Support NeoGAF

[phosphor112]

Anyone who has seen the Watch_Dogs demo wants to share the difference between the Pax footage and stuff we have seen before? Which scene did they replay and what particular actions were different? Any chance they make the new demo public or did someone film it?

Just wanted to say I just got back from my 16 hour drive home (Indiana... too long of a drive.. ugh) and sorry that I didn't go to the meetup. My group didn't want to part the Expo Hall.

Anyway, the Watch_Dogs "demo" was a debriefing from the perspective of the CToS. This woman details the main character, and his ability to breach the system. They also note a "3rd party" (that isn't him) accessing the system to monitor him that ISN'T part of the CToS group. So they have multiple breaches going on. They used the exact same footage from before though. Nothing amazing. Actually disappointing.

My highlights were the indiebooth hands down.

Guacamelee is fantastic as well. Day 1.

Oh, and Dive Kick.

Best of Show.

 

[Quadratic]

I had a great time here in Boston. Nice city to host this event. It could have been a bit warmer, oh well. Good time at the meet up yesterday night with GAF. Would definitely consider returning next year. A different flavour than Prime for sure.

Thanks to ActStriker for the Hot Pot dinner tonight.

 

[Cimarron]

I had a great time this year Pax. Even though I have to say I was very disappointed about two things. First of all aside from last of us there really wasn't any big name games on the floor that haven't been released. And where was the next GEN love? Nintendo's booth was quite pathetic. And the PlayStation for had an anemic presence at the convention as well. Why did Sony not show more? they have already announced the system this is a convention for gamers why not give us a little taste? Did they even have footage available to watch up close?

 

[Davey Cakes]

I had a great time here in Boston. Nice city to host this event. It could have been a bit warmer, oh well. Good time at the meet up yesterday night with GAF. Would definitely consider returning next year. A different flavour than Prime for sure.

If it was last year, it would have been warmer. We were having a burst of Summer-like weather during that week.

But yeah, it was chilly this time.

Anyway, I just got home from PAX myself. My feet are killing me from walking through the show floor so many times.

I kind of wanted to get something signed by Tycho and Gabe but that line was just ridiculous.

There weren't as many cosplayers as I expected, but many of the ones I did see were pretty good. I love how the guy cosplaying as Knuckles was in a muscle suit.

This was my first PAX and my first gaming convention in general. I'll probably be back next year.

Nintendo's booth was quite pathetic.

I liked it. I mean, it was sort of small but it basically showed all choice games for Wii U and 3DS; basically what you'd expect for them to show, but also what made sense to show.

I'm kind of regretting not getting my picture taken with Chase McCain.

In terms of the other booths, I was impressed by the lines for Watch Dogs and The Last of Us. Those games are going to be big. Also, it was interesting that so much floor space was dedicated to adventure/RPG/online fantasy games. League of Legends, Dungeons and Dragons, the Blizzard section, Wildstar, Elder Scrolls Online, etc. Strong promotion going on there.

 

[quickwhips]

Driving back now. Watchdog was disappointing. State of decay was my favorite thing i got 13 minutes of video. New gears map was cool. Wish i would have played last of us instead of watchdogs video.. Played wi u finally it was alright. Marvel heroes is diablo game with hulk.

 

[ultron87]

What was the final Omegathon game? Didn't make it to the show today.

 

[KHarvey16]

Had a great time this year. Got hands on with Diablo III on the PS3 which felt pretty damn good, didn't embarrass myself in iRacing(the whole group ran a clean race!), got to mess around with Shield and play a little Sonic and really enjoyed Hearthstone. I can understand that people might be a little underwhelmed by the Blizzard announcement if they were expecting something groundbreaking, but it really is a fun little game. It's simple enough that you can pick it up quickly but there is a good amount of depth. Was able to hit the line for this when it was ~20-30 minutes once Friday and again today.

Cliffy B was fun, nVidia guy was kind of a dick and the Gearbox panel was fantastic as it always is. The only downside to the bigger room was no pizza!

Speaking of food, did anyone else find the Chicken and Fries place over in some corner next to the glass overlooking the expo hall? Near the Rock Band stage I think. Small line usually and the chicken was pretty good, relatively. Not cheap of course but edible. Also candy bars were $3.50, which was a nice thing to find out.

 

[quickwhips]

Spaceteam or something. Wife lost in second round.

 

[Davey Cakes]

The Classic Game Room was pretty cool as well. My brother, his girlfriend, and I played some Mario Party (the original) for the first time in years.

