Sounds good, I'll be there. I'll be sure to wear a GOG shirt this time, too.

So is it not possible to get tickets any more? My ex is in Seattle and she wanted to go to this.

I won't be making it this year. First time I've missed the show since '09. :(

This was the first year it's been like this by a long shot but all 60,000 tickets were sold out in 8 hours.

It is ON folks!

See you tonight!

K, 7 o'clock, a to be announced bar/grub place, send a PM to me or PheonixWright and we'll figure it out by text message or something:)

If someone can get hold of orcishgamer or PheonixWright please tell them to check their PMs urgently!

I am back... PAX Prime was awesome as usual... and holy fuck me my entire body hurts!

I can't wait to do it again next year:)


(I'll try and write up some actual highlights tomorrow when I'm no longer on the verge of passing out)

Ah yeah, we had a blast, LoL 3rd place and 1st/2nd place matches, plus the cosplay contest, plus all the crazy fun of PAX. And of course I spent the morning play LoL, damn that whole game is like crack.

Next time we gotta warn each other when tickets go up, man:)

I must have drank with half the devs at PAX this year, I'll try and make it all of them next year!

She was content so all good! Big thanks to both of you!

PAX Wrap Up

PAX was fun as hell, as usual, this is just a couple of notes in case anyone has missed any of this stuff.

AD&D stuff:
Dungeon Command is the new minis wargame. As minis wargaming goes this one is cheap, 40 USD gets you an army (not nearly as high quality as something like Warmachine, but painted and assembled) which includes minis, deck cards, and presumably maps (not 100% sure on that last one), that's pretty much all you need to play, no dice or coin flipping. There is a Drow army, 'nuff said. Drawback: squares and not hexes.

The new AD&D Encounters are 2 hour modules written and played (I think officially on Wednesdays) at participating stores. It's a Drow campaign right now, plum full of evil, backstabbing Drow. Encounters uses the DCI system that you may be familiar with from Magic The Gathering to track participation and rewards. I always sort of disliked DCI but I don't think I've ever had one under my real name, so make some shit up and play! As long as you don't enter an official tourney it won't matter.

Video games:
First off, I won't typically stand in line to play a game that I'll get to play with no line in just a few months.

In the MMO categories the new entrants are unquestionably Neverwinter Online and Raiderz (both by Perfect World). I actually played NWO at the AD&D booth (because those machines had no line), they really nailed the fun, the abilities look really top notch and the sound is extremely satisfying. The dev I spoke to was really proud of the work they'd put in and I have to say the demo looked good. I played as Mage and Fighter. Right from the start you will have to dodge/roll/falsh away from serious damage. This looks to be required by the game and the better you are at it and other positioning I suspect the better you'll do. This should open the door for high skill raids. User created content is going to be part of the game, they plan on using monster scaling to avoid cheesing for levels/loot.

Raiderz is fantasy fare but with some neat steampunk and Victorian elements to the costumes. This will be F2P and the best costumes will cost money. Skills in it are somehow tied to equipment, similar to Path of Exile, allowing you to party as what your group needs. They seem to be pushing the whole, "you will die trying to solo" thing, hopefully the character flexibility allows almost anyone to group in any makeup, if so. The last neat thing about the art is that all the major enemies are larger than life, but not quite in the monsterous God of War way we've become inured to.

I'll toss a mention to the new Marvel MMO, I hope you guys pull it off.

Other MMOs, both F2P and not, have already been around. DDO was showcasing the new Underdark expac, it looks nice for a game that's aging quite a bit by now. As usual, really good writing here.

TRION had almost no devs around because Rift is working on an expac to get 200% more content into the game. It sounds like it should soon be finished.

End of Nations is launching officially soon, it's F2P, but they've been pimping this for 3 years... it's time guys.

TRION's last game is DEFIANCE, I know almost nothing about it, but in typical TRION fashion they were pimping this hard core, probably it won't be playable for 2 more years or so:) Still TRION, you throw the most awesome parties!

Games you've heard of:
Torchlight 2, as expected, looks really good, they were showing off Act III, they brought only devs, and they were more than willing to talk. 9/20 is the release date, we'll all be co-oping soon!

Dishonored looks fun, it's hard to tell how this one will turn out as they've shown so damned little. Still, it could be really good, and I hope it is.

I played the new Tombraider hunting demo. This could easily be the best Tomb Raider we've seen, as well as the best version of Lara Croft.

Dead Island Riptide was being shown off in a closed theater (pretty small one too), it's pre alpha but they played a ton of it. The lead dev is German and seems more than a bit annoyed his baby will never be released in Germany. This looks good. You get to import your progress from Dead Island, it's a new game, the story starts off the moment the story in Dead Island ends. This effort seems entirely driven by fan feedback, people didn't like the gunplay in Dead Island, they fixed the gunplay, explosives are also even better as they can be used to set traps. They want us all to get on the forums and give our feedback, in his words "Right now I can actually do something about it." Aside from a new character we get drivable boats, more explosives, and constructable baracades that can be destroyed by zombies. Oh yeah, gatling guns too:) Nothing is announced about the new character, but staying after earned a quiet gesture from the lead dev to a blurred level complete screen where I could see most of him;)

Fable Journey, okay I was pretty sure this would be the first Fable I absolutely hated. The videos make this look like shit. But they had a playable demo and I watched a seated lady tearing the arms off of skeletons with her magic... so umm yeah, this might be another Kinect game on the short list of "you should actually play this one". I was going to be fucking shocked if Molyneux pulled this one off, I'm starting to get goosebumps.

Borderlands 2... seriously, you already know if you're buying this or not, so nothing really worth saying.

Indies:
The one to which everyone should be looking forward is still Skulls of the Shogun, and I can't believe it's not out yet.

Air Mech is a F2P which is maybe worth it, I can't decide how deep the rabbit hole goes on this one. The devs are pretty nice though... and it's giant robots.

Speaking of giant robots... Hawken? Who can tell me about this?

Other indies... yeah, you've heard of the rest, Vessel, Charlie Murder (saw the happy PAX couple at the booth), and the normal suspects.

One more indie... rocket ship, you play the game backwards through time to restabilize the universe, music game, guitar or controller controls... anyone recall the name of this?


Games you can buy into right now that you should play: Firefall, SMITE, and Tribes Ascension (in that order), play these. Path of Exile was not shown this year, I suspect they're putting the bow on it and have no time. You can buy your way into beta on that one.


Other:
League of Legends NA Finals was at PAX and wow was it off the hook. Guys, RIOT loves gamers. I hope you know that. I refuse to work for game companies, but that's one I'd actually work for. I guess if they wanted platform code let me know, I'll consider it, regardless, gonna continue playing their game and now I'm willing to spend real cash on it. Thanks for being awesome RIOT.

I saw the best enthusiast BIOS I've ever seen, developed one one fucking badass motherfucker. Mad props bro, I think you "get it".

If anyone has any questions, let me know, I'll try and answer.