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Welcome to Toycon, where piles of rubber like this: Click to Enlarge ...turns into Transformers dancing to YMCA: Click to Enlarge Toycon 2012 had racked up around 10,000 visitors by day 2, and the venue was just about big enough to contain all the action. Sorta. Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Toycon was divided up into two areas - the main stage at the front where all the cosplay took place (and a small room stuffed with action figures or whatever), and the booth space / shops selling stuff at the back. Mainly I lurked at the front, and was fortunate enough catch the introduction from a lady who wasn't having much luck. They had a bunch of people come up dressed as characters from local MMORPG type games, and one of the highlights was when they auctioned off a "rare in game cloak" that ended up selling for about £200+. Click to Enlarge So of course, she starts asking where the cloak is so she can "give" i

[Note: I'm surprised to find that this semi-rambling commentary on my not so good experiences with Arkham City got lost in the Posterous edit pile. I'd forgotten how much this game annoyed me, so better late than never. Looking back, I think my initial "what are you even doing" response to this game still rings true for me.] Arkham City is one of the most user unfriendly packages I've ever seen in years of gaming. I'm more than a little surprised given how good the first game was. Peeling open the tin reveals...uh....some flyers with DLC codes and a promo leaflet for another game. Where are the instructions? Oh well, the game must tell me everything I need to know. Confusingly, the game begins with Catwoman. There are a few basic fight prompts, but no indication of how to do takedowns, keep bad guys down permanently (come on, I don't remember given I played the first game an age ago) or anything else. When you switch to Batman, you realise that no -

Outside: a calm, sedate and vaguely lifeless metal building. Click to Enlarge Inside: TOTAL CHAOS AND POORLY LIT PHOTOGRAPHY. Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge My first comic convention in the Philippines (actually, my first comic convention anywhere if we discount all the times I complained about comics on the internet with strangers). There was some Marvel and DC stuff lurking in the longboxes: Click to Enlarge Mainly though, it was all about the local talent in the form of standalone sketches, paintings, comics (in "regular" format and ones that look like folded paper that's been drawn on directly) along with a bunch of live demos and artists signing things. Click to Enlarge Here's a few of those folded paper comic displays. Click to Enlarge Here's a local zombie comic, looked pretty good: Click to Enlarge These were amazing : comic characters painted in the style of Alex Ross on polystyrene. Click to En