PAX Prep

written by Blain Newport on Tuesday, 24 August, 2010

PAX 2010 is almost here. I'm getting anxious. I feel like I should be doing something. But there doesn't seem to be any productive stuff to do.

Panels? I made a list, but there were so few things I really wanted to see that it didn't take long. Heck, there's nothing on the list I have that I couldn't miss. Sure, it'd be nice to see a live demo of RAGE, but there'll be enough internet footage later that it's not essential.

Expo floor? I used to make a list, but always missed something. So this year I'll use my map as a checklist and simply hit up every booth. That's a couple hours of prep time saved.

Community stuff? Since someone else took up the banner of the NorCal meetup, all I have to do is show up. The same goes for all the community events.

I still feel like I'm missing something, but everything I can think of is ready to go.

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Just for old times' sake here are some games I'll be looking for.

Monaco - It won the grand prize at the Independant Games Festival but had no demo. And the video I've seen doesn't look fun. The cognitive dissonance thus generated must die.

Dance Central - The people who created Guitar Hero and Rock Band have reportedly made the best use of the 360's Kinect peripheral. It should be enlightening. I'll be looking at other Kinect and Move games as well, but I'm not expecting much.

Batman: Brave and the Bold - a simple Batman brawler I've heard good things about

Dead Rising 2 - The save system's still borked, so I'll never buy it, but it should be fun for the length of a demo.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - third person action with a futuristic take on Chinese legend, could be good

Two Worlds 2 and Gothic 4 - I liked Gothic 3, so these are worth a look.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - I've heard very positive things, but I hated Super Paper Mario, so we'll see.

Vanquish - over the top sci-fi cover shooter from Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil 4, God Hand), worth a test drive

Fable 3 - Fable was a huge let down and I didn't bother with the sequel. Still, it's worth a quick look to see if any of Molyneux's ramblings actually panned out.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Ubisoft's DRM is still keeping me away from AC2, but Brotherhood has an interesting take on multiplayer I'd like to see firsthand.

Guild Wars 2 - I've heard GW2 is rethinking a lot of MMO conventions and improving on them. It also has no subscription fee so there's at least a tiny chance I might play it.