Living in Seattle, I have tried attending PAX for the last few years and have unfortunately never made it. PAX is truly a great Video and Board Game show. It really covers gaming as a whole. The wide range of attendees include booth women dressed appropriately for the game to geeks like me and everything (and I mean everything) in between. I had a blast laughing at the guy who was dressed exactly like a character from Final Fantasy, sword included! The show itself was very crowded and at times there were very long waits to play or see the hot games. Here are my thoughts on what I saw.
Mass Effect – I believe this game could be one of the killer games of the year. The squad-based play was very cool. Not only does it have cool graphics, as we have seen, but it has a cover system and a nice weapons packages.
Hot things:
Control the weapons your team uses in game. You can have them switch from a rifle to a shotgun for example
Plan waypoints and attack patterns
Character design, make him look like you including gender
Character gains experience as you go along
Voice sync to mouth is a reality
Stunning game play for a product in beta
Communication system
The little details like solders saluting you
Arrives in November per the demo. I wasn't able play it, but it was being played by a live person and it wasn't a pre-rendered video. This game is a must buy for me.
Midnight Club – "Wow," is all I can say. November is going to be an expensive month if all these games actually hit at the same time. They licensed both the interiors and exteriors for all the cars and motorcycles. There's so much attention to detail that you can even see what radio station you are tuned to. You can also see what gear you are in and when you shift gears, you can see the driver shifting. The detail of the city is very cool, as well. When you hit nitrous it has a very cool effect that is hard to describe, but definitely gives an illusion of speed. Considering it was an alpha build running on a dev machine it was very smooth and fluid. Another interesting note is that Midnight Club will use the same engine as GTA IV, so if you are interested in a sneak peek at GTAIV, check out Midnight Club.
Assassin’s Creed – Ok, I think this game may get hyped even more then Bioshock. It was interesting, they did a side by side comparison of what they showed at E3 and the way it looks now. I thought it looked amazing, although, I only stayed for part of the demo. I think this game could be the number one seller when its released and I think it truly shows the power of what can be done on the true next gen consoles (PS3 & 360), unlike the Wii which just won’t cut it for a game like this.
PGR4 – Honestly, while the game did look very good, I didn’t experience anything revolutionary. It seems just like any other PGR game. The rain dynamics definitely added challenges to racing. I might pass on this one at least at first. Though, in the little bit that I played, it looks ready to be delivered.
America’s Army – This game played supper smooth and very life like. I was surprised how big this game was. The 360 both had a couple setups playing it as well as it having its own booth. In fact, it was the biggest booth of the show and actually, was bigger than the Sony and Microsoft booths combined. There were lots of guys walking around in military gear between this game and Haze.
Sony booth was mostly four games and the new PSP. Nothing very exciting overall. I played the three of the four games available: Heavenly Sword, Lair and Warhawk. While all three looked pretty and had some interesting aspects to them, I just didn’t see me getting them. They had a contest to win a PS3 with five unreleased games plus all the currently released ones, which was really cool. Unfortunately, I didn’t win.
In its own booth was a game called “The Eye of Judgment.” I liked this game, but I didn’t get a chance to play it. It looked very fun, though. I may pick it up if some of the other PS3 owners at PGL get it. The game is played on a game board with cards read by a USB camera. Interesting to say the least.
Wii had a few interesting titles. I saw the Wii version of Geometry Wars, though the line was too long the couple times I walked by to play. It had a very different feel to it compared to the Xbox Live Arcade version. Overall, from the titles that I saw, I would say a lot more “Mature” type titles are on their way for Wii owners.
Kane and Lynch – It looks like they are bringing raw unfiltered violence to the consoles. This game was over the top with violence and blood and because of it I’m sure it will do well. It definitely looked good when everything wasn’t red.
Here are some pictures:
Overall I had a blast walking around and playing a lot of different games. I’m not much of a crowd person, but it certainly was one of the coolest things I have done in a long while. It was great meeting Morgan, JVB and Godfree from other communities. Also, there are so many other things I saw that I didn't write about, so if you get a chance to go to a gaming show, like PAX, do it!
Hey Miller I was there,but I did not go inside I just stood out side and watched all the freaks.I wanted to go in but they were sold out.Nice post man,now I feel like I went....Thanks you saved me 25 bucks
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I bought a race horse and named him "my face" he's not very good, but imagine all the people in the stands yelling come on my face!"
Nice review man that was awesome...Except for the fact that you did not Zoom in on Mass Effect that well, You did not video tape Assassins Creed, you did not report on Haze (even though you did not list that it was on Sony's Booth but said that Military geared up people were walking between America's Army and Haze).
Then you surprised me with the slideshow, like im about to see something interesting, But then I see a Random picture of a Bottle full of Bawls...
Great reviews though, But if you have any info on Haze or GTA feel free not to hold out. Use PGL slang if being monitored...
Sorry, I'm not a very good writer and there was too much stuff that I didn't get to play. The line for Haze was about 30 people at least all the time. It had it's own booth and was not part of the Sony booth. The look I had at it via standing at the exit was pretty impressive again with lots of blood spray.
The video and pictures was all taken with my cell phone sorry about the quality. I was going to get closer for the next Mass effect demo but didn't make it back before leaving.
GTA was not talked about at all other then giving away hats. No demo at least in anything I was invited to.
I only saw a little bit of the Assassins Creed demo sorry no video.
Bawls was given away when I first got there... I thought it was funny so I had to add a picture.
I also saw Timeshift it looked pretty interesting.... However, my big problem that I have is how many FPS/TPS does one person need. I would say overall these games are all becoming very good graphics and effects. What is going to set them apart? As a person that already has 50+ retail games for the 360 where is the stopping point.
The video and pictures was all taken with my cell phone sorry about the quality
Wow didn't know you were using a phone, The quality was pretty good for a cell.
Yeah ive relized they are making Lots of FPS's but since that is one of my favorite genres Im not hating. Just the fact that Im gonna have to decide which ones to buy and which to rent. I think Mass Effect is rpg not really fps and the same with fallout maybe..? (correct me if im wrong) Army of Two is more 3rd person? then the fps's are timeshift, Too human, Halo 3, Fracture, Haze(for ps3 though)
Living in Seattle, I have tried attending PAX for the last few years and have unfortunately never made it. PAX is truly a great Video and Board Game show. It really covers gaming as a whole. The wide range of attendees include booth women dressed appropriately for the game to geeks like me and everything (and I mean everything) in between. I had a blast laughing at the guy who was dressed exactly like a character from Final Fantasy, sword included! The show itself was very crowded and at times there were very long waits to play or see the hot games. Here are my thoughts on what I saw.
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