Fri Sep 3 13:33:06 EDT 2010
Liveblog: PAX 2010, day 1
I'm at PAX 2010!
As I did in 2008 and again in 2009, I'm going to be liveblogging the experience. It's much like regular blogging, just with more timestamps, and a lot more typos.
1011: The line situation is just completely fucked. I doubt I'll miss much if I wait ten or twenty minutes for it to die down.
1021: Apparently Isa isn't going to get here until 1900. Lame.
1049: The TN force feedback vest is still incandecently silly.
Despite what this image may make you think, the expo hall is actually fairly dark. This was taken at 1/25s. Bringing the monopod was definiately a good decision, