So as you may or may not know the Penny Arcade Expo (or PAX if you’re leet) was weekend before last, and honestly, I’m still trying to recover from it. Coming from a person who has attended a couple of E3’s in his life, I can honestly say PAX is the greatest gaming convention ever conceived so far. This was the third year of the expo and while it may have well been called the “Nvidia Find-Me Fest and marketing distraction expo”, this year was leaps and bounds better than last year’s overly crowded, yet overly disappointing event.

The first major improvement was the event being staged at the Seattle convention center, which is about ten-times bigger than the Maydenbauer center the event was at the previous two years. Of course, this means there was tons more room for everyone to geek out and instead of piling on top of each other in some sort of mass orgy of geekdom. While some hardcore followers of the expo may call foul at the apparent lack of intimacy this year had; I, for one, thought it made for a much better experience. Not only did it help to spread the crowd, but also it was a major improvement if you just wanted some room to relax. For instance, there were three – count ‘em – three handheld lounges where people can just chill on bean bags and draw wangs in Pictochat to their heart’s content.

        

The second major improvement was this year’s exhibition hall. While last year was nothing more than some 360’s running Geometry Wars and a Castle Crashers booth, the exhibition hall this year unleashed an unrelenting torrent of memories of what E3 used to be – only we were amongst gamers, as opposed to a bunch of stuck up press people. Still, with the gamers came the usual convention ilk consisting of your usual assortment of the expected neck beards that haven’t bathed for days and cosplayers with varying degrees of coolness. You definitely weren’t pimpin’ it if you didn’t have a DS or some article of clothing advertising your level fifty WOW character with an epic mount…whatever that is.

Back to the exhibition hall, this year saw more unreleased or soon-to-be-released games on display and provided you weren’t distracted by the marketing scavenger hunts of Sony and Nvidia, there was more to do than three full days allowed. All of the major players, aside from Konami and Capcom, were out in force. This year also saw the return of a nearly extinct creature in the booth babe – or in the case of the Haze booth, that guy who hosted the Arena show on G4 who isn’t near as dreamy as Kevin Perera. I’m going to hell for that statement. There were also tons of developers on hand to get your reactions to the demos being displayed. I think I talked to one of the guys working on Geometry Wars Galaxies for a good thirty minutes while I acted like a fourteen year-old girl who was meeting Justin Timberlake for the first time. Yeah, I’ll admit it. My most memorable experience was playing the Dark Sector demo and badmouthing it the entire time to the guy next to me. Little did I know I was being watched as when I finished, a very humble developer approached me and asked what I really thought. All I could tell him is that the blade was fun and that I didn’t know what to think of it at first – I know for damn sure he heard my Gears of War rip-off tirade.

As previously mentioned, both Sony and Nvidia were hosting near impossible scavenger hunts to keep you from actually enjoying the show. Those who were foolish enough to fall for it ended up spending hours, or in some cases, days climbing rock walls trying to find symbols for the Uncharted scavenger hunt. The shrewd minds at Nvidia sponsored a game where attendees would wear pins with numbers to try to find that one in sixty-thousand people that matched their number. The end result turned out to be a bunch of gamers donning cardboard signs, cut up bags, or carrying signs with their numbers trying oh so desperately to find their match. What it really looked like were a bunch of homeless people standing on a freeway on ramp claiming to be out-of-luck Vietnam vets looking for a handout. Just like mud-covered hippies were the theme of Woodstock ’94, smelly bums donning “Getting booty since 1780” shirts with cut up bags around their necks epitomized PAX ’07.

           

The best bits of PAX occurred after the exhibition hall closed. Friday and Saturday nights featured concerts with game music gods Freezepop, nerdcore artists like Optimus Rhyme, and game music cover bands like the One-Ups and the Minibosses. While at first I was a little bummed about having to decide whether to see Freezepop or to catch a showing of either Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children or my favorite childhood movie, The Wizard, it was totally apparent the concerts were the place to be. The One-Ups on Friday night were easily the best act  and while disappointing at first, Freezepop got over their apparent stage fright and ended up putting on a really decent show playing all of their songs from the Harmonix games and more. While it was a rush to be among fellow gamers, I quite bummed when I attempted to start a mosh pit during Freezepop’s “Less Talk More Rock” and ended up almost getting into a fight with some four-eyed nerd who thought I was out to kill him. Food for thought – crowds that listen to live bands while chatting in Pictochat have no interest in moving to music whatsoever. Saturday night also saw the ArenaNet party at Gameworks across the street from the convention center, which was almost surreal as every TV in the bar was streaming Guild Wars videos and getting the chance to talk to a bunch of wasted development guys was just plain awesome.

