PAX East in review

So I went to PAX East this past weekend. This was the convention's east coast debut, serving the Northeastern chunk of the gaming world. Across 3 floors of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, PAX East sold out every available ticket, filling that place with gusto. And, it was a gamers' paradise, for all intents and purposes.

Panels were the stars of the show. Most addressed interesting topics and were run by industry professionals, making them much more attend-able than a lot of the bloat you tend to see at anime conventions. The lines were insane, however, with waits up to an hour with several volunteers managing the cut-off point for each. We were within the first half of the line for the Mega64 panel, having arrived just over an hour prior. I believe the line was cut off about 20 minutes before the scheduled start of the panel, and this was for a room that seated over 750 people.

So that was insane. Lines are much more bearable with good friends, however. Also, Pictochat and Pokéwalkers. That's right, Pokéwalkers. Those little devices were definitely the supporting actors of this crazy convention. It doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that over 25% of the attendees had one of these things (though I suppose it would have been more like 5-8%). Anywhere you went, you could wave that thing around, and a crowd of people would form around you, wanting to connect your dudes and get free items and watts. At a point, my friends and I were racing towards a panel (line), but stopped along the way to get in on one such crowd. I got a handful of net balls and a TM in the process.

Then there was the Expo Hall. Companies gather to spend money so that you will spend money on them. It's a good system, and I'm not complaining by any means. It's just that with GDC just two weeks ago, and E3 yet to come, PAX East is awkwardly situated in a no-news period. Everyone is saving their biggest and best stuff for E3, and announcements from GDC tend to be demo-less. As such, the show floor was filled with mostly smaller titles, with some exceptions. Red Dead Redemption was on display, with a huge line wrapping around its area. It looked nice, but I wasn't willing to sink time into that line. Then there was the co-op mode for Splinter Cell: Conviction, with suspiciously attractive ladies keeping people from playing too long. That was actually a lot of fun, and has led me to giving the demo for the single player another shot. It looks like it will be quite fun.
So I went to PAX East this past weekend. This was the convention's east coast debut, serving the Northeastern chunk of the gaming world. Across 3 floors of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, PAX East sold out every available ticket, filling that place with gusto. And, it was a gamers' paradise, for all intents and purposes.

Panels were the stars of the show. Most addressed interesting topics and were run by industry professionals, making them much more attend-able than a lot of the bloat you tend to see at anime conventions. The lines were insane, however, with waits up to an hour with several volunteers managing the cut-off point for each. We were within the first half of the line for the Mega64 panel, having arrived just over an hour prior. I believe the line was cut off about 20 minutes before the scheduled start of the panel, and this was for a room that seated over 750 people.

So that was insane. Lines are much more bearable with good friends, however. Also, Pictochat and Pokéwalkers. That's right, Pokéwalkers. Those little devices were definitely the supporting actors of this crazy convention. It doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that over 25% of the attendees had one of these things (though I suppose it would have been more like 5-8%). Anywhere you went, you could wave that thing around, and a crowd of people would form around you, wanting to connect your dudes and get free items and watts. At a point, my friends and I were racing towards a panel (line), but stopped along the way to get in on one such crowd. I got a handful of net balls and a TM in the process.

Some other big stuff was on display, like All Points Bulletin (which looks like GTA, only with empty cities and the occasional PVP moments) and Dante's Inferno (with an amazing statue that was far better than whatever they were demoing). But really, it was the smaller stuff catching my attention, with their attractive small lines and such. I played some racing games at the urging of a friend, and discovered that Split Second is a very nice combination of kart and sim racing. Instead of collecting or using items to throw off your opponents, you can trigger environmental changes. As you race through the track, drifting/drafting to build up your points, icons appear over cars in front of you, telling you that with the press of a button, something in the environment will totally crash or explode right in front of that car, most likely crashing it. With a full point meter, the secondary, larger explosions can be triggered, which often change the lay of the track in a more significant way - such as toppling a space needle, driving up its shaft onto the rooftops of this city.

The only other thing that sticks out from the show floor for me was Twisted Pixel's new game, Comic Jumper. In concept, it seems like a basic 2D platformer. But then introduce that Splosion Man style of humor and 2.5D camera angles and it becomes a fairly interesting game. The humor seems to be a key element to enjoying it, but there's a lot of ridiculous things that make that seem within reach.

All in all, it was a nice way to spend my weekend. A tad on the expensive side, sure, but for what I got out of it information-wise, I'd say it was worthwhile. I can probably sum up some of the panels from my notes later on, though I don't see that happening any time soon. I would go to next year's PAX East, but I would also hope to have some other connection to it by then, through industry contacts or a job... or something that brings me there in a capacity that isn't just purposeless attendee.