What I Learned at PAX East This Year
By Mento 29 Comments
...from someone who watched almost the entire thing while moderating the chat. Man, they don't warn you about this when you become a mod. So stoked for E3...
Anyway, if you haven't yet seen the Giant Bomb panel, the Royal Rumble event earlier today or the 404ing It panel slightly less earlier today, go check them out first. This list might not make a lot of sense otherwise, and all of those things are more entertaining than this is. Have fun!
- Smite.
- The Black Dragon eats Ultimo Dragon for breakfast.
- We will never truly know the reason why Cornelius is sticky. Theories abound, however.
- If you gift John Drake a refreshing Diet Coke, for Smite's sake serve it in a can and not a glass bottle.
- Nothing makes Max Temkin laugh harder than horrific workplace injuries.
- Giant Bomb was the only panel I saw, throughout the entire three days of streams, where people discussed Indie games in-depth. At PAX. Titanfall, conversely, got approximately 7 hours of coverage, despite already being out.
- (Gearbox's very own) Dave Lang's real-life bat-tech is somewhat lacking. His ability to cut the angriest of promos, however, is beyond reproach.
- If you need a new SSD, computer case or one third of whatever stream you're watching completely obfuscated, Newegg's gotcha covered.
- We need more Vinny pins in the Giant Bomb gift shop. Repeat, we are all out of Vinny pins.
- SMITE.
- Eric Pope is a sick and deplorable human being.
- For that matter, babies should not be picked up that way.
- Never turn your back on Dr. Tracksuit.
- PAX Q&As are never not awkward and uncomfortable.
- Don't worry, the Benq lady does not think you're an "old person" and is very interested in your fighter game accuracy quality assurance responsibilities.
- Poor Maggie.
- Mac and cheese might be "a black thing".
- #NavarroWolfOrder
- Planetside 2 does not discriminate against women who are terrible drivers, though they certainly don't mind the stereotype either.
- SMITE!!
- Persona 4 Arena, which I played whenever I wasn't keeping an eye on the stream, is a lot better than I was expecting. These Arc System Works fighters utilize an effective "tier" system for players - it's very obvious when going through its tutorials that there's plenty of features and systems that may take a lifetime to master. At the same time, it moves pleasingly fast and will very happily accommodate any player who mashes buttons or is overly dependent on the hadouken maneuver, at least to an extent sufficient for its story mode. Speaking of which, the story mode is excellently written, smartly and subtly configured for each viewpoint character and adds some great, congruous (that it is to say, it's the sort of Engrishy rap that suits the series well) music to the franchise. It also meshes the P3 and P4 characters together well and sets up some interesting hooks for P4A2 that doesn't go so far to devalue the whole game with obnoxious cliffhangers. Questions are raised, a shadowy behind-the-scenes guy is briefly introduced, possible answers are forthcoming. I dig the attention to detail to Persona's universe; it isn't just some fighting game that borrowed the characters because they looked cool.
See you next expo! When the next one rolls around, come hang out in the chat, though try to be civil. I think MB came close to his personal record for chat bans this year, and he's always trying to break that thing.
29 Comments