Euro VF Gathering in Amsterdam, 29-30 August, 2009

Yep, cheddar is ours, so get your gammon mitts off.

 

One more question came to my mind:

Are all the set-ups X360 or PS3/X360?

Does bringing VSHG make sense ?

I would definitely try original Gouda and original Heineken /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

I'l bring the Marmite /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

LOL! i've seen the weirdest combination involving marmite, but never cheese...

anyway, if you're interested in cheese i would recommend Leerdammer. that is the sh*t!

 

heheh Krye, you best have a cheese set-up aswell for all the enthusiasts. None of that VF rubbish /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

Hey guys, Does anyone already chose the Hostel? If yes which one is it? /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif thanks

 

@lotrzyna: it's 360 mainly, maybe I can bring my ps3 if needed, but i think most players would rather play ver.c, so let's keep it the one console if possible.

 

Where exactly were you planning to get better practice? /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif You weren't planning to go to SoCal, were you?

Glad you're considering making the trip!

@Cheese Discussion: I don't know about a cheese setup, but we could get some fresh bread somewhere and some kinds of cheese and everyone could try the cheese?

Least I will do is write a little story about the kinds of cheeses we have here in Holland, in one of the weekly write-ups.

@lotrzyna: As NGKrush said, we'll have at least 5 setups. I can probably borrow some 360 from friends that don't use them a lot, so I expect we'll get more than that in the end. About the 360/PS3 thing: I really, reaaaally want to keep it 360-only. Not only would it be stupid to play version B when we can play version C with no problems, but PAL PS3 VF5 runs on 50hz, so it's actually slower than it should be (from what I've heard, at least). So let's keep it 360-only.

 

I dont usually expect to get practise. I dont usually expect to get warmup games at tournaments. I dont expect anything to work well period.

 

You should be more positive!

 

The problem is - some players ie me only have PS3 and only PS3 arcade stick /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif
I could bring Japanese version of PS3VF5 so speed wouldn't be a problem /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif and Japanese commentary would make us feel like in Japanese Arcade ;-)

But OK 360 only - understood.
Already looking for a player who wouldn't mind sharing X360 AS...

 

lotrzyna: I might have two arcade sticks by then, so people can use one of them to play. And if I don't, I'm sure a lot of people won't mind you using their arcade sticks from time to time /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif .

 

PAL VF5 on PS3 isn't slower, but they use some frame skipping technique which makes everything feel weird. Add to that there's slowdown issues as well as some characters being quite different between versions, so I agree that 360 only is the way to go.

 

NAME: Bob
NICKNAME: M^2 Tingaliin Tingaliin (let me see you shake that thing)
Main Character: !?!?!?!?!?!?
Country: BREDÄNG

I bet any notable AMERICAN (yes jeneric this exclused you) player 100 dollars they dont dare come here, on condition that the american part also money matches my appointed EURO champion for 250 euros. *UNTIL SETTLED AND AGREED UPON, OFFER IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE IF I GET BOOTED FROM MY PLACE OF WORK OF IF U WHINE THE AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL*

Havent booked tickets so please dont put me down as confirmed yet. Trips have a tendency to get cancelled whenever I want to make them.. but not this one! My face --> /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

@Jeneric: Thanks for clearing that up. So yeah, it's gonna be 360 only, PS3 players shouldn't bother bringing their sticks, it would be a shame to go through all the trouble bringing the sticks, only to come here and find out we're not playing the PS3 version.

@Bob: We will drink Dutch beer this time!

 

Alright, here’s the first of the weekly snippets of info about Amsterdam. I’m writing these to provide those of you that are coming here with basic info, so that you won’t have to look things up. I’m also hoping these will create a nice atmosphere, so that people that were thinking of coming over, but weren’t sure yet, will get an extra push to come over.

I’ll be handling a couple of themes in these write-ups. Things like food and drinks, traditional Dutch culture, places to see and the city of Amsterdam will all be amongst the themes covered.

Since I thought it would be nice to start out with some general info, I’ll write a bit about the city center and where things are generally located.

<span style='font-size: 14pt'>Pre-gathering Write-up #1</span>
Theme: The City of Amsterdam

The City Center:

So, Amsterdam’s city center. It’s basically the place where most of the things happen, which is why it’s the city center, I guess… I was thinking about what way would be best to make this comprehensible and I decided doing it in a ‘tour’ kind of way, was gonna be best.

Let’s start out at Amsterdam Central Station:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3573/3355304610_d89407fae8.jpg?v=1237080577

Amsterdam Central Station is basically the hub of Amsterdam’s public transport, it’s pretty easy to get to any part of the city from here and since the trains stop here as well, it’s also the best place to leave the city from (there’s a lot of trains going to/arriving from Schiphol Airport here). Getting to the venue from Central Station is pretty easy: Trams 16 and 24 depart from here, and so do Busses 170 and 172. So if you’re confused about where you should go to get a tram or bus to the venue, just go to Central Station.

