The plan for the day was to get up early and leave the house around 7am. That would give me plenty of time to pick up Tim and Thad, get a parking space that wouldn’t cost $30 for the day and get a fairly good place in line. After all, the better our spot in the main line, the better our spot would be in line for the Star Wars: The Old Republic panel, right? After picking up our passes from the will call table, which was a half a block away from the convention center (!), we wasted no time in joining the queue. Thank you, by the way, to the nice security lady who stopped us at the bottom of 4 floors of escalators & directed us to will call. All the signs about it were at the top.
My first time was in 2007 and one thing that I definitely remember is the lines. They tried something new this year called Get in Line Games. They use a large projection screen to communicate via text with the audience and play games. From voting for videos to watch and trivia to a boggle style game, people can participate with text messaging through their cell phones. It was quite fun. This was good because had I told Thad and Tim that the doors opened at 9am, which was wrong. It was 10am. Sorry guys.
Upon entry, we walked the floor for a bit before the T-named duo departed for a panel that I’m glad they went to. More on that later. The first of MANY tee shirts was acquired and I took some time to explore before hopping in line for the SW panel. I watched some people play Halo 3: ODST, Sribblenauts and various other soon-to-be-released games. Oh, and hey game developers? If you think you can’t make a good looking game because of the Wii’s weaker hardware, check out Dead Space: Extraction. That game looks GOOD.
The Star Wars panel was entertaining. They showed a trailer that I’ve seen a couple of times before as well as live game play for the Sith, Bounty Hunter and for the first time anywhere they showed the Trooper. True to form, he died. Particularly impressive was Cindi Sparklehoof, the new companion for the Sith. She’s a cute little stuffed unicorn. As far as game play goes, I have to say that the battle mechanic looks a bit like most other MMOs out there. What’s impressive about the game, though, is the way they’ve really pushed to make it story driven. All interactions will be voiced and it looks like conversations are handled with a similar conversation wheel to the one used in Mass Effect. Pretty snifty. Oh, and everyone got a free copy of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the PC. Woot! Free stuff!
Having regrouped with the Brothers T, we walked the floor a bit more (that’s my favorite bit), I played the demo of Star Trek Online and I had my picture taken with royalty. Star Trek Online was fun, by the way. It was mostly the same demo from the PC Gamer article and I have to agree with what they wrote. The space combat is entertaining and the away mission stuff is good but perhaps a bit rough at this point. I haven’t seriously considered paying for an MMO in a couple of years but STO seems to be on track for being both a good game and a viable alternative to the glut of more traditional MMOs out there. If they stay on this track Starfleet may have a new recruit.
The T-Men then informed me of a sort of role playing game where everyone could participate that would be taking place soon. After a little convincing (It went a little something like “awww c’mon!” with me responding “mmm… okay.”) I accompanied the… the… I’m running out of ways to say it… Oh! I know! Tremendous Twosome! *ahem* I followed the Tremendous Twosome to participate in Action Castle. The game plays out a little something like a verbal analog Zork. One person states where you are, what you see and where the exits are etc. and everyone lines up. Whoever is at the front of the line gives one command and moves to the back. It was a blast. This was the perfect group of people for this type of game. Also, when it was over I walked by Steve Jackson. He had been playing too! So, technically, I can say that I’ve played an RPG with Steve Jackson. As Bureaucrat 1.0 would say “You are technically correct… the best kind of correct.”
After recharging by eating some of the worst pizza that could possibly fall within the strict requirements that must be met for me to call something “pizza”, we ventured back onto the floor. Even after eating, my stalwart companions seemed to be losing stamina, however they bravely soldiered on. Also, I drove so they didn’t really have a choice. After an initial frontal attack, we decided to divide and conquer the show floor. And by decided I mean Tim became enamored with headset stuff that cost the same as a PS3 slim and I saw something shiny on the showroom floor. And by divide and conquer I mean I told Thad that I was going “over there” and if they needed me to just call my cell-phone-telephone.
We ran into each other occasionally, but a good portion of the last few hours were spent solo on my part. I played WoW: Cataclysm. Yup, it was WoW. I tried out a bit of Gran Tourismo for the PSP and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. I seriously think a dartboard must have been used in the naming of that title. TMNT Smash Up is fun too. I really want that game to do well, however I just don’t know that the property has the star power to carry it anymore. Not like its older brother Super Smash Bros., anyway. I drank enough free samples of a True Blood themed orange drink that I dared not go back for fear that they were starting to recognize me. The Ninja Turtles bus served double duty as a demo station for Smash Up and as a TMNT museum. Ah nostalgia. I had my picture taken with a couple more of my favorite characters and acquired a lot of shirts. Seriously. By the time we left I was glad I had a second bag.
Sunday PAX 2009 was a blast. On top of all of the cool stuff to see and do there was this great general attitude that I haven’t seen at other conventions. We may have all been there for differing reasons, whether it be panels, video games, role playing, card tournaments, etc., the list goes on and on. However I had this underlying feeling that we shared something in common. Sure, there’s the high probability that everyone there is a fan of Penny Arcade but I don’t think that is the only thing. I never saw anyone be overly rude or getting angry when they were bumped or even accidentally knocked down by someone trying to catch tee shirts fired from a pirate’s cannon (Sorry ‘bout that!). Everyone was just there to have fun. Thinking back, PAX 2007 was a lot like that too. I think that is a big part of why I’ll be going again next year.
-Jon
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