All good things come to an end eventually. Though as much as we love PAX, we were ready to enjoy our last day and take the long journey home. Our morning routine changed a little because we had to make sure we were all packed up and ready to go. After that was done we left our luggage in the storage area the building owner lent to us. After a quick gas station breakfast and coffee we made our way downtown to the Westin Hotel so we could partake in VR Freeplay. We didn’t have to wait too long to get in and try out some different VR titles. I played a game called Lone Echo II.
This game was freaking crazy. Unlike Until You Fall, this one was a zero gravity game where I needed to use thrusters to get around as well as grabbing onto things to push or pull myself to where I needed to be. This was a lot more intense for me because it was jarring. So much so that I began to feel a bit ill by the end of the demo. VR is so wild and realistic that I actually wanted to move my feet. When something came close to me I legitimately thought it was going to hit me. It takes a presence of mind to convince yourself that it’s not real, because it’s not. We received pins for playing the games, which was a big reason for attending, and made our way to the main convention. We did make a few stops on our way back. One at the Hyatt Hotel so we could scan our badges at a tower they had for a chance to win a prize, we didn’t, and then another stop to grab a hotdog for lunch before going through security.
Unfortunately we didn’t try anything new while we were there. We had to leave three hours early so that we could grab our luggage and head to the airport. Ericco stood in line to play Until You Fall again because they were giving away shirts to people who played twice. While he was doing that Zac and I went over to Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 to try out their co-op mode. Even after playing I don’t think Zac was able to fully understand how it is played. That’s okay though because I’m not sure he’s ever going to be a fan of it, but he’s my best friend and friends like to share the things they enjoy with each other. Ericco was still in line when we finished so Zac and I went over to play Secret Neighbor so he could snag himself the plushie I received the day before. Ericco was going to meet us over there when he was finished but wound up going though the Destiny 2 line again.
Once we realized he was over there Zac and I got in line to try out Teppen, a card game by Capcom. The wait wasn’t too long and when we got in Zac and I got to play against each other. It wasn’t took complicated to learn because the style of the card game is in the same vein as Hearthstone where you use cards to attack the other player’s lead character meanwhile trying to prevent them from attacking yours. I caught on pretty quick and managed to get a big lead on Zac to the point where he couldn’t catch up. They gave me a t-shirt for winning, but it’s far too small for me and I think I need to mail it to Zac when I can. Once we concluded that the three of us went back to Destiny 2 to see if we could get another medallion that we would be able to wager for a better prize. By the time we made it through and lost terribly to the our opponents it was about time for us to leave. Zac and I purchased a comic collection from the Destiny 2 store and then Zac grabbed a few others from the Dark Horse store before we headed back to pick up our luggage and head to the airport.
We got through security pretty fast and found a decent seat at the food court area where we grabbed some dinner and hung out until our flight was ready to board. It was a nice way to relax after a long weekend. The flight was pretty uneventful, thankfully. I watched a free movie called, Game Night which I found rather dumb. It did help me get through almost the entire flight though. Once we arrived in Denver we grabbed our checked bag, made our way to our vehicles, divvied out our swag, and drove home. I had a blast this weekend and am very grateful to have an Uncle and a best friend that were able to join me on this journey. After all was said and done I think I’ll be taking a break from PAX West. It’s a great location but I’ve been there and done that three straight times. I’m in need of a change of scenery for the next PAX. We’re currently in discussion of possibly checking out PAX South in San Antonio and maybe even a PAX East in the near future. Thank you so much for reading.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Tales From PAX West: Day Three
I’m sitting in the comfort of my own home now and I am relieved to be in familiar surroundings. It’s always great to get away on a short vacation but by the time it ends you often find yourself missing your bed. For me, I was missing my kids like crazy. It was great to see them today and spend the evening with them sharing my journey. Now it’s your turn! Enjoy Tales From PAX West: Day Three.
Day three began with another headache. I’m telling you, the humidity and constant sweating made it so I was always losing my hydration battle. It didn’t last too long though because it was much cooler outside making it easier to stay hydrated. Also, the caffeine I had shortly after helped out a lot. We showed up a little later than we did the day before and somehow managed to get a better spot in line. It was the closest I’ve ever been to the entrance in my five trips to PAX. We had a place to sit down and rest our feet for a bit until we were able to pour into the expo hall with the sea of other humans. Once we were in we headed straight for the Oculus line as fast as we could to play Stormland but it was capped by the time we arrived.
From there Zac decided to share with us the VR experience he had the day before at the Until You Fall booth. I had never tried VR before so I was eager to see what it was all about. Since we were in the expo hall so early we didn’t wait any longer than ten minutes to play. The folks at the booth taught me how to equip the VR headset and once it was on everything else disappeared. I mean visually that was pretty obvious but, even though I didn’t have headphones, everything else literally faded away as the VR experience engulfed me. Walking through the world and just taking it all in was a breathtaking experience for me. It felt so real watching these enemies approach me and try to attack me with a sword and being able to block them by actually raising my arms to do so. I suppose they let me play for about fifteen minutes but it only felt like five. The whole event was eye opening and has me legitimately considering a VR device.