I now understand 100% why that game was never released on Wii Virtual Console. Penalties for doing badly were BRUTAL (and Mario Party 2 ended up being far more balanced). But, I forgot how problematic the stick-rotating minigames were. Blistered palms and broken controllers indeed.

At the very end I played some Galaga. My brother played Lode Runner on the Apple II and his girlfriend played Q-Bert on the Colecovision.

 

[Keits]

Oh, and Dive Kick.

Best of Show.

We like you too!

 

[ultron87]

My favorite part of PAX was the Bara Bari Ball / Hokra tournament that the creators ran on Saturday in the Kickstarter room. Getting to play the games in a competitive fashion with a ton of spectators with the dudes that developed it right there was so cool. At one point the game bugged out and he opened up the code and fixed it right there. Sweet.

 

[koolaroo]

I found with Pax the best things I did were the things that I never could have planned for. One of might highlights for friday was sitting in the Jamspace and listening to 4 people jam for 20 minutes staight. It may not sound very exciting but for some reason it was a big standout.
The best part about saterday was the extra credits pannel but what really made it awsome was that james hung around forever afterwards answering peoples questions.
Overall if you go to pax don't be afraid to ignore what you planned.

 

[friskykillface]

bye bye Pax east
seems quick as hell but oh well, last years was better

I didn't get a chance to play Ducktales :'(

 

[AcceptableGhost]

Pretty great show for me.

 

[phosphor112]

We like you too!

Day 1, also, Dive is OP, but Dr. Shoals (spelling?) is a pretty good "Anti-Frog" tactic (frog being Dive doing short dive/kicks real quickly) because of the very horizontal attacks. Getting the "10% Dive" for her is best so she can get the jump advantage over Dive.

Anyway. You should sell that controller, just because.

My brother and I (we had the "Out of Continues" shirts) talked to Mike O'Conner for several minutes, great guy.

 

[Mahonay]

Another great PAX. Saw a lot of friends. A couple of good panels. And actually managed to play a bunch of games this year. Super Time Force was probably the game I enjoyed most.

Dive Kick was the best surprise. I knew the game was going to be silly but Iron Galaxy really jumped feet first into this one. It feels like someone's hilarous joke idea for a fighting game, then went and actually made that game word for word. Fucking Dave Lang is magical.

 

[phosphor112]

Another great PAX. Saw a lot of friends. A couple of good panels. And actually managed to play a bunch of games this year. Super Time Force was probably the game I enjoyed most.

Dive Kick was the best surprise. I knew the game was going to be silly but Iron Galaxy really jumped feet first into this one. It feels like someone's hilarous joke idea for a fighting game, then went and actually made that game word for word. Fucking Dave Lang is magical.

Oh you.

 

[superbank]

Dive Kick was the best surprise. I knew the game was going to be silly but Iron Galaxy really jumped feet first into this one. It feels like someone's hilarous joke idea for a fighting game, then went and actually made that game word for word. Fucking Dave Lang is magical.

Nah, Keits is the mastermind. He's 6 posts above you. Lang and Iron Galaxy are helping though.

 

[Mahonay]

Nah, Keits is the mastermind. He's 6 posts above you. Lang and Iron Galaxy are helping though.

Hah yeah still on the train home. Should have read the last page.

Yeah I really knew zero about Iron Galaxy outside of the Lang Zone. They ran a fantastic booth though. Nice group of people.

 

[Arsenic Yellow]

Thanks you so much for coming! I'm glad you made it! And yeoz! And... that guy I keep forgetting! *laughs*

Seriously though, I got so little sleep during PAX, and between that and all of thr appointment stuff I did, pretty much the moment the panel was officially over my brain shut off what little functioning it was doing for good. So, sorry I came off super-spacey.

No you sounded great. Honesty I didn't go to the female gamer panel because I knew it would just be a giant rant. I'm so glad you guys talked about the industry and solutions rather than complain. Very well done was a shame the girl gamer panel was so horrendous. Really, complaining instead of discussing possible solutions only hinders the minority.

 

[Sanjuro]

Ducktales was the best new game I played at the show.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

There weren't as many cosplayers as I expected, but many of the ones I did see were pretty good. I love how the guy cosplaying as Knuckles was in a muscle suit.

Did you see the guy dressed as Zangief? Because I think that was pretty terrifying.

As normal, I had a ton of fun at PAX East. I largely stuck to playing indie games and board games. I tend to find them the most interesting things there. That and I find the lines for the larger "AAA" games to be just ridiculous.

Quadlateral Cowboy was probably my favorite game I played at the convention. That and I had a surprising amount of fun with that Double Fine rhythm game. I actually had the high score on one of the machines for about half of the convention, but I noticed it had been broken on the final day. Hearthstone was pretty interesting as well. I don't like physically collecting cards, so I much prefer digital versions of things like that.

