This week the New York Comic Con and Anime Festival will flood the Big Apple with a diverse swarm of nerds ranging from traditional American super hero comic book fans to Japanese otakus. Also cramming into the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West side will be tens of thousands of gamers who will be able get their hands on upcoming games, and see panels hosted by game developers. Unfortunately, the event has been entirely sold out in advance and if you don’t have a pass already, you won’t be able to join the estimated 115,000 lucky bastards who are going. But don’t worry, because Explosion.com is on the scene and will get our hands on all of the games being shown at the event, and tell you how these upcoming titles are shaping up.
The convention kicks off today with industry-only panels on how to manage a comic book store, and more esoteric topics like adding comic books to a library. However as the afternoon rolls in, the venue will be thrown open to the unwashed masses who will be able to attend more consumer oriented panels including one about the 25th anniversary of the Street Fighter franchise.
As the weekend progresses, there will be live concerts, and screenings of movies that haven’t been released to the public yet, including the animated Mass Effect movie Paragon Lost.
Capcom has a heavy presence at the convention this year, with panels focusing on franchises like Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Lost Planet, and Sleeping Dogs. Sega will also be showing off their 2013 release Aliens: Colonial Marines too. Of course games adapted from major comic book franchises will be out in force with DC, Marvel and Image showing off their latest games.
We’ll try out all the games shown at the con, and report back over the course of the weekend on what you should keep your eye on in the months ahead.