After we concluded our demo of Until You Fall we moved to the other side of the booth where Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 was set up. There still wasn’t too many people in this area and I decided I had time to try it out. Zac and Ericco were uninterested so they went off to try something else. I got to meet the man who made Cook, Serve, Delicious and he was delighted to see that I was a huge fan. He gave me the controls and explained to me what was new. The big thing is that it has a food truck setting that travels from location to location rather than a restaurant setting. Another item they changed was the ability to quickly serve food when it was ready. Instead of going through each order and pressing the command button to serve it, you could simply press one button to serve all of the ready orders at the same time. For those of you who have played this game before know how hindering this was in the previous titles, so it was nice to see that. They also removed the daily chores which is a huge relief and time saver that lets you focus on perfecting your orders.
I had lost track of my crew by the time I finished so I decided to grab a couple more bandit masks from Borderlands 3 and asked the PAX information booth if they would check our luggage on the last day so we didn’t have to carry it around. Unfortunately they do not do that here, which I thought was odd because when we were at PAX East they had a place to check bags. Once I met up with the fellas we went over and checked out the Monster Hunter World booth. They had a pretty huge statue right out front (picture later) and it was pretty impressive. We didn’t want to hop in line though because we were eager to get in line for Destiny 2.
The Destiny 2 line was still pretty long but they had over thirty stations so it seemed to move pretty quick. They were showing off how the game runs on PC with a 6v6 match of control. When it was our turn we dominated the other team, which was surprising to me because non of us have played Destiny 2 yet. It never fails to amaze me, however, how great Bungie is at making first person shooters. Destiny 2 is so damn smooth and it felt great to play it. At the end of the match they gave us these cool medallions that we could wager at a different line for a better prize. If we won that match we’d get a cool pin but if we lost it, we’d lose the medallion as well. We didn’t have time to try it this day but figured we’d get another medallion on the last day so we could at least secure one no matter what happened with the wager.
With our sweet new Destiny swag we headed over to the Nintendo booth to see if we could get in line for Luigi’s Mansion 3 or Zelda: Link’s Awakening. That line, we learned, was actually the hardest one to get into at the convention. We immediately wrote it off and moved on to other things. For example, we never made our way up to the top floor where the third expo hall was located and it was already the third day. So that’s were we went, straight on up. There wasn’t much to write home about up there though. Mostly shops that were selling all sorts of cool stuff. We did find a few gems here and there. Blair Witch was being demoed and I had fun watching that for a bit after I tested out a side scrolling indie game called, Liberation. The story of this game is being told through an interactive comic book. The graphics are dark and melancholic and, from what I could tell, the story is going to be the same way.
We went back downstairs to see if Oculus was finally open but it unfortunately wasn’t. So we hopped in line to check out Codevein. At this point my feet were staring to become too painful to deal with. I was ready to just sit down for the day but I toughed it out and checked out the demo. I’m sure Codevein is going to be a great hit with the right audience but it wasn’t for me. I couldn’t even get very far because I kept dying and starting from the beginning. I just didn’t understand the attack combos and it was actually pretty difficult in nature. I don’t think Ericco and Zac cared much for it either. When this was over Ericco went to grab a seat for a bit while Zac and I check out the Oculus booth again. When we discovered it was still capped we ran outside and grabbed a hotdog from the hotdog stand across the street. I remember doing this last year and really wanted to try them again. I wasn’t disappointed. They put cream cheese on their hotdogs, which is crazy to me but totally delicious, and I stacked that bad boy with grilled onions too. I was feeling pretty faint before we grabbed that and it hit the spot.
Back upstairs we went to see if Oculus was free yet. We had pretty bad timing. They had just recently filled back up and the lady who capped the line had told us it was open for like four minutes without anyone jumping in. Zac was pretty disappointed to say the least. With that we ran back to the Until You Fall booth to give it another demo. It was around this time that Ericco messaged us saying that he was headed back over to Destiny 2. Zac decided to meet him on the bridge to tell him where we were since our service had been pretty spotty. I was going to save his spot but he never returned. By the time it was my turn to play again I realized that they must’ve gotten into the Stormland demo at the Oculus booth. That unfortunately bummed me out because I really wanted to play it with them.
I went right over once my demo was completed to see those lucky bastards patiently waiting their turn. I didn’t realize that their wait would be roughly two hours and there was no way the people running the booth would let me hop in behind them. So I left to do other things. I didn’t think the guys would want to try Tiny Build’s new game, Secret Neighbor. It’s apparently part of the Hello Neighbor franchise but a multiplayer game much like Evolve’s 1v4 style. It was actually pretty fun to play considering I never did try Hello Neighbor. The twist on this game was that there were five children trying to find five keys in order to escape the house, but one of the kids was secretly the creepy neighbor disguised as a kid. It was tense because you couldn’t really trust anyone. Unsurprisingly the person playing the neighbor “kidnapped” the rest of us and won the game. We all got a sweet consolation prize for participating in the demo in the form of a large plushie like doll of The Neighbor himself.
I checked on the guys and they were still waiting in line, patient yet excited. I was jealous if I’m being honest, I really wanted to check out Stormland because it’s made by Insomniac Games. With some more time to kill I ran around to see what merch was still available. I wound up picking up a couple of Gears of War shirts, especially the one that says, “The Cole Train Runs on Whole Grain.” I was very excited to share that with my son. By the time I finished that I managed to get back in time to see Zac concluding his demo. I guess he and Ericco got to play it cooperatively but I couldn’t see where Ericco was. They were gushing after their experience and I’m still wanting to give it a shot.
By the time they finished the expo hall was closing, so we ran across the street for some Cheesecake Factory dinner, again, an then back to the pad to wind down and do some blogging. I really did miss this and hope to keep it up.
K bye!
