Jay Vergara
Bio
I'm a SoCal based photographer and freelance writer with a love for everything nerdy.
Follow me on Instagram at Mediumblast and Twitter on @medivmblast
Stories (162/0)
What My First Star Wars Press Event Was Like, and How I Avoided Passing Out from Excitement
If someone told my ten-year-old self that someday I'd be standing on the floor of an exclusive Star Wars press event, I'd probably tell them to leave before I call the police. And yet, there I was, standing beneath three Stormtrooper costumes with the New Order flag unfurled behind them. To say that the whole thing felt surreal would be an understatement. To say that it was a struggle to keep my composure would be entirely accurate. I was at the Holy Grail of my nerd-fueled life, and it was hard to keep it together. I learned a lot while I was at the event, and I have Moviepilot to thank for that. Some of the lessons weren't entirely new, just affirmations of things I had felt for a while. So what was it like? Let me tell you.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Geeks
The Original Pokemon Games Are Coming to the Nintendo 3DS!
You wanna feel old real quick? Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the original Pokemon games' release in Japan. In America, next year the original Pokemon games will be old enough to vote (since they were released in 1998 in North America). Yeah, it's been that long. Here's the original intro for nostalgia's sake.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Gamers
Fallout 4: An Open Letter to Bethesda
Dear Bethesda, So Fallout 4 came out this week and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm also starting to hear about a bunch of glitches that reviewers are finding in the game but I expect that at this point. My console peeps are pretty fuming mad for some reason. I wouldn't know, I play on PC. Of course, I've always seen it more as a glass half full kind of situation because the army of modders who love tinkering with your stuff will probably fix it or make things shinier. I'm not here to talk about any of that. I'm just here to talk about the adventure I've had with you so far. I know you have a lot of hardcore fans that have been with you for a while. I'm not one of those. I was a little late to the party. My adventure started on November 11, 2011.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Gamers
'Metroid: The Sky Calls' Is How A Metroid Movie Should Be Done
Admittedly, movie adaptations of video games are pretty hit or miss. If you look back at all the movies in this genre, they are mostly misses falling under the "so bad it's good" category. Every now and again, though, someone absolutely nails it. More often than not it's in the form of short, fan made triumphs rather than big budgets affairs. Metroid: The Sky Calls by Rainfall Films is definitely one of those gems.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Geeks
Miss Sinister Does It Yet Again With An Eye Popping Mad Max Inspired Shoot
I've talked about Miss Sinister before when I was completely blown away by her Star Wars inspired photo shoot. I've kept up with her work since then and I was excited when she hinted at a Mad Max inspired shoot. If there's anyone who can pull off that vibe, it's definitely Miss Sinister. Well, she definitely didn't disappoint. Teaming up with some great photographers, Miss Sinister lives up to her name with some truly fierce and amazing shots.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Geeks
Great Cosplay and Amazing Events to Hit LA at 'Anime Impulse'
A new convention is about to hit the LA circuit from the creators of the Ktown Night Market and the OC Block Party. They're pushing the convention as an all-in-one mix of Asian pop culture under one roof and I'm actually pretty excited about it.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Geeks
Father Builds The Most Epic Halloween Costume Ever for His Son
Do you remember the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game? It let you be in the helm of some of the more iconic vehicles in the Star Wars franchise like the X-Wing, the Speeder Bike, and my personal favorite, the Snowspeeder. The Hoth level was my absolute jam and when I was a kid I always wanted a Snowspeeder all of my own. Well, I'll just have to live vicariously through 8-year old Jeremy who now has a Speederbike of his own for Halloween thanks to his crafty dad.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Geeks
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes: The Game That'll Ruin Your Relationship
There's something inherently fun about playing games together. Whether it's working as a team or competing against each other, games tend to bring people closer. Every now and again it has the potential to make people really frustrated with each other; a prime example being that one time I threw a Monopoly piece at a foreign exchange student, but that's a story for another time! Keep Talking and No One Explodes is one of those games that might just join the pantheon of awesome yet immensely frustrating games.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Gamers
Cosplay and Commerce: Courtney Stark Opens Up About the Cosplay Scene and Why She left
I've always been a big fan of cosplay but not being a cosplayer myself gives me the perspective of being on the outside looking in. I see the awesome photos and successful cosplayers really making a name for themselves through social media and personal marketing but what I don't see is the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. There's a bunch of stuff in the background that I didn't know about and that made me curious. Lucky for me, my friend Courtney Stark was kind enough to lend me some of her time to sate my curiosity and to help people get a closer look at another aspect of the cosplay community.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Geeks
'Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash' Offers Up Some Fresh Faces and Fresh Moves
Earlier this week, Nintendo gave us a chance to take a look at a couple of its upcoming titles for the Wii U and 3DS. I talked about one of them here and there were a couple more than I only got a brief look at. A game that we actually got an opportunity to take for a whirl was Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. I can't really tell you the last time I played anything in the Mario Tennis series but I'm pretty sure I was lukewarm on it back in the day so I was a little skeptical of the game at first. Then we actually started to play and it was, hands down, my favorite game that we got a chance to demo.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Gamers
What It Was Like To Sit With Nintendo And Why It's A Great Time To Be A Creator
When I was invited by Moviepilot to attend a press event for Nintendo, I had a small idea of what it was going to be like. In my head, I thought we were going to be in a medium-sized room with a few Wii U systems set up and a couple of Nintendo 3DS to play around with while we bark questions at Nintendo employees. What happened instead was something that threw me for a loop and it reminded me why it's such an awesome time to be a Creator and it all started with, just like the Marvel event I was invited to, becoming hopelessly lost. Also parking was a nightmare, but that's just L.A. being L.A.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Geeks
Cosplayer Puts Houston Comicpalooza On Blast For False Promises
Cons are incredibly fun places to be. You get to be around like-minded people and let your nerdiness go on full tilt. Also, there's a mass of things to spend money on (I'm not saying I dropped hundreds of dollars on manga during AX but I'm not saying that I didn't). A lot of planning and coordination goes into something like a convention. There's a lot of front-end work for setting up but there's also a lot of back-end work once the con is over. According to cosplayer Teresa Rollo Nguyen aka Tall Princess, this is where Houston based con Comicpalooza dropped the ball. According to an open letter she wrote to the Con, she's been back and forth with the event organizers over a contest she won that they have failed to make good on.
By Jay Vergara6 years ago in Geeks