Ombeve

(EDIT- PICS NOW UP!)

Another bleary start to the day, more sleep needed! Must eat breakfast, so went down for 9am and met Wotlankor who was already down there. There was a mix of tourists and mainly FF attendees. You could easily spot the difference, the FF peeps all looked sleep deprived and moved slowly!

Tucked into some breakfast and a cup of coffee, while other members from U’K drifted down in dribs and drabs. Sapphrine arrived looking worse for wear- he’d apparently got to bed at 5am!

So, we eventually made our way to the FF, and were blessed by a beautifully sunny morning, crisp and invigorating. The morning sun bouncing off the snow-capped mountains around us was stunning.

The first event was the Movie Matinee in ‘Singularity’, where they showed us back to back player made Eve videos. I am not sure it was what people were expecting but it was entertaining nonetheless and the room was packed. Some videos were excellent, others seemed to be a random collection of pewpew scenes. It did inspire me to make a promo video for U’K, when I get home, as I do enjoy doing them.

That finished earlier than planned as they needed the room, so we went outside and mooched around until 12 when the PvP Tournie finals were on. We got in early to ensure a decent seat, and it turned out that we’d see 3 matches- the battle for 3rd/ 4th, battle for 1st/2nd and the winners vs the devs.

The 3rd/ 4th place match was pretty good and well paced, with an mixture of ships being used (though not any Lokis, no-one seems to rate them). The final, between Roadkill (who’d won it twice before) and Muffin Munchers was an incredibly dull affair, with both sides bringing 3 Tengus each. Roadkill had gone for the Remote Rep, HAM setup, and Muffin Munchers had gone for an active tank, heavy missile setup. Both sides were cap stable, so after 15 mins and much heckling, the game was called, and a Dev had to decide who was most ‘aggressive’. That went to Muffin Munchers. Congrats to them, Roadkill looked pretty unhappy.

Then the Devs played the winners. Muffin Munchers brought a Loki this time, and two Tengus; the Devs brought an all Proteus team. It was all over in about 90 seconds- the Devs got completely flattened. Apparently one wasn’t in RR range from the outset, which didn’t help, but the first ship went down amazingly fast.

At 1500, the much anticipated ‘CCP Presents’ was to take place, but started slightly late. The wait was more than worth it to be honest. Oh my god, these guys know how to put on a presentation. It started with Hilmar, the CEO, doing a brief talk about the past year, punctuated with videos they’d made themselves which were damn funny, including one of him F5′ing their internal ‘subscribers count’ page and everyone time it increased by one, he’d go to his whiteboard and wipe off the previous subscribers figure he’d written up and increment it by one.

Oveur came on then, aka Nathan, and did a great little talk- he’s a very good orator, perfect timing. His intro was Hilmar saying he’d wondered where Oveur had gone as he’d sent him to get some beer. We got treated to a hysterical video of Oveur piloting a beer spaceship under attack from fighters, and being saved by two drones piloted by Hilmar and another Dev who’s name escapes me. Then he lands in the carpark and presto, appears on stage in a great pilots outfit. Funny as hell.

Of course, what everyone wanted to know about was Dust514, and not only did they do a presentation on it, they also demonstrated some live gameplay. Oh. My. God. It looks awesome. They showed us a merc squad capturing an installation on a planet, using drop ships, jeeps, tanks etc. They used a map to call up reinforcements and to choose a spawn point in the event of death. Basically capsuleers can give orders/ contracts for merc commanders to accept. It all looks so great, I want it now! I wasn’t that bowled over by the idea before I saw the video/ gameplay, but the potential looks superb. I am converted!

Finally, they ended with a frankly brilliant home made rap video, starring one of the Devs (I think, or perhaps the founder of CCP, need to double check) and of course Oveur. It was a great video, with the chorus (very catchy) being: (EDIT- now on YouTube!)

We´re CCP, we march on Fearlessly

Excellent is what we strive to be

If you want to follow us to the top

Harden the f**k up!

To really show how excellent they are, CCP gave out very good quality posters of Oveur in his bottle spaceship. Again, pics to follow.

After a few minutes, they had a CCP panel on stage that people could ask questions to. As you’d expect, a lot of the questions were related to Dust, but there was some other questions. One of the questions from a Goonswarm chap was whether we could have the, frankly amazing, animation that has been on in the stage- a slowly panning view of inside an Amarr station, moving alongside an Absolution, a Revelation and an Apocalypse. To much excitement, they said releasing it as a screensaver would be no problem.

Another notable question was about Dust514, and they confirmed it wasn’t going to be a subscription game- you buy it, you play it.

After that, exodus out of the FF as it was now finished, and we returned to the Convention Centre for the Party At The Top of The World, which was superb. Sapph, Ugleb, Wotlankor and myself chatted to Oveur for about half an hour about Dust and it was incredibly interesting talking about his vision for the future. I can’t imagine another game where you can collar the main man behind the game for half an hour without him looking bored and wanting to rush off.

After some dance music, DJ Margeir and his 16 piece string orchestra came on, and WOW. I love strings with Techno/ Electronica, so I was utterly absorbed for the 45 mins they were on. Fantastic!!! Kudos to CCP for taking a punt with getting this sort of act on. After DJ Margeir came DJ Mokki and Maisol, 2 lady DJs, who put on some standard dance music, then on came Roxxor, the CCP house band. They rocked the house! Not the normal sort of music I’d listen to, but they were damned good and I enjoyed them anyway. Finally, the headline act, ’2manydjs’ who were brilliant. Eventually I had to give in and return to the hotel.

I am writing this in the lobby, on the Sunday. Our bus leaves in 25 mins back to the airport, and there’s a lot of us waiting. I think the 1615 flight to Heathrow will be packed with many hung-over FFers.

~ by Ombey on October 4, 2009.