Saturday, May 8, 2010

Video Games Live 2010 - Vancouver

This is actually my third time attending Video Game Live, but the first time I kept record of it ^^; I seem to forget lots of things if I don't keep track of them, so this is why VGL is now on my blog, especially the song list. That's one benefit of a blog, it keeps your memories for you XD

So the third Video Games Live took place on Thursday before Iron Man started the next day. And I wanted to see Iron Man 2 right away... It's been a very busy week for me ^^;  The venue for VGL seems to change every time they come. Our seats were in the balcony and my brother picked the seats where we would have nobody in front of us. Very cool seats! Except there were a lot of people walking back and forth... Nonetheless it was another great orchestra, even if some of them have been done already.
Oh, I was wearing a shirt with the above picture on that day. I know it's not a video game and all, but it's still a pixelized, 8-bit game sprite-like Nagato Yuki. One person did comment that he liked my shirt. I'm guessing he knows the Haruhi Suzumiya series ^_^ *high five*


 I wasn't planning on taking a lot of pictures because I didn't think it was allowed, but it was actually ok and even take videos too! But I don't have the most steady hands, so without enough lighting everything will turn out blurry in my hands. Thankfully my brother is very good with a camera and has steady hands, so aside from the picture above, everything else was taken by him ^^  Zankyuu aniki!

Before the concert started there was a costume contest. Can you name them all?

From right to left (since that's how the MC did it) is a character I don't know... Army of Two? Midna from Twilight Princess, Pac Man (EDIT: It's actually Clyde, one of the ghosts FROM Pac Man ), EDIT: Little Sister from Bioshock, Shadow Link, Rikku (the first of two), TwinRova (EDIT: Fixed the name, I got mixed up, lol) from Legend of Zelda and White Mage.

Aside from Earthworm Jim, I have no idea who these guys are supposed to be...

From right to left: Mario and Peach, some guy from Left 4 Dead, some Final Fantasy III characters (the MC kinda suck...), and someone from Valkyria Chronicles (dunno the name since I haven't started it yet).

Then there's Zack and Aerith from FFVII, the second Rikku and... not sure who the bloody one is... EDIT: Nurse Kaori from Pure Trance, a manga by Junko Mizuno (great artist, btw). Thanks to Ms. Kaori for the information about yourself and your costume ^^

Winner by a longshot: Earthworm Jim! Very cool costume, but I gotta admit that it's kinda freaky...

So it begins... Many photos here and I may not caption it all ^^;


Video Games Live 2010 Vancouver Play List
1. Introduction & Classic Games
2. Sonic games
3. Shadow of the Colossus
4. Frogger (Contest)
Ralph Baher segment
5. Mass Effect
6. Assassin's Creed 2
7. Final Fantasy on piano by Martin Leung
8. Final Fantasy VIII: Liberi Fatali
9. The Legend of Zelda
Intermission
Reviews on the Run segment
10. Kingdom Hearts
11. Bioshock
12. World of Warcraft
13. Mario Medley on piano by Martin Leung
14. Mario Medley by the orchestra
15. Guitar Hero (Contest)
16. Mega Man
17. Halo
Encore
18. Castlevania
19. Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross
20. Final Fantasy VII: One Winged Angel

The co-collaborators of Video Games Live: Tommy Tallarico and conductor Jack Wall.

Once again, great photographer! You can even tell that Tommy is wearing a Tron t-shirt!

I was very surprised they had a Shadow of the Colossus music segment here. I loved the music to that! I really want to play it again now (especially since I didn't finish it yet ^^:)

This is Ralph Baher, the inventor of Pong and other peripherals. He pretty much started this industry. Supposedly he and Tommy was talking through Skype, but us skeptics assumes this was pre-recorded...

Martin Leung is famous for playing the Mario medley theme blindfolded on YouTube. Now he tours around with Video Games Live. This is his first time performing in Vancouver.

This was taken during Liberi Fatali... No video from FFVIII unfortunately...

I loved the lighting during the Zelda segment. There were yellow triangular lights on the walls ^_^



This is an exclusive to Vancouver shows only! Live Reviews on the Run! In case some of you don't know, Reviews on the Run is a video game review show that airs on G4 TV and some Canadian channels since it's filmed in Vancouver. Tommy and Victor Lucas used to do the show for several years before Tommy started touring with VGL. The last time they were here they were reviewing Orochi Warriors 2. They always seem to berate games whenever they're both in town ^^; Victor has a permanent co-host now though, so this is a special showing.

The game they reviewed was Record of Agarest War... Tommy already groaned at the name. They can be biased towards strategy rpg games unfortunately. But then again I do agree with them that it was much too pricey for a game that's using old technology.

Yes, they showed this picture on the big screen in front of everybody in the audience. I thought this was freaking great XD

The dialogue box isn't that visible from where I was, but the great photographer that is my brother got it on picture. I like what I see, hahaha.

The Kingdom Hearts segment only showed Disney clips and nothing from the game for some reason...



