The floodgates have opened, and Gen Con badge and hotel registration is now open!

This year’s Gen Con should be one of the best yet! The highly anticipated JW Marriott Indianapolis, which has a capacity of 1,050 rooms, will be opened this year. Another big addition to Indianapolis this year is the completion of the fourth Indianapolis Convention Center expansion, which will add 254,000 square feet of exhibit space.

Excited? You should be!

Registered yet? If not, shame on you. Head on over to the Gen Con registration. See you in August!

It is a new year, and with it comes another year of Gen Con. If you are like us, you cannot wait to attend and will be glad to know that you can officially pre-register for badges now!

4-day badges this year will run you $68.00. Single day badges for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday will run $38.00 apiece, while Sunday will only cost $28.

For those that have too much money to spend, laying down $500 will get you the VIG package. Also for those interested, trade day is $100.

You can chose accordingly and pre-register at the official Gen Con website here.

Other important Gen Con 2010 dates:

• Housing opens Tuesday, January 26, 2010, at 12:00 noon (Eastern).
• Event Pre-Registration begins Sunday, April 11, 2010, at 12:00 noon (Eastern).
• Badge and Event Pre-Registration close Saturday, June 19, 2010, at 11:59 pm (Eastern). All shipping method changes must be requested by this time.
• Extended Badge and Event Registration opens for Will Call only orders at full onsite price on Sunday, June 20, 2010.

Day two, we took a closer look at the hall devoted entirely to card game tournaments and demos. We sat in on a rather intimate water color demonstration by Artist of Honor Omar Rayyan and witnessed a giant game of Magic: the Gathering.

Day three saw a bit of a closer look at the exhibit hall, with close ups of some of the miniatures on display at some of the booths. Some of the best cosplay of the weekend seemed to be reserved for Saturday, with some very detailed storm troopers, jedi, and super heroes wandering the halls.

The mechanics of Corporate Espionage have players building a corporate empire from the ground up. Player companies gain income and lose expenses each round based on the employees they hire, the assets they purchase, and the various methods of espionage and corporate savvy that they employ.  The game is fairly balanced, save for the fact there is a fairly small number of defensive cards to counter your opponent’s attacks. While there is little focus on deck-building right now, the initial decks that we got our hands on contained 80 unique and individually designed cards. When asked about expansions for the game however, their unique business model reared its gorgeous mane and made itself proudly known.

The owner and creator of Corporate Espionage, Amanda Abelove, does plan on having more cards designed for future prints of the game. However, she has much more interactive plans for getting other businesses involved in the game. For events such as GenCon, companies can create a custom collectible card to be handed out at their booth. Being limited prints, these promo cards would become collectibles, turning it into another game entirely for those seeking to collect all of the promo cards at an event. Additionally, promotional codes attached to each card would allow companies access to quantitative data regarding how successful the campaign is, while allowing players of the game access to unique online content or points to obtain more free cards. As a big fan of elaborate and interactive data mining operations, this entire concept made me giddy as a school girl.

As an entertaining, social, and easily accessible gaming product, Corporate Espionage excels on every level. From 5 year old children learning about business terminology, to elderly retirees gambling away their Vicodin money on whose corporation will prevail, Corporate Espionage is a game that will bring together people of all ages and get them to interact on a social and educational level not normally attained. The game is available on their website at $10 per pack, with each pack containing everything necessary for one player to get into the game. This is definitely a game to keep an eye on. And, who knows, maybe you’ll see some Geekspective-designed cards out there in the not too distant future.

Final Verdict : 9/10

The first thing that struck me about Herobits was its simplicity and ease of access. The man playing against me only had to give a brief run-down of the basic rules, and I was quickly into the game with few questions to be answered. The game essentially operates thusly:

• Each deck contains a hero character which is your only “soldier” to speak of.
• There are Upgrade cards and Instant cards, each pertaining to either Attack or Resist.
• On each turn, one can play a single Upgrade card which cannot bring your total number of upgrades above 5.
• After playing an Upgrade card, one may play as many Instant cards as one has Upgrades on the field in order to attack the opponent.
• It is now up to the opponent to play Resist Instants in order to bring their resistance up to par with the attacker’s Attack total.
• If the defender cannot stop all damage, he must remove cards from his hand or playfield equaling the amount of Attack that made it through.
• At the end of one’s turn, cards must be drawn to bring the total back to 7

Play continues in this fashion until one player has no cards on the field except for their hero, or until a player’s deck dwindles down to zero. Thus, it is possible for matches to last anywhere from 1-10 minutes, making it a fairly short and relaxed experience.

Each deck of 50 cards is illustrated by its own artist. There are currently only 3 initial decks by 3 individual authors. Hopefully with future releases this tradition will be able to be maintained, as its a very innovative way to retain integrity for each deck. With each deck centering around a single hero, it is nice to see all of the artwork uniform.

All in all, the game is a very fun and fast-paced alternative to more complicated money-sinks like Magic the Gathering and Yugioh. With such simple rules, the game is an excellent choice for children considering the mathematically based combat. The one-on-one combat offers a very unique Deathmatch feel which gives the player a definite space marine combat vibe.

Final Verdict – 8.5/10

As an aspiring artist and lover of fantasy inspired works, I am very excited for this year’s GenCon Artist Guest of Honor, Omar Rayyan.

While Omar Rayyan is well known for his Magic: the Gathering concept and card art, he has also illustrated several children’s books for publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Hyperion/Disney. His current illustrated book, entitled  The Case of the Purloined Professor by Judy Cox, will be released this October. He also had the pleasure of contributing to the concept art for the movie “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” However, the majority of his work is just for show, sticking to fine art more than the commercial aspect.

His beautiful watercolors are full of rustic whimsy and immense detail that is truly awe inspiring. I am extremely stoked and lucky to be able to attend a seminar hosted by him. Hopefully, if you’re going to GenCon, you’ll be able to meet him too! Check out the Event Catalog at gencon.com to get more information. Also, stop by his website, Studio Rayyan, which features his and his wife’s work.

In preperation for Gen Con, we will be giving out a daily dose of Gen Con-related news leading up to the con.