PAX 2009 Day 1 & 2: Gamer’s Paradise

If you are a gamer, you’d be screwing yourself over if you did not go to this convention (HINT HINT PAX EAST). Badges were completely sold out before the day of the convention, if you did not have one then you had no way of getting them at the doors. So always remember to pre-order! First map below is the convention center layout and where everything is located, second one is the exhibitors layout so you can see which companies turned out.  (S-E is a butthorn for not showing up and giving us all free ffxiv swag, WE GOT THE SWINE FLU!)

Just a word of advice, don’t go on an accidental 8 mile hike right before PAX. It makes things a lot harder. When we got there, the line wrapped all the way back through the park of the convention center, no prob though! We had pictochat to keep us busy. Finally when we were admitted, my eyes went wide. Whatever I had expected this was so much better! It literally looked like an E3. Whatever you are into whether it be tournaments, free play, panels, swag, sneak peeks, big industry names, or just drawing peens on everyone’s pictochat creations, you can bet they had it.

View from convention center, dealer’s room, handheld lounge.

The exhibition room was pretty packed, and people were giving away free things left and right. They had a clever game going on where Nvidia gave us pins with numbers on it and if we found our matching number on someone then we could win a prize. So all us shy gamers were all forced to interact. In lieu of true anti-social gamers, a convention of people hooked to wireless 24/7, and the drive to win, by the end of the 1st day someone had already written a number matching app for multiple platforms and everyone was using it. Oh you. Swag was being given out everywhere, you could free play pretty much every game on exhibition which included Diablo III, Starcraft II, Tekken 6 (360), Left 4 Dead 2, Aion, the new World of Warcraft expansion, Scribblenauts, some of the new Marios, and much more. I played Tekken 6 and was pretty happy with it. Scribblenauts was a little bit of a disappointment, I had expected more but I can see how you can be amused for quite a while with it. I wish they had incorporated some sort of feature where you could draw and it would be part of the game. Most of it involved you typing in a word that would be your way of clearing the level then it will animate for you. They also had Resident Evil 5 in 3D, which I didn’t play but it would probably scare the crap out of me.

Click to enlarge

Splinter Cell: Conviction, AC2 & No More Heroes 2, Muramasa, Scribblenauts, Fear 2, RE5, Rockband, Capcom booth, Blazblue booth, Left 4 Dead 2 booth, Convention center (downstairs), Tekken 6 & Namco, Tekken 6 game play shot, Mega 64, Diablo III, New Super Mario Bros (Wii), Bioshock chalk artwork, Mega 64 spin the wheel.

At the end of the 1st day, we headed over to the concert area to check out Anamanaguchi, Metroid Metal, and MC Frontalot. Anamanaguchi was up first and they were totally awesome. I became a fan instantly. They are a chiptune band from NYC that makes music off a hacked 1985 NES. Then they play guitar along side it to create some awesome tunes. They are much better live than recorded! They also focus on making original tracks instead of covers. Didn’t care much for Metroid Metal but I was never much of a metal fan. MC Frontalot was good, and Rai’s voice sounded even better than she did on CD (female vocalist on “Shame of the Otaku”).

Anamanaguchi – Helix Nebula

MC Frontalot feat. Rai – Shame of the Otaku

This convention was so huge I would need 10 clones of myself and 4hr of sleep a night to cover everything. So consider this only a little overview because it was just, massive. If you have any questions feel free to ask me. BE SURE TO GO TO PAX EAST, YOU WONT WANT TO MISS IT. Take my word, your ticket price will be paid back full in free stuff, panels, visual eye candy, and one of the best experiences ever.

Tekken 6 poster, Bioshock 2 poster signed by artiest Jhonen Vasquez, Guild Wars 2 art book signed by artists, Muramasa bag and tattoo, Ratchet and Clank hammer, Hello Kitty Online (lol), Shalya Online, LOTR Online, Uncharted 2 lanyard, God of War lanyard, Red Dead Redemption shirt, orange t-shirt with gross message (we didn’t get a choice BWAHA), Rockstar stickers, buttons, Magic the Gathering booster pack, other random little things.

Close-up on Bioshock 2 poster

Jhonen Vasquez and me (Rockin’ that lolita)

I hope you enjoyed the article, and look forward to some more posts from me, I still have a couple projects like this I will be doing. So stick around =)