Flipping the table in Boston.

[a_bit_of_wit_2]

Now that it's been a week since the madness that was PAX East 2011, my brain has the time to settle down and enjoy the memories. While I enjoyed myself immensely, I don't think the total lack of sleep and healthy food did my ailing ass/crotch area any good; at the end, and since returning from PAX, the surgery area has been protesting loudly, being much more irritated and annoyed than it had been in recent weeks. All that walking probably didn't help either. Note to self: should I make it to PAX next year, I'm probably getting my own room so I can get a full night's sleep each day of the convention; as much as I'd love to be there each day from 8 AM to 2 AM (18 hours of gaming joy!), my body can't handle 5 hours of sleep a few nights in a row. So I'm taking it easy this weekend, with the only two mandatory things I need to do are editing Monday's Downloadable Content episode for release, and that whole doing-our-taxes thing.

Rather than give you a whole essay on my experience at PAX East, I'll give you the notes I took down while I was there.

PAX Day 1

--GIANT FUCKING CONVENTION
--LIKE, FUCKING MASSIVE
--It's the gamer's version of the Hajj
--It's MCCA

--Bottom floor comprises the expo hall, where game developers and publishers are showing off their upcoming latest and greatest; Nintendo had a very good showing, but the mass crowds prevented me from getting any hands-on time with the 3DS.

--GIANT PIKACHU
--NEW MORTAL KOMBAT ZOMG

--Tabletop gaming for as far as the eye could see

--interacted with many strangers, including two women dressed in Organization 13 garb; also spoke to Zero Suit Samus, someone was dressed up as the 4th & 10th Doctor

--Played for a bit in the Funspot Arcade room

--Partook of the Super Smash Bros Brawl tourney, and got my ass handed to me in the opening round

--A beautiful convergence of men, women, gamers one and all

--Very impressed with just how many Nintendo fanboys there are; spent a chunk of time in the console freeplay playing copious amounts of Brawl, and got to play a bit of Marvel vs. Capcom 3

--got some swag

DAY 2:

--spent a good chunk of the day at tabletop, played the RE card game

--wandered the expo hall some more, more crowded than Friday.

--classic console foreplay was packed; saw some ancient relics of gaming. Glad to see the old classics with still such large fantasies

--large crowds will assemble at the possibility for free stuff, as evident by the Bioshock Infinite booth.

--VGO was absolutely amazing. Absolutely brilliant; hoping they come to NY at some point.

--Some tunes VGO played: opened with Street Fighter 2 medley, did a Zelda medley, some from Castlevania, Chrono Trigger, Time's Scar from Chrono Cross, a Final Fantasy Suite, the theme from Halo, encore was MGS3: Snake Eater.

--Handheld Lounge was becoming more of a transient sleep-area in the later hours.

--Again, GIANT PIKACHU

--Never have I seen such a giant crowd so interested by a giant Jenga game (Omegathon). Electric atmosphere. Only at a nerd convention where Jenga can be absolutely riveting. Theatre held 4000 (appr.) people.

DAY 3:

--The final day. 24 hours remain. Take a look at the giant smiling moon.

--Took advantage of an momentarily short Mortal Kombat line and finally got some hands-on with the upcoming MK game. Very, very shiny, didn't get long enough time to really get into it. First impressions, though, are really good. Very glad it's going back to the 2D plane.

--Failed to get anywhere near the Nintendo booth; line was continually too long.

--Spent some time at the indie booth, and played around with a new game being created by Owlchemy Labs, LLC. Smuggle Truck is a game where the objective is to smuggle immigrants into the US. The point that the developers are trying to make is that with it being so very difficult to legally immigrate to the United States, it is infinitely easier to just come in illegally; an important issue that the developers feel isn't getting enough exposure. With a satirical angle on a real issue, we want to create a game that is fun to play but also stirs up discussion on ways to improve the problematic immigration system in the United States.

--This game is drawing fire from some immigrant advocates and Fox News.

--Also spent some time trying out a few products, like headsets and whatnot. Might have to invest in a pair of gaming headsets.

--Failed to win any raffles, but that's ok.

--Free swag EVERYWHERE.

--Spent some time in console freeplay, hooking up and joining Brawl matches wherever possible. The communal experiences I've had are probably what I'll take away from PAX the most.

--Final event of the Omegathon: Ikaruga to the death. The two teams remaining competed against each other in a score attack, with the winning team going to the Germany game show.

--Awesome, awesome weekend. Will return next year.

In this Monday's episode, I will present a more cohesive version of these, and also featured will be 4 other people who went to PAX, each with a story to tell. Be sure to download it Monday from the iTunes store.

Now, loafing will continue. And BioShock 2. Yes. More of that.