Giant Bomb @ PAX 2011

I think I speak honestly for the entire Giant Bomb team when I say that the Penny Arcade Expo is, hands down, one of our favorite events of the whole year. What it lacks in E3's electric buzz of new game reveals and game publisher excess, it more than makes up for with its feel-good indie vibe, and there's truly no better venue for us to go face-to-face with you, the Giant Bomb audience. I don't mean to sound precious here, but sometimes it can feel like we're just hurling this nonsense out into a cold black void, and it's really profoundly gratifying to meet the people who make all our silly-ass shenanigans possible.

In preparation for the show, Jeff, Vinny, Brad, Patrick, Drew, and myself will all be flying out to Seattle at the crack of dawn tomorrow, and we'll be at the show all day Friday, Saturday, and (most of) Sunday. We've got a pretty full schedule of game demos and interviews and whatnot, though we'll also have plenty of time to just cruise the show floor. If you're at PAX, and you see us, and it doesn't seem like we're in the middle of Serious Games Business, feel free to come up and say hi!

Your best opportunity to Taste the Rainbow, though, will be at the Giant Bomb Variety Hour, which takes place at 8:30PM on Friday Night in the Pegasus Theatre, and is actually scheduled to go for two hours, despite the misleading name. It'll be an extravaganza of aimless banter, special guests, musical interludes, audience interaction, and more! Pardon the egotistic presumption here, but our PAX panels tend to fill up quick, so if you're going to the show, and you want to see our panel, it's not the worst idea to show up a little early. I also have it on flimsy authority that Tested's Will Smith and Norman Chan, plus regular guest Gary Whitta, will be hosting a live version of This Is Only a Test at 11:30AM on Sunday in the Serpent Theatre, if you're into that sort of thing.

Having the whole crew at the show means that the site will be a little light on content for the next few days--we're skipping Thursday Night Throwdown this week playing Team Fortress 2 for Thursday Night Tested this week, and the Whiskey Media Happy Hour will be lean, if it happens at all--though we've hopefully pre-loaded enough content for those days to keep you entertained. If you're not going to PAX, don't sweat it! We'll be taping our panel to post on the site next week, and we'll be bringing home plenty of other cool content from the show as well, so stay tuned for that.