The “Break it Down” Blog

For those of you not farmiliar with PAX, it is the Penny Arcade Expo and is poised to become the replacement for E3. My friend, Laurence Hartje, has gone to PAX and is reporting on it for us:

PAX 2006 started off about 30 minutes late, but it started off with a bang. The first talk was Alex St. John with the prehistory of the Xbox (basically a humorous recap of his time at Microsoft in charge of the DirectX team). The thing that amazes me is what it must be like working at a company like Microsoft in a division that basically gets a blank check. We’re talking about million-dollar launch events (like the canceled at the last minute DirectX 3.0 launch) – or a “Pax Romana” roman themed launch event with live tigers (of which one got loose during the event!).

At the beginning on of the talk, Alex tossed out a variety of balls (beach balls, ping pong balls, etc.) One of which was a winning ball for a decked out gateway gaming rig. Also, one of the balls made a triumphant return outside the auditorium, as masses of gamers used it in a spontaneous volleyball-style game. The goal was to bump the ball to the 4^th floor. Anyone who bumped it so poorly that it fell down to the first was booed by the whole crowd. Every time it was bumped well, the crowed exploded into cheering. It was all fun and games until someone on the third floor managed to bump it into the wall (and got it lodged at the top of the ledge). Then the idea to toss the beanbags chairs (that had been left scattered around the “wireless lounge”) from the 4^th floor became a good idea – luckily it only happened once. (Tycho and Gabe mentioned how disturbing it was preparing in the theater next to where this game was being played – they didn’t know if it was pure anger that was stilling outside the theater)
Tycho and Gabe were entertaining as always during their first Q&A session. There was a proposal on the stage before the event (she said yes), which is supposedly becoming some sort of PAX tradition… Also, their big announcement at the con – A Penny Arcade Game! “On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One”. The plan is once the game is released, they are going to have frequent, episodic content. They are doing all the writing / graphics work, while a development company is doing all the coding. I’ve uploaded a scan of the preview artwork that was handed out to attendees. (I also got my badge signed by the dynamic duo).

Concerts: The Video Game Pianist was amazing! (Look for his videos on YouTube – he’s the guy who can play the Mario music blindfolded). Seeing him perform (blindfolded) and live sends chills down your spine – especially when he busts out level 1-2 (with the coin sound effects). Optimus Rhyme was interesting (I’m not a huge fan of “nerdcore”-style rap), but the NESkimos freaking stole the show. They rocked HARD.Other Events:

The free gaming PC room was neat – basically fairly top of the line machines decked out by nVidia and Intel (probably 40 some odd boxes, I’ll grab a picture tomorrow). Games playable were BF2, UT2004, HL2:DM, CS:Source, Prey (demo), GT-R (demo). Time spots were limited to about 30mins (to keep the room cycling).

I swung by the console equivalent – didn’t have time to sit down and play though (it had a longer/slower moving line than the PC one). [LOTS of Guitar Hero though -- that made me smile]
Bemani was out in force – 2 DDR Extreme machines, Guitar Mania (5^th? Mix – I’ll check tomorrow) and a Drum Mania 5^th Mix machine, all in free-play/1soung/event mode.

Exhibition hall opens tomorrow, so I didn’t get a chance to swing by.

General thoughts: The center was VERY crowded – they’ve already made plans to move it to a bigger venue next year (they need it) . The pre-reg line was longer than the day of line… Whoops. Also, I’ve never been to E3 (and never will now that it’s been canceled), but at least I know what it smells like now (to a smaller degree). It’s also the first place I’ve ever seen bawls slushies, and people carrying around case loads. I think tomorrow you can sign up to have it injected through an IV.

The dark side of PAX: The DS picochat was like the peanut gallery – lots of obscene comments & drawings (and heckling of the presenters/performances). I’ve got to figure out where I can upload them, since I think they violate the “questionable content” policy of the photo sharing site – maybe I’ll send a few samples to nerds-attach.

Tomorrow: More sessions, D&D 1v1 character tournament, more gaming (and DDR), and the MINIBOSSES!!! w00000000t. Time to get some sleep for the 8am wakeup.

I’ve uploaded photos at http://kormac.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album07