First off I'm glad for once at being in the D/FW area for things like Quakecon & now this event from Gearbox. The Gearbox Community day did seem thrown together rather quickly esp. with E3 being done with a day or two beforehand so there were some people at the event who just came back from E3 not too long ago but met some interesting people in line while waiting. Thankfully the Gearbox crew did delay the panels & other things going on so the sudden wait outside didn't screw everyone over once they got in. The Community Day events had panels on the various Gearbox Software games (Borderlands, Brothers in Arms, Aliens Colonial Marines & now Duke Nukem Forever), panels were short yet informative as the developers told tons of info as well as handling questions though each game/franchise had only about an hour. It was interesting to hear more about Borderlands & seeing some fans showing up dressed up as Moxxie & Lilith along with CJ dressed up as one of the psycho midgets and the lucky couple who are going to get married later this year thanks to the proposal presented by Claptrap. The Brothers in Arms focused on the over the top tall tale spawned challenge from Ubisoft (Furious 4) which looks insanely fun while hearing more about original franchise not coming to an end. Aliens Colonial Marines looks good so far but it's too early to know more about it. 
 
I found that Randy Pitchford to have quite a contagious amount of enthusiasm for the game industry & it was quite enjoyable to just listen to hear more thoughts & other things from him. Glad to see that the humor glimpsed at from some of the PR videos done with Randy in it (like the one from the delay of DNF in May) is quite genuine as his candid speaking on many of the panels was funny as well as informative. If I'm going to be stuck in NE Texas for  awhile I'd really want to work for Gearbox now as the environment & crew there seem quite enjoyable to work with.
 
The Duke Nukem Forever panel, which I hope was taped & going up online soon, had some incredible moments of it as the team there talked some about the history of the development as well as some of the many challenges to overcome. Also John St. John was there & it was great to hear his voice as well as some of the people on the panel talking about some of their favorite moments from the new & old games. 
 
As for the release party, initial music from the band doing the music in DNF as well as the girls from Coyote Ugly (who did a lot of burlesque themed pieces) were quite entertaining. Loved hearing the main theme from DN3D (might also be in DNF) played by the opening band though I was sad to see that they weren't on stage that long after finally getting inside. Primary reason for the sadness was mostly due to the next two groups being rather lackluster. Crystal Method might make some good music in a recording booth & have that music working great in movies or driving games, but seeing them live was boring & unimpressive. They didn't do much for interacting with the crowd as there were the pair of them pretty much manning an elaborate DJ booth & trading off who was at the controls. Maybe I'm used to going to a concert to see musicians play their music live, good example is when one of the Crystal Method team putting on a hoddie & turning a knob on the DJ station, that's it. Frankly they could have prerecorded all the music beforehand as it's impossible to tell when they were done with one song, messed up on a song or anything else. Crystal Method were pretty much like any other DJ I've seen at a club, just standing around playing with the controls for hours. Lastly (amid being intermixed with fun moments with Randy Pitchford or a couple more songs from the girls of Coyote Ugly), was DJ Jazzy Jeff, yes him. While I don't have any interest in rap & hip/hop, again seeing the same issue of someone standing up on stage flipping between songs in such a blended way that messing up a song or sticking on one song is quite impossible at least had one better thing going for it, the man on the microphone (Skillz), who at least proved to me that he at least knew that while up on a stage for an event like this to interact with the crowd & showing some interest in the crowd of people near the stage and using this to get them more immersed in the music playing. 
 
PS-hate the camera in my phone & slightly kicking myself for deciding to not take the small digital camera (as the waiver had big text on not taking photos for some of the event as they will just go after you legally for $100k), had I know it was only two moments in the Community Day I would have at least brought the camera aside from the cheapy on my phone to get some decent pics.

First off I'm glad for once at being in the D/FW area for things like Quakecon & now this event from Gearbox. The Gearbox Community day did seem thrown together rather quickly esp. with E3 being done with a day or two beforehand so there were some people at the event who just came back from E3 not too long ago but met some interesting people in line while waiting. Thankfully the Gearbox crew did delay the panels & other things going on so the sudden wait outside didn't screw everyone over once they got in. The Community Day events had panels on the various Gearbox Software games (Borderlands, Brothers in Arms, Aliens Colonial Marines & now Duke Nukem Forever), panels were short yet informative as the developers told tons of info as well as handling questions though each game/franchise had only about an hour. It was interesting to hear more about Borderlands & seeing some fans showing up dressed up as Moxxie & Lilith along with CJ dressed up as one of the psycho midgets and the lucky couple who are going to get married later this year thanks to the proposal presented by Claptrap. The Brothers in Arms focused on the over the top tall tale spawned challenge from Ubisoft (Furious 4) which looks insanely fun while hearing more about original franchise not coming to an end. Aliens Colonial Marines looks good so far but it's too early to know more about it. 
 
I found that Randy Pitchford to have quite a contagious amount of enthusiasm for the game industry & it was quite enjoyable to just listen to hear more thoughts & other things from him. Glad to see that the humor glimpsed at from some of the PR videos done with Randy in it (like the one from the delay of DNF in May) is quite genuine as his candid speaking on many of the panels was funny as well as informative. If I'm going to be stuck in NE Texas for  awhile I'd really want to work for Gearbox now as the environment & crew there seem quite enjoyable to work with.
 
The Duke Nukem Forever panel, which I hope was taped & going up online soon, had some incredible moments of it as the team there talked some about the history of the development as well as some of the many challenges to overcome. Also John St. John was there & it was great to hear his voice as well as some of the people on the panel talking about some of their favorite moments from the new & old games. 
 
As for the release party, initial music from the band doing the music in DNF as well as the girls from Coyote Ugly (who did a lot of burlesque themed pieces) were quite entertaining. Loved hearing the main theme from DN3D (might also be in DNF) played by the opening band though I was sad to see that they weren't on stage that long after finally getting inside. Primary reason for the sadness was mostly due to the next two groups being rather lackluster. Crystal Method might make some good music in a recording booth & have that music working great in movies or driving games, but seeing them live was boring & unimpressive. They didn't do much for interacting with the crowd as there were the pair of them pretty much manning an elaborate DJ booth & trading off who was at the controls. Maybe I'm used to going to a concert to see musicians play their music live, good example is when one of the Crystal Method team putting on a hoddie & turning a knob on the DJ station, that's it. Frankly they could have prerecorded all the music beforehand as it's impossible to tell when they were done with one song, messed up on a song or anything else. Crystal Method were pretty much like any other DJ I've seen at a club, just standing around playing with the controls for hours. Lastly (amid being intermixed with fun moments with Randy Pitchford or a couple more songs from the girls of Coyote Ugly), was DJ Jazzy Jeff, yes him. While I don't have any interest in rap & hip/hop, again seeing the same issue of someone standing up on stage flipping between songs in such a blended way that messing up a song or sticking on one song is quite impossible at least had one better thing going for it, the man on the microphone (Skillz), who at least proved to me that he at least knew that while up on a stage for an event like this to interact with the crowd & showing some interest in the crowd of people near the stage and using this to get them more immersed in the music playing. 
 
PS-hate the camera in my phone & slightly kicking myself for deciding to not take the small digital camera (as the waiver had big text on not taking photos for some of the event as they will just go after you legally for $100k), had I know it was only two moments in the Community Day I would have at least brought the camera aside from the cheapy on my phone to get some decent pics.