Computer Arena Review

When I think of traveling out of town (as I did on the first weekend in May) to have a LAN party, there is now one gold standard that I need to live by.

Having only been to two GGSE Meet and Greets, I don’t have as much to complain about but I hear the stories all the time. One year it was a hotel that promised to have enough juice to support 20+ LAN gamers. When they blew the hotel’s circuit in less than ten minutes they weren’t too happy. The next year (my first to attend) we rented out a room at a Go-Kart racing place, and had the same thing happen. This year, on the other hand, we went to a place called Computer Arena, and had no problems what-so-ever. Spark and I were shocked to say the least.

Computer Arena started off being built from the ground up as a gaming facility. When you first walk through the door, turn to your right and they have the Computer Repair and Sales area. They employ a computer technician that can look into and fix just about any issue. Also, they offer a FREE PC heck-up. They can also custom build you a high-end gaming PC’s to in-expensive PC’s to surf the web or sophisticated business machines. They also offer in-store and on-site service.

Once you pass that and go down that hall, the next thing you see is the computer training room. That was the area that we rented out for our LAN party. They had five rows of computers with six computers on each row. That is enough to accommodate a full high-school class of students looking to learn a new program or get some experience with document and spreadsheet applications. To the right of that, is the Good Time Café where you will find some of the best food I have ever had at an arcade like facility. The Meatball sub was the best. Their smoothies are also to die-for. They also offered such things as alcoholic beverages (no liquor) along side of energy drinks and soft drinks. Their menu for both food and beverages is diverse and worth the friendly pricing.

On the opposite side of the Good Time Café is the pentacle of the Computer Arena. Rows and rows of top of the line computers, each one with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. These PC’s can handle just about any game out there and is meant already setup for online gaming. I saw everything from arcade games to COD4 being played on the dozens of computers available. It really is a geek’s dream place to be. In a very long room beyond that, they had a stage setup just for the Rock Band game. After that there are stations for Guitar Hero III for both the PS2, and Xbox 360.

I also noticed that there were cubicles with two large TV’s back to back with each other and four theater type seats on each side. When I asked about those he said that those were where the Xbox 360’s could set up for 4-player split screen and LAN gaming. I asked him to explain further about that and he explained that he had 16 Xbox 360’s each with their own GamerTag and gold account so that people could log onto live and play ranked matches. He also has a Wii, GameCube, Original Xbox, PS2 and Dance, Dance Revolution stations to play your favorite game.

There were two noticeable missing components. That was the lack of PS3 support and no usable WiFi. When I asked Britt about that he stated that there wasn’t enough interest or games to justify a PS3. Please don’t ask me what he said about the lack of WiFi.

Now that I gave you the layout, let me talk about our experience. It was nothing short of amazing. The entire clan had no problem what-so-ever hooking up, powering up, and turning on our systems. It was just plug and play. Not once did we have any issue with blown circuit’s or connectivity issues. Hooking into Xbox Live was also a non-issue. It was a simple plug it in and power it up! Spark and I later talked about this and he said that this was the easiest time setting up that we as a clan has ever had. The food and Rock Band stage were also top notch. Not once did I hear someone complain about the facility. The owner and his wife (who worked the Good Time Café) were very accessible and easy to talk too.

In looking back at my experience and the time GGSE had at the Computer Arena, I would have to say that the Computer Arena gets the JediChric Seal of Approval. I can't say enough good things about this place and I can without a doubt recommend Computer Arena to my friends at GeezerGamers.com.

Please visit them at www.computerarena.com and let me know if you share that opinion with me.