I also was able to meet Tim Schafer and get his autograph, which was great. Although I am pissed that I missed the Double Fine presentation, since I was too late to the line (and they seemed to have put the dumb thing int he smallest meeting room. Thankfully, I was at least able to see the Firaxis presentation. Jake Solomon is always hilarious to listen to.

Going back to the lines, I swear there are people who go to these things just because they love to stand in a line. I think there must have been at least a one or two hour line on Saturday at the Nintendo Store booth just so you could buy Luigi's Mansion one day early. You are at PAX, are you really going to have that much time to play the stupid game that you couldn't just wait one more day?

Edit: I was also in an elevator with the Black Dragon himself, Jeff Green, but I didn't say anything since he looked pretty tired (it was after midnight) and I assumed he was going to his room to sleep and didn't want to be accosted by anyone else.

 

[CitizenCope]

Ducktales was the best new game I played at the show.

Glad I skipped this year. Next year is going to be so good. 3 day pass for sure.

 

[Arsenic Yellow]

Glad I skipped this year. Next year is going to be so good. 3 day pass for sure.

the indie booth was the best thing abut pax this year. Really disappointing overall. Contract, outlast, oregon trail, and duck tails were my favorite. There was another game that reminded me of swords and sorcery but I cant think of the name at the moment.

 

[Defunkled]

People calling this PAX "disappointing" must not have played Transistor.

 

[keltickennedy]

The pax showing of splinter cell finally sold me on the game. Loadout customization is back. You can also customize sams suit for a specific play style. The pelican airplane is used as the main game hub. Jump in jump out coop. They also showed the pc version of the game which looked stunning. Frame rate and textures were crisp.

AC4 video was alright. It wasnt really a gameplay demo i was hoping for. It was just gameplay cut and edited with narration. Seems like something they are planning on releasing online soon. It looked good....but so did the AC3 demo they showed last year. Lol.

Watchdogs was a huge bummed. They showed the same gameplay that was released at the sony event but was viewed from the perspective of the security cameras. Pretty strange.

Injustice was awesome. Especially watching my friend get his ass kicked by one of the combat designers.

Didnt get a chance to play last of us since the line was crazy long.

Saints row 4 was amazing. All im going to say is dub step gun.

 

[OnPoint]

People calling this PAX "disappointing" must not have played Transistor.

Probably didn't wanna wait 2 hours in line. It was absurd how packed that booth was! I mean, I understand it, but there was plenty of other great stuff on the floor.

 

[Omegasquash]

Probably didn't wanna wait 2 hours in line. It was absurd how packed that booth was! I mean, I understand it, but there was plenty of other great stuff on the floor.

It was 3 hours at one point on Saturday. The placement of the booth kind of messed with foot traffic.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to next year. It was great to meet fellow GAFfers in the real actual non digital way (though I wish I could have attended on Saturday night). Here's to good times, and getting my batteries recharged.

 

[B00TE]

Had an absolute blast yesterday. Definitely going to try to get a three day pass next year, there's just not enough time to do everything I would have liked to there. Like hunt with people at the Monster Hunter booth. My friends and I wanted to power people onto high rank if we could have! Was still awesome to see how much Streetpass stuff I got though, holy crap.

Loved the Wildstar booth, my brother and I probably spent most of our time gravitating around there.

 

[Kilrathi]

I had fun despite having a hard time getting around (was on crutches on Friday) and Sunday in a wheelchair. The enforcers were great helping find all the elevators to get around and the medical badge let me a hour early with media on friday that was a surprise.

 

[Dragon]

Probably didn't wanna wait 2 hours in line. It was absurd how packed that booth was! I mean, I understand it, but there was plenty of other great stuff on the floor.

Yeah between that and the lines for Last of Us, I just gave up. I ended up wandering around the indie booths and playing random games. Between that and the impressive Splinter Cell demo (yeah Ubisoft I'm sure that's running on a 360 and not a high end PC!) I still had a good time. The panels were the highlight for me.

 

[StarCreator]

What was the final Omegathon game? Didn't make it to the show today.

It was "Spaceteam", a game that was played on four iPads.

Spoiler

The communication between the iPads kept failing and they ended up just declaring both teams the winner after fighting it for an hour.

Wow. Well, with the amount of technical difficulties they were having, it kind of makes sense. When'd they call it? I left at 6:30.

Not long after that. Probably around 6:35.

 

[Gunstarheroes]

Well, my pax was rad as well.

