PAX East Shenanigans
Wow, so it's a week since PAX East and I still haven't posted anything about it! My bad!
The trip went really well, apart from the fact that we didn't leave until 7pm on Wednesday so we arrived around 4am on Thursday morning. bittertwee was fast asleep though so we didn't wake her up. And then we passed out and she left for work. So we managed to not see her until Thursday evening when we met up for the Scott Pilgrim showing at the Brattle Theater! LOL.
I had to take maybedeadcat and Mathew to Boston Commons and check out the ducklings.
Then we met up at the Brattle Theater for the Scott Pilgrim showing and Harmonix and Oni Press were there with freebies! They handed out free t-shirts (Scott's trademark red rock band guitar shirt) and some gel bracelets (I got Ramona, Tim grabbed Scott). And then we watched the movie, which bittertwee had not seen. So fun! We didn't stay for the Rock Band afterwards just because we were STARVING! So we went to John Harvards for a nice dinner.
Friday we woke up a bit later than I meant to but we managed to get down to the convention center and get in line for the keynote speech. It wasn't as dynamic as last year's presentation by Jane McGonnigal, but it was still interesting. The speaker was Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia. He talked about his life story. It was an interesting story BUT he is not a public speaker. You could sense his nervousness and it was kind of unsettling. I think he would be fun to chat with in a small group, but speaking to a ballroom full of people seemed to much for him.
PAX is a very chill convention for me because I just like to wander around and take in the sites. The Exhibition Hall was huge and full of lots of random stuff. We headed down there and wandered around, checking out all the different games. The major players had HUGE lines at their booths and I didn't have anything I felt compelled to spend 3 hours in line for this year. But we did wander and get some swag. I got an Xbox code for a Tails (from Sonic) avatar outfit and a SEGA bag. Free t-shirts, lots of fliers.
We went to my favorite space - the classic arcade room with old school arcade machines. I had a blast playing Pacman Jr. There was a random game called "Zookeeper" that I had never heard of before but was fun. You had to run around and capture the animals that were escaping from the zoo. We also played "Missile Command" and a game with a bear who had to collect gems...which I think my friend had on Atari.
We went to the Indie games area of the Exhibition Hall. This might be my second favorite place...it was a good thing I still had money on my iTunes gift card! I bought two games on the spot. See, the emphasis this year was on tablet/phone games. I had read about the games before PAX but their descriptions (like most game descriptions) just sound silly. "Lawnmower Challenge" - mow a lawn in as few moves as possible! It sounds silly right? Actually, it's an AWESOME puzzle game and you have to figure out how to mow all the grass on each level in the fewest number of moves. There are gates you have to unlock, mud you have to navigate...it's really complicated and a lot of fun! Bean's Quest - you're a jumping bean! The beauty here is that, as the developer explained to me, most games automate your forward movement and the player must navigate the screen by jumping. In Bean's Quest, the *jumping* is automated, so you have to move your character around the levels but he is ALWAYS JUMPING! Oh, and did I mention it is done in a retro-Mario 3 looking style? Yeah, my nostalgic heart was thrilled.
The other game I would have bought on the spot was not done yet. But whe it comes out in August, I will download it IMMEDIATELY! It's called "Girls Like Robots". It's all about seating arrangements! I know, you're like WTF? But it turns out that girls like robots. And Nerds like Robots. BUT Girls do not like Nerds. And Robots do not like being surrounded by girls. So you have to arrange them on the board so that everyone has the maximum happiness. IT IS VERY ADDICTIVE!
There were a few other games that we saw that sounded intriguing but I will wait for them to be released before I get too excited. There was a battle game for XBL called Skulls of the Shogun. Looked really neat and the people who made it worked on Zelda and a few other games I recognized but now they have joined up to make their own games. I can respect that.
Went to the Bioware Dragonage panel which was interesting. They are trying as hard as they can to make DAIII awesome. Sounds like it will be set in Orlais. :D But Bioware says they took into account all of the feedback fans gave them regarding DAII. Looks like a Seeker will be a playable character or at least a party member. Details were still pretty loose, it looks like they are in the concept art stage of things. I was scared of the ME3 panel, honestly. Plus, Tim has not beaten the game yet and I didn't want him to be epically spoiled.
We hit up the classic console room and they had Choplifter on the Sega Master System.
I had played it on my Apple IIe but Tim had played it on that system. It was so funny to see how much of the game he remembered. He tore through the first two levels. Even had a random dude come up and admire his handy work LOL ("duuuuuuuude that cave level is so hard!") I didn't do as well since it was SO different playing with a controller vs keyboard. But it was still fun. We wandered around and looked to see what other games people were playing. Lots of classic fight games, like old school Mortal Kombat and Virtua Fighter. Saw a few people playing Mario Party for N64. The Atari was in use or I would have done that. I think next year I'm going to have to spend more time in that room.
We also popped in to the modern console room so I could try out the new SSX game for Xbox which was OMG SO MUCH FUN! I have a soft spot for snowboarding games so I WANT IT! But I can wait...maybe.
On Sunday, our one event was the live taping of X-Play which was a lot of fun. Managed to have some interesting comments on video games and the gaming world along with their trademark snarky humor. It was a fun way to end the weekend.
We drove to Amy's after that for Easter dinner. She made us haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam. We made Mathew read an excerpt from "50 Shades of Grey" and giggled at the writing.
We had a lot of fun. Next year I'm planning in some extra driving and recovery days. And I think I'm going to camp in the console rooms too and just play the old school games for awhile.