Day three began with another headache. I’m telling you, the humidity and constant sweating made it so I was always losing my hydration battle. It didn’t last too long though because it was much cooler outside making it easier to stay hydrated. Also, the caffeine I had shortly after helped out a lot. We showed up a little later than we did the day before and somehow managed to get a better spot in line. It was the closest I’ve ever been to the entrance in my five trips to PAX. We had a place to sit down and rest our feet for a bit until we were able to pour into the expo hall with the sea of other humans. Once we were in we headed straight for the Oculus line as fast as we could to play Stormland but it was capped by the time we arrived.
From there Zac decided to share with us the VR experience he had the day before at the Until You Fall booth. I had never tried VR before so I was eager to see what it was all about. Since we were in the expo hall so early we didn’t wait any longer than ten minutes to play. The folks at the booth taught me how to equip the VR headset and once it was on everything else disappeared. I mean visually that was pretty obvious but, even though I didn’t have headphones, everything else literally faded away as the VR experience engulfed me. Walking through the world and just taking it all in was a breathtaking experience for me. It felt so real watching these enemies approach me and try to attack me with a sword and being able to block them by actually raising my arms to do so. I suppose they let me play for about fifteen minutes but it only felt like five. The whole event was eye opening and has me legitimately considering a VR device.
After we concluded our demo of Until You Fall we moved to the other side of the booth where Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 was set up. There still wasn’t too many people in this area and I decided I had time to try it out. Zac and Ericco were uninterested so they went off to try something else. I got to meet the man who made Cook, Serve, Delicious and he was delighted to see that I was a huge fan. He gave me the controls and explained to me what was new. The big thing is that it has a food truck setting that travels from location to location rather than a restaurant setting. Another item they changed was the ability to quickly serve food when it was ready. Instead of going through each order and pressing the command button to serve it, you could simply press one button to serve all of the ready orders at the same time. For those of you who have played this game before know how hindering this was in the previous titles, so it was nice to see that. They also removed the daily chores which is a huge relief and time saver that lets you focus on perfecting your orders.
I had lost track of my crew by the time I finished so I decided to grab a couple more bandit masks from Borderlands 3 and asked the PAX information booth if they would check our luggage on the last day so we didn’t have to carry it around. Unfortunately they do not do that here, which I thought was odd because when we were at PAX East they had a place to check bags. Once I met up with the fellas we went over and checked out the Monster Hunter World booth. They had a pretty huge statue right out front (picture later) and it was pretty impressive. We didn’t want to hop in line though because we were eager to get in line for Destiny 2.
The Destiny 2 line was still pretty long but they had over thirty stations so it seemed to move pretty quick. They were showing off how the game runs on PC with a 6v6 match of control. When it was our turn we dominated the other team, which was surprising to me because non of us have played Destiny 2 yet. It never fails to amaze me, however, how great Bungie is at making first person shooters. Destiny 2 is so damn smooth and it felt great to play it. At the end of the match they gave us these cool medallions that we could wager at a different line for a better prize. If we won that match we’d get a cool pin but if we lost it, we’d lose the medallion as well. We didn’t have time to try it this day but figured we’d get another medallion on the last day so we could at least secure one no matter what happened with the wager.
With our sweet new Destiny swag we headed over to the Nintendo booth to see if we could get in line for Luigi’s Mansion 3 or Zelda: Link’s Awakening. That line, we learned, was actually the hardest one to get into at the convention. We immediately wrote it off and moved on to other things. For example, we never made our way up to the top floor where the third expo hall was located and it was already the third day. So that’s were we went, straight on up. There wasn’t much to write home about up there though. Mostly shops that were selling all sorts of cool stuff. We did find a few gems here and there. Blair Witch was being demoed and I had fun watching that for a bit after I tested out a side scrolling indie game called, Liberation. The story of this game is being told through an interactive comic book. The graphics are dark and melancholic and, from what I could tell, the story is going to be the same way.
We went back downstairs to see if Oculus was finally open but it unfortunately wasn’t. So we hopped in line to check out Codevein. At this point my feet were staring to become too painful to deal with. I was ready to just sit down for the day but I toughed it out and checked out the demo. I’m sure Codevein is going to be a great hit with the right audience but it wasn’t for me. I couldn’t even get very far because I kept dying and starting from the beginning. I just didn’t understand the attack combos and it was actually pretty difficult in nature. I don’t think Ericco and Zac cared much for it either. When this was over Ericco went to grab a seat for a bit while Zac and I check out the Oculus booth again. When we discovered it was still capped we ran outside and grabbed a hotdog from the hotdog stand across the street. I remember doing this last year and really wanted to try them again. I wasn’t disappointed. They put cream cheese on their hotdogs, which is crazy to me but totally delicious, and I stacked that bad boy with grilled onions too. I was feeling pretty faint before we grabbed that and it hit the spot.
Back upstairs we went to see if Oculus was free yet. We had pretty bad timing. They had just recently filled back up and the lady who capped the line had told us it was open for like four minutes without anyone jumping in. Zac was pretty disappointed to say the least. With that we ran back to the Until You Fall booth to give it another demo. It was around this time that Ericco messaged us saying that he was headed back over to Destiny 2. Zac decided to meet him on the bridge to tell him where we were since our service had been pretty spotty. I was going to save his spot but he never returned. By the time it was my turn to play again I realized that they must’ve gotten into the Stormland demo at the Oculus booth. That unfortunately bummed me out because I really wanted to play it with them.
