Today was a busy day for me at PAX.  I spent most of it wandering around the show floor, taking in the sights and trying out various games.  However, I started off the day by attending Tycho and Gabe's Create-a-Strip panel.  For those of you that have never had the opportunity to attend this panel, it basically goes something like this:
 

1. Tycho and Gabe enter to uproarious applause.
2. Tycho bangs out a comic script on a laptop.
3. Gabe gets busy drawing the comic.
4. While everyone watches the comic take form on a big screen, the two take questions from the audience.  Hilarity ensues.

• Tycho posed on stage holding two boxes of Reese's Puffs cereal like Moses holding the Ten Commandments.
• A woman with an incredibly well done full body Gabe costume asked how many lines were on the bottom of Gabe's shoes.  Gabe told her ten.  HER COSTUME IS NOW CANON.
• Tycho gave not one, but two grown men hugs.
• Gabe briefly stopped work on the comic to do quick sketches of a hot dog fairy and a dickwolf.  (It is not inaccurate to say that its every limb is a phallus.  Oh god.)

• I played the demo for Golden Sun:  Dark Dawn.  As someone that missed out on the Golden Sun GBA titles, Dark Dawn will be my entry point into the series, but what I played was pretty cool.  I just wish that the field mechanics portion of the demo better explained the hows and whats of interacting with the world, especially given the five minute time limit on that portion.  The battle demo, however, sold me on the battle system.  It looks like this will be another solid RPG for the DS.
• On the subject of Nintendo, I also tried out Donkey Kong Country Returns, and promptly got my ass whooped.  Part of this is my fault, because of the four demo stages I could have picked, I chose one of the tougher ones, and it wasn't made any easier with a second player.  My only real complaint on the game at this point is that the act of running doesn't feel as tight as I would like it, but then, I've never been much of a fan of using analogue sticks in 2D platformers.  The game controlled using the Wii Remote/Nunchuk combo, and I'm not sure if other control methods are supported.
• Also, GoldenEye is actually pretty fun.  The local four-player multiplayer is a blast, and while the gameplay has an updated feel more in line with Call of Duty, there are still enough elements present to give it that GoldenEye feel.  Out of curiosity, I asked the Activision rep showing the game why they went with the Daniel Craig Bond.  Not surprisingly, they did it because they were required to do so due to the nature of Bond license and the stipulation by the owners of the Bond license that there is only one James Bond at any one time.  And for those of you wondering, the other GoldenEye characters have also all been recast.
• In other multiplayer news, I tried the multiplayer for the Wii veresion of The Force Unleashed II.  The short version?  It's essentially a Star Wars edition of Smash Bros.  Up to four players jump around an arena in Smash Bros. fashion and try to whittle the other players' health down to zero using melee strikes and special attacks.  As a side mode, it's not bad.  I don't know anything about the single-player, though.
• There was also a small, indie game called Drumskulls on display.  It's a PC game that uses a four-pad drum controller as the means to kill zombies in a rail shooter like House of the Dead.  The graphics are simple and stylized, and all of the zombies are color coded so that you need to wail on the properly colored drums in order to take them out.  It's a very interesting concept, and for the time I played it, pretty fun, too.
• Over at the Capcom booth, I played some of the PS3 version of Sengoku Basara:  Samurai Heroes.  As a die hard fan of Koei's Warriors games, Sengoku Basara intrigues me.  It's very much like Koei's Samurai Warriors series in numerous ways, down to the inclusion of many of the same historical figures as playable characterse, but with a more over-the-top anime aesthetic that breaks away from historical accuracy far more than Samurai Warriors.  Just as an example, the Sengoku Basara rendition of Tadakatsu Honda is a powerful robot, and Magoichi Saika (or Magoichi Saica, in Capcom's translation) is depicted as a woman, rather than a man.  As similar as it is, I may have to get Sengoku Basara in addition to Samurai Warriors 3 this fall.
• And then there was the Dead Rising 2 demo.  I had to stand in line for a while for this one, but it was worth it.  I was allowed fifteen minutes to run around Fortune City in order to beat, berate, and slaughter zombies with everything ranging from a baseball bat and kayak oar to a coat hanger and a newspaper vending machine.  I also dressed Chuck in a terrifying ensemble of MMA gloves, a raccoon-skin cap, and a tube top/miniskirt outfit.

