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PAX East 2010 Video Blog #2: Roaming the Show

by Jon Lindemann - March 26, 2010, 10:58 pm EDT
Total comments: 14

Like any self-respecting Director of a Nintendo website, my first stop was Nintendo's booth. Surely it'll be a sizeable setup, with all of those Wii games from the last Media Summit, right? Let's have a look from one end of the booth.


Hold on a minute, it looks like the booth is really small, only has a bunch of DS kiosks, and there aren't any Wii games to be found. Surely this can't be the case; let's go down to the other end.


Yep, don't blink that's the entire booth. I guess I'll have to wait until E3 to play Super Mario Galaxy 2, Sin & Punishment 2, and Metroid: Other M. Don't worry, Pokemon, Picross 3D, Photo Dojo, and WarioWare D.I.Y. will more than satisfy me in the meantime. *COUGH*

Thankfully, the disappointment of the Nintendo booth meant that we had plenty of time on our hands to check out some of the community-driven aspects of the show. This is stuff that you would only see at PAX, which is a show by video game lovers, for video game lovers.

A great example is the Free Play room for the uber-rare Xbox title Steel Battalion: Line of Contact. Amazingly enough, ten owners of the game DONATED their pricey setups (the huge controllers are worth hundreds of dollars on their own) for use in this Free Play room. Check out the monstrous controller.


The game is as complicated as that controller looks. I played on the same team as Jonny and James (it was a 5-on-5 match each round), but I never saw them on the battlefield.

Our next stop was the Free Play Checkout area, which is simply brilliant: when your number is called, you give the folks at the desk your badge and sign out any game you want. There are dozens of consoles of all types set up in this massive room, and you find the one you need and go at it. We played some Boom Blox: Bash Party, but there were people playing everything from Heavy Rain to Bioshock 2. However, there was this really cool Forza Motorsport setup at each end of the room.


That's right, that's THREE monitors. To do this you need three Xbox 360s, three copies of the Forza game, and of course three monitors. Utterly ridiculous, but absolutely incredible to watch.

Probably our highlight of the evening was the retro console room. This room was exactly like the Free Play Checkout room, meaning you could give them your badge in order to sign out a retro game of your choice. Virtually every old-school console is represented here - hell, they even have a JVC X-Eye - but what caught our eye was the one and only Vectrex, which Chris Kohler discussed on RFN 173.


Vector graphics never looked sweeter. In fact, I think we all fell in love with vector graphics after playing the Vectrex, and came to like them even more after hitting the retro arcade room...but it's late and I'm tired, so that will have to wait for another video blog. Tomorrow will be another crazy, jam-packed day at PAX East 2010, so we'll see you then!

Talkback

StratosMarch 27, 2010

Mmm...Vector graphics. Gotta love them.

SouthForkMarch 27, 2010

I was really hoping to see some Metroid footage.
Love the video's. Keep'm coming.


Did anyone film/pics from the RFN panel. You know, for those of us that weren't there.



vuduMarch 27, 2010

During the Vectrex video, the "as you can see" guys were Karl, Neal and Sklens, right?

The first person you see was Karl. Jonny is playing the Vectrex.  Then it's Neal.  And since Hotel Internet sucks I can't see who is after that.

Also, Jon what happened to pre-panel "video fear blog"

NWR_KarlKarl Castaneda, Contributing EditorMarch 27, 2010

SouthFork, we got PLENTY of stuff filmed/recorded from the show yesterday (I'm editing a couple things as I'm typing this!), so you'll definitely get lots of stuff coming down the pipe shortly. I can only imagine we'll be doing even more during the show today.

SouthForkMarch 27, 2010

Nice.
Thanks for given us home bodies a taste of PAX.
Rob.

D_AverageMarch 27, 2010

OMG!!  I finally saw what Obi looked like.  So weird.  I pictured him as this really fat white kid in a trench coat.  He looks more like a barista.  Man, the internet is so bizarre some times.  Anyways, its good to see him back, that dude cracked me up, loved his rant on fanboys from an old show.,

PaleMike Gamin, Contributing EditorMarch 27, 2010

Quote from: D_Average

OMG!!  I finally saw what Obi looked like.  So weird.  I pictured him as this really fat white kid in a trench coat.  He looks more like a barista.  Man, the internet is so bizarre some times.  Anyways, its good to see him back, that dude cracked me up, loved his rant on fanboys from an old show.,

That's funny, back prior to me meeting him at E3 06 I pictured him the same way. :)

SouthForkMarch 27, 2010

Speaking of which, has anyone ever laid eyes on Greg or is he just some British mystery man?

Zach has met Greg, but I haven't met either of them.

I apologize for not getting more video up guys.  The internet in our hotel and on the show floor is pretty crappy, so uploading video is tough most of the time.

I believe Karlie has also met Greg, or perhaps she torments him with "Hedgehog Games" (of the "Hurry-Up" variety, not the "Sonic" ones) from afar.

One thing worth noting is that every DS in Nintendo's boot would electrocute whomever touched it with a gigawatt of static that then caused the touchscreen to become unresponsive, until suchtime that it was restarted.

I met Greg when I went to London last year. From the sound of his voice on RFN, I kept picturing John Oliver. Nothing could be further from the truth. Greg is the UK's Bigfoot, or perhaps Yeti, towering over the masses. We went to a little pub behind Parliment and yammered about games. Good times. Nice guy, too. I was severely lacking British currency, so he bought me a Coke. Perhaps our paths will cross again someday...

I do pine to meet Jon, though.

PaleMike Gamin, Contributing EditorMarch 30, 2010

You went to a British pub and bought a coke?  Really? =P

Dirk TemporoMarch 30, 2010

Quote from: Pale

You went to a British pub and bought a coke?  Really? =P

Hey, their Coke has real sugar over there.

I can't believe I skipped PAX in favor of Anime Boston. Everybody is saying it's way better. =/

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