a button to [Reset Playlist to Original Settings] under the settings menus of [Menu BGM], [Race BGM] and [Slideshow BGM].
- Personal BGM can now also be set in [Slideshow BGM]
- A new brand “AMG” has been added to the MUSEUM.

[Correction of Known Issues]
- Corrected an issue where the “Torque Sensing Center Differential” installed on a Lancer Evolution X was not functioning.
- Fixed an issue where you could participate in the Intermediate/Tarmac Rally of the Gran Turismo Rally in a Ferrari F1 by using the power limiter.
- Fixed an issue where the Controller Steering Sensitivity was not applied correctly.
- Fixed an issue where there was a server connection problem in certain network environments.
- Fixed an issue where auto-drive would make braking mistakes.
- Fixed an issue where the system would misjudge whether deceleration happens in time when making pit stops in the rain.

[To Check Your Current Version]
To check the version of your software, press the “Manual” button at the bottom of the main menu screen. The version number will be located on the upper left of the index page.

If the number starts with Ver. 2.00, you are playing the latest version of the game.

If not, please press the PS button and exit the game. The game will be updated automatically when you restart it with your PS3™ system connected to the internet.