I've stopped playing World of Warcraft for more than a year now, but I get nostalgic and want to play this again after seeing this... But I realize I have no hard disk space anymore and there are just too many expansions to keep up to date.


I wonder if they updated the video since it's got clips from Wrath of the Lich King expansion.


Blizzard sent me 7-day free game time for WoW, but I have no time and no hard disk space ^^;



Martin Leung played quite a bit of piano in the show. These are some of his performances.

This is the Guitar Hero segment. The orchestra, Tommy and the contestant played Van Halen's Jump. Really great sound! The contestant had to score 200,000 points on hard mode... But of course he had to be a show off and said he'll do it in Expert mode. He really di put his money where his mouth is! He got just above 200,000 points before the song ended even with Tommy distracting him.



I giggled when they got to the Air Man part because even though I don't know the meme that well, I know the song quite well now XD


Tommy's steampunk guitar.

They played Halo as the last segment in the first year. I was a little bit disappointed since I don't play Halo and they were catering to the North American market only... But whatever. This was the last thing they played before the encore.


Tommy's Spider-Man guitar.




I was wishing very hard that they would finally have Chrono Trigger in the show. My favourite game of all time because I was choked up listening to this live. My only wish was that they played more from the great music of Chrono Trigger, but they also mixed it with Chrono Cross. But hey I'm not complaining. I had some tears slipping from my eye during this segment. You can really hear me cheer and clap enthusiastically at the end of the video ^^;;;

The always popular One Winged Angel. Really great rendition plus the video clips were showing really cool cosplayers!

So ends another great show. I got my wish and I left the theatre very happy, but of course it was already a tiring week for me, so even if we were on a high, we can't help but be tired... After this concert I immediately finished my Iron Miku project and then sleep so I can wake up early to watch the 10 AM showing of Iron Man 2 ^^;

But hey, I would've posted this too if I had more time yesterday, but a lot of the videos took a long time to upload. I would like to go to VGL again if the chance arise, but in my heart I wished that they add more new things to play for next time, but there's always that Reviews on the Run segment ^^

10 comments:

  1. Hey, just to clarify, the girl to the left of Midna was Clyde, one of the ghosts from Pac-Man, and the girl to the left of her was a Little Sister from Bioshock. The girl to the left of Rikku in the same photo is Twinrova from Ocarina of Time.

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  2. @Anonymous: Thank you very much! I blanked out rather quickly for some of these names... And thanks for the correction on TwinRova. For some reason I remembered it as Zora... Maybe because of the video sequence in Zelda ^^;

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  3. Looks good, I missed out on the one that was held back in Malaysia, though I got to see Eminence in Sydney.

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  4. It's still hilarious how no disc space is what's stopping you from WoWing again; that game really has no hold over you ^^;

    I would've killed a man to attend this - can't get much better than a games live concert. An orchestra One Winged Angel - doesn't get much better than that.

    Well, maybe just half a man, if not just to hear people riffing on Agarest War, and the Kingdom Heart's segment (No gameplay footage blows though). That sausage is like the mainstay of the game. It's even in the FAQ, right?
    Orochi 2 deserves to get bashed though, seriously. As much as I like Koei, all the games after DW3 do.

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  5. @Shin Asuka: They tend to come back to a few places, so you never know when they return to your location :D

    @Tim: I would really like to play WoW again, but to clear up space I need to watch the anime on the HD, and to do that, I won't have time to play XD

    Kill half a man? So like... put'em in a coma? I've heard 2 versions of One Winged Angel now, from VGL and the Distant Worlds version ^^

    That sausage picture was the front page to the Agarest War website! I thought the quick switchable characters in Orochi 2 looked neat, but it is pretty much rehash of previous Musou games.

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  6. I was the bloody one in the costume contest. The one with the chainsaw. I was the sweet but brave Nurse Kaori from Pure Trance; a manga by Junko Mizuno. Nurse Kaori made an appearance at the Vancouver Art Gallery's 2008 summer exhibit KRAZY. I kind of was aware I was obscure but that didn't concern me and people thought I looked BLOODY awesome especially the chainsaw. The host Tommy saw the chainsaw back stage and he asked, "whoa how do you sleep with that?"

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  7. @Kaori: I'll have to look up that manga. I have a couple of Junko Mizuno's books, but I'm only a casual fan. Good stuff! Thank you for the information. I've edited the post accordingly ;)

    Yes indeed, that was a great chainsaw! And even got a comment from Tommy himself! Bloody awesome indeed!!

    Coming to Anime Evolution in the same cos? :D

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  8. hmm maybe or maybe not if i'm going to wear that cosplay again a AE this year. This year's cosplay plans are going to be new.

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  9. Looks like a really fun event!
    I don't recognize anyone... Need to play more games. :(

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  10. @Kaori: Keeping it fresh :)

    @Yi: LoL they took some liberties with their costumes, but I don't know a few of them either. I'm so behind on playing games >_<

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