PAX East 2013 - Part 1

So yeah, this is a pretty pic heavy post and in the pics didn't upload in order so I'll just leave them be at the bottom...

 

We may have had a good time at PAX last year, but this year was amazing.  Last year we were a bit overwhelmed by everything there was to see and do, it was Easter weekend, and it was our first time being away from the girls over night.  This year was totally different.  We had passes for both Saturday and Sunday, we arrived in Boston on Friday and just let ourselves relax.  We walked around for a bit, got some dinner then went back to the hotel and watched a movie (Wreck it Ralph and it was great!)  Saturday we got an early start and through a series of fortunate events (in the guise of security officers making their job more efficient by making use of each and every door that could be opened) we ended up in the very front of the line. 

 

When "doors" opened we made it straight for the Blizzard both to test out their new game Hearthstone.  Which happened to be pretty awesome, I love the fact it is going to be available as an iOS app because, well, I can play those :).  The colors and graphics on it are amazing and the learning curve seems pretty low so I think we will definitely be getting this one once it comes out. 

 

The rest of the day we pretty much did the line waiting thing, we checked out the popular titles that seemed like they would be fun to play...and you know what?  I don't really remember any of those titles lol. 

 

I do remember we stood inline for an hour plus to watch the 6 minute video for the new Assassins Creed and well?  I *really* was not that impressed.  Pirates are cool, but that's about it... I realize that I have never played this game in any of it's previous variations before, but if it's the fourth generation of the game I really thought the graphics would have been much better.  But anyway, we got to sit down for 6 minutes and a free set of blow up swords for the girls to play with so yay for swag :). 

 

Last year we were home by 5, crazy how different this year was.  We had teamed up with my cousin about half way through the day.  After the Assassins Creed wait we decided to head out to find some food because wholly jeeze the prices at the convention center were outrageous, but anyway we had some awesome burgers and fries and then, wait for it, went back.   

 

When we went back it was like a whole nother world after dark lol.  We checked out the "vintage" game room (I'm sure there is a better name for it, but I have no idea what that is so that's what I'm calling it.) They had all the classic game consoles going in there, it was great :)

 

After that we headed down to the tabletop area, I had no idea this place even existed last year and it was *A-may-zing*.  I mean it, I think the Table Top play was my favorite part of the weekend.  Since the Expo hall was closed by this point everyone pretty much migrated over and grabbed a game and a table and started playing.  There were venders there selling their games, but there was also this PAX library that had all sorts of games you could borrow and try before you actually bought anything.

 

Games we tried were ~ "We didn't play test this at all" (probably the most completely random game I have ever seen) and "Ticket To Ride (Loved it!)

 

And that was pretty much it for the night...Day 2 post still to come! 

 

This Woman *made* her dress out of Magic the Gathering Cards, it was just amazing.

 

 

Table Top Gaming area, was completely mobbed all weekend...

 

 

 

PAX East 2012

Alright, I know it's been a long time but hey life gets in the way sometimes.  We haven't been doing much gaming as of late what with the holidays followed by birthdays followed by finishing the basement in record time so we could have family stay with us.  Add in sickness and toddlers being toddlers and there you have it, my excuse for not blogging...

How ever, I do have something new to talk about over here, Yay!  Last weekend we left the kiddos home with grandma and traveled over to Boston for a micro mini vacation and went to PAX!  

We had a great time over all, the hotel we stayed at was pretty fancy.  It was a Police barracks that was turned into a hotel, so the building it self was pretty interesting, the bar (Cuffs, creative huh?) served some pretty great drinks and the food at the restaurant was very good.  The rooms were mediocre, it was extremely hard to control the heating/cooling and there was something rattling (not sure if it was a fan or light fixture) allll night long which made it sound like there as a rat going in a wheel all night.  Whatever it was didn't make for great sleeping conditions.  Luckily breakfast and the fact that we could leave our car in parking even after we checked out made up for it though.  

We got to the convention center right at 8 am.  We hit it just at the right time as people were being allowed to head into the building to the waiting area.  We were in the second line which was pretty decent.  The picture below is of the lines that formed behind us.

 

The great thing about having a 2 hour wait before the doors opened?  We had about a 20 minute head start on the vast majority of people so we could pick what game we wanted to play and get right to it, no lines no waiting.

M chose Fire Fall for the game he wanted to go to first.  And judging by the fact that he has been playing the Beta version with all his free time since we got back home I think he liked it :).  I have an account to play it as well since I tried it there for about 60 seconds.  So I suppose I'll try it more here at home and do a review on it?  Maybe if I get the time :).  I would have loved to try it more there, but owing to the fact that I'm new at this whole gaming thing and there were people who a) developed this game and b) who know how to play games like this watching over my shoulder I chickened out and gave up the spot for some one else who might get more out of it.

I did, however, find a game that I could play by myself!!  Yay for that!  It was Magic The Gathering 2013 playable on the Xbox 360 (also they have a version coming out that is going to be available on the iPad!) Couldn't wait to play it again so we downloaded the 2012 version when we got home.  So far I still love it, even though it's still on tutorial mode.  I'll post more when I get the hang of things.

Toward mid day we started loosing steam fast and furious and the crowds just kept getting more crowded.  Not being ones to stand in line for hours to play games for 10 or 20 minutes we decided we had gotten our money's worth out of the experience and so we headed home to our girls.  

Things that surprised me...

1)  The politeness of everyone there!  Seriously everyone that I ran into seemed polite and good natured.  With that many people there it was surprising to me how I didn't see any line cutting, pushing or shoving.  I also didn't hear any cussing or see any adult tantrums...

2) The prices really didn't seem all that ridiculous to me.  Merch and food seemed pretty reasonable.  But maybe that's because I've seen the prices for food at the Saratoga Race Track...

3) Cabs in Boston weren't  nearly as pricey as I was expecting...also the cabbies are not chatty at all...

4) People will wait for insane amounts of time in a line to play a game for 10 minutes, how do you even decide if you like the game in that amount of time?  Or is it just to be able to say you played said game at PAX before it was released to the world?  

 Things we learned for next year...

1) Get there early again!  Totally worth sitting in line for a couple of hours to get to play one game before the crowds really start picking up.  

2) We could bring the girls!  Next year depending on their personalities at the time we will probably be bringing the girls with us.  I was very surprised to see there were people there with their toddlers there!  What a great experience for them to be a part of.

3) If there is someone who you know is going to be there doing a signing and you would like to meet them...get in line for the darn signing...Totally missed out on meeting Felicia Day, next year though...

4) They have food upstairs, go and purchase it there.  Have a sandwich or a burrito for lunch, don't settle for snacks and a fried dough...

5) If you bring snacks and water don't forget to munch on said snacks and drink said water...you will be a much happier person for it, and probably wont end up crashing at 1:30.

6) Research some table top games.  We wanted to come out of this weekend with a game we could play at home since M sits at a computer all day the last thing he feels like doing lately is playing on one when he gets home.  They had "how to play" D & D sessions going on and we were going to do one of those, but we had each gotten a deck of Magic cards in our swag bags and I liked the xbox version so I think we are going to go with that for a while and figure it out on our own.  But walking by the Table Top section I realized just how much there is out there to try!  It would be fun to just hang out and play some while we're there and maybe meet some great new people!