I went right over once my demo was completed to see those lucky bastards patiently waiting their turn. I didn’t realize that their wait would be roughly two hours and there was no way the people running the booth would let me hop in behind them. So I left to do other things. I didn’t think the guys would want to try Tiny Build’s new game, Secret Neighbor. It’s apparently part of the Hello Neighbor franchise but a multiplayer game much like Evolve’s 1v4 style. It was actually pretty fun to play considering I never did try Hello Neighbor. The twist on this game was that there were five children trying to find five keys in order to escape the house, but one of the kids was secretly the creepy neighbor disguised as a kid. It was tense because you couldn’t really trust anyone. Unsurprisingly the person playing the neighbor “kidnapped” the rest of us and won the game. We all got a sweet consolation prize for participating in the demo in the form of a large plushie like doll of The Neighbor himself.
I checked on the guys and they were still waiting in line, patient yet excited. I was jealous if I’m being honest, I really wanted to check out Stormland because it’s made by Insomniac Games. With some more time to kill I ran around to see what merch was still available. I wound up picking up a couple of Gears of War shirts, especially the one that says, “The Cole Train Runs on Whole Grain.” I was very excited to share that with my son. By the time I finished that I managed to get back in time to see Zac concluding his demo. I guess he and Ericco got to play it cooperatively but I couldn’t see where Ericco was. They were gushing after their experience and I’m still wanting to give it a shot.
By the time they finished the expo hall was closing, so we ran across the street for some Cheesecake Factory dinner, again, an then back to the pad to wind down and do some blogging. I really did miss this and hope to keep it up.
K bye!
Monday, September 2, 2019
Tales From PAX West 2019: Day Two
Day two started so much better for me. No morning headache! I was a bit sore in my calves but other than that it was a great morning. Our routine was in full swing as we got dressed and headed down for some morning coffee and a donut. One lovely Ride Share later and we were in line. We found out that if you get there early enough you can go through the security line and wait in an overflow area right outside the doors to the expo hall. This came in handy because once the doors opened we bolted straight for the Ubisoft booth so we could sign up for a time to demo Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
We were waiting maybe a few minutes to sign up when the guy running the booth asked if anyone wanted to play Ghost Recon right that second without having to sign up. Oddly no one raised their hands except us. Hell yes, we wanted to play that second! That way we wouldn’t have to time out our day around it and could go with the flow. So, he let us in and we geared up. I haven’t played a Ghost Recon game since Ghost Recon Future Soldier. I wasn’t a huge fan of it and have been iffy on the state of the franchise. Admittedly, I do own Ghost Recon Wildlands but haven’t touched it.
Playing Breakpoint was a great refresher on how the franchise has been dealt with according to the guy who was guiding our crew. He told us that a lot of the elements from Wildlands were in Breakpoint and improved upon. That has me excited to get home and load that bad boy up! We didn’t get to choose our characters, but we hopped straight into a mission that tasked us with reaching a location on the map. We used this opportunity to learn the controls and motions of the game. The movement was smooth as butter as your character ran, slid over obstacles, and dove into a prone position. I really felt comfortable with controlling him from the get go.
While making my way down this mountain towards the waypoint I stumbled upon a vehicle. We were told we couldn’t drive them but I was still taking a gander when I rounded the corner into two enemies. I opened fire on them and wiped them out. Man! It felt so damn good. We continued to the compound that we needed to clear of enemies before meeting up with a contact inside. This proved a bit difficult for me because I ran in like a lone wolf and was eventually devoured. Nonetheless, my team managed to overcome the opposition and complete the mission. The time we had with Breakpoint was too short, but we enjoyed a few cut scenes and the play-through so much that it’s honestly our game of the show, thus far.
After we concluded our experience at the Ghost Recon booth we went over to the Borderlands booth only to find that it was capped. That was expected given its popularity, so we went to check on the Destiny 2 line. That too was jam packed. Instead, we got in line to play Doom Eternal at the Google Stadia booth. That game was insanely fun. The metal music is back and amplifying the intense combat as I raced demon to demon, fulfilling my blood lust. I’m very excited for this title. I do want to mention that Stadia had some lagging issues. I understand that we were at a convention with literally thousands of people, but it still has me questioning game streaming as a reliable way to play video games. At the end of the demo the booth crew ushered me out but, as I looked back, Ericco and Zac were still playing. They got to play two sets in a row without a break. I jealously waited for them to finish by testing out Google Stadia on mobile. This wasn’t a pleasant experience because the screen was too small for me to really get into it. I was playing Mortal Kombat 11, which I am not too bad at, and it still proved to be an issue. If I ever do use Stadia I don’t think it will ever be on my phone.
Ericco and Zac finally finished their Doom Eternal demo where they jokingly poked fun that they enjoyed it twice as much as I did. Har har har. They still needed to play Stadia on a mobile device because we were filling out a punch card for a pin. I had already collected mine so I ran over to the Borderlands booth to see if I could somehow squeeze in. They were capped when I approached it so I decided to casually linger until an opening was made. They had two lines, the main line and an overflow line that was across the hallway where all the traffic was. I was trying to get into the overflow line. When people started moving, me and a small group of people who had the same idea began lurking forward until the guy said the line was open to everyone. I tried pushing my way through the impending stampede but wound up letting a smaller guy ahead of me because he was getting smashed. As luck would have it that’s where they cut the line off. That guy made it in and I didn’t. I asked if I should go back to the overflow area and the man told me that he wasn’t doing that anymore because it was giving him too much “anxiety.”
