The weather may still be hot but summer is almost officially over for me here in Southern California. After a busy season of traveling, I thought I would get some time to rest, but it is only momentary as the busy holiday game release season is about to begin!
I’ll be posting my Q4 preview soon, but before I get to that I want to talk about PAX Prime! Yes, it is my favorite convention of the year. Why, you ask? Well because not only is it in the lovely city of Seattle, but it is a great time for me to meet fellow game enthusiasts and viewers or listeners of my work.
This was my first year going to PAX Prime as part of Machinima, and I worked the Mcom booth for most of the convention. We have a funny photo booth going and also had free play of the upcoming mech shooter Hawken, along with table-top gaming and a MW3 tourney.
I felt so honored to meet so many Weekend Confirmed fans! Crazy to think I’ve been on the show for over 1 1/2 years now. Going to admit, I was disappointed that the annual WC panel was cancelled, but it was great just to be at PAX.
So what did I do at PAX you ask? Well, I unfortunately didn’t make it to any panels, tragic, I know, but I did get to see the new demo for Dead Island Riptide where they showcased a “horde style” segment within the campaign. The game is co-op, like the original, so you and your buddies need to build defenses to protect survivors against waves of zombies. It screamed Call of Duty Zombies to me, but it was set in a jungle, so I guess that is different? …oh wait…Shangri-La… They do have the signature homemade weapons that appeared in the first game, which does add a bit of flare.
I also got to play Halo 4 multiplayer for the first time. It has been available at a few other conventions, but I was excited to finally go hands-on. We played a round of Regicide, a new mode for Halo. It is a free-for-all deathmatch where one player is the King and all other players are trying to become the king. Killing players gets you rewards points, but if you kill the King, you get more. The longer someone remains King, the higher their bounty becomes with each successful kill, until they are taken out. Considering I haven’t picked up Halo for over 6 months, my round wasn’t so hot to say the least. But I really love the new loadout system and am looking forward to jumping back in the world of Master Chief. See more details in the video below:
One of the best parts of PAX Prime is the PAX 10. This year I got to play a lot of really fun titles including Cannon Brawl. The description of the game alone is enough to make your head spin! It mixes tower defense elements with RTS and 2D PvP action. I mean damn, there is A LOT going on all over your screen. It seems more complicated than it is at first, but once you have a good strategy, I can see the game being SUPER addictive.
“2D artillery game and an RTS had a beautiful baby!”
There was also indie darling Johann Sebastian Joust which has been making the rounds at conventions and festivals for a few years now, when can I buy this game already?!! …and where do I get PS Move controllers in bulk?
I also checked out iOS game Catch-22 which is almost guaranteed to make your throw your phone across the room in frustration. You control two orbs that circle a planet. The goal is to collect all the coins and once you do, the direction switches and you have to not only keep collecting, but avoid your ghost trail to prevention exploding.
You can check out all of the PAX 10 by clicking here.
There were also a handful of other announcements and gameplay demos including Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes from Hideo Kojima, a look a the Rise of the Triad reboot, the new contracts mode for Hitman: Absolution, and some awesome hands-on time with Dishonored. I’ll expand on my thoughts on my upcoming episode of Weekend Confirmed which I’ll post here on my blog.
All-in-all a great show! It certainly made me more excited for upcoming fall releases like Borderlands 2, Assassin’s Creed III, and more. I’ll be posting much more throughout the fall so keep checking back!