PAX 2009: Day 1
GamingExcellence's party girl checks out gaming's biggest West Coast party.
By Liana K, GamingExcellence
Posted September 12, 2009
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The first day of a new expo is always daunting. I don't understand the rhythms or the culture. I don't know my way around the city. So I drifted into the Washington Convention and Trade Center in (surprisingly) beautiful downtown Seattle with a little apprehension and a lot of confusion. Yes, it would have helped had I read the press orientation email a little better, but after two trips up and down the three levels of escalators before I pulled up the email on my blackberry and discovered that check-in was actually at the hotel across the street.
Right then.
After that, the first day of the totally sold out PAX 2009 was extremely pleasant, despite the oddly persistent smell of laundry that had been left wet in the washing machine too long.. The dire sense of urgency I feel at E3 was noticeably missing, because PAX is, as one rep put it, "98% fans".
The exhibit hall is tiny compared to E3's sensory overload, and the booths aren't nearly as swanky. But the swag flows like honey mead.
Like that simile? I think I've been playing too much Dragon Age. It's good to have friends in the right places. Thanks to Chris at Bioware, I got to skip the 3 hour line for the preview. Although I did help a fella in a wheelchair move around inside the cramped booth, so karma is happy all around.
I feel under-dressed, however. A significant number of cosplayers are among the fans, and I'm in business casual clothes, used to the "who are you and do you have an appointment?" glares of E3. Tomorrow I'm going to have to spice up my wardrobe somehow: dressing down at these things, for me, is denying myself a large part of the fun.
And it now occurs to me: holy crap, this is fun! What is this strange substance known as fun? Granted, not having a camera trailing me has a lot to do with that, but it's also the free-roaming nature of the event: I dropped into quite a few booths without an appointment and got on a demo quickly. The demos are also far less structured than at E3, so I could get a better sense of what it's really like to play these games.
So... what did I play? Read on!
League of Legends: This free-to-play RPG/strategy multiplayer falls neatly into the "it's so crazy, it just might work" category. According to the dev team, there's no tricks to the micro-commerce. The add-ons available for purchase are apparently just that: add-ons. But the game will have shelf presence in stores through a partnership with THQ. The $19.95 US purchase price is a collection of content you can also buy online, but the value is better if you buy it in this bundle. It's like the starter kits tabletop games put out.
Even at $19.95, the game provides clear value. The Champions - League's playable characters - are straight out of the mind of someone like me who has played too many RPGs and can no longer take them seriously.
For instance, there's Gangplank, a pirate, because Riot Games staffers insist cool games must have pirates.
There's Anivia, the Cryophoenix, because taking a majestic mythological creature and making it do the opposite of what it's supposed to is also something cool games must do.
There's Twitch the Plague Rat and Rammus the Armordillo because cool games need furries.
And then there's both my favourite character and arch-nemesis, Amumu the Sad Mummy. Seriously. The little bastard is so cute I didn't want to hurt him, until he hit me with his bandages of doom, and then it was on!
The world is cute and bright, and seems to check emo at the door. RPGs need much more of this.
Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer: This game was in such high demand behind-closed-doors at E3 that I didn't get to play it. Getting my hands on it at PAX was not a disappointment. On display were two of the four playable characters: the father whose son will be taken by the titular serial killer, and a Private Investigator. In playing the P.I., I was struck by how the realism of the game made stopping a convenience store robbery extremely exciting. Knowing that getting shot would alter the game going forward instead of just resulting in a respawn made the whole thing extremely exciting. Because my thumbs were fast and accurate enough, I beat the robber down, and the convenience store owner presented me with a clue to the Origami Killer's M.O: he sends origami animals to the fathers of his victims, and they have four days to complete four trials to get their child back. I asked the rep if that meant a developed morality to the murderer. The answer was a coy "maybe".
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Latest Comments (Forum View)
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Seridin - September 15, 2009 8:25 AM ET |
Have you noticed that it looks a lot like Heroes of Newerth? Their FAQ says what the game is NOT (not an MMO, not an RTS), but it doesn't seem to mention DotA. It seems to take a lot from the genre... champions/summoners, no leaving the game (they calli t LeaverBuster), levelling per round, etc.
I think I'll pass on this one.
Dragon Age, though, should be something really special...
-Seridin
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LianaK - September 17, 2009 1:35 PM ET |
Hey there,
League of Legends owes a lot to DotA. Good eye. It's a "from the people who brought you DotA" scenario.
I felt the same way you did about it, until I played it. The nice thing about League of Legends is that it's free to play, so you can sample it without coughing up any money. So if you have a free afternoon, it's a way to kill time. You can't lose -- how often can you say that with this increasingly expensive hobby?
And yes, I agree with you, Dragon Age looks totally yum.
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Seridin - September 19, 2009 8:20 AM ET |
Hmmm... free is good. And should be encouraged. I'll try it.
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