While there were video games galore at the show, the most interesting aspects came in the panels that were taking place. I got the chance to check out the live Assassin’s Creed demo, the Penny Arcade Q&A where they made a comic from start to finish live onstage while answering questions, and the culture of Japanese gaming panel. If video games aren’t your thing, there were also a buttload of tabletop gaming companies at the show including Wizards of the Coast and a few companies demoing unreleased Starcraft and Star Wars boards games. This year also attempted to break a world record by featuring the world’s largest LARP in which forum goer Eli Swank took part in. Fortunately for those involved, as well as everyone else, the LARP pretty much fizzled out by mid-Saturday and we no longer had to deal with overweight guys in suits wanting to play rock-paper-scissors every five minutes. Everyone eventually came to the horrid conclusion that LARPing is in fact lame and should never be attempted en masse again.

We did, however, get addicted to a card combat game by the name of Dev Kit, which is developed by local import store Pink Godzilla. You essentially play as a game developer and attempt to play character, title, and gear cards to make a game while your opponents attempt to put the most games to market first. Props to Zapster X for showing us the benevolence that is Dev Kit. It’s really just a kickass game and surely passes the time if you’ve got a bunch of gaming buddies willing to play. Dev Kit wasn’t the only example of gaming hawtness at the Pink Godzilla booth, though. The New Gen top-loading NES was a pretty big seller. Imagine an NES machine that’s about a quarter of the size with wireless controllers. On top of that, it would also play the original Famicom games too – provided you can find some. Oh hell, just look at the pic to get a good idea. Unfortunately, the only thing keeping me from getting one of these was the fact that the machines couldn’t play Castlevania III.

So now that I look at it this article almost has a negative tone to it, which really couldn’t be further from the truth. The privilege to be amongst fellow gamers and getting three days to totally geek out without being looked at funny was an amazing experience. Even now, my thoughts are still filled with loud booths with plushy Parappas and people struggling to sing along to pop songs in Singstar just adjacent to wannabe rockers in the Rock Band booth. Just getting to sit down to play some dev kit and inviting any passersby to join in on a game or renting a SNES in the retro console room to pass some time before seeing the Minibosses break out in a kick ass Castlevania medley is something I’ll never forget. Let’s not forget the last round of the Omegathon to see the final two gamers duke it out in never before seen Halo 3 levels using weapons we’ve never seen before – it was just an amazing experience. The guys who put the show together have made something truly magical and have managed to make something that gamers all over the world will want to be a part of – more than any E3, Blizzcon, Quakecon, or any other “con” out there. There really aren’t enough words or pictures to describe the zen-like chaos the expo provides. PAX, whether you’re a fan of the comic or not, is an experience that any gamer will never forget.

Best perk: Free Bawls every day, the default shwag bag.

Best Shwag: Street Fighter/Darkstalkers comic books, PSP demo discs, Wiimote keychain, and a God of War: Chains of Olympus shirt.

Biggest Disappointment: Overpriced energy drinks, missing out on a Parappa shirt, missing the Far Cry 2 demo in favor of playing Godzilla Unleashed, being ignored by Gamespot.

Hottest booth babes: Sony’s PSP babes with the new slim model strapped to their hips.

Worse than bringing your parents to a party: Nintendo nagging everyone to wear wrist straps.

Best games: Metroid Prime 3, Geometry Wars Galaxies, Castle Crashers, Rock Band, Eye of Judgement, Conan, Assassin’s Creed.

Worst Games: Dark Sector, Lair (in terms of gameplay).

Best Cosplay: Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth. The two chicks as Squall and Rinoa are a very close second.

– Dr. Swank