NerdLust.net

So there I was, in the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, with snacks in my bag, a loose agenda, and swarms of fellow gamers threading around me as I wandered like one of those empty-faced people you see wandering the malls on Christmas Eve, clutching their hardscrabble gifts and wearing defeat like a shroud.  (OK that was me too.)  What to do first?  Where do I go?  What if I miss something?

As it happened, the weekend was a blast and while I feel I missed a lot, it only seems to underscore what a massive and awesome thing the Penny Arcade Expo really is.  And there’s no avoiding it, no one could see and do it all, but all that means is you will always find something fun, interesting, or exciting to do, every minute of every hour the convention is open.  I ended up eschewing the tabletop gaming (RPGs, CCGs, board games, and who knows what else) completely in favor of the expo floor and a few sessions.  And while I was well and truly tapped out by the time the concerts were up Saturday night, I did make it to Friday’s, which was the one I’d marked as Must Not Miss.  The expo hall was extraordinary.  I found myself crossing the floor in a straight line, wandering booths and shoulder surfing the people playing demos along the way, but when I’d look back after making it to the other side, I’d see at least as many things that I’d missed along the way as I’d noticed!

By and large, even the games I wasn’t terribly interested in had engaging and fun booth presence, but I have to point out how disappointed I was with the Blizzard booth.  I went by both Saturday and Sunday and both times it was the same thing: people silently playing Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3 with intensity, people playing World of Warcraft: Cataclysm with scarce interest (there were no ready-made characters that I saw, so it was just the starter towns and level 1 abilities for both Worgen and Goblin characters), and, what I found very puzzling, the booth attendants just sat behind a bare counter talking with each other and looking vaguely annoyed by everything going on around them.  Maybe they felt they didn’t have to try, just coming from BlizzCon and all, but for someone who was extremely excited about all of their upcoming offerings, this was a major buzzkill.

A company that really managed to get it right was Take 2.  They had a great setup in their corner of the hall, with a set designed to look like a bar out of the upcoming Mafia 2, a viewing room for the Bioshock 2 demo (which I unfortunately did not get a chance to see) and a wicked open set for the Borderlands play demo area, which they timed and regulated with relentless precision.  I came to appreciate that regimentation when I got my turn and realized I could play Borderlands until my legs gave out (granted, not a long time given it was the end of Saturday).  Not only is it a very attractive game with a striking visual style, but it’s a very natural game to just pick up and run with.  And that’s coming from someone who has scarcely held an Xbox 360 controller before.  That team should be proud of themselves; their game is going to do very well.

I’m still a little confused by the release of Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited, but they had a fun booth and I actually attempted to install the game when I got home.  The installer had trouble with some Microsoft DLL dependencies under Wine, and I couldn’t muster the interest to resolve it.  So that’s that.  On the flipside, I was delighted to come upon the Serious Sam HD display and demo.  The first Serious Sam is a gem and while it had a great graphics engine for its day (mostly due to lighting) it unfortunately did not age well.  This re-release with upgraded graphics looks fantastic and I’m going to enjoy hopping on some co-op servers to plow through the waves of monsters with other gamers again.  You can see some comparisons here.

I was surprised and hooked by another game I hadn’t previously heard of, Fallen Earth, which is a sort of Mad Max scavenge-the-wasteland dystopian MMO, that has a sandbox design to it much like the more innovative notions that made Star Wars Galaxies such an inappropriate vehicle for its license.  I am so looking forward to playing this game (it was released last week) that I may pay full price even though it might not run in WINE and I’ll be forced to boot Windows to play.  Killer ideas.  If I designed my own MMO, it would have been very, very similar to what I see in Fallen Earth.  I queried someone at the EVE booth, and someone at the Pirate of the Burning Sea booth, and of course another at the DDO:Unlimited booth (of the three, I haven’t played only PotBS) and none of them felt or were able to communicate that their game would satisfy my needs in an MMO, continuous solo play, exploration, advancement without the grind, except for Fallen Earth.

One of the few scheduled events I decided to attend was the Star Wars: The Old Republic demo, and I left very happy with that decision.  Not only were all of the attendees treated to the first Knights of the Old Republic via Steam (coinciding with its debut there) but we were treated to an awesome play demonstration and the cinematic demo on the big screens.  When playing through KotOR on my old Xbox, I could not stop thinking about how this should have been the Star Wars MMO (I was long ago disappointed by Galaxies).  Seeing the confirmation that it was not only going to happen, but that it was going to be very, very, fun, was electrifying.  I’m looking forward to this game in a huge way.

I should also mention the Ubisoft presentation, which took place in the same hall and featured the new Splinter Cell: Conviction and Assassin’s Creed 2.  I love the direction they took with Splinter Cell.  I love the Thief series and playing stealthy where games allow it, so hearing about how they rethought stealth play and how to make it more engaging and fun was extremely interesting and definitely stirred my interest in a series that I’d discarded mid-way through the first title.  Likewise, I wasn’t all that interested in the news of Assassin’s Creed 2 previously (I still haven’t made it very far through the first one) they appear to have constructed a worthy sequel, with an interesting and beautiful setting and that special sort of gameplay that made the first stand apart from others in its class.

Among my favorite memories of the weekend are those involving the friend of all gamers, Wil Wheaton.  Each of the scheduled events I attended required an hour-long wait in line, and so too did shaking Wil’s hand and telling him he’s just an awesome guy.  While there I bought his chapbook, and I have to tell you all that when he releases fiction, do not miss it.  He is just as engaging and entertaining in this medium as in his non-fiction and blogging.  I also, fanboy that I must be, waited in line for an hour and a half to see him speak on Sunday for an hour (and a half, thanks, Wil!) and that turned out to be my entire PAX attendance for Sunday.  Three hours, all for Wil.  Yes, he really is that awesome.

Now, this is normally a music blog, though I do intend the occasional foray into gaming, so I’d be nuts not to include anything about Friday night’s concert, right?  Anamanaguchi was fun (I wasn’t expecting that) but I wasn’t particularly enthralled.  Chiptunes isn’t for everyone.  Metroid Metal, however, definitely impressed me and I’m looking forward to picking up their new album (which was released that weekend) Varia Suite.  But of course, the headliner MC Frontalot was the real reason I attended.

I hazily (read: dimmed by rum) recall meeting the Front at Nerdapalooza and seeing him perform a bit later.  So it was good to see him this time while sober and take in the whole thing.  I’m glad I did because the first thing that happened was Wil Wheaton stepping out from the curtain to play some fake plastic rock (Rock Band?  Guitar Hero? I wouldn’t know.) when the Front’s band-mates looked confused about the lack of said Front.  This was only a brief intro as Frontalot quickly took the stage and delivered his performance.  Joined at varying points by Beefy, Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, and Rai Kamishiro, it was an epic trip through the Front’s catalog and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

All told it was way more than I was expecting or conditioned to handle.  I think next year I may need to train ahead of time with some kind of nerd version of the Ninja Warrior contestant’s home rigs they mock up to train for the course.  PAX was completely overwhelming and I came away full to bursting with appreciation for what Mike, Jerry, and their crew have put together.  PAX ’10 here I come!  (…Or, dare I say it, PAX East ’10?)