PAX East Shenanigans! The Fun Has Arrived!
Attention Bastards and Wenches! The Duck and Blueonic have landed!
Blueonic & I met up with Pandalicious at the crack 0f dawn. (Okay, it was nine in the morning, but it was so Goddamn dark out it might as well have been dawn.) We got set up with our business cards, making us official people of the press...almost. We still had to get our Press Passes.
At first we thought we could just waltz in and grab our passes; however that was not the case. We had to wait in line like everybody else outside, but fortunately that wait was barely two minutes. Once we got back inside we automatically walked up to the desk, flashed our cards and IDs and got our passes! Blueonic's face was filled with pure joy and ecstasy, and so were mine.
We followed Pandalicious through her little routine of walking in the line, only to have Blueonic knock down one of the barriers. Don't worry, we didn't get in trouble; just a hearty warning. We made our way through and walked towards the Press Room. We stopped at the bean bag chairs and just lounged for a good fifteen minutes. (A test run, as it was). Soon after we got our hotel room (gorgeous, BTW), and then headed down to the Main Lobby.
There we met up with Sam Houston, one of the guys from Perfect World Entertainment. We recorded a good segment with him, discussing MMOs, the upcoming titles Battle of the Immortals & Hero of Three Kingdoms, and possible future titles (interview to be posted later). Afterwards we met with NinJaSistah, grabbed lunch and heading to the "Online Gaming Communities and "Real Life" Relationships" panel, which featured members from the 2old2play Radio Podcast. We then bolted the panel and browsed around the Expo Hall.
We met with Andrew Lam, the producer of Frobot, where we tried out the Wii version of the game. I had to get used to controlling it, since the Wii Sensor Bar was below the TV. After trying out the multiplayer mode we had a one-on-one video interview with Lam. During the recording the damn battery died, so we had to improvise and plug it into the nearest socket (you can figure out when that was when we post the actual video on here). Thankfully he was cool about it, and after we finished we headed back to the Press Room to rendezvous with Pandalicious & NinJaSistah.
After chilling down in the Press Room we headed to the DePaul University booth, where they were showcasing the student-made game Devil’s Tuning Fork. This, Bastards & Wenches, was probably one of the most original games I have ever witnessed. Basically you’re a character stuck in a coma, and you need to use sound waves in order to save other coma victims and open gateways. I only played the first bit of the first level, but I could already tell that these students from Chicago had a fucking hit on their hands! We sat with Jason Pecho, one of the main students behind the game, and gave one of the coolest interviews we’ve ever had. (Interview will be posted soon.)
Soon afterwards myself, Blueonic, Pandalicious & NinJaSistah went to the Pour House for a drink, and then P.F. Chang’s for dinner. I would say what we discussed, but we got kinda tipsy and said some crazy shit that I can’t mention here; for the ESH crew would hand my ass back to me on a platter. All I can say is this: lead a Panda to booze, and she’ll return the favor with hours of entertainment. We were going to check out the Mega64 Panel, but we got there too late. Fortunately there were seats still available in the Main Hall for the concert, so we decided to check out the band Anamanaguchi. I was impressed with their sound. Think Andrew W.K. meets classic 8-bit tunes. They got me to buy me one of their CDs, which is usually a good sign that I really liked what I heard.
Blueonic & I decided to call it quits, and head back to the room. Now you must be thinking: why didn’t I post this when I got back? Well, Westin Hotel thought that $10 a night for Internet Access was considered a deal. Screw that! I decided to wait and post the Friday report this early Saturday morning.
Blueonic’s got Saturday to write about, so look forward to that sometime later tonight or early tomorrow. Until then, play on bitches!
