Rocky's Trip to PAX in a Legendary Box

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Rocky's Trip to PAX in a Legendary Box; September 1st, 2008
Topic Started: Sep 2 2008, 08:50 AM (124 Views)
Rocky2000	Sep 2 2008, 08:50 AM Post #1
Spectre of iG Posts: 2,264 Group: Founder/Admin Member #1 Joined: January 15, 2007 XBL Gamertag Rocky2000 What I'm playing: Uncharted 2: Among Theives, NHL 2010 PSN Username Rocky2000	Rocky’s PAX 2008 Trip in a Legendary Box The first rule of any gaming convention according to a fellow conventioneer is that the wait in line is always worth the payout. Standing in a sweaty and humid line inside of an airplane hangar for two and a half hours was something that I’ll never forget. Along with my companion, Garret “Without Sound” Rosentreter, we shat the crap of the PAX 2008 Convention line-up with some of the most stereotypical nerds in the world. For once, it was like a time of where nothing mattered, and everyone in the massive building all shared a common interest for once. There was no rule saying that you couldn’t defend your gaming opinion, nor was there any slang exchanged regarding people’s body mass, voice pitch, height (except for me) , race, gender, or sexuality... It was a place where people got together to INSIST in joining in playing games and meeting other people over the next three days. Through the pictures below, there were plenty of instances where there was insecurity in the air. Some people even went to the show on their own, but as they probably didn’t come to expect, there were people there with open arms (minus the deodorant) ready to take you in as one of their guild members. People were dressed up beyond anything that I had seen before. Countless Jokers’ (The Dark Knight), Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, Captain Falcon – even the main character from the upcoming horror survival game by EA, “Dead Space.” People were here to show off, that’s fact; and it wasn’t just the gamers that were here to impress. Upon entry to the show floor, massive bass pounded everyone that walked in. Booths to the left, booths to the right, and thousands of people pouring in like water on rock (thanks, LOtR!). Within minutes, people were playing games and giving impressions to the developers that were listening keenly, one I saw with a notepad and a pen taking down everything he could. I on the other hand went straight for the Rock Band 2 booth, wanting to check out the Ion Drum Kit that will be selling later this year for $300 MSRP; it wasn’t there, but the new drum kit was, which was something that I’m extremely impressed with. Despite all of the intense sounds, lasers, yelling, singing, bargaining and selling, I know for a fact that I would be able to hear the old school Rock Band drums over everything else going on in the background. Nothing. I heard NOTHING! The new drums have got some sleek new material that prevents them from making any real noise, which is something that will make late night gamers appreciate the instrument without any worry of waking up their neighbours – three houses down. After completing quick run through most of the booths, checking out some sweet merchandise and getting tons of swag for future giveaways (here this now, it’ll be SWEET), Garret and I went for some half assed pizza in the convention center and lined up for the opening keynote. The keynote with Ken Levine (lead story writer of Bioshock, 2k Games) was excellent. He talked about how he lived his life as a “nerd” (his words...) and declared that it was his lifestyle. It was inspiring and really had an undercover morale to follow what you believe in.... very cool stuff. It’s possible that the keynote may become available – once it does, check the forums or below for the link – I highly recommend that you watch it. Right after the keynote, Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade hit the stage, and the crowd went FUCKING NUTS. We had to leave a little early, since we wanted to hit the 1up Yours Live Podcast. They’ve almost positively posted it on their site (LINK), so check it out! Right after the podcast, I met Garnet Lee and Shane Bettanhousen (two of the writers for 1up.com / EGM); they were cool guys... drunk, but very smart dudes with an impressive track record on the gaming industry thus far. See the pictures below! And, this is Garnet Lee from 1up.com, and EGM who I met after the podcast. Super friendly guy, and really into the community surrounding the show. After that, we grabbed a bite and then went straight back into the belly of the beast... by this time, it was around 9pm, so the concerts were starting up. Freezepop, The OneUps and Jonathan Coultan who wrote the “Still Alive” song for Portal all had awesome live performances –I mind you, it’s total pandemonium when it’s 96% dudes jumping around and hitting each other.... but hey, that’s part of being at PAX! There’s a 4% chance the next person you hit might be a chick! Hell yeah! After the concerts, we headed back to the hotel and well... I started writing this! After a long and painful sleep in one of the worst hotel rooms EVER, I woke up close to eight in the morning went for some crazy-ass food with portions the size of a computer desk, eager to game for the remainder of the day. I had an epiphany while chomping down on a breakfast sandwich. Today was for games. Yesterday was the run for all the panels, and stuff to buy before it became sold out. But today... yes... today was the day I’d play everything that I wanted to. We got to the showfloor, made a left and went straight to the BRANDO booth for some free samples to wake us up. Shortly thereafter, we broke off for the next while, rechecking booths to buy stuff. Then I saw that Marty O’ Donnel was on the floor! Holy crap, right? The composer for the Halo trilogy was literally feet away from where I stood. Nice guy, and I’m glad I had two seconds of “hey, you rule!” talk with him. After the awesome meetup, I met up with Garret and we hit the Guitar Hero Word Tour booth. The line was SMALL as hell. Compared to Rock Band 2 (about a half hour wait time), Guitar Hero had a wait time of about one song, which was awesome. I hopped on drums, and Garret on guitar, some dude on bass, and another dude on vocals (who should have stayed on the side and watched, I mind you). We played Everlong by The Foo Fighters, a song that I had never actually heard before. I started out on medium, for three reasons. 1) New drum kit. New fret board, new everything. Not used to it. 2) It was a song that I never heard before. 3) I didn’t want to fail the band (how nice of me!). It started out very basic; comparable to Rock Band on many levels. The left pad (red) was definitely the most used, and as such was fairly broken in its own regard, only responding to a slammed drum stick to it instead of the usual tap. The symbol up to on the left (yellow) felt natural as well; despite of my lack of experience on a real drum kit. The song went well on my end, ending with about 95%; the vocalist around 65%, bass in the high 90%’s and Garret around 85%. It was fun, but the dude at the booth was kind of a douche.... There were a lot of other games that I played, but I can’t really remember in what order I played them in, so a quick run down on all of the games that I played is below: Legendary (the box, the game, the box): Turning Point was probably one of the worst FPS games this generation. The idea was there, but the gameplay and mechanics really didn’t deliver. Legendary delivers on both story, and gameplay. The framerate stood at a solid 20FPS if there were more than three different enemies on screen at once, which I pointed out should be fixed to the Game** guy. He mentioned that it was an early build and it would be better for the final release. The game played well, giving the controls a very familiar feel with the ability to aim down the “site” (misprint on the control layout poster, hehe) using the left trigger, and using B to crouch, A to jump, X to use, etc... I actually ended up dying quite a few times due to the fact that I didn’t