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Playstation Experience 2016 Attendees Thread: California Here We Come!

It was great meeting DJ Lushious when he came by the Snake Pass booth earlier today. Definitely swing on by y'all when you get a chance. ^^
 

meanspartan

Member
Left about two hours ago after only trying two demos.

It was cool to be there, and Im glad I got to experience it once, but honestly the hour+ waits to try out games kill the experience for me. Im not sure who that appeals to, but its not me. If indies are your thing, at least those waits looked more bearable.

I even wanted to buy some gear before leaving, but, lo and behold, another fucking long line lol.

I guess this just isnt for me, I am too impatient. Comic Con showfloor is more my thing, more stuff to see less lines.
 
Anyone know how to get the badge scans for the capcom cup and the panels?


Edit: last year the merch lines were crazy. This year we went there immediately after the Keynote to get what we needed.
 

meanspartan

Member
Anyone know how to get the badge scans for the capcom cup and the panels?


Edit: last year the merch lines were crazy. This year we went there immediately after the Keynote to get what we needed.

How is that not better planned then? If I were Sony Id make it as easy as possible for fans to give me money haha
 

finalflame

Member
How is that not better planned then? If I were Sony Id make it as easy as possible for fans to give me money haha

Yah this is kinda the most annoying part -- having to wait hours in line for the ability to give Sony money.

I'm not sure how they could plan it better with the limited amount of space. They don't want a crazy amount of people in the merch store at once

Easy: give it more space. The convention center is much larger than the space they used, and they were keeping the number of people in the store pretty low. Last year there were lines, including for the store, but not anywhere as crazy as this year. Moscone was a much better venue, and there were two separate showroom floors + a floor for panels and the keynote.
 
Come on people post your game impressions

Horizon Zero Dawn: Absolutely beautiful and I was told it was not even running on a Pro. Short demo allowing you to take on Watchers, Horsebots, and some shielded crab thing. Hunting definitely feels like it has strategy and serious hunts will take some planning. Very polished feel to it, so hoping it's got legs and it's story is engaging. That will certainly make it break it for me.
 
I didn't get to try out RE 7...they ran out of tickets so fast this morning :'(

Also...Deaths Gambit was amazing....2d Souls/Castlevania type game....first boss was amazing!
 

meanspartan

Member
Yah this is kinda the most annoying part -- having to wait hours in line for the ability to give Sony money.



Easy: give it more space. The convention center is much larger than the space they used, and they were keeping the number of people in the store pretty low. Last year there were lines, including for the store, but not anywhere as crazy as this year. Moscone was a much better venue, and there were two separate showroom floors + a floor for panels and the keynote.

It was strange to me how tiny a portion of the convention center they used.
 

meanspartan

Member
I'm not sure how they could plan it better with the limited amount of space. They don't want a crazy amount of people in the merch store at once

There was plenty of unused space actually- and again, they only used a slice of the convention center. I cant say it felt claustrophobic in there, just overly long lines.
 

finalflame

Member
It was great meeting DJ Lushious when he came by the Snake Pass booth earlier today. Definitely swing on by y'all when you get a chance. ^^

Hey! I stopped by but had no idea who you were, or that the devs for the game were on GAF. I'll stop back by tomorrow.

Couldn't agree more. The lines today were ridiculous.

They were. Either it was more concentrated this year, or attendance was higher, or the exhibitors were more limited, because last year I got to see a lot more a lot faster, and it was overall a much more enjoyable experience. Still having a great time but, meh at the lines. Also the lack of SqEnix and FROM are a bummer -- the DkS3 booth was neat and the SqEnix store was cool. Also the Capcom store this year pretty much ONLY had SF and Mega Man stuff :/
 

finalflame

Member
Capcom merch was better last year and Bandai Namco didn't have a merch booth this year at all.

Yah, mega disappointing. I wasn't able to tell due to the giant clusterfuck near the P5 booth, but did Atlus have any merch at all? I had no idea where the big P5 bags were coming from.
 

v1lla21

Member
So was this year smaller than last year?

Lines weren't extremely long last year with the exception of a few games.
 

IKizzLE

Member
Just came back. Every line was too fucking long so I didn't play anything. New nioh demo looked amazing. One of the bosses no one didn't bear throughout the day.
 

Neonep

Member
Theres only so much you can plan for a high profile global event with general admission
They could have used more of the venue. Felt really confined compared to last year. Also the playstation merch booth was quite small. They also didn't let anyone on the show floor during the keynote. That would have lessened the lines. It was either you were seated for the conference locked outside.
 

Neonep

Member
So was this year smaller than last year?

Lines weren't extremely long last year with the exception of a few games.
It feels smaller. A lot of the booths were smaller and it's one big floor instead of multiple floors like last year.
 

Neonep

Member
Yah, mega disappointing. I wasn't able to tell due to the giant clusterfuck near the P5 booth, but did Atlus have any merch at all? I had no idea where the big P5 bags were coming from.
Yeah I have no idea. The persona line wrapped around the whole Atlus booth that you couldn't tell what was going on. Yakuza 0 line was nonexistent because of this.
 

krae_man

Member
They could have used more of the venue. Felt really confined compared to last year. Also the playstation merch booth was quite small. They also didn't let anyone on the show floor during the keynote. That would have lessened the lines. It was either you were seated for the conference locked outside.

Games playable on the floor are announced during the keynote. They will never have the floor open during the keynote.
 

finalflame

Member
So was this year smaller than last year?

Lines weren't extremely long last year with the exception of a few games.

Kinda hard to tell because the floor itself was larger, but it also held the keynote area and a bunch of other stuff. Last year felt "larger" by virtue of having 3 floors. Also, the sitting situation for panels and the keynote was MUCH better last year. This year, the had the A/V booth smack dab in the middle of an entire section of chairs, cutting off visibility to the main stage which they "made up" for by putting a TV broadcasting the stage behind the booth. They also had bleachers and screens, but goddamn it I didn't come to PSX to watch the panels on a screen.

