Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some pics of the completed floor during this hellish preview night. I say hellish with the most love possible. I’ve heard a lot of bitching from even the average con attendees (not just the press and professionals) about how not fun this Con is anymore and I don’t want to be one of those guys.

This Con is a giant ball of stress, but you know? I’m a movie geek and seeing all this footage, getting to meet some of my idols (as I will do tomorrow), converse with some amazing people, mingle with my colleagues, friends and real deal fans… Not to mention the shopping. There is no other place like Comic-Con. Yes, it’s big, crowded, hot and sometimes a massive pain the asshole (like when studios put 80% of their output into one day for instance), but you have to reach a point where you just go with the flow or be a grump. I’m doing my best not to be a grumpus. Even when I see this in my way every minute of the day:

So, let’s take a look at the floor this time built up and in its full glory. If you want to check back to last night’s article to compare and contrast my sneaky pics taken as booths were being set up, the link is right here.

Let’s start off with the Avatar toy pics:

I especially like the Sigourney Weaver toy and the handicapped Sam Worthington… Crazy alien designs. We’ll see tomorrow how they come across in the footage.

Here’s some more Preview night bits of interest…

I think it was in the Mattel booth that we found both the Batpod and the police car from STAR TREK:

Gentle Giant had this sweet FORCE UNLEASHED inspired Vader bust that is really kickass. I loved the story of that video game and would KILL to see a movie made out of it, even if it’s a top of the line CG feature. Anyway, here’s Darth Vader having a bad day:

I wasn’t there when Seth Rogan showed up to unveil The Black Beauty on the floor (I instead stepped through the looking glass… more on that Friday morning), but Kraken did get a chance to get a couple shots of the covered car:

And here’s a better pic of what that Stark Industries thing was from yesterday’s report… a booth that was selling the Iron Man 2 video game… Still awesome seeing those suits on display, though.

I also got the chance to play a full level of LEFT 4 DEAD 2 earlier in the day and that was a lot of fun.

The level was called Swamp Fever and the terrain was what you’d expect from a level called Swamp Fever… broken down shacks, swampy water and lots of dead fuckers attacking you.

The Tanks are now different, overall wearing hulks called Chargers that are easier to kill, but are faster and ram the hell out of you and your team. There are also new zombie types, including what is called a Mud Man, a zombie that lives in the swamps and when lying down is almost indistinguishable from its surroundings. When he gets up and hits you it muddies up your view.

There’s also a Spitter who spews Napalm-like fire out, usually right in your path.

Of course you also have the regular zombies, Boomers, Hunters, Witches and Smokers.

The big deal with this sequel is that you can pick up melee items. Everyone I played with loved the axe, which is gruesome and is a one-hit kill on most zombies. Gotta love the ability to hit a button and send an undead arm flying off or split its head off from its body. There was also a frying pan, which seemed to disorientate the zombies and a Shaun of the Dead nod: a cricket bat.

Oh, and the pistols still have unlimited ammo, which made me happy. I thought they were going to take that away when they gave us the melee weapons (which do not deteriorate, but you have to drop them when you want to use your guns).

Did I mention you can find a grenade launcher now? And ammo upgrades (I never got the launcher, but the incendiary shotgun round is total fucking destruction as they’d say in the talkback.

Overall, it felt more like an expansion pack to the original LEFT 4 DEAD, but whatever. I loved the balance of the gameplay of the original game and give me some new locations (love the Deep South/Louisiana setting), new characters, some fun new zombies and masses of undead to lay waste to and I’m happy. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

There you go. Now I must write up my questions for the five interviews I have tomorrow. Tomorrow also brings us the Disney 3-D Panel (Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, Tron), the Avatar panel, both of which I’ll be covering, as well as the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus panel, Kick-Ass and… wait for it… New Moon!!! Excited?

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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