Overview
PAX 08 was the first year to expand outside of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center across the street into the Pike Street Annex, which housed the entirety of the show's tabletop gaming as well as the Serpent Theatre. The show officially began at 2:00 PM on Friday, August 29th, and was kicked off by an inspiring keynote speech from
Ken Levine.
Level 2 of the venue was home to two separate handheld gaming lounges with Sumo chairs, the console freeplay rooms, a
Rock Band freeplay stage, and the Raven Theatre. Along with the console freeplay rooms was a checkout area that worked much like a public library of gaming where attendees could check out systems, games, and/r accessories to be used in the nearby rooms.
Level 3 of the convention center was where attendees could find the Wolfman Theatre as well as a classic console gaming freeplay room, the console tournament area, and another handheld gaming lounge where dozens of people collapsed in beanbag chairs to take a break from the expo hall or just to hang out and collect pins in
The World Ends With You.
Level 4, the largest level of the WSCTC, is where the heart of PAX lived. The Main Theatre was the place for, among other events, the keynote speech, the
Penny Arcade Q&A's and Create a Strip, and the Friday/Saturday night concerts including The One Ups, Freezepop,
Jonathan Coulton, Anamanaguchi, and MC Frontalot. Right next to the Main Theatre was the Line Up Room, equally as large as the theatre, yet devoted solely to lining up thousands of attendees for the next big event. Just outside of the Line Up Room was the registration desk. Just around the corner was the PC Area, which consisted of ongoing tournaments as well as an area for those who brought their own computers. Walrus Theatre was crammed into a corner near the escalators, and Band Land was spread across the skybridge leading to the enormous Exhibit Hall.
The Exhibit Hall was home to dozens of developers and publishers showing off all kinds of games. Notable games of PAX 2008 including
Ubisoft's
Prince of Persia and
Far Cry 2;
Valve's
Left 4 Dead;
BioWare's
Dragon Age Origins;
Bethesda Softworks'
Fallout 3;
Harmonix's
Rock Band 2;
Activision's
Guitar Hero World Tour;
Microsoft's
Fable II and
Gears of War 2;
Sony's
LittleBigPlanet,
Resistance 2, and
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift;
Midway's
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe;
Blizzard's
StarCraft II and
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King;
THQ's
Red Faction Guerilla and
Warhammer Dawn of War II; and
EA's
Mirror's Edge and
Spore.
PAX 08 ended with the Omegathon Finals, which featured a head-to-head battle on the Japan-only release of
Vs Excitebike. The final count for PAX 08 attendance was 58,500.
Giant Bomb @ PAX 08
- Giant Bomb Reunion Tour 2008
Part 1 - Intro to the Other Thing,
Too Human Hip Hop Video, What is Giant Bomb?
Part 3 -
Alex Has a Cat, Giant Bomb's Obscure Gems, Internet Game Coverage, Game Reviews
Omegathon
The Omegathon is an annual tournament held at PAX that pits 20 randomly selected attendees in a three day marathon of games that span the spectrum of the gaming universe. After each round, some participants are eliminated. Each year, the final game is held secret until moments before the final two Omeganauts enter battle.
At this years event,
Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and
Mike "Gabe" Krahulik decided to put the final two Omeganauts into battle within a classic game, but a version that likely neither had ever played. That game was
Vs. Excitebike, which is a
splitscreen version of
Excitebike released only in
Japan for the
NES. The final Omeganauts played a best of seven series, which was won by Joey Geko in a sweep, 4-0.
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Jenga
Round 6
The PAX 10
Dozens of indie games were submitted for review by a panel of industry professionals (and
Gabe and
Tycho). The cream of the crop were selected to be showcased on the show floor as part of the first annual PAX 10.
The Amazing Brain Train Developer: Grubby Games
Genre: Puzzle/Strategy
Developer:
Dylan Fitterer, Elizabeth Fitterer, Paladin 3D, Pedro Camacho, Albert Park, Flynn Joffray
Genre: Rhythm/Racer
Chronotron Developer: Scarybug Games
Genre: Puzzle/Platformer
Impulse Developer: Team Xplosion from the Rochester Institute of Technology
Genre: Puzzle
The Maw Polarity Developer: Graduate Students from Carnegie Mellon University
Genre: Platform/Puzzle
Project Aftermath Developer: Games Faction
Genre: Tactical/Action
Developer: Torpex Games
Genre: Action/Strategy
Strange Attractors 2 Developer: Ominous Development, LLC
Genre: Puzzle/Strategy
Sushi Bar Samurai Developer: Molly Rocket
Genre: Exploratory Puzzle
SWAG
Gallery
Exhibitors
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