Welcome to the second chapter of my time at Seattle's Penny Arcade Expo 2009. Saturday is always the busiest day of the expo. I divided my time between swag hunting, playing several games, and attending various parties. My Saturday PAX adventure began early in the morning. I reached the convention center at around 8:30 AM. As you can see, the upper level was quite barren during the early hours of the day. However, that would not last.
I was in one of the first couple of rows to get into the exhibitor hall. To entertain the crowd of PAX fans in line, various activities were projected on a screen. We could play simple games via text message, watch game trailers, or vote to play one of several YouTube classics like Leeroy Jenkins. Eventually, a montage of fallen nerd culture icons was presented to the audience. It included characters like Aeris, Optimus Prime, the Phantom video game console, and the above slide showing Niko Bellic, which was captioned "Accurate Accents".
As usual, I had my booth strategy formed in my head as soon as the floodgates opened. My first stop was Tozai Games, where I lined up to receive one of the two Lode Runner shirts shown in the background. If you wore the shirt and were spotted by the staff, you'd get a free Xbox Live Arcade game.
The next stop on my list was once again Capcom. If you reserved a time slot to play Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles on the Wii, you'd score a strange reversible t-shirt with a zombie head on the inside. Another coworker of mine named Edgar played the game with me. I used Claire Redfield while he played as one of my least favorite video game characters, Leon Kennedy. Going through the world of Resident Evil 2 as a shooter was quite amusing, although I must bitch about the animation not running at my beloved 60 frames per second! The older House of the Dead games have it beat in that department. I don't think I'll get the game at launch, but I can see myself eventually adding it to my Wii library.
Next up was the NCsoft exhibit. Behind the fancy replica of the world of Aion, Guild Wars 2 fans lined up to receive a free hardcover art book. They could then meet and receive autographs from several of the game's artists. I must say that the book was one of the best pieces of swag at this year's PAX!
Nolan, Alisa, Edgar, his brother Jaime, and I all banded together to look at the exhibitor hall. We lined up for a 20-minute live presentation of Red Dead Redemption. Unfortunately, Edgar skipped the showing so that he could drop off the FightStick he purchased in his vehicle. Our remaining group members were taken into a small room where no photography was allowed since the game was still in an early stage. Still, it looked very impressive, like a more expansive third-person version of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. A staff member played through the demo, showing off the Dead Eye power and the fact that you can kill anything that appears in the game, including little rabbits. They also gave a brief overview of the morality system before showing us out and giving us a free shirt for watching the demonstration. I'm surprised to say that even though I hate just about every game Rockstar has put out, I am now actually looking forward to Red Dead Redemption!
After the presentation, we went over to one of Ignition's booths in order to get a free drawstring bag. After adding it to my inventory, I took a quick stop to try out Nostalgia. I meant to try the game out at E3, but it slipped my mind. I only played for several minutes, fighting one airship battle against some flying monsters. Each character seemed to control a different aspect of the ship, and they'd lose control over that part if they were damaged. I wouldn't say my overall experience was good or bad. However, I'll still get the game to support Ignition!
While going past EA's rather large setup, we spotted some dudes dressed up as Rios and Salem from Army of Two. Jaime decided to get a picture taken alongside the mercenaries. They were even kind enough to arm him with an uzi.
After that, it was Edgar's turn. Too bad my friend Michael didn't go to PAX this year since he LOVES Army of Two! I'm pretty sure he would have got a kick out of this.
Jaime and Edgar wanted to sample Darksiders, so we headed over to the exhibit. I overheard a booth rep mentioning that the wait to ride the horse was only 10 minutes, so I mustered up the courage to fill out a waiver and get in line. Setting down my bags and my jacket, I mounted the mighty steed and got ready for a rough ride!
There's a shot of me attempting to stay on the horse. I lasted longer than I expected, but let go when the speed started to get too high and I started slipping off. It turns out one of the people watching my attempt at rodeo stardom was none other than Davin Loh! He's definitely a nice guy, he even helped me adjust my jacket when I was recovering from the ride. We said we'd see each other at the GameWorks 1UP party and parted ways after exchanging numbers.
I passed by this booth and noticed tons of people trying out samples of a drink called Tru Blood. No offense to any of the other drink companies at PAX, but I thought they were pretty horrible. Tru Blood ended up being the sole exception to that rule. I'd kind of describe it as a really tangy orange soda.
Heading back to the skybridge for some natural light, I took a moment to stop and watch an MMORPG called Runes of Magic. I was actually amazed by how similar the interface was to World of Warcraft's. The game is free, so I guess that's a nice perk for people who can no longer afford the $15 monthly fee. After receiving another free shirt, I walked away.