I met my FGC hero Yipes, hung out with the harmonix team again, played Ducktales, and managed to get into Last Of Us.

Although, at the end, the indie guys did rock. Im totally on board calling Divekick best in show. So much fun playing it on Saturday.

Also, finally got to try Marvel Heroes and really digging it. Got a closed beta key, so im excited to see if i can stay into it for a while

 

[ActStriker]

Yeah, I tried to avoid most lines this weekend, because I really didn't want to wait in line and waste time.

Show highlights for me (besides games) were the GAF meetups both nights, Noogy's Dust panel (I would've stuck around and chatted, but there was a giant crowd that just swarmed Noogy), and playing Pachinko for charity. Shit's addicting. I would've tried to go to shidoshi's panel on Sunday if I wasn't so hung over from the Sat meetup.

What I ended up playing:
The Wonderful 101 (loved it)
Game & Wario (thought it was ok)
Two Brothers (liked it)
Super Time Force (liked it) - didn't manage to meet up with Cromulent_Word though
Lords of New York (liked it)
Delver's Drop (liked it)
Tempus Chronicles (it was ok)
Organ Trail (liked it)
PWN: Combat Hacking (liked it)
Usagi Yojimbo (ok)
Hawken (ok)
Rainslick 4 (liked it)
Nun Attack (ok)

The indie games area was the place to be at.

I wanted to try Ducktales, Remember Me, and Transistor, but man, those lines. Oh, and fucking Divekick man. That was awesome. Contrast looked good too, but I didn't get a chance to play that either.

That Watch_Dogs video was disappointing though. Glad I didn't wait in line for that when I saw it.

 

[RPG Wizard]

To keep it short:

Monster Hunter was awesome, Steel Battalion was extra awesome, and we got a good turnout for the Dragon Quest 9 meet up.

Oh, and Gideon Zhi plays Starfox 2 was pretty awesome too.

 

[JimmyBoy]

Dive Kick was hilarious and quite fun. Super nice guys at that booth, too.
Transistor looks amazing. Quadrilateral Cowboy is genius.
Drunken Robot Pornography was a joy to play, I just think the player movement needs a bit more tweaking.

My friends and I ended up judging the hell out of Wildstar due to how derivative it looked and played.

All and all, great PAX as usual if you knew where to go (indie booths!).

Did anyone wait in line to play the Elder Scrolls Online? If so, impressions?

 

[phosphor112]

Dive Kick was hilarious and quite fun. Super nice guys at that booth, too.
Transistor looks amazing. Quadrilateral Cowboy is genius.
Drunken Robot Pornography was a joy to play, I just think the player movement needs a bit more tweaking.

My friends and I ended up judging the hell out of Wildstar due to how derivative it looked and played.

All and all, great PAX as usual if you knew where to go (indie booths!).

Did anyone wait in line to play the Elder Scrolls Online? If so, impressions?

What can you possibly mean!?! I never heard of that game until PAX, and it had such a large and annoying booth. It also looked like a WoW rip off. From UI, gameplay, to art style. I'm not sure where they are trying to go with that thing.

 

[Dragon]

What can you possibly mean!?! I never heard of that game until PAX, and it had such a large and annoying booth. It also looked like a WoW rip off. From UI, gameplay, to art style. I'm not sure where they are trying to go with that thing.

The twitch tv booth was by far the most annoying. Trying to sit through the Splinter Cell demo while they're shouting about God knows what...

 

[pelican]

Guys.

I've never been to PAX East but I have often wondered if it is less of a gaming experience compared to other public events later in the year e.g. Pax Prime, Gamescom, and Eurogamer Expo.

The reason I say this is not down to the location, but the timing. With the other events all being post E3 and during the run up to the peak season it makes sense that the bigger, and more exciting titles for the year, and the following year will be there.

Note - I'm not saying going to the event isn't fun, but I feel maybe it would be a bit disappointing compared to the others.

 

[Mesoian]

Guys.

I've never been to PAX East but I have often wondered if it is less of a gaming experience compared to other public events later in the year e.g. Pax Prime, Gamescom, and Eurogamer Expo.

The reason I say this is not down to the location, but the timing. With the other events all being post E3 and during the run up to the peak season it makes sense that the bigger, and more exciting titles for the year, and the following year will be there.

Note - I'm not saying going to the event isn't fun, but I feel maybe it would be a bit disappointing compared to the others.

I'd say it's more indie focused than anything because of the timing. While there are a lot of AAA developer games out there on the show floor, the meat and potatoes seems to be around the indie megabooth and, this year, the secondary indie rows that were surrounding the PC component booths. LOT of really cool stuff there that's worth seeing/playing/talking to the devs rather than standing in line for 2 hours to see a 15 minute demo of the new Assassin's Creed game.

