PAX 2009: Day 2
Our party girl checks in with her day two impressions of PAX 2009.
By Liana K, GamingExcellence
Posted September 13, 2009
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I got up bright and early, had a healthy breakfast and enough coffee for four people, and headed over to the convention center for my prearranged nine o'clock appointment, oh-so-proud of myself that I was up and out early, ready to get a jump on the day... and hopefully jump the God of War line.
Unfortunately, the hall doesn't open until 10AM. Depending on who you ask, the expo either changed the hours or they had always been that way. The info desk could have cared less and rudely kicked us over to the media room. I start feeling familiar shades of the "you are media, therefore, you are scum" attitude that exists at so many other shows. When we got to the media office, it's locked. No one is there. Yes, this was starting to all feel very familiar.
But then when the woman working the media room arrived, she actually dealt with the problem. She got a message to my first appointment and he came down to the media room to talk to me, armed with his product.
According to Mark McNabb, VP of marketing for Gunnar Optiks, you've likely never heard of them. If the demo I had of these glasses is any indication, however, you'll start seeing the yellow-tinted lenses around. Using a lens technology called i-AMP, they reduce eye fatigue. The science behind them is pretty common sense, and the price point is reasonable. The aviator style branded by Major League Gaming seems to deliver the most noticeable immediate effects, but there are numerous styles to choose from. Some even have arms designed to be worn comfortably under headphones.
The glasses have a 30-day money back guarantee, but after wearing them for only three rounds of Guitar Hero World Tour, I already noticed that they helped reduce the burning feeling that comes from a reduced blink rate.
First appointment of the day salvaged, I made a beeline for the God of War III demo stations just as the show floor opened. There was already a line forming. If these lines are any indication of future sales, Sony finally has a title that will sell the freshly price-reduced PS3.
This time, however, I finally got to play the frikkin' game!
At first I hated that the action command prompts appeared on the edges of the screen, but I quickly realized that having triangle at the top, X at the bottom, etc, eliminated the confused fumbling that makes action commands more frustrating than they need to be. The new charge attacks are nifty too, and give you an awesome sense of accomplishment when Kratos knocks down dozens of clustered enemies like bowling pins in a matter of seconds, using one of their buddies as a battering ram.
The harpy rides are tiny moments of violent, blood spewing hilarity. Well, at least I found them hilarious. I should probably point out, however, that I found the hydra boss fight in the first game hilarious as well. Hooray for historically accurate nudity and violence!
Objective for the day achieved, I headed over to the Left 4 Dead 2 booth, and took my place in yet another very long line. You'd swear it was the Super Bowl, the way people cheered, mainly when the new Jockey zombie killed a survivor. It's a pretty hilarious character, and the Xbox port has better comparable graphics than its predecessor, but after 25 minutes, I got bored watching people die. After 35 minutes, I started talking to people in line. I chatted up a huge Valve fanboy named Russ, who made a better sales pitch than Valve has thus far for why L4D2 is a sequel instead of DLC. Unfortunately I discovered in my later interview with Valve's Chet Faliszek, most of Russ' information was wrong.
Yeah, I got to interview a guy from Valve, which was pretty cool. And it only happened because after 50 minutes in line, I'd only moved 5 feet. There were about another 50 feet to go -- people were standing in line for four hours to play this game. Fortunately, I saw a sign that said "Press Only," and I asked what was up with that. Much to my surprise, I was told to come back at 4:30PM for immediate gameplay and an interview. I headed off to kill time in a state of pleasant shock. That sort of thing never happens at E3 with a company of Valve's pedigree.
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Latest Comments (Forum View)
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Seridin - September 15, 2009 8:35 AM ET |
Could you please add links to your article to make it easier for us to visit the game's websites directly?
Thanks!
-Seridin
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LianaK - September 17, 2009 1:38 PM ET |
Here are links for the lesser known stuff. I doubt you really need a link to God of War III. LOL
Gunnar Optiks: [url]http://www.gunnars.com/[/url]
Darkest of Days: [url]http://www.darkestofdays.com/[/url]
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LianaK - September 17, 2009 1:40 PM ET |
Ooh I forgot about What's Bothering Carl?
[url]http://www.storyfort.com/[/url]
There.
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