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PAX-The worst of times

We here at Fuel the Rebellion touched briefly on the best of PAX.

Now here's the worst, without question:

Waiting in the interminable lines.

And there were miles of 'em.

First, there was the long long long long long (did we mention long?) line to get into the Expo hall at the beginning of the day on Friday. As members of the media, we were allowed in two hours early to conduct interviews, but we still stopped by to talk to some of you who were waiting in line to get your thoughts on the huge "waiting area". Milling about in long queues, with chained-off lines running about the length of a football field, some gamers couldn't help but make the comparison to a herd unwittingly on its way to the slaughter ("You see people coming in, but you never really see anyone coming out." "They can fit more in there if they grind them up real small...").

We asked one gamer, camped out on the floor near the front of the line for the Expo hall and playing board games with friends while passing the time, why he chose to get to the Expo so early, well before the Expo hall was open, and wait in line for hours just for the moment he could walk through the door.

His response, simply: "I've never been here before, and my friends said this is the way to do it."

Though arguably some events were worth the wait, some who spent as much as an hour in line still didn't make it into major events, like the keynote address on Friday, the Fallout 3 play-through, or the discussion on Sex in Videogames. Note to PAX organizers: why was this last in a tiny conference room? Did you seriously think that SEX IN VIDEOGAMES wasn't going to get any comers? (excuse the pun).

To their credit, even those who waited patiently and still didn't make it into the above talks didn't whine and complain much. Other than an understandable, "I waited here when I could have been playing something inside!", the gamers we talked to not only took it in stride but were very positive about the entire PAX experience. Gamers, quick to become enraged and decapitate an opponent over the merest slight in the virtual world, are an amazingly gracious bunch in real life.

In fact, the only time I ever heard anyone even threaten violence was when one little weasel in a pony-tail (you know who you are!) snaked his way up towards the front of the line, butting in front of several patiently waiting gamers, who were heard to remark to one another, "I will give you good money to yank him back here by that pony tail."

The easy-going nature and acceptance of the gamers (many of whom were younger and not yet hardened into jaded cynicism like yours truly) may have lulled the organizers of PAX into keeping the status quo.

But we hope not.

So, PAX guys, thoughts for making PAX even better next year:

Consider having more than one showing of the talks you just know are going to be most popular. For that matter, why not have monitors set up in the waiting area so that people who couldn't make it into the room could still watch the show on the screens?

This is PAX, after all.

Surely* we have the technology.

*Yeah, yeah, we know, don't call you Shirley.

PAX Highlights: Costumes!

Resistance 2 Release Date! Straight from Insomniac Games

Here's the notice as it came to us: Insomniac has announced a release date for Resistance!

Mark your calendars: November 4th is Resistance 2 day!

Pre-order it from Gamestop and join in the online beta later this month, or choose a special skin when you get the game from Amazon. Circuit City will give you a ten dollar giftcard with pre-order.

The Collector's Edition, complete with mini Chimeran, will run you $79.99 and is loaded with extras, including artwork and an additional "making of" DVD.

PAX Highlights: Videos

Rayman Dance Video

They were doing this for the chance to win a prize, given out by the fabulous Frag Dolls, so we award these guys major points for courage for their improv dance routine.


Gears of War II Gameplay

PAX 2008: It Was the Best of Times...

We're recovering from two full days of PAX 2008, and now that we've safely secured our loot in a Secret Hidden Location away from the mad crowds, we'll take a moment to give you a quick, overall impressions of the Big Bash, with specifics to follow once we've had time to decompress. We need to chew on it, ruminate a bit, digest and then...regurgitate all that stuff back up. Frankly, we're just not ready to re-enter the real world yet.

So, without further ado, here's our take on the Best, and the Worst, PAX had to offer this year.
We'll start out with the highlights.

THE BEST

Best Exhibit in the Expo Hall: Hands down, Bethesda Softworks Fallout 3 booth wins this one. From the shiny happy family milling contentedly around the old camping trailer to the twisted, desiccated ruin it becomes and the Protectron robot guarding its charred remains, this booth was the one to beat. Swag available at the booth included a vault-dwellers guide complete with helpful tips from Vault Guy, pure retro genius.


Best Forum:
Again, and we don't mean to sound sycophantic and obsequious (thought a little smarminess is certainly in keeping), the guys from Bethesda rocked PAX with their highlight play-through of Fallout 3.

Though we weren't allowed to film it, here are some of the features worth mentioning from the Fallout 3 Play-Through:

• Malcolm McDowell lends his voice to the character of the US President, while Cole Porter's music was licensed to create that authentic 40's ambiance.
• Many many many character customization options, including lots o' hair styles, even facial hairstyles with eerily appropriate though out-of-the-ordinary names, courtesy of three-in-the-morning-crazy-exhaustion-genius (Emperor Chen muttonstache, anyone?).
• Drugs make you smarter! Note: Fallout 3 is no longer banned in Australia.
• VAX system lets you pause time, isolate body parts and demolish your enimies, though it takes a serious toll in action points.
• Focus on deeper, richer, more three-dimensional NPC's makes you at least a little sorry when you inevitably screw them over.
• Water, though thirst-quenching and healing in the short-term, will eventually cause radiation sickness, which is deadly (though meds are available to slow its progress).
• Slick weapons now include pneumatic gloves to pulverize your opponent's face, or rail guns that rip through his heart and may even pin it to the wall behind him.
• Vault Protectron robots, once activated, make helpful assistants. Sometimes.
• Take on stealth mode and pick locks or pockets to take other character's loot. Or, for extra-special evilness, try leaving a live frag grenade behind.

In addition to the fun play-by-play, the Fallout 3 guys came through on a promise to present lots of swag for the PAX crowd.

Cards were distributed with various attributes: intelligence, stamina, endurance, etc., with corresponding swag for each attribute. Intelligence, for example, earned the recipient a nifty Vault Guy hand puppet. One (there can be only one) lucky attendee with the corresponding Luck attribute card was awarded, *in addition* to a t-shirt, hand puppet, signed poster and "viewmaster" style player loaded with Fallout 3 screenshots (all the other swag combined): 5 years of Xbox Live Gold membership, the Survivor's Edition of Fallout 3 (including the metal lunchbox, artbook, Vault Boy bobblehead and Pip Boy 3000 alarm clock), and 16,000 Xbox Marketplace points. Oh, yeah, and an Xbox Elite.

Nice.

Left 4 Dead was SO crowded we never even got close to playing the game, but word at the convention was that it is rivalling Starcraft 2 and Fallout 3 as one of the top most-anticipated games by those that DID get a chance at it.

Raffles offered PAX attendees who didn't make it in to the keynote or the Fallout 3 play-through or other EXTREMELY popular venues (check out our WORST report for more on that) a chance to win uber-cool stuff like hard drives and gaming headphones (or, more likely, a Prince of Persia t-shirt).

Gunnar optical wear for gamers, designers and developers are going to be HUGE. Designed to cut down on ambient glare from your monitor, keep your eyes from drying out and reduce eye strain, they let even those who work on computers all day long come home to a night of gaming free of headaches and overload. These guys are going to make millions. You heard it here first.

Tennis, Anyone?