I was rather pissed off about that. But what can you do? I went back to see where Ericco and Zac were. I couldn’t find Zac, but Ericco was in line for Destiny 2. Instead of moving on I went back across the bridge towards the Borderlands 3 booth and took a seat. Eventually both Ericco and Zac came walking across and we connected back up. Zac told me about a cool VR game he got to play while he waited called, Until You Fall. I’ll talk more about that in tomorrow’s blog though. We glanced at the Borderlands 3 booth since we were there and it was still capped.
Making our way back towards the Oculus area we got pulled in to take a photo with a VR game Zac and Ericco really wanted to play named, Stormland. We posed with some large fake guns for a few neat pictures. We were awarded these cool pins that had codes we could scan to enter a contest. The code made it so a robot appeared on your phone and looked like he was actually in your living area. I snapped a good example of this later for Zac, be sure to check my future PAX Pictures blog. Once we finished having fun posing for the camera we hustled over to check out Remedy’s new game, Control.
This was a super fun title to play and it reminded me a lot of Quantum Break. Being able to throw objects with telekinetic powers and then shoot and dash around the map was pretty fun. There was also a platforming section I came across that kind of seemed out of place but was fun nonetheless. It wasn’t until I met the weird janitor that I got a weird vibe from Control. I do plan on playing this eventually, but I’ll wait for now. On the opposite wall of Control was another game that we could test out called, Journey to the Savage Planet.
I haven’t heard of this game prior to PAX. It’s a goofy, cartoony looking space shooter that is both quirky and fun. The talking robot lady, who reminds me of Glados, was extremely humorous throughout the demo. I ran into goofy-looking space creatures, plants, and food. I have no idea what this game is really about but it has my attention for now.
At this point in the day my feet were absolutely killing me. I could barely even stand on them for more than a few minutes at a time. We needed to take a short break from moving in general. Unfortunately, it was around this time we lost track of Ericco. Zac used this time to show me where the VR game he played was and while we did that I saw the booth for Cook, Serve, Delicious 3! I’m super excited about this news and will talk about it more in tomorrow’s blog. We also ran back by Borderlands 3 only to find that it was still capped. I’m sure I was being a pain about this game, but I really wanted to check it out.
We met up with Ericco again and proceeded to the Nintendo booth to collect the free pin they were handing out. We wound up playing Dauntless which was located behind the Nintendo area, and I have to say that this game was literally putting me to sleep. I’m sure it’s a fun game if you start from the beginning and learn the nuances of it, but they threw us into a boss battle that seemingly lasted forever, especially when my feet were aching so bad.
After Dauntless left a sour taste in our mouths, we headed back towards the Borderlands 3 booth one final time only to find it capped. I asked the fella if it was capped for the day and he wasn’t sure. Fortunately, Zac was paying attention to when the players finished the demo and had he and I ready to move up because the line was about to open. There wasn’t much the guy could say when Zac innocently asked, “Hey bro, is this line going to open anytime soon?” Zac is such a sweet talker. We made it in line and almost an hour later got our hands on Borderlands 3! Finally! It was fun.
K Bye.
I’m kidding.
The demo was roughly thirty minutes long and we got to pick which character we played as. I chose Moze - The Gunner. She was pretty fun because her special was hopping into a mech that mowed bandits down in seconds. The game itself is pretty standard Borderlands from what I saw. Goofy enemies with goofy dialogue, and a fun boss fight to top it all off. I didn’t get much of a chance to really change weapons but I was having a lot of fun. The graphics are vastly improved. Borderlands 3 still has its cartoonish graphics but they are so much more clear and realistic.
Unfortunately, the Expo hall closed down shortly after we finished. So, we slid on down to a joint called Steak N Shake. We dined on some tasty steak burgers and milkshakes before finding our way back to this crap hole we call our AirBnb and I began writing all that cool stuff you read yesterday. Come back and hang out with us tomorrow!
K bye… for real this time.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Tales From PAX West 2019: Day One
After a rough day zero for me I woke up with an outstanding headache that was radiating throughout my entire body. It was most likely dehydration due to the humidity, something I’m still adjusting to. I’m writing this at the end of day 2 here and I’m still trying to catch up. It’s been rather ridiculous considering I take my hydration very seriously back home. I’m trying though. Regardless, I woke up with a nasty headache and it also could’ve been because of my severe lack of sleep over the days leading up to it. I did, however, sleep like a rock and I was so tired that I was apparently making horrific sounds. Like all my exhaustion was just being exhaled by the ton.
Despite this new issue I was having we managed to get ready and leave for the day. We stopped by the 7/11 that’s located right next to our AirBnb to grab some coffee and morning snacks. Except instead of snacks, Zac and I purchased a stuffed waffle… from a gas station. We ate it and it tasted like microwaved McDonald’s. I wasn’t a big fan, but the coffee was enough to push me forward. From there we hitched a Ride Share down to the convention center. I have to say that our driver was hands down the coolest person we’ve met on one of those journeys. He’s a professor here at the local college and gave us a history lesson on why the streets in Seattle are so bananas. It was very interesting to see how such old things were kept around for such a long time. It reminded me of the roads in Boston and how wonky those were to navigate.
Once we reached the convention center we stood in line in one of the new locations to enter the building. This year PAX increased it’s security, adding metal detectors all over the place. No doubt these measures were put into place due to the recent mass shootings that have happened over the summer. I don’t mind the added security, but I do feel there is a way they can improve the flow of it because it simply takes too long, probably about an hour just to get into the door from when the event started.
