Monday, August 27, 2007

PAX: Day 3 - All Good Things...

This post is a bit late in coming. I'm now at home, we all got back safe and sound. I was going to use the amazing powers of the mobile Internet to post on the way back, but I drove until late and they were using the computer anyway. But I get ahead of myself.

Sunday morning we slept in after our late night of playing DOOM. We got up, dressed, packed up the car, and checked out of the motel. We crossed over the bridge hoping to make the best of our last day of PAX.


As with the other days, we headed up to the expo room first. We took some more pictures and wandered around. That's when I saw it. I don't know how I had missed it the first two days. They had the new Bleach fighting game for the Wii! So we jumped in line and checked it out! Personally I found it to be very fun. It has some complexity to it, but for the most part it is very simple and straightforward. I like that. It makes it really accessible. Hardcore fighting game lovers probably won't like this game for that reason, but personally that's why I like it more. Anyone can play that game. And although you can practice a lot and really master the game controls, a new player can still (even if accidentally) counter your attacks. And there's not really juggling in the game. Thank goodness.

Anyway, after playing the Bleach game a few times and talking to the guy there at the booth, I found my friends and we went back to try the DOOM board game again. I bowed out of the game to let another guy try it out. This was good because although the game is pretty fun, I just wasn't in the mood to play it. So instead I kicked back and relaxed for a while.

During this time, I went back to the car to get my backpack. When we parked the car David was saying how creepy it would be if the Mantis' Hymn from Metal Gear Solid were to play while we were in the indoor parking garage. So I cued it up. The payoff was pretty solid when we left later.

For a while I wandered around and really didn't do much. Eventually I ran across one of the BioWare guys. He was really nice and accessible. I asked him to compare Mass Effect with Knights of the Old Republic. He spent a while talking to me about that. Basically he said that since Mass Effect is their own IP, they can do a lot more with it. The storytellers have a lot more flexibility to create a gripping story.

Eventually the day was wrapping up, so we headed back to the Microsoft booth hoping to win the raffle for an XBox 360 Elite w/ Mass Effect faceplate, signed by the game developers. Sadly none of us won. But it was fun nonetheless.

Our final PAX event was watching the last part of the last round of the Omegathon. The final game was Halo 3. They got to play on new maps with new weapons. It looked pretty awesome. Then Gabe and Tycho duked it out for fun.

And thus ended our PAX '07 experience. With tears in our eyes we said goodbye to the convention center and got on the road for the long journey home.

David had two hilarious moments that just must be shared. Of course, you, dear reader, may not find them as funny as we did at the time.

  • During a bout of sleep-talking, David has this conversation with his brother (Chris was awake):
    "I'm so glad you didn't buy that StarCraft game."
    "Why?"
    "Because the box is so *&#$@(# huge!"
    The StarCraft board game does indeed have a big box, but in his dream it was the size of a coffin.
  • At dinner I got a little bowl of Honey Mustard to go with my chicken. We had no sooner commented on what it was when David asked, "What is that?" Naturally we told him it was custard. He came so close to eating it. He said that if we had called it lemon pudding instead that he would have gobbled it right up.
    *Sigh* Missed opportunities.


The only really note-worthy event that happened on our way back was getting chased by a van full of psychotic murderers.

...

Okay, we don't really know if they were murderers, but they were certainly idiots. As I was driving along, we started a retarded game of leap-frog with this van. When I would pass it, it would blink its brights and would come up later to pass me. But then after passing me it would slow way down to obstruct my way. This happened over the space of some 30 minutes. We didn't constantly pass each other during this time, but it happened enough to get me frustrated.

Eventually I decided to risk being pulled over and pressed the pedal to the metal. Literally. I got up to just under 100 mph and put some distance between us. Then suddenly they were catching up. Not cool. So when the next opportunity came I made a last second exit from the freeway and they sped on by. We didn't see them again.

As a final note, I'd like to apologize to my companions for my crankiness when I got far too tired. And I forgive you for keeping me awake with the loud sounds of screaming music, BioShock, and How I Met Your Mother. =)