I soon returned to the interior hall. Over here, we have the Xbox 360 Indie Games booth. Some of the game designs on display looked interesting, but I would honestly care more if they were released on a compilation disc and had achievements. Staff members were handing out free DLC codes that gave your Avatar a special PAX t-shirt. I made sure to grab one and noticed that they're already going for about $12 on eBay.
The time soon came for me to take another unusual digital photo! The photographers at an Aion exhibit would have you pose in front of a pair of black wings. Ten minutes later, they printed out the photo shown above.
The highlight at Peregrine's booth was some unusual glove for PC users that seemed to learn and memorize how your fingers moved on the keyboard. Since I hate just about every PC game, I'll admit that I just dropped by for the swag. The cheery English fellow below the monitor would hand out swag to people who provided him with a brief reason on how they could use it. I won a small container of hand sanitizer for saying that I'd use it to remove germs from water bottles. I didn't manage to get one of their hand-shaped back massagers... darn!
I soon regrouped with the rest of my team. Edgar and Jaime wanted to see Sega's booth so that they could try Bayonetta. Since I already tried it at E3, I decided to experience some of Sega's DS offerings. Sands of Destruction came first. I'm not sure if the demo has the improvements I've read about in Nintendo Power, especially since the encounter rate still seemed rather high. The battle system slightly reminded me of Xenogears, but that's a bit of a stretch. Visually, the game looked great for a DS RPG. I'm pretty sure I'll reserve it, but whether I'm going to spend time playing it is another matter entirely.
Up next at Sega's booth was Phantasy Star Zero. I blitzed through the story, skipping it all after crafting my HUmar and picking out a green MAG. From the parts that I managed to remember, my character was the newest recruit of a guild and sent off to learn the trade by doing missions. This will definitely fill the void that Phantasy Star Universe failed to do, as it's very similar to the classic Phantasy Star Online aside from the overall look of the game. My timing for button combos seemed to be off, but I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things with practice.
Edgar, Jaime, and I needed to rest our legs. We exited the exhibitor hall and went up to the top floor, where the console freeplay room was located. Many game systems were setup so players could check out and challenge other attendees to their favorite games.
Edgar was in the mood to play Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on the Super Nintendo. Unfortunately, the TV he was assigned had that third-party monstrosity attached to it. The console's ability to play NES, SNES, and Genesis games was kind of neat, but Edgar and Jaime said the controllers didn't feel right. Edgar battled and defeated quite a few random gamers before returning the cartridge to the front counter and giving the console one last disgusted look.
After the exhibitor hall closed, Edgar and Jaime took me out for a bite to eat. After they drove home, I walked over to the Showbox Theater to line up for the Resident Evil 5 PC launch party. Memorable moments from the wait included seeing a large rat digging through the trash in an alley and getting my bags inspected for outside food.
Party-goers walked into the dimly lit theater and were greeted by Capcom staff, who thanked us for coming. Further in, we could see scenes from Resident Evil 5 playing on video accompanied by loud music. Free snacks like party mix and chips were available as appetizers, but you'd have to pay up at the bar if you wanted a drink. Demo stations were also setup for people to play the PC game. As the party started growing more and more crowded, I realized that this thing wasn't as exclusive as I thought!
Makeup artists were on hand for the event to turn Capcom fans into Majinis. You ended up looking more like a traditional zombie, but then again, giving a proper Majini makeover would probably lead to more cries of racism. Quite a few people were lined up for the procedure, including myself since as usual, a free shirt was offered to those who participated.
Capcom staff members got on stage and started to raffle off prizes. They were mainly vouchers to get RE5 on Steam, but every hour an expensive Intel PC product would be given away to one lucky winner. Even though quite a few people left the party and weren't able to claim their prizes, my number was never drawn. Damn the raffle gods!
ITCHY. TASTY. They did a pretty good job and I got a chuckle when I looked at myself in the mirror. However, their was no way that I was attending the 1UP meet-up looking like this!
I joined one more quick line to get my Tricell employee ID. After my picture was taken and slapped on a plastic badge, I went to the bathroom and washed off my makeup. I then headed out the door, receiving a complimentary RE5 snow globe as a party favor.
The sidewalk outside of GameWorks was quite crowded with plenty of people waiting to get inside for the 1UP meet-up. I skipped all that and simply went inside through the bar entrance, which was wide open. A good portion of the upper floor was reserved for 1UP, but as you can see, things were still quite hectic.
I joined a table with a few old friends from 1UP. Jeff Grubb and his girlfriend eventually came and joined us. We also received a quick hello from Davin Loh. As always, it was nice to hang out with old friends for a little bit. While they enjoyed their alcohol, I was quite comfortable with my cup of Pepsi. Our waitress did a terrific job of serving us in such a packed, and I'm sure stressful, environment. After we left our table and the group started to play some pool, I bid them farewell and headed home to rest for Sunday.
