The 2009 installment of PAX has come and gone. As the show seems to get larger and larger, so do the lines, the swag, and of course, the games.
Before I go into my review, I want to state right now to the general public that for 50 dollars (not counting parking) you’re getting a hell of a deal. Most concerts are more than that for a cruddy seat and this event is three long days. If you’re a gamer, there really isn’t anything else like it. That’s not what this review is for, this is my general impression of PAX as a show…as only I can look at it.
The first day of PAX basically slapped us with a new revelation: parking sucks. Totaling all three days we spent over forty dollars on parking. You would think the hotel would give a special deal for people attending the event. The Hilton does it when people park there for conference specific functions, why not here? It’s something that needs to be addressed, because I won’t be parking my car in a lot next year. Then again, someone else can, and probably will so I don’t think my complaining is going to do anything.
As far as the show is concerned: not bad. While there supposedly was a lot more people this year, it didn’t feel like it. I credit this to more stations, less lines, and less time on demos.
That, of course, excludes companies like Blizzard. We don’t need 20 minute demos. 10 minutes is more than enough. I really, really, wanted to do a preview of Diablo 3, but I’m not waiting in line for nearly 2 hours to get a chance to play it. They need to be more like Sony, who had longer demos (I think I had God of War for a good 15 minutes) but at least had everything controlled. They had a punk set up at the front to boot everyone off when it was time, not to mention God of War was on four or five sets and easily accessible. I spent a good hour to wait-which isn’t bad for a game as highly anticipated as GoW. I wish this organization was better in Blizzard’s corner. But they really don’t need me previewing stuff anyways-people will buy it on the name alone.
Outside of the lines for games, the booth babes were a bit of a letdown. They weren’t ugly by any means, but if you check out the picture we have of me and two girls from some game I’ve never heard of-they just look sub-par for booth babes. This has no influence on my score, but it’s a good example of several gaming companies half-assing their approach. I’m not just talking T & A here. Rockstar had absolutely nothing for us to play besides an awesome demo of Red Dead Redemption (which we had to watch the dude play) and some beat game everyone cared less for. If game developers want this to become the next E3 then they need to start treating it like it and give us some F**king games to play rather than a cool T-shirt.
I want to point out I’m not nailing everyone there. Sony, like I said did a great job, as well as Ubi-soft (though I would have liked a better showing of Assassin’s Creed 2) and Valve (Left 4 Dead 2 looks awesome). Overall, a lot of developers GET IT, but I’m still annoyed by others thinking this public display is nothing more than free advertising space, or the fact they just don’t know how to get their games to consumers besides giving dumb goodies.
Then there’s the enforcers-MUCH BETTER JOB this year than last. Last year I was getting annoyed with waiting in line for hours only to be turned away at the last second because they couldn’t count heads. They were nothing but nice, offered help whenever it was needed, and actually told you immediately if you weren’t going to be able to see a trailer or whatnot.
Concerts were cool. I unfortunately cannot keep them in this review because we had responsibilities take us elsewhere-I can only assume it was an amazing display of nerdiness and cell phone waves.
Overall, my grades of the show have to go to the people attending. The few exhibitors that don’t know how to run a decent demo or give me hot girls to look at need to realize that this, is in fact bigger than E3 now, and should be treated as such. Simply throwing a few monitors together and calling it a demo doesn’t work for the punk assholes who sit and play without any regard for people behind them. 20 minute demos does nothing but waste our time when we only want 10 minutes with your game anyways. The only time a demo should be 20 minutes should be if it’s a JRPG or a story based game (read: Mass Effect 2).
Besides that, the people attending also need to start getting some common sense. YES YOU. Too many times were we at panels where people were coming up to ask questions and rather decided to give shout outs to their website or magazine-in-development. WE DON’T CARE! It’s unprofessional for one thing, I don’t run up to microphones giving this site address for the same reason. Another thing bothering me was being inconsiderate to other attendees. You know, THAT GUY. The guy that runs up during question time with 20 minutes left and asks a series of stupid questions totally unrelated or starts a filibuster for 20 minutes. It’s flat out rude to the others in line that are asking a quick question pertaining to what was discussed, only to be turned away by some guy talking about the game he’s making in his mother’s basement in between WoW raids.
So overall, PAX gets a B+. It’s by no fault of Penny-Arcade. They did their job, and they did it exceptionally. My experience was bogged down by horrible exhibitors, and some dicks who took up question time in some very important panels discussing the fate of the gaming industry.
Leave the story at home kids.
My grade has nothing to do with the swine flu outbreak by the way.