Today was a busy day for me at PAX.  I spent most of it wandering around the show floor, taking in the sights and trying out various games.  However, I started off the day by attending Tycho and Gabe's Create-a-Strip panel.  For those of you that have never had the opportunity to attend this panel, it basically goes something like this:
 

1. Tycho and Gabe enter to uproarious applause.
2. Tycho bangs out a comic script on a laptop.
3. Gabe gets busy drawing the comic.
4. While everyone watches the comic take form on a big screen, the two take questions from the audience.  Hilarity ensues.

• Tycho posed on stage holding two boxes of Reese's Puffs cereal like Moses holding the Ten Commandments.
• A woman with an incredibly well done full body Gabe costume asked how many lines were on the bottom of Gabe's shoes.  Gabe told her ten.  HER COSTUME IS NOW CANON.
• Tycho gave not one, but two grown men hugs.
• Gabe briefly stopped work on the comic to do quick sketches of a hot dog fairy and a dickwolf.  (It is not inaccurate to say that its every limb is a phallus.  Oh god.)

• I played the demo for Golden Sun:  Dark Dawn.  As someone that missed out on the Golden Sun GBA titles, Dark Dawn will be my entry point into the series, but what I played was pretty cool.  I just wish that the field mechanics portion of the demo better explained the hows and whats of interacting with the world, especially given the five minute time limit on that portion.  The battle demo, however, sold me on the battle system.  It looks like this will be another solid RPG for the DS.
• On the subject of Nintendo, I also tried out Donkey Kong Country Returns, and promptly got my ass whooped.  Part of this is my fault, because of the four demo stages I could have picked, I chose one of the tougher ones, and it wasn't made any easier with a second player.  My only real complaint on the game at this point is that the act of running doesn't feel as tight as I would like it, but then, I've never been much of a fan of using analogue sticks in 2D platformers.  The game controlled using the Wii Remote/Nunchuk combo, and I'm not sure if other control methods are supported.
• Also, GoldenEye is actually pretty fun.  The local four-player multiplayer is a blast, and while the gameplay has an updated feel more in line with Call of Duty, there are still enough elements present to give it that GoldenEye feel.  Out of curiosity, I asked the Activision rep showing the game why they went with the Daniel Craig Bond.  Not surprisingly, they did it because they were required to do so due to the nature of Bond license and the stipulation by the owners of the Bond license that there is only one James Bond at any one time.  And for those of you wondering, the other GoldenEye characters have also all been recast.
• In other multiplayer news, I tried the multiplayer for the Wii veresion of The Force Unleashed II.  The short version?  It's essentially a Star Wars edition of Smash Bros.  Up to four players jump around an arena in Smash Bros. fashion and try to whittle the other players' health down to zero using melee strikes and special attacks.  As a side mode, it's not bad.  I don't know anything about the single-player, though.
• There was also a small, indie game called Drumskulls on display.  It's a PC game that uses a four-pad drum controller as the means to kill zombies in a rail shooter like House of the Dead.  The graphics are simple and stylized, and all of the zombies are color coded so that you need to wail on the properly colored drums in order to take them out.  It's a very interesting concept, and for the time I played it, pretty fun, too.
• Over at the Capcom booth, I played some of the PS3 version of Sengoku Basara:  Samurai Heroes.  As a die hard fan of Koei's Warriors games, Sengoku Basara intrigues me.  It's very much like Koei's Samurai Warriors series in numerous ways, down to the inclusion of many of the same historical figures as playable characterse, but with a more over-the-top anime aesthetic that breaks away from historical accuracy far more than Samurai Warriors.  Just as an example, the Sengoku Basara rendition of Tadakatsu Honda is a powerful robot, and Magoichi Saika (or Magoichi Saica, in Capcom's translation) is depicted as a woman, rather than a man.  As similar as it is, I may have to get Sengoku Basara in addition to Samurai Warriors 3 this fall.
• And then there was the Dead Rising 2 demo.  I had to stand in line for a while for this one, but it was worth it.  I was allowed fifteen minutes to run around Fortune City in order to beat, berate, and slaughter zombies with everything ranging from a baseball bat and kayak oar to a coat hanger and a newspaper vending machine.  I also dressed Chuck in a terrifying ensemble of MMA gloves, a raccoon-skin cap, and a tube top/miniskirt outfit.

Two people liked Goldeneye, that's a good sign. I remember commenting on one of the dev diaries that I would play it just for the music alone.