Once we were inside we decided to check everything out so we could know what we wanted to see over the course of the next few days. It didn’t go exactly as planned though which is expected when you’re surrounded by cool stuff. We passed the booth for the Final Fantasy VII remake (a game I’m actually hoping to try out this weekend) and got side tracked at a booth selling Gears of War stuff. We didn’t buy anything upon our first visit, but I want to go back and get a couple of T-shirts. One in particular that features Augustus “Cole Train” Cole. For those of you who don’t know, my son is named Cole (I got the idea from Gears of War, actually) and as he’s grown up I’ve called him Cole Train and even quote something from Gears of War 3, “The Cole Train runs on whole grain baby, whooo!” Well, just so happens this booth has a Cole Train t-shirt with that exact quote on it. Unfortunately, they don’t have a child’s size I can purchase for my son, but I’m considering grabbing it for myself because it’s so great.
Since we didn’t buy anything we decided to keep it moving. We walked past the Bandai Namco booth where they have Codevien. We passed up the Discord and Nintendo booths and on to the game of the show, Borderlands 3. Their booth is probably the biggest in the entire expo hall (Google Stadia might actually be bigger, I can’t say for sure) and right in front they have a large statue of the four playable characters that are debuting this year. I have quite a few pictures of this booth and I’ll try making an entirely different blog with nothing but those photos. Some of them are posted on Twitter, @halotitan, if you’d like to see them now!
There are a lot of booths in this expo hall and I won’t go into detail naming them all here unless we actually stopped by. After perusing a few of them we made our way across the bridge to the second Expo Hall which I believe is the largest one they have. We didn’t really get to check it out for very long though because we had a date with the Gearbox Panel being held at a theater down the road from the convention center. Prior to doing that, though, we stumbled upon a life size statue of Claptrap from the Borderlands franchise! Next to it were solidly made Bandit masks (also from Borderlands) and we got to wear them for a photo op with Claptrap.
Standing in line outside with the sun beating down on you is pretty miserable, and we did it for probably ninety minutes waiting to get inside the main theater for the Gearbox panel. Security has been beefed up everywhere so getting in took so long that the panel began twenty minutes late (and even then not everyone was inside). We made use of our time though and booked appointments for two of Sony’s featured titles this year. A theater viewing of Death Stranding and a demo of a new title called, “Predator Hunting Grounds.”
The conference itself wasn’t too bad. We got to get some first hand announcements about some of the games that they were publishing, such as Risk of Rain 2 coming to consoles. It was pretty neat because like so many of Gearbox’s panels, they gave stuff away. This year they gave everyone a code for the latest Borderlands 2 DLC which branches the stories between 2 and 3. We also received free game codes for Risk of Rain 2 on steam. We were pretty stoked about that because we had never played Risk of Rain and were very intrigued by what they showed us.
They did some chatting about Borderlands 3 and its end game, which will include ways for players to keep on playing and improving their stats via horde mode game types that give away massive loot. We headed back to the conference center after the panel concluded and got stuck for about twenty minutes in the security line. We were actually in a race to get up to the Sony booth so we wouldn’t miss our appointment with Death Stranding. Fortunately, we all made it in time and sat down behind closed doors to get a glimpse of this mysterious title.
They did some chatting about Borderlands 3 and its end game, which will include ways for players to keep on playing and improving their stats via horde mode game types that give away massive loot. We headed back to the conference center after the panel concluded and got stuck for about twenty minutes in the security line. We were actually in a race to get up to the Sony booth so we wouldn’t miss our appointment with Death Stranding. Fortunately, we all made it in time and sat down behind closed doors to get a glimpse of this mysterious title.
I seriously can’t believe the graphics in this game. They are absolutely nuts. Death Stranding is probably going to be the most realistic video game that I’ve ever seen. We got to witness a few story sections loaded with dialogue and it really got me excited for the story. I haven’t really paid much attention to this game because most of its trailers were insanely ominous. It has my full attention now. We even got see a little bit of game play. No actual fighting, but we watched Norman Reedus complete a side quest for Geoff Keighley (so awesome by the way) shortly after he awoke from a nap and took a piss. Yes, whoever was on the controller actually selected an option to make him pee. It’s not like The Sims, though, and I’m sure it was put in to be a humorous moment for those of us getting to watch the video.
Shortly after we witnessed the beautiful Death Stranding, we fulfilled our appointment with Predator Hunting Grounds. I walked into this having never even heard of this game. From what I was coming to understand, it was built as an Evolve 1vAll-type game. I don’t know what the actual genre is, but you essentially have one player controlling the predator hunting down the other four players who are working in a squad. I drew the predator card and got to run my foes into the ground before ripping their skulls from their head in pure, nostalgic predator fashion. Using his camo, climbing trees, and slicing faces with his claw were all very fun. I was even rewarded with a t-shirt for being so amazing. I won’t, however, be purchasing this game. I don’t know if it’s because I’m not into multiplayer-only games or if it’s because the game itself didn’t seem very polished, but I won’t be snagging this one anytime soon because it just didn’t click for me.