I got to play almost every game I saw; that's what the majority of my time on the show floor was spent doing, so I think so. I suppose it all depends on what you're looking to do though.

My friends and I ended up judging the hell out of Wildstar due to how derivative it looked and played.

It was either one of my friends or I who said it best about Wildstar. "That game has a super interesting artstyle! I do not want to play another MMORPG! That game is going to be dead on arrival".

That game would have been a lot cooler as a rachet and clank style 3rd person platformer. Lots of personality in the character designs and classes, but fuck if I want to play an MMO right now.

So they actually brought me to the front of the line to play Lost Planet 3 on Saturday.

If Lost Planet 3 ships in the state that it's in, it's going to be the most spectacular failure out of all of the Lost Planet games. It feels like a really really pugly Dead Space with horrible shooting controls tons of combat minigames. It's a shame because the story seems pretty interesting but it wasn't fun to play at ALL, which is the opposite of the previous Lost Planet games.

Also, the Ducktails Remastered demo is the longest line I've ever seen for the Capcom booth at any trade show ever. 2 hour line to play it. That was a damn smart move on their part.

 

[Patryn]

Guys.

I've never been to PAX East but I have often wondered if it is less of a gaming experience compared to other public events later in the year e.g. Pax Prime, Gamescom, and Eurogamer Expo.

The reason I say this is not down to the location, but the timing. With the other events all being post E3 and during the run up to the peak season it makes sense that the bigger, and more exciting titles for the year, and the following year will be there.

Note - I'm not saying going to the event isn't fun, but I feel maybe it would be a bit disappointing compared to the others.

From my experience, PAX East may not have the VIDEO games that PAX Prime may necessarily have, but it supplements that with a MASSIVE tabletop experience. At this point, the tabletop area is about the size of the entire show floor for the video gaming side.

Besides which, it's my opinion that if you're going to PAX East solely for the big AAA-titles, you're doing it wrong. There's so much more to it. The Indie area feels so much larger and vibrant than at Prime, and a lot of the panels are kick-ass.

I've been to the past 3 PAX East, and I haven't yet stood in line for one of those major AAA-title, and I've had a blast every year. In fact, I'd say that this year was my absolute favorite.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Oh man that Wildstar trailer with the southern accent chick (who I think was Cree Summer) was CRINGE CITY.

 

[JimmyBoy]

Oh man that Wildstar trailer with the southern accent chick (who I think was Cree Summer) was CRINGE CITY.

Everything about that game is cringe city. They copied WoW minutiae down to the quick front-flip at the top of your jump like the Night Elves. Uuuuugh.

One thing that I forgot to mention is my friends and I discovered this awesome tabletop game that I recommend to everyone. After we checked it out and played two games, we immediately bought it. So much fun. We're not even into this type of thing normally.

 

[Davey Cakes]

So, League of Legends is pretty big, eh? It felt like there was a party at that booth all day long.

 

[ActStriker]

Besides which, it's my opinion that if you're going to PAX East solely for the big AAA-titles, you're doing it wrong. They're so much more to it. The Indie area feels so much larger and vibrant than at Prime, and a lot of the panels are kick-ass.

This. Very much this. With all of the indies at PAX East, and how approachable they all are and how easy it is to strike up a conversation, it really is the best thing on the expo hall floor.

 

[JimmyBoy]

So, League of Legends is pretty big, eh? It felt like there was a party at that booth all day long.

Biggest game in the world.

 

[DKHustlin]

i had a blast bnut i was the donkey kong running around with the dart from lod and i was the worst ron ever in the harry potter trio; i dont thinik i went to a single panel or booth

 

[friskykillface]

Biggest game in the world.

it showed lol, i was blown away by the number of people there every hour 0_o
maybe i should try to play it sometime

that PS3 F2P game Dust was pretty bad, everyone just kept using the lasers that went 42384382943324 feet so everyone died quick, i might try it again when it comes out



:'( Ducktales, smh at the line always being capped and one booth, everyone wanted to play it, move Lost Planet 3 away

 

[Hero]

Yeah PAX East was super indie focused this year which is awesome. Fuck AAA titles that are going to be out in a few months anyway.

 

[RPG Wizard]

i had a blast bnut i was the donkey kong running around with the dart from lod and i was the worst ron ever in the harry potter trio; i dont thinik i went to a single panel or booth

Haha, I ran into you outside of classic consoles. You had a good DK outfit. (But Dart gets all the glory, because it's friggen Legend of Dragoon)