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| PAX Writeup... | |
| Posted By: Devin Olsen <DevinOlsen@Gmail.com> | Date: 8/30/11 11:49 a.m. |
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I made this/posted this over on GAF but I figured you guys would like to read this too. Wow, weekend is over and my legs are still burning from walking/standing for basically the past three days straight. But I am happy to have done it again and look forward to PAX next year (or perhaps PAX East if something interesting is announced). We arrived in Seattle early Thursday so we could pick up the badges from Will Call. We showed up around 2:30 and there was a decent sized line for the badges but it was moving along pretty good.
Badges in hand we were ready to head out for some much needed Chipotle
Afterwards we headed back to the house and pretty much had an early night so we could wake up early the next morning for the CEA panel.... I of course wore one of my best shirts Friday morning (sadly only got a few comments on it)
On our way to the panel we stopped for breakfast at Jack in the Box and were blown away with the fancy Robo Waiter machine you guys have here in America.
Arriving at the Sherator we were at first concerned that we were in the wrong area since there were only two other people waiting in line... I asked around and was told we were in the right spot, so good seats were in our future.
While waiting Laird showed up and had us sign his gift to 343i
Ellis almost ruined the surprise, but fortunately kept a tight lip
While all this was going on I wandered outside to see the lineup for HaloFest. By this point I would say both of our lines were equal in length.
Panel Line
Shortly after we were let inside to get our seats. We managed to get front row centre, and I was able to get what has to be the best picture of Wu I have ever seen.
Ellis looking pretty
Campaign Demo Time!
The panel was really great, it was informative and fun and seeing how GOOD CEA looks really makes me excited to play through the campaign again. Each time they would switch back and forth my jaw would drop. It is amazing how 'bad' Halo: CE really did look in comparison with games today. Afterwards we hit the main floor and immediately went to play Skyrim. While waiting in line someone from G4 asked my friends girlfriend if she would be on TV with Adam and Morgan to ask a question about Skyrim... She accepted and we went over with her and watched them do it. It is amazing how scripted and fake the whole thing is.... The question she asked wasn't even her question, it was something the G4 guy told her to ask. The cued laughs and applauses were a bit much for me, but it was fun to see how it all works.
Afterwards we went over to play Skyrim... This game is ammmmazing, I know I am going to lose countless hours to this game when it comes out in November.
With that done I wanted desperately to get my hands on the TU. We went over to HaloFest and sat down at the 4v4 Hopper and were given full control of what map/game type to choose, naturally we chose to play all of them.
The TU plays really well, my favourite game type was Zero Bloom Slayer and I feel like with a little bit of tweaking the 3-Shot Pistol Kill gametype could be an absolute blast (GET RID OF THE BLOOM!). Of all of the maps I played I would say that I have no clear favorite (Speaking between Prisoner, Damnation, Beaver Creak). All of the maps play really well and I liked both variants of each map. I honestly cannot wait for CEA to come out just so I can get my hands on these maps and get a chance to play them at home. After we played around on those 3 maps with all of the updated gametypes we wandered over to the Big Team Battle station to play Timber land (Ridgeline).
This map plays really well, albeit a little different than it did in Halo PC. The inclusion of the little structure for Rockets on either side of the map really changes the flow of gameplay. I wish they would get rid of the structures and put the OS back in the middle, I think that would benefit gameplay/map flow a lot. Also get rid of the barricades that stop vehicles from entering the bases :( After playing all the new maps/game types we wandered around and check out a few things. The Warthog is AMAZING... Honestly cannot explain how insanely detailed and well crafted this thing is. I would give anything to go for a ride in this or to be able to see it drive around.
We did a lot of other things on Friday but nothing really of interest... That night though we were invited to the VIP party so we went to that. Free drinks with invite, what's wrong with that?
The cake was amazing, honestly.
Special Halo Fest napkins!
Beer and Halo, who could ask for more?
They had a couple giveaways/awards that night, include the Claude Errera award (Congrats Claude <3). He ended up winning a Modded Duke controller that was turned into a wireless 360 controller. It was #1 of 6 made. The second giveaway was for the best costume, which a LED covered MC won.