And next year I will take notes so I don't feel like I've forgotten everything by the time I post! Sheesh!
The trip went really well, apart from the fact that we didn't leave until 7pm on Wednesday so we arrived around 4am on Thursday morning. bittertwee was fast asleep though so we didn't wake her up. And then we passed out and she left for work. So we managed to not see her until Thursday evening when we met up for the Scott Pilgrim showing at the Brattle Theater! LOL.
I had to take maybedeadcat and Mathew to Boston Commons and check out the ducklings.
Then we met up at the Brattle Theater for the Scott Pilgrim showing and Harmonix and Oni Press were there with freebies! They handed out free t-shirts (Scott's trademark red rock band guitar shirt) and some gel bracelets (I got Ramona, Tim grabbed Scott). And then we watched the movie, which bittertwee had not seen. So fun! We didn't stay for the Rock Band afterwards just because we were STARVING! So we went to John Harvards for a nice dinner.
Friday we woke up a bit later than I meant to but we managed to get down to the convention center and get in line for the keynote speech. It wasn't as dynamic as last year's presentation by Jane McGonnigal, but it was still interesting. The speaker was Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia. He talked about his life story. It was an interesting story BUT he is not a public speaker. You could sense his nervousness and it was kind of unsettling. I think he would be fun to chat with in a small group, but speaking to a ballroom full of people seemed to much for him.
PAX is a very chill convention for me because I just like to wander around and take in the sites. The Exhibition Hall was huge and full of lots of random stuff. We headed down there and wandered around, checking out all the different games. The major players had HUGE lines at their booths and I didn't have anything I felt compelled to spend 3 hours in line for this year. But we did wander and get some swag. I got an Xbox code for a Tails (from Sonic) avatar outfit and a SEGA bag. Free t-shirts, lots of fliers.
We went to my favorite space - the classic arcade room with old school arcade machines. I had a blast playing Pacman Jr. There was a random game called "Zookeeper" that I had never heard of before but was fun. You had to run around and capture the animals that were escaping from the zoo. We also played "Missile Command" and a game with a bear who had to collect gems...which I think my friend had on Atari.
We went to the Indie games area of the Exhibition Hall. This might be my second favorite place...it was a good thing I still had money on my iTunes gift card! I bought two games on the spot. See, the emphasis this year was on tablet/phone games. I had read about the games before PAX but their descriptions (like most game descriptions) just sound silly. "Lawnmower Challenge" - mow a lawn in as few moves as possible! It sounds silly right? Actually, it's an AWESOME puzzle game and you have to figure out how to mow all the grass on each level in the fewest number of moves. There are gates you have to unlock, mud you have to navigate...it's really complicated and a lot of fun! Bean's Quest - you're a jumping bean! The beauty here is that, as the developer explained to me, most games automate your forward movement and the player must navigate the screen by jumping. In Bean's Quest, the *jumping* is automated, so you have to move your character around the levels but he is ALWAYS JUMPING! Oh, and did I mention it is done in a retro-Mario 3 looking style? Yeah, my nostalgic heart was thrilled.
The other game I would have bought on the spot was not done yet. But whe it comes out in August, I will download it IMMEDIATELY! It's called "Girls Like Robots". It's all about seating arrangements! I know, you're like WTF? But it turns out that girls like robots. And Nerds like Robots. BUT Girls do not like Nerds. And Robots do not like being surrounded by girls. So you have to arrange them on the board so that everyone has the maximum happiness. IT IS VERY ADDICTIVE!
There were a few other games that we saw that sounded intriguing but I will wait for them to be released before I get too excited. There was a battle game for XBL called Skulls of the Shogun. Looked really neat and the people who made it worked on Zelda and a few other games I recognized but now they have joined up to make their own games. I can respect that.
Went to the Bioware Dragonage panel which was interesting. They are trying as hard as they can to make DAIII awesome. Sounds like it will be set in Orlais. :D But Bioware says they took into account all of the feedback fans gave them regarding DAII. Looks like a Seeker will be a playable character or at least a party member. Details were still pretty loose, it looks like they are in the concept art stage of things. I was scared of the ME3 panel, honestly. Plus, Tim has not beaten the game yet and I didn't want him to be epically spoiled.
We hit up the classic console room and they had Choplifter on the Sega Master System.
I had played it on my Apple IIe but Tim had played it on that system. It was so funny to see how much of the game he remembered. He tore through the first two levels. Even had a random dude come up and admire his handy work LOL ("duuuuuuuude that cave level is so hard!") I didn't do as well since it was SO different playing with a controller vs keyboard. But it was still fun. We wandered around and looked to see what other games people were playing. Lots of classic fight games, like old school Mortal Kombat and Virtua Fighter. Saw a few people playing Mario Party for N64. The Atari was in use or I would have done that. I think next year I'm going to have to spend more time in that room.
We also popped in to the modern console room so I could try out the new SSX game for Xbox which was OMG SO MUCH FUN! I have a soft spot for snowboarding games so I WANT IT! But I can wait...maybe.
On Sunday, our one event was the live taping of X-Play which was a lot of fun. Managed to have some interesting comments on video games and the gaming world along with their trademark snarky humor. It was a fun way to end the weekend.
We drove to Amy's after that for Easter dinner. She made us haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam. We made Mathew read an excerpt from "50 Shades of Grey" and giggled at the writing.
We had a lot of fun. Next year I'm planning in some extra driving and recovery days. And I think I'm going to camp in the console rooms too and just play the old school games for awhile.
And next year I will take notes so I don't feel like I've forgotten everything by the time I post! Sheesh!