I wasn’t supposed to go to PAX.

 
My current schedule and that annoying thing called “life” has been pretty hectic recently. I’m currently helping my family move into a new home that is, at the same time, being remodeled. Somewhere in between announcing months before I would be attending, and then getting caught up in the tornado of understandable but sometimes unnecessary high stress associated with such an ordeal: I forgot to purchase my badge.

It also didn’t help that this summer was quite filled with the usual events and trips all summers should have…and work…While I type this I just got done going all day to the music event that is Bumbershoot in downtown Seattle. My mind is a bit more warped than usual right now.

It never ends.

Admittedly I’m a little late to the party. There have been some phenomenal blogs concerning PAX, and countless more news articles concerning this year’s event, so I’m going to focus a bit on my personal experience more than the games I played. (Don’t worry, I’ll talk about the stuff I played too!)

I have no idea why I’ve never gone to PAX. But for some reason or another, I’ve always had something get in the way of attending. After attending for the first time this week, I have decided not attending is not just stupid, but ludicrous, for someone in my position. (Living a drivable distance from .) I will purchase a three day badge immediately when they go on sale for next year’s event, simple as that.

A member of my immediate family was able to get a hold of a three day pass, and while to my dismay I could not go for three days, (Only Saturday.) the experience was more than enough to warrant a return.

So, why is PAX great?

PAX is great for a number of things, most of which have nothing to do with it being an “E3 for the rest of us”. If you think PAX is nothing more than a giant convention floor, open to the public filled with never before released games, you’re only a fraction correct. I assume I had a lot of “first timer” moments wandering the convention floor. I looked at my schedule that previously I had only glanced at, and became increasingly blown away by the back to back panels.

People were playing table top, cards, and the floors above the giant expo room contained console free-play. This is a convention engineered for the gaming enthusiast, pure and simple. The room for growth here is obscene; I loved every moment of it, I can’t wait to watch this thing grow.

I guess my first humanizing experience was seeing, what appeared to be Adam Sessler smoking a cigarette outside the convention. I don’t know why, but I thought it was hilarious.

Heading a few floors up I casually began playing Axel & Pixel (No page on GiantBomb, c'mon guys!), and adventure game with a ton of style. It’s classic point and click, certain puzzles involved hitting the right button combination too….chase….away….a giant….mountain monster….by throwing ice… To say that the game is difficult to explain is an understatement. You essentially manipulate the environment to allow both a man and his dog explore a dreamlike painting.

While playing I casually recognized someone to the right of me. I took his picture.

After this I decided to hit my first panel, the “Penny Arcade Make a Strip”, which as you can imagine is pretty self describing.

I didn’t like the wait. At one point in the “que room”, some fine folks at Bioware decided to play the E3 CG trailer of The Old Republic on a giant screen. The man with the microphone asked the crowd if they wanted to see it. The overwhelming majority screamed back “NO!” The man awkwardly walked away from view. When the Jedi in the trailer gets killed at the end, someone screamed “NOT AGAIN!!!” and the whole crowd erupted in laughter.

The Make a Strip panel was perhaps the coolest and happiest moments at PAX. Watching Tycho walk out on stage after it was announced he had just had a kid was epic. Gabe’s sarcastic reaction was great too:

Gabe: “Let me get this straight, you get a fucking standing ovation because you had a kid. Tell the audience what you told me when I had mine!” 
Tycho: “Anyone could have a fucking kid.”

It was like watching a great comedy team. My respect for these guys shot through the roof, it was amazing.

After this I hit the expo floor. I missed seeing The Old Republic demonstration because I needed to go to the bathroom.

I’m serious. That’s how fast that thing filled up.

I played Mass Effect 2 (Better shooting mechanics), Bayonetta (Seems to have a bit more substance than just being a DMC clone), and an XBLA beat-em-up called Shank. 
I want to talk about this game for a second (Shank), because I think this game has quite a bit of promise. It’s simplistic graphic style allows 2D cutscenes to transition seamlessly with it’s gameplay. It does it in a manner that looks simple, but at the same time impresses the hell out of you. The style of it's cutscenes reminded me of Penny Arcade adventures, couple in the fact the game is an HD 2D beat-em-shoot-em-up and you can understand what I mean when it looks seamless.  Anyone who’s had an interest in reliving the beat-em-up genre should write this game down for future reference.

The first chunk of the main expo floor was dedicated to stuff like this. Indie games galore, there was even a section for what appeared to be games running on the Torque engine. This type of exposure is absolutely phenomenal for indie games. It was a great place to see obscure stuff like Machinarium that  was on display. Throughout the expo floor was little displays to buy swag. As someone from Kotaku pointed out, a prime place to find and pick up a fucking Nomad.

I almost bought a Sega Saturn. I didn’t. It’s still on my list to do.

I stumbled and found the TellTale booth at this point. I bought myself surfing the highway and a poster of .

Again, I casually noticed someone.

I struck up a conversation of how I played during recess as a kid in elementary school. He laughed and talked about how was actually used as an educational piece of software to teach English in as a second language. (Think about it: Using all the different verbs.) I got him to sign my poster. It was most certainly the highlight and the most surreal of the day. 
 

The TellTale panel involved the creation of a scene. Characters were chosen, a location was picked, and the script was made on the spot by people screaming out from the audience. Participants in the audience were chosen to voice the characters, and the whole scene was animated and ready by the end. Voice recording complete with lip-synching and facial animation within a few minutes. Pretty amazing.

TellTale has a very efficient engine.

I saw RoosterTeeth’s panel. I sat behind someone that sounded like he had tortes. I left early….
 
 
…Because I wanted to see the GiantBomb panel.
My apologies, it was the, and I quote: “The GiantBomb Re-Reunion Tour: Tour Legit Tour Quit!”

It was great seeing everyone there, among the GiantBomb editors Rich, Bob and Alex showed up. Jeff kept playing a looping video involving what appeared to be t fighting for food while the panel talked. Conversation topics included casting Bufu on things, what everyone was currently doing after GameSpot, and can someone consume a cup of noodles with the energy drink Noz used instead of water. It’s as disgusting as it sounds.

Contestants that failed didn’t have enough courage, diligence, expression and understanding.

Rich also pulled out the long lost episode of Time Trotters. It was Night Trap and involved Jeff and Ryan tracking down and killing a vampire (who was Joe Lieberman) …and latter themselves….from the future.

Waiting in line for the GiantBomb panel I met someone who had traveled all the way from Denmark to attend. Suffice to say he was awesome, and had brought his copy of Persona 4 to get signed. It was at this point that I found a newfound appreciation for this site and PAX. Talk about bringing people together. I really hope to go longer next year, because I truly got the impression something amazing is happening here. I can’t wait to see this convention grow and mature. I also hope that next time I can run into some of you users who attend.