know what Y did. Holding down the Y button allows you to hold your hand out, make it glow, and collect dead enemy carcass juice, which you can store and use as health packs at anytime. Found that out around five minutes before my turn ended... NICE. But overall, the game was fair. I don’t think it will be a hit with multiplayer (if there IS any), but the singleplayer experience should be a good one – at least a solid rental. Fallout 3: Too much to tell... Play it in October, or talk to me on live. I’ll say this RIGHT NOW. IT WAS SO FUCKING AWESOME, THAT I ALMOST HUGGED TODD HOWARD. Okay.... next. Lord of the Rings: Conquest: Lord of the Rings gone battlefield. That’s how I describe it. I did break the debug kit that was in use at my station by accident (and by accident, I mean the part where I pressed the fucking guide button to check the time, and fell through the level and put the stupid game into stupid debug mode, so stupid booth guy had to reboot the entire stupid station....), but in the end the helpful Pandemic dude got it working again. I started out behind the front gates of Minas Tirith (read: the big ass castle city up against the mountain in Return of the King). I began the round as a swordsman that had a really sweet throwing axe on his back, which you threw using the right trigger (ranged attack). The gates pounded a few times, and I was ready as I would ever be to throw that axe into an Orc’s piehole. Ends up two massive cave trolls smash through the gates. I threw the axe, and it sure stuck in the cave troll.... but it didn’t really do anything. So, I took advantage of the respawn station near in the middle of the square, and turned into an archer and dealt some mega awesome ranged attack goodness. Taking down one of the trolls was done very similarly to how you would in Too Human. Get behind him, jump on him, stab his neck, jump off, point and laugh. After holding out the initial attack, we eventually became overrun with orcs and the like. We retreated to the top walkways of the castle, shooting off nasguls and big goblin ladder tower things, burning them down one by one. I had to change to a wizard to take care of the towers by sending sweet fireballs out of the staff, which was really pretty looking. Each class really has its own set of attributes. Swordplay, magic, quickness and range all play pivotal parts in the match where teamwork will save your life. Overall, the game was really good. It plays better than it looks, so give it a try when it hits sometime this holiday. Midnight Club: Los Angeles: What a fucking ride. I’ll start with this. I won the race against SEVEN other people, but how I got there was the part worth talking about. Race started. Two nitrous per race. Half of the racers let one go RIGHT away. I kept it going steady, and I was the ONLY racer using the in dash view (inside the car, wheel in front of you, mirrors, etc..); everyone else was using the default third person view, which makes my bragging rights all the much more epic. Twists and turns in an open city with no boundaries pushed the chances of a small ally or shortcut to shorten your race time all that more probable. I side swiped many of my opponents; more than I would – for once, I felt like the asshole that ruins the race for everyone. But I didn’t feel guilty, mainly because we’re illegally racing through LA in $300,000 cars, evading traffic and rushing 150MPH over jumps and through gardens and what not. I gained the lead by cutting a large corner shaving about four seconds off my time. I got up to 2nd place around ¾ of the way through the race. I knew I saved those nitrous for something. I hit X, and the nitro kicked in until I was neck and neck with the opponent in first. I side swiped him, but he slammed on his brakes; I hit the wall to the left of him HARD, hit the E-Brake, did two 360’s, and kept going. I let my final nitro go, as the screen blurred and my speedometer looked like it was on speed (get it?). There was a jump near the finish line that the guy at booth four, currently in first place didn’t feel was a good idea to go over. He swerved to the left, and lost some of his speed. I hit the jump RIGHT after my nitro ended, landed RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS FUCKING CAR, and won the race by 0.2 seconds (see timestamp picture below). Probably the best race I’ve ever had with strangers. Hell yeah. I won a schwag bag and an ass load of Rockstar stickers, with Midnight Club stickers which will almost definitely be given away on a future contest. Game played well. Very arcade-style racing. Made me want more! YEAH! I WIN! There were plenty of other short busts of gaming that I participated in, but there was almost too much to remember. I’ll tell you the things that were there that I didn’t play, but wanted to: Rock Band 2, Left 4 Dead, Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet, Mirror’s Edge (Longest. Line. Ever.) and Star Craft II. One of the biggest highlights for me was meeting the Gamerscore blog's Chirs Palidino ("CPaladino") in person for the first time. We've been casual buddies on live, but it was cool seeing him there and being like, "Oh hey, I'm Rocky2000 from your friends list!" -- he greeted me with a nice welcome, which was really cool. He asked me if I had a minute, which I did; and we did a little interview that might end up on GSB! Very cool stuff! You will TOTALLY hear from me if the content goes up, because I'll be screaming in happyness; Chris if you're reading this, thanks again bro. And the big finale to the show (seriously on the way out of the main hall to get a cab!), I was asked to do an interview by Chris! too cool. Asked me what games I think were good examples of storytelling -- might see it, might not. Who knows? PAX 2008 is a wrap. A very delicious wrap that I’m really looking forward to next year. Like the guy said right when we got into the line to get in..... it was totally worth the wait. Overall I had a really good time. There were some things that I didn't get a chance to see, but there was always something going on, and something to do. There was no time wasted at PAX and I couldn't have had it gone any better. Feel free to post any questions about my trip below... ask me if I played stuff, or if I met this guy, or that guy. It all happened REALLY fast. I could have forgot a ton of stuff, so ask me some questions, dammit!] -Rocky2000 PS:There are rumors circulating around that iG’s very own SpartanZypher may be attending the show next year. Along with yours truly, we would be able to establish media passes which would give us access to private demos, and let us tour the floor a whole hour and a half before anyone else (except for other media, of course) giving our community a much more dense experience other than the pictures below, and the hotel room tour. If anyone else is interested in going next year, lets plan ahead. Let me know. Link to stuff I talked about: Hotel Tour (You'll need Facebook, sorry!) Brawndo, the Energy Drink 1up Yours Live @ PAX 2008 www.GiantBomb.com The Giant Bombcast, PAX 2008 Legendary (Gamesite) Pictures This is me in the line before the show even opened. Very tired.... And, this is Garnet Lee from 1up.com, and EGM who I met after the podcast. Super friendly guy, and really into the community surrounding the show. And after leaving the 1up Yours Livecast, I met Shane Bettanhousen outside of a hotel on the way back; what the hell are the odds? Nice guy though! Me outside of the Microsoft Booth, letting Marcus know that it's okay and that his dead comrades will be just fine... "Hey FENIX! Got any more of the COG tags? I want more swag!" The crew from GiantBomb and I (Davis, Gerstmann, Shoemaker) Chris Paladino and I outside the Gears 2 stations. And the big finale to the show (seriously on the way out of the main hall to get a cab!), I was asked to do an interview by Chris! too cool. Asked me what games I think were good examples of storytelling -- might see it, might not. Who knows? Edited by Rocky2000**, Sep 2 2008, 09:05 AM.
	Check out my blog at www.WoahRandom.com


