Oh man another PAX Prime has come and gone, and I can barely keep my head straight. Things just never stop at PAX, but it is a lot of fun. Well if you find waiting in line and learning about upcoming games fun that is. I know I do! Let’s get this out of the way up front, I lost in the first round of the Omegathon. Turns out I am terrible Monkey Ball. Well I knew that going in, but I was worse than I remember. It was a fun experience though, so I whole heartedly recommend it if you get the chance.
This was an odd PAX in that I didn’t really play that many games, I mostly went to panels, but of the ones I did play I think Gearbox’s Battleborn was my favorite. My favorite one I can talk about anyway. The game features a large cast of characters that must team up to save the last star in the universe from being destroyed. It played very much like a refinement of Borderlands, but that is not a bad thing.
The other game of note that I got to play was Ubisoft’s The Division. It is a team based third person shooter. It is all online, so it is sort of an MMO. I think they are going for something like Destiny, but with more story, and a completely different control scheme. We will see how it turns out. What I played of it was pretty good. I could see this becoming quite the addiction for a certain type of player.
I did get to try out HTC and Valve’s VIVE at the Asus both. I played a VR version of Fruit Ninja. It did look cool, but it wasn’t the greatest game to sell me on the need to spend a ton of money on VR equipment. The experience has gotten much better than what I tried last year. The high resolution makes a world of difference. Now I can vomit looking at great visuals!
I played a couple of new (to me) board games, but the only one that I would consider buying is Samurai. It plays like a streamlined version of Settlers of Catan. Where you place tiles around resources to control them. You need to collect as many as you can of one resource while stopping others from doing the same, so you can be the top Samurai in feudal Japan.
As far as the panels go, Gearbox and Telltale Games know what they are all about: free stuff. Gearbox gave away the HD version of Homeworld and Telltale gave away all their games, yes you read that right. All their games. Plus they both put on fun shows. Gearbox had a wedding and a magic show, while Telltale did a group play of Tales from the Borderlands episode four. Both were tons of fun. Other developers need to find some people with more charisma. Though kudos to IO Interactive (a Square Enix company) on the free red Hitman ties and at least a gameplay video with developer commentary.
Non-PAX developer events continued to be the places to play games without lines and get free food. Warner Brothers, Boss Key’s LawBreakers, Gamespot, and Square Enix/IGN all held events. Warner Brothers scored in the food department,; LawBreakers, well I can’t say anything due to a NDA though here is my best kill from that event, but you should keep your eyes on that game; Gamespot had a very nice venue, and IGN tried to kill us with a giant never ending food line. I am sure there were more, but either I didn’t know about them, or I just didn’t have time to go.
All in All it was another great year. Every year after the show I am not sure I can handle going again, but I am sure by around May 2016 I will be chomping at the bit to get tickets for next year. Maybe I will see you there! Also keep a look out on this Friday, I will be doing a PAX based Free Code Friday on twitter! I have quite a few Rainbow Six Beta Keys to give out so follow @Shmee_Is_Me and wait for the announcement!
