Strap on your girdles and your chain mail or whatever, it's time for the convention experience of a lifetime. Here at G4 we like to cover the big conventions and shows; E3, Comic-Con, Leipzig, Tokyo, PAX, CES, you name it. But maybe the most important convention coverage you'll find all year is this very article on The First Annual California Steampunk Convention.

Coming up this weekend, the convention in San Jose and the surrounding Bay Area features all kinds of retro-futuristic kitsch and ephemera. Things like a live staged version of War of the Worlds, panels and special guests, steampunk-themed live music, airship rides (already sold out,) and a steampunk workshop with Jake Von Slatt all sponsored by Damnation, the new multiplatform action game from Codemasters that drops this winter.

So, if you're in the Bay Area and wish the past had a better vision of the future, go now in the present. It's not super expensive and will probably smell a lot better than Comic-Con.

steampunkconvention.com