http://www.quakecon.org/

August 2-5, just about three weeks away.

I went last year, but just for the tournament finals on Saturday. It was a lot more fun that I expected though, watching Quake masters go at it on huge theater-sized screens (free food/drinks/t-shirts didn't hurt either). This year I made it point to get registered in time to make the cut for the BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer). 2700 people are going to be there, it's the largest LAN party in North America. I can't wait, it's going to be a blast.

So anyone else here going this year, or been before? If you live in the DFW area, you should at least drop by on Saturday.

I'd like to, especially a few years back when I actually competed in RTCW. My buddies have gone though. Unfortunately BlizzCon is at the same time, which is where i'll be.

Ill be there, this will be my 7th one, always a blast. Im usually iffy about the BYOC because we just run around all day, but end up taking my rig anyways

BTW Joe, are you the guy i just bought a Django dvd from?

Yep. I shipped it today, btw. I just finished selling off a load of DVDs and games to pay for a new rig in time for Quakecon.

Hey, I'm in D/FW and like Quake.. hmm..

only if I woulda waited a few days, another Django double ended for .99 cents, lol

glad I could help with the rig fund, at least it went to a good cause

just built a new rig myself about 2 months ago in anticipation of QuakeWars

pixy, you should come check it out. its free and there are usually tons of vendors with stations setup where you can try or preview new games and hardware. they also toss out a bunch of free stuff and have seminars and keynotes from developers and vendors.

I guess I'll stop by, where is it at? I can't access the site at work. Are there baby-level matches? I suck at FPS games at a competitive level. Still, it should be fun, I'm surprised I haven't gone all these years I've been living here.

It's at the Hilton Anatole on Stemmons Freeway. I don't know what kind of matches will be available. Last year they had about 64 PCs running Quake Wars set up. It was all pretty much baby matches, since no one had ever played it before and didn't know what they were doing. Since Quake Wars still hasn't come out, they might be showcasing that again, but with the beta being out, people might be better at it this time around.

As far as the BYOC goes, if you didn't reserve a spot back in April, your only option to get in on that is to show up early Thursday morning and wait in line and hope you get in.

Well, there's only about 5 days to go, and they've announced the full schedule of events and vendors.

http://www.quakecon.org/schedule.php
http://www.quakecon.org/exhibitors.php

id is going to be showing off idTech5. John Carmack is giving the annual keynote address, as usual. The Sinus Show (a MST3K-inspired live show) is going to be there riffing on Doom the movie. Valve & Turtle Rock will have Left 4 Dead playable at the event. World in Conflict is supposed to be there too.

So, should we setup some kind of DVDTalk meet-up or something?

Is anybody else here? I've been here for about 14 hours (17 if you count the line) and I'm thinking about calling it a night. I didn't get to play Left 4 Dead yet, but I watched some other people play. I'll probably try to get some time with it tomorrow. BTW, from what I remember seeing on the showroom floor, the following games are playable:

- Left 4 Dead (PC)
- Enemy Territories: Quake Wars (PC)
- World in Conflict (PC)
- John Woo's Stranglehold (PC)
- Elves & Orcs (DS)
- Elves & Orcs II (Mobile)

I'm going to TRY to make to early Saturday afternoon. Try being the key word, since I'm supposed to be in charge of a BBQ for a friend's birthday that day. I'd assume that it'd be pretty dead on Sunday as most con-type events are, but I'm pretty much open all day then.

Yeah, they pretty much shut everything down at noon on Sunday, so Saturday afternoon would be the best time to come. The booths stay open until about 5, and then after that it's the tournament finals.

BTW, I played Left 4 Dead today, and it was awesome. Basically, on the map they were demoing, you had to make it from one part of this burning, decimated city to the other. Zombies are lumbering around in what seemed to fairly set locations. You can sometimes sneak up on them, but other times they'll hear you coming and start moving towards you (usually when you open a door). There are also other locations (I don't know if they're random or set) where a hoard of about 25 zombies will bum rush you out of nowhere.

Besides the regular zombies, there are also Smokers which shoot out a tentacle and pull you towards them and then squirt toxic gas out, the Boomers which belch blood on you so you can't see for several seconds and blow up when you shoot them, Hunters which are super-agile jumping zombies, and Tanks which are like Doom's pink demons on steroids. These are the hardest to bring down, the most powerful, and the least common. The Zombie team plays as these special zombies, but unfortunately we only got to play as the humans, while the devs played as the zombies. When they die, they respawn in other zombie host; when the humans die they have to revived by another human player.

Ammo and Health come from stockpiles scattered around the city. You can have a SMG or a Shotgun (at least on the level we played), plus dynamite or molotov cocktails, and one medkit at a time. When you find another stockpile, you can either reload you weapon or grab a different one. You can use the medkits to heal yourself (and I think other people, but I never did it because I'm stingy like that) but it takes about 3-4 seconds in order to "bandadge yourself", during which time if you move it cancels the healing. It didn't happen while I was playing, but I noticed while other people were playing, that if you took enough damage at once, you might not die but you could be crippled, at which time you're lying prone on the ground and able to shoot but not to move. You also have a gauge that starts at 300 and gradually goes down which I assumed is supposed to indicate that you're bleeding to death. Someone has to come over and bandage you before you can get back in the game.