Pre Pax Prime 2014

Okay, this will be attempt number 2! I wrote an entire blog last night about the pre-PAX Prime events and just as I was getting pictures placed into it, boom, my tablet shut off and had major issue turning on again. Long story short, I had to reset the beast back to factory settings before I could use it again. I had it ready to go in the middle of the day, but I have been way too busy to catch up on blogging. Fortunately, Blogger saved a draft of what I wrote yesterday, so I’ll be posting that and then typing up a Day 1 edition for everything we did today. Let me know what you think!

###

It has been a long day! We woke up around five this morning, got dressed, made it through the airport unscathed, besides my uncle’s GPS losing us three times, and arrived in Boston…er…Seattle bright and early. Yes, PAX Prime is tomorrow and we, my Uncle and I, are geared up and ready to go.

We got a good chance to view the convention center today making it nice opportunity for us to understand where we need to go. We had our first meal of the day at the Cheesecake Factory which is conveniently located right across the street. We got a little sneak peak at some of the displays they had up, but ultimately we didn’t get to see a whole lot.

The big highlight of our day was getting to ride the Sunset Overdrive bus to the Microsoft visitor’s center, in Redmond Washington, where we got to view and try out over thirty Indie games!! The bus was completely pimped out with Sunset Overdrive’s artistic look. Painted blue all around and completed with a full dead body on the grill, the bus came rolling up to us blaring loud punk music. Once we got on board we were given some Over Charge, the fictional energy drink that causes the outbreak in Sunset Overdrive. We wound up getting two, actually, so I’m drinking one now and saving the other as a collectable. I will say that it doesn’t taste all that great and it’s really no surprise that it turned people into zombies! The bus and the drink are amazing marketing opportunities and we had a great time on the trip there.

We were greeted at Microsoft by Larry Hyrb, or as we know him on Xbox Live, Major Nelson. We went inside and played some pretty cool ID@Xbox games. I was very impressed with the first title we played, Never Alone. The concept of the game is awesome as it follows a young Alaskan Inupiaq girl and the stories that have been passed down through her culture. It’s truly fascinating how this this story is based on the oral tradition of the Inupiaq, and I was impressed when the developers told how us much extensive research they actually did for Never Alone. The entire game’s narrative is told in the Inupiaq language with English subtitles. The art style is simply beautiful as well and I thoroughly enjoyed switching back and forth between the little girl and the white fox that follows her. You can control them both through single player, however, there is a co-op allowing players to share the experience with one person controlling the girl and the other controlling the fox.

We also got to try out a neat little game that has already been released called, Fibbage by Jackbox Games Inc. I remember seeing this game come out just recently and I ignored it because of the silly title and cover art. We actually jumped right into this and it became clear that it’s the party game of the future. You don’t even need a controller to play it! A cell phone with the Xbox Smartglass app (or an Internet location, I’m not entirely sure) should do the trick! It’s a trivia game that will ask you a question, once you and up to seven other player have joined. You hear the question and each player has to input a lie. “Blah blah person had a video game called ___ balls.” You type in the lie, mine was “deez,” as does everyone else. The trick is to get the other players to choose your lie all while you choose the ONLY correct answer. Unfortunately no one fell for “deez balls,” and my Uncle wound up whooping my ass.

We did manage to play a few other games like Knight Squad and Lifeless Planet. We did go on to check out other games that people were playing and I was happy with Roundabout and The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. From there we were fed dinner, given tasty cookies, watched Major Nelson give a voice over for something, and shopped at the store. I did buy an Xbox One water bottle and a Microsoft beanie. Shortly after that we found ourselves back on the wacky bus and on our way back to Seattle where we got to see the Space Needle. It’s been a very eventful day, so much so that I’m glossing over the less important aspects of the day so I can go to bed! Let me know if you have any questions or comment, let me know! Oh, and be sure to check out my pictures blog that I will be posting after the event. If you're friends with me on Facebook, I'm sure you've already seen the pictures I've been sharing. See you tomorrow!!