My impression is that the keynote area was a huge downgrade. Last year's stage and space was much larger, allowing for far more conventional seating where everyone got a good view of the stage. This year, large chunks of the bleachers were blocked by pillars, most of the entire middle section was blocked by the booth, and overall it felt like if you weren't in the first ~10 rows (before the AV booth) you didn't really have a good seat.

And then they did this weird thing where they added bean bags to the front of the room near the stage, which was nice, but unless you stuck around immediately after the keynote and "claimed" a bean bag you were SoL. In between keynotes people also stampeded like animals to get any potential free bean bags, since these were essentially the only good seats for the panels. Not only that, but you then had people keeping their bean bag "reserved" by putting a bag on it and going to roam around the floor, which I find fucking ridiculous -- if you get up, you lost your spot.

Honestly, this wouldn't have been so bad if all the really desirable panels hadn't ALL been today (save for maybe Horizon tomorrow? but IMO Kojima, TLOU2, and Uncharted are on a different level), but since they were nobody really got up between panels which meant there was no opportunity to rotate who got the practically only good seats in the house.

Meh. I feel this year overall had worse planning than last year, right down to the absolute ridiculous lines to get BACK IN, and having to go through metal detectors every time you re-entered the venue. Why line up a shitton of food trucks outside if there might be a 2hr+ wait to get back inside?
 

Neonep

Member
This year overall seems like it wasn't planned well enough and that it seems rushed. Everybody I talk to say that Vegas & SF events were better.
 

_Isaac

Member
It was great meeting DJ Lushious when he came by the Snake Pass booth earlier today. Definitely swing on by y'all when you get a chance. ^^
I went there but I don't know which one you were. Were you the British guy with the piercing? Also I accidentally took up a demo unit a Polygon dude was heading towards. I hope I didn't mess something up for you guys. He was technically cutting though. XD
 

Neonep

Member
Games playable on the floor are announced during the keynote. They will never have the floor open during the keynote.
Yeah you right. I was one of the 1st people in after the keynote and once I get in the line for Playstation merch was ridiculous.
 

meanspartan

Member
Meh. I feel this year overall had worse planning than last year, right down to the absolute ridiculous lines to get BACK IN, and having to go through metal detectors every time you re-entered the venue. Why line up a shitton of food trucks outside if there might be a 2hr+ wait to get back inside?

It really was horifically planned. They had to stop the badge handouts to let people in cuz they jad the lines crossing each other lol. Took over an hour for us to get the badges, least we got to watch the conference on the big screen I guess. Then another hour+ to wait to get in.

Not a good experience. If I do this again, def going day two, maybe its calmer.
 
Hey! I stopped by but had no idea who you were, or that the devs for the game were on GAF. I'll stop back by tomorrow.

We have a fair amount of gaffers at Sumo. ^^

Good catching up with ya again! Hopefully I can meet up with everyone else tonight if I'm not dead by closing time!
I went there but I don't know which one you were. Were you the British guy with the piercing? Also I accidentally took up a demo unit a Polygon dude was heading towards. I hope I didn't mess something up for you guys. He was technically cutting though. XD
Haha don't worry about it!

And just ask for David if you guys swing by. I'm the bald Filipino guy with the snake wrapped around me. :)
 

meanspartan

Member
Just came back. Every line was too fucking long so I didn't play anything. New nioh demo looked amazing. One of the bosses no one didn't bear throughout the day.

Even the lines that looked short were long. Because my brothers had never tried VR before, we decided to try Eve Valkyrie. It looked short compared to others, prob because its out already lol. Even that though took us over an hour cuz it was 12 people at a time for a ten minute or so match.

My brothers loved VR, but didnt wanna do any other hour long lines (neither did I) so that eliminated everything but indie games. We just left early to drive back to San Diego after even the gear store had a fucking line lol.

I know Im sounding whiny, but Ive always wanted to go to a gaming convention. But those lines...what a bummer.
 
I'm the bald Filipino guy with the snake wrapped around me. :)
Is it Noodle? :D

We are grouping up outside to head over to Uva for the early birds.

We are meeting by the jumbotron.
I'm at Capcom Cup now, but I'll head your way eventually.

Everybody I talk to say that Vegas & SF events were better.
San Francisco had its fair share of headaches, too. However, I'll go on record saying LV and SF were both better handled. So, yeah, take that for what you will.
 
All I did all day was play indies, I figured most everyone bought a Saturday pass only so I could run around tomorrow and play the non-niche stuff all day. I loved Chasm, the Monster World remake, and Disc Jam.

One game I was pleasantly surprised by was ROM (Read Only Memories). The person who was at that booth was really awesome at explaining what that game was about, so I went from not even knowing what that game was to downloding the game on Steam as soon as I got home!
 
Sitting on a beanbag atm. So I managed to get that mondo TLOU poster from the gear store and a nifty Letterman jacket. Didn't keep an exact check, but the total amount of time spent in line and in the shop was 2 hours, give or take a few minutes. Pretty crazy, considering a lot of the stuff is available online and can be bought with codes all the time. I'd only recommend the line if you KNOW there's something exclusive there you want to get.
 
Sitting on a beanbag atm. So I managed to get that mondo TLOU poster from the gear store and a nifty Letterman jacket. Didn't keep an exact check, but the total amount of time spent in line and in the shop was 2 hours, give or take a few minutes. Pretty crazy, considering a lot of the stuff is available online and can be bought with codes all the time. I'd only recommend the line if you KNOW there's something exclusive there you want to get.

Can't we see what's sold in the store / what's exclusive?
 
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