Despite our check-everything-out-and-make-a-plan plan, we attempted to get into Borderlands 3. The day was getting late at that point so we figured why not. Unfortunately, the booth was capped out for the day. So, we moved on to the Disintegration booth. This game was revealed at Gamescom just a few weeks ago and it reminded me a lot of Destiny. In fact the owner of the company, Private Division, is the co-creator of Halo. We received a 10 minute introduction to the game and then got to play a multiplayer match. It’s a first person shooter mixed with real time strategy elements. I have to say it was rather complicated to pick up, but I am interested in what this has to offer because there will be a single player component when it launches, or at least that is my understanding.
You control a character who has three minions at his command. You need to balance shooting people and commanding your troops to shoot people and complete objectives at the same time. It was a lot for me to take in at first, but I do think Disintegration could potentially be a revolutionary game.
That was the gist of our day 1. After the expo hall closed we ran across the street to have some Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I didn’t order cheesecake either because that shit is fucking gross. Once our bellies were nice and fat we came back to the AirBnb where I wrote my notes down for the day. All in all we had an amazing time. I suppose looking back on it now it was rather underwhelming in comparison to the day we had today (you’ll get to hear about that tomorrow) but we wouldn’t change a thing. See you all tomorrow for day 2 and please don’t forget to throw me a follow over on Twitch.
K bye
Zac’s Notes
~Death Stranding was just…mind blowing
~Disintegration felt very slow. There needs to be a better balance between minion control and commander power
~Dinner is the only real meal we eat all day
~Disintegration felt very slow. There needs to be a better balance between minion control and commander power
~Dinner is the only real meal we eat all day
Ericco’s Notes
~zzzzz *snores*
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Tales From PAX West 2019: Day Zero
Aww yes you’ve found me. I decided to start blogging again and what better time than to share my current PAX West trip with you? Last year I failed miserably to jot down the experiences we (Zac/Patrick/Myself) had and it really bummed me out. This time around I wanted to share with you what it’s like for me to attend these events. So grab a beverage and something to snack on if you need it and enjoy our Tales From Pax West 2019: Day Zero
It all began on a cool summer evening in August when a young man nam— You should be warned that I’ve had maybe two hours of sleep in the last forty or so hours and some of this is going to be silly. But getting back into things takes a bit of silly to make it work. I’ll be proofing this later after I’ve had the opportunity to finally rest and will most likely erase everything I just wrote down (joke was on me). I read this and thought it should be shared because an overtired me can sometimes be funny.
Why exactly haven’t I slept you ask? Well, our tale begins late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. Our flight was scheduled to take off around 0630 and we still had to drive two hours to get to the airport. After a difficult goodbye to my children, both of whom didn’t want me to leave, I went home to finish packing and downloading movies onto my tablet. By the time I was finished it was 11PM and I would only get three hours of sleep before needing to meet my Uncle at his place. The problem is that when I’m overtired, which I already was after being awake for 15 hours at that point, I know that I’ll sleep through my alarms. Not to mention I was stressed out knowing that I was going to be on a plane soon and, boy, do I hate flying.
I was hoping I’d get some decent rest during our travels, but that was an empty reach in my mind due to my irrational fear of flying. It’s not natural to shove humans into a metal tube and then shuttle them across the planet thousands of feet in the air. Regardless of my fear I endured the turbulence ridden flight until we landed safely. I was pleasantly surprised to find out during the flight that Delta still serves snacks at no additional charge and even allowed us to watch free movies that recently came out. I opted for Pet Semetery, but wound up shutting it off near the end of the flight.
After we landed and secured a means to travel, we made our way to the AirBnb. The lady wouldn’t let us check in early unless we were willing to pay ten dollars an hour for every hour that we were early. It would’ve been sixty bucks. Um bullshit lady… She did, however, let us check our bags in so we didn’t have to carry them around all day. This place is weird, though. It looks like an apartment in a crappy movie where the good guy throws someone around to get answers about, “who’s selling the stuff?” It’s barely even furnished and yet we had to drop another twenty bucks for the lady to pop open the fold-out couch. She’s one of those people. Nickel and dime your ass outside of AirBnb so she can make some extra coin. It costs 3 dollars to even use the restroom… I’m kidding but it’s not too far-fetched to think she wouldn’t do something crazy like that.
So, we left to explore Seattle for a bit after grabbing breakfast at Ihop. We walked all the way to the Farmer’s Market, or was it Public Market? I was so hot and sweaty I began developing some… um… chaffing issues that hurt every time I moved. I was starting to get miserable, so we sat down at a pub and hung out until we could go check in. It wasn’t a bad way at all to spend the time with the fellas. We eventually dined on fish & chips and ice cream on our way out.
Once we did finally get checked in to our room I passed out almost immediately, or so I’m told. I didn’t realize that I did at the time but I was out like a light. I only slept for about an hour though because we needed to catch an Uber to the Indie Showcase event that Microsoft was hosting. We anticipated it was going to be slammed like it was last year, but we were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t anywhere near as bad. We managed to eat some pizza before hopping in line to play Gears of War 5 Horde. It was a long wait but we had a lot of fun. I’ve always been a fan of Gears and horde mode is a blast. There are some notable changes that stood out, like the ability to use and upgrade perks, which I don’t remember being in Gears of War 4. Also, each character can only be used by one person at a time and the engineer class doesn’t exist anymore because everyone is capable of doing engineer stuff.