After the MC won the controller I walked up to him and asked him if I could buy the controller off him. I knew that I wanted one of these controllers more than anything else, and if it didn't mean that much to him I would rather try and have it. He agreed and a deal was made... Wireless duke controller #2 is now mine <3
The day was light and the night even longer, I was exhausted and ready for bed. I knew we would have to wake up early for GAF breakfast, WOULDNT WANT TO LET ANYONE DOWN. I woke up early the next morning and arrived at the place 20 minutes early to set up all the tables and chairs for our large group. However everyone except for Sean.P and Duncan bailed so just the three groups had breakfast together. It was honestly embarassing to have so many people bail on me, and really doesn't motivate me to try and set something like this up again next year. The salt in the wound was the fact that 90% of the GAF'ers that bailed on my breakfast on Saturday ended up going to the HBO breakfast on Sunday. Oh well, we all had a good time talking and eating food so it turned out ok.
We arrived at the Expo early and had an hour to kill until the place opened up. We decided to hit up the Retro Console free play...
We played N64 for an hour (007 Multi Player!)
Afterwards we lined up for the Bioshock booth.... A hour+ later we realized the lineup was for NOTHING. you looked at some paintings and did a 5 question quiz for a shot at winning a t-shirt.... THE END. Stupid... With the bad taste in my mouth I decided the only thing to get it out would be to visit the GOG booth... These grandmas baked cookies non-stop. All you had to do was stop by the booth and they would hand you a warm chocolate chip or white macadamia cookie... I made several stops to this booth throughout the weekend.
We did a bunch of other things throughout the day, mainly played more TU Halo... And after the day was done we were wondering what to do. I happened to check Twitter and saw that Sega had bought out Gameswork for the night and there was free booze, free food, unlimited games all night. It was a no brainer, we walked across the street and got in.
MASSIVE line
Badge
Food!
Overview
The night was a lot of fun, it could have been boring since there was nothing else for us to do but I am really happy we decided to go. One of the more enjoyable memories of the trip since it was such a spontaneous last minute decision. Sunday morning we woke up early for the Halo 4 panel... We got into line and were close to the front of the line with Sean.P.
However after waiting in line Claude and co. walked by and I saw that we had a chance to go in early (HBO & GAF <3). We checked out the theatre and got a chance to sit inside and visit with all of the other community folks, it was a lot of fun. Calm before the storm
The theatre is old and amazing looking, I love the style of the building
While waiting I saw Alison and asked her if she could get my controller signed by everyone... She was more than happy to and came back with more signatures than I could have hoped for. Thank you very much Alison <3
Mister Cheif
After we were told the panel would begin soon and we took our seats.
Before the panel actually began Corrinne Yu (Principal Engine Programmer for the Halo Franchise Team) sat down beside me and started making small talk... She talked to me about all of the games/projects she has worked on. The things she has done are amazing, and she was really nice to talk to. I love meeting people who are genuinely good people, it was nice. Panel is about to begin
Mid-way through the bring MC onto stage, pretty cool
After the panel was done I was certainly more excited for Halo 4 and admittedly a little sad that we didn't get any huge news out of the panel. But I still enjoyed it. The rest of the day I wandered around checking out the things I had already seen... Misc HaloFest pictures
Guess who's back that is (not intentional, I realized after that she was standing there... Pretty easy to miss her ;))
MegaBloks
Tourney
Misc Pictures Resistance 3
Grunty
Well my writeup isn't full of juicy info but it was my weekend in a nutshell. I had a ton of fun and cannot wait to do it again next year. Thank you so much 343 for putting on HaloFest and spending time working to make Reach better for the community. I honestly think if it wasn't for Halo I wouldn't go to PAX. My main draw each year is to see what new and exciting things are coming and to get to see all of you guys. <3
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| Replies: |
| PAX Writeup... | Devin Olsen | 8/30/11 11:49 a.m. |
| Re: PAX Writeup... | GrimBrother One | 8/30/11 12:16 p.m. |
| Nice, thanks for posting. *NM* | Sqorck | 8/30/11 12:28 p.m. |
| Re: PAX Writeup... | MacGyver10 | 8/30/11 12:56 p.m. |
| I feel robbed! | laird | 8/30/11 4:05 p.m. |
| Re: PAX Writeup... | General Vagueness | 8/30/11 4:09 p.m. |
| Re: PAX Writeup... | ncsuDuncan | 8/30/11 4:47 p.m. |
| Re: PAX Writeup... | Mazz | 8/31/11 9:29 a.m. |
| Re: PAX Writeup... | Darkphibre | 9/1/11 3:16 p.m. |
| Thanks for the writeup! *NM* | AngelicLionheart | 9/1/11 5:20 p.m. |
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