Sasha	Sep 2 2008, 05:04 PM Post #2
Mr Driller lives Posts: 235 Group: High Seniority Member #8 Joined: January 30, 2007 XBL Gamertag kingbet123 What I'm playing: Guitar Hero:World Tour, Fallout 3, Oblivion, GH:Aerosmith, Battlefield:BC	Evan, dare I say that I am jealous as hell....not only that you got to play all those games but you got to meet so many cool people from the sites/magazines we read and the games we play. That was a great write-up and I look forward to some of the Rockstar Midnight Club schwag!!!!!
	http://www.powerupgamers.com - the bestest gaming site EVER!!! Check it out!!!


SpartanZypher	Sep 2 2008, 05:43 PM Post #3
Vanguard Posts: 1,904 Group: Founder/Admin Member #2 Joined: January 21, 2007 XBL Gamertag SpartanZypher What I'm playing: Assassin's Creed II, Modern Warfare 2, Forza Motorsport 3	Excellent write-up, Evan! Should've told us about how you got to play Fallout 3 20 minutes early. But yeah, hopefully I'll be able to go next year.



Wood Ghost	Sep 6 2008, 07:29 PM Post #4
Casual Poster Posts: 128 Group: Members Member #40 Joined: July 4, 2007	Nice article. Sounds like you had an excellent time.



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