I attended PAX East once again
and as always it was an amazing time, the show just never gets old for me. You
can browse Triple A blockbusters like Overwatch and walk 10 feet to see a small
game called Thimbleweed Park in the Indie Megabooth. There are huge Tabletop
areas that you can sit and join Magic or D&D rounds (as well as dozens of
other game systems), you can chill in the arcade or handheld lounges, get food,
attend panels and just have a glorious time.
The
fact that it is in Boston is the icing on the cake, it is such a cool chill
town with hundreds of years of history, architecture and amazing seafood. I
attend PAX every year to represent Blogritics.org as a freelance
writer and tend to write 8-10 articles about games and events at the show. I
checked out a ton of games, panels and events, but I have to say Ape Out was
one of my favorite items. Below is the first block of articles I wrote while
attending the show this year. Enjoy!
PAX East 2017: What is PAX?
The
Social Side of PAX East
I
often get asked what exactly is the PAX East show? Is it about
videogames? Tabletop Games? Art and Culture in Videogames? The music inspired
by videogames? A social mashup of videogame and pop culture fans? The answer is
all of this and more. For those who do not know the history, PAX is
technically called The Penny Arcade Expo, a conference looking at all
things game and nerd culture that came from the imaginations of the team behind
the hugely popular online comic Penny Arcade. The creators always wondered
why there was no show/conference that really welcomed and embraced the fans of
the video and table top gaming scene. There are plenty of video game
events, but they are mostly industry driven and not terribly welcoming to the
everyday enthusiast. The first PAX was held in 2007 in Seattle and since
that time other venues popped up. PAX East in Boston, followed by PAX South in
San Antonio and PAX Australia in Melbourne. Over the past 10 years what
started as an experiment has literally turned into a world spanning event that
people plan months to attend.
PAX
East is a three day event spanning Friday – Sunday in March or April and it is
held at the BCEC conference centre in Boston, Massachusetts. While the
focus of PAX East is the expo hall, panels, and tabletop area, there is a very
robust social scene that has sprung up around the conference. Over the
course of the event (as well as days before and after) there are a number of
gatherings, parties, meetups, and industry events that all can participate in.
The highlights, for me at least, are a mix of industry sponsored and
community run events that highlight the uniqueness of the gaming world. Every
year I attend a Pokemon themed
pub crawl called the Pokecrawl; this may sound like a way to just drink the
night away, but it is a great community event that raises thousands of dollars
for Child’s Play charities and brings people of all walks of life together. I
often also join boardgame meetups – the biggest of which is in the Westin the
night before PAX – the hotel gives up a lot of space and hundreds of gamers
converge to play dozens of different titles. During PAX there are a
number of sponsored and community driven parties as well at pubs, bars, and
hotels that give attendees a chance to mingle with developers and each other.
This social side of PAX East is a truly great thing and something that is a big
part of my personal PAX experience that I look forward to each year.
PAX East 2017 Preview: Elex
PAX
East is a huge show with hundreds of developers and games to experience, one of
the ones that caught my eye was Elex by
Piranha Bytes due to its odd mix off science fiction and fantasy in a post
apocalyptic open world. Following the general trend of the Fallout series
Elex is focused on a pivotal character who has a special background, in this
case he is a former soldier called an Alb, and his emotions are muted by a
component called Elex that gives him powers no human has. The
protagonist crashes on a mission far from home and the Elex
starts fading from his system, this triggers emotions to start forming for
the first time in his life and sets him on a path to either save the world or
destroy it.
The
premise is pretty cut and dry despite the fantastical trappings but what
grabbed my attention was the striking world design and staggering amount of
choices. Elex is
a game that lets you play as you like. If you want to help everyone and be the
hero you can, if you want to fight everything that moves and take everything
not locked down you can do that as well. As you explore the world of Elex you
will encounter NPC’s factions, towns, cities, monsters and your former Alb
companions. Characters can be interacted with, factions can be joined or
opposed and the towns/cities can be explored to enable quests and new
information about you and the world.
PAX East 2017 Preview: Divinity Original Sin 2
Divinity
Original Sin 2 looks initially to be a very similar game to the original
but digging into the gameplay a bit and experiencing some of the story beats I
can see where some major differences are coming in. First off the narrative
experience has been greatly enhanced with all companions having major story
arcs that you can hop into if they are your companions or take part in directly
if you choose their archetype when creating your character. For the demo I
chose the Red Prince template and was instantly enveloped in his story which
revolves around the fact that he is a Prince of the new reptilian race featured
in the game who was isolated due to his incredible tactical skills. He was
locked away and only let out when he was needed and now he is captured and
subdued with a Source collar blocking his powers. One of the cool but subtle
things I noticed while wandering around as this character was that everyone of
his race knows him and gives him incredible respect, a neat touch. I also
liked that even though I selected a template I could change the sex or
appearance of the character, so while the story and skills were pre-selected
(though skills could be adjusted too) the character is still unique to your
preferences.
Divinity
Original Sin was a huge success on Kickstarter back in 2013 when the
platform was just starting to get some traction for crowd-funding games.
Not only did they far exceed their funding goal, they took that money and
invested it into an incredibly deep and enjoyable experience when the game
launched in 2014. Not resting on their laurels Larian Studios revamped
and tweaked the game and released an enhanced version on PC as well as
expanding to consoles in 2015. To say Divinity
Original Sin was a success was an understatement. Now
the studio is back with the sequel funded by another successful Kickstarter
campaign and while I am a backer of the game and want to stay away from playing
until the game is finished I could not help but take it for a spin at PAX
East.
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