Later on Zac played Deep Blue, a neat Indie game reminiscent of Abzu. After that, we wandered around snagging a ton of free mints, a free game from the Xbox Ambassador booth, and some beverages while waiting for the raffle at the end of the night. We sincerely wanted to win some of the cool things they were giving away like Xbox controllers, skateboards, and even an Xbox One X. We didn’t win though because that would’ve been just way too cool. We then traveled back to our room and wound down for the evening. Day zero was the most eventful I’ve had in my previous four experiences with PAX. Some of it was miserable for me for personal reasons (re-read above) but, for the most part, it was a great day once the chaffing, flying, and heat issues were dealt with. We got to check out some cool new Indie games at the Microsoft event and we even got some cool swag that I’ll share with you folks who watch my stream at a later date. See you tomorrow in our Pax West Day 1 blog and if you’re not following me on Twitch you’re dead to me… I mean, you should rectify that…
K bye
Zac’s Notes
-Deep blue was cool~ Exact quote
-Tankard and Tun had a cool octopus logo
-Why are you asking me questions this late?
-Get out of the bathroom, I’ll answer that later.
Ericco Notes
-zzzzzz *snores* ~ Sleeping Rico
It all began on a cool summer evening in August when a young man nam— You should be warned that I’ve had maybe two hours of sleep in the last forty or so hours and some of this is going to be silly. But getting back into things takes a bit of silly to make it work. I’ll be proofing this later after I’ve had the opportunity to finally rest and will most likely erase everything I just wrote down (joke was on me). I read this and thought it should be shared because an overtired me can sometimes be funny.
Why exactly haven’t I slept you ask? Well, our tale begins late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. Our flight was scheduled to take off around 0630 and we still had to drive two hours to get to the airport. After a difficult goodbye to my children, both of whom didn’t want me to leave, I went home to finish packing and downloading movies onto my tablet. By the time I was finished it was 11PM and I would only get three hours of sleep before needing to meet my Uncle at his place. The problem is that when I’m overtired, which I already was after being awake for 15 hours at that point, I know that I’ll sleep through my alarms. Not to mention I was stressed out knowing that I was going to be on a plane soon and, boy, do I hate flying.
I was hoping I’d get some decent rest during our travels, but that was an empty reach in my mind due to my irrational fear of flying. It’s not natural to shove humans into a metal tube and then shuttle them across the planet thousands of feet in the air. Regardless of my fear I endured the turbulence ridden flight until we landed safely. I was pleasantly surprised to find out during the flight that Delta still serves snacks at no additional charge and even allowed us to watch free movies that recently came out. I opted for Pet Semetery, but wound up shutting it off near the end of the flight.
After we landed and secured a means to travel, we made our way to the AirBnb. The lady wouldn’t let us check in early unless we were willing to pay ten dollars an hour for every hour that we were early. It would’ve been sixty bucks. Um bullshit lady… She did, however, let us check our bags in so we didn’t have to carry them around all day. This place is weird, though. It looks like an apartment in a crappy movie where the good guy throws someone around to get answers about, “who’s selling the stuff?” It’s barely even furnished and yet we had to drop another twenty bucks for the lady to pop open the fold-out couch. She’s one of those people. Nickel and dime your ass outside of AirBnb so she can make some extra coin. It costs 3 dollars to even use the restroom… I’m kidding but it’s not too far-fetched to think she wouldn’t do something crazy like that.
So, we left to explore Seattle for a bit after grabbing breakfast at Ihop. We walked all the way to the Farmer’s Market, or was it Public Market? I was so hot and sweaty I began developing some… um… chaffing issues that hurt every time I moved. I was starting to get miserable, so we sat down at a pub and hung out until we could go check in. It wasn’t a bad way at all to spend the time with the fellas. We eventually dined on fish & chips and ice cream on our way out.
Once we did finally get checked in to our room I passed out almost immediately, or so I’m told. I didn’t realize that I did at the time but I was out like a light. I only slept for about an hour though because we needed to catch an Uber to the Indie Showcase event that Microsoft was hosting. We anticipated it was going to be slammed like it was last year, but we were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t anywhere near as bad. We managed to eat some pizza before hopping in line to play Gears of War 5 Horde. It was a long wait but we had a lot of fun. I’ve always been a fan of Gears and horde mode is a blast. There are some notable changes that stood out, like the ability to use and upgrade perks, which I don’t remember being in Gears of War 4. Also, each character can only be used by one person at a time and the engineer class doesn’t exist anymore because everyone is capable of doing engineer stuff.
Later on Zac played Deep Blue, a neat Indie game reminiscent of Abzu. After that, we wandered around snagging a ton of free mints, a free game from the Xbox Ambassador booth, and some beverages while waiting for the raffle at the end of the night. We sincerely wanted to win some of the cool things they were giving away like Xbox controllers, skateboards, and even an Xbox One X. We didn’t win though because that would’ve been just way too cool. We then traveled back to our room and wound down for the evening. Day zero was the most eventful I’ve had in my previous four experiences with PAX. Some of it was miserable for me for personal reasons (re-read above) but, for the most part, it was a great day once the chaffing, flying, and heat issues were dealt with. We got to check out some cool new Indie games at the Microsoft event and we even got some cool swag that I’ll share with you folks who watch my stream at a later date. See you tomorrow in our Pax West Day 1 blog and if you’re not following me on Twitch you’re dead to me… I mean, you should rectify that…
K bye
Zac’s Notes
-Deep blue was cool~ Exact quote
-Tankard and Tun had a cool octopus logo
-Why are you asking me questions this late?
-Get out of the bathroom, I’ll answer that later.
Ericco Notes
-zzzzzz *snores* ~ Sleeping Rico
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