There’s a lot of construction work going on inside and around Central Station, since there’s a new subway line being built. You can still get everywhere pretty easily, but sometimes the routes don’t make a lot of sense anymore (traffic signs every 5 meters, pretty weird).

In short: best place to be for public transport.

When you’re at Central Station, if you turn your back to the main building, you can see a wide, long street, this street is called the ‘Damrak’ and leads to the famous Dam Square:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3062/2936214871_0511874738.jpg?v=0

Dam Square with the former Royal Palace.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/22/32310137_d9df1e9351.jpg?v=0

This is where the previous photo was taken: the National Monument. The building on the left is a Department Store (‘de Bijenkorf’, the Beehive in English).

Dam Square has a lot of beautiful buildings, so those of you that enjoy those things will love it there. There’s also a lot of pidgeons (as in, a LOT), that you can feed if you buy some pidgeon food from a stand. Beware though, they will sit on you if you feed them. I can also not guarantee that they won’t leave a nice white present if you do decide that you don’t mind them sitting on you.

There’s two big shopping streets here, that basically flow into one another, except for the fact that Dam Square is right between them. They are called the ‘Nieuwedijk’ and the ‘Kalverstraat’, there’s all kind of stores here (a lot of souvenir shops as well), so if you want to buy some things, look no further! The Nieuwedijk (New Dike in English) runs back to the Central Station (it runs beside the Damrak), so we won’t go there.

Into the Kalverstraat we go:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/52/188147115_b8a0fd8fe4.jpg?v=0

The Kalverstraat is a really busy shopping street. If you want to shop here, I recommend you do it during the morning/early afternoon, it gets really crowded after about 3 PM (still manageable, but it’s just better to get your shopping done early).

At some point, there’s a street that runs through the Kalverstraat, if you follow it, you will get to the Spui. This is another square, it has some nice bookstores, but not much other interesting things. A little further down the Kalverstraat, you can take a right turn into the ‘Heilige Weg’ (Holy Way), this street will lead you to the ‘Koningsplein’ (King’s Square in English). Before we go here, let’s finish the Kalverstraat. Just a little further, it ends. You have arrived at ‘Munt Square’ (Coin Square):

http://www.bigfoto.com/europe/netherlands/amsterdam/096-munt-toren.jpg

Munt Square has a lot of fastfood places and two Cinema’s, it’s not too interesting in itself, but if you go through the street called ‘Reguliersbreestraat’ you’ll get to the ‘Rembrandtplein’ (named after the famous Dutch painter), which, combined with the Muntplein, makes for an excellent area to go out at night:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3435/3317577002_477e55c854.jpg?v=0

Alright, let’s go back to the Koningsplein:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2407/1730197718_0cd0548333.jpg?v=0

There’s some shops here as well, the ‘Selexyz Scheltema’ bookstore is pretty nice!
If you continue through in the same direction (so away from the Kalverstraat) you’ll end up in the ‘Leidsestraat’:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2201/2236875449_031a86e82e.jpg?v=0

A lot of shops in this street as well, the Trams run right through the middle. Pretty chaotic most of the time, haha. This street will lead you over a couple of ‘Grachten’ (don’t know the proper English word, but they’re basically just little channels running all through Amsterdam) to the Leidseplein:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dutchamsterdam/2379310111/

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2252/2056694709_f5b5ec6389.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/2300975865_7bcd2db55d.jpg?v=0

There’s always something happening here, a lot of great street performers! This guy is awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgXtITVY7OQ . This is another great place to go out at night.

Alright, so much for the first write-up. I haven’t told everything there is to know about these places and this is also not the entire city center, but this is pretty much the important stuff.

Hope you enjoyed it. Expect another write-up next week!

PS:
# of unconfirmed players: 14
# of confirmed players: 8
Ideal situation as of now: 22 players attending!

Please fill in the form if you want to come over, part of the fun is the hype we build before the event!

 

If you can get a sport hall or something, were we can play and sleep it would be perfect. 10 - 20€ for it would be sufficiant and it's much cheaper then a hotel.

NAME: Bora Dilsen
NICKNAME: MystD / RinpooChuan
Main Character: Shun / Lei
Country: germany - hessen - wiesbaden

I'm currently free, it should be no problem for me to come.
If anything changes, like I get a job or something, I might not be able to come.

 

Ah, glad to see you decided to post here, Bora!

For now, we have a free venue in the form of NGKrush's house. We want to stick with that for now, since it makes it easier for us run the event. Hostels are about €25 a night, so that's not expensive either.

 

Krye if you can show me one or two hostels where i can stay i can go in my travel agency and prepare all the trip just now. So i'm definitively in /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

Real Name: Christiaan Bruinsma
Nickname: Spoon
From: Apeldoorn, NL
Main Character: I have one?
Oh right.
Blauw, Blue, 青い, Blu, Bleu, Azul, Blau, голубо, μπλε, 파란, 蓝色 (one or perhaps some of these are correct. Scratch which does not apply)

I'll bring delicious dutch jong belegen cheese.