POSTMORTEM// PAX East 2013

By // Nicole

PAX East is a very magical event. I attended my first PAX last year in Boston. I remember being in awe of how easy it was to talk to everyone—how comfortable everybody seemed with just being themselves and engaging with others. Being someone who, as a rule, avoids human contact as much as possible, I amaze myself at PAX. This year I again found myself engaging people based on overheard conversations, feeling confident that no one at PAX would take offense at my eavesdropping habits. As well, people engaged us effortlessly in the same fashion. The thing about PAX is that everyone at PAX is your friend—unless they are line cutters: I fucking hate line cutters.


The Panels

---

I like to focus on the big panels and events at PAX and leave the rest to relaxing chance. When it comes to the big events I must line up early and get the best spot possible. This year, like last year, the Opening Ceremony, Closing Ceremony and the Q&As with Mike & Jerry were an absolute must. This year I didn’t know or have a serious commitment to the Keynote Speaker, Cliff Bleszinski, but it was a good story time anyway. There isn’t too much to say about any of the Q&As except that Mike & Jerry are the funniest people in the world and you have to go to all 3 Q&As to experience the full majesty of the traditional PAX Prank.

I have been following PATV's new show, Strip Search since before it began—so the Strip Search panel was a must this year. If you like web comics and/or reality TV you should be watching Strip Search. Watch it.

Another must see panel this year was the Scott & Kris late night panel. I lied when I said Mike & Jerry were the funniest people in the world. Scott & Kris are. This panel lasted an hour longer into the night than it was scheduled for. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed for as many hours straight. It’s probably not healthy to.

The Exhibitor Hall

---

Now for the floor! I feel like this year there were so many games that on Sunday I found myself running across booths that I hadn’t even seen the previous two days and exclaiming, “Where did this game come from?” Two such Sunday gems were the new Might & Magic X: Legacy and Secret Ponchos:

I was a big fan of World of Xeen as a kid, so I was pretty excited to see this new Might & Magic game. I breezed through the demo and it was really solid. It had the old school feel you want with this kind of game, but the graphics are beautiful and the movement and attacking is fluid and feels natural. The attacking is technically turned based but it goes fast enough that you barely notice. I’m personally excited about this game. I’ve got my fingers crossed that they make a Mac version.

Secret Ponchos is a great looking multiplayer game that made me miss playing Red Dead Redemption multiplayer. The demo showed a Gang Shootout/Free for All style game in progress where all players just killed as many other players as the could in the amount of time available. The girl at the booth told us that there will be other types of multiplayer available, including teaming up and creating a posse. The art style of this game is unique and nice to look at. So far it looks like it’s definitely going to be an Xbox Live game, possibly available on other systems as well.

Of course there were a lot of big booths. The one I was most excited about was The Elder Scrolls Online. I didn’t wait in that insane line to play the demo though. I’m patient. I’ll wait. Any day now I’ll get that email with the Beta invite. Right, Bethesda?

The Nintendo booth was great—crowded, but great. I guess I’ll have to buy a Wii U & a 3DS. Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate looked fun to me. I played a little bit of Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii and enjoyed it. I’m still trying to decide if it was “Ultimate” enough to be worth buying.

I'm done with the Assassin's Creed series forever so I don't even care at all about Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.  That pirate bullshit was my least favorite part of Assassin's Creed 3 and so they made a whole game worth of it. Why are you popping out these games so fast anyway, Ubisoft? You greedy sons of bitches.

The Indie Showcase area seemed bigger this year. I thought Contrast was the indie winner. I’d already seen some video of this game before PAX and it looks really beautiful and innovative. Organ Trail was funny if you’re an Oregon Trail fan. It looks exactly the same except it’s filled with zombies and you drive a station wagon. It’s already available on Steam too.

---

This year we decided to go crazy and stay at the Westin. Let me say, it’s totally worth it and I hope to be able do it from now on for every PAX East. That bridge to the convention center is the most convenient thing ever, especially when it comes to avoiding the cold Boston weather.  That was definitely the biggest success of this year. We also managed to find the elusive Pack B PAX East exclusive for Cards Against Humanity. That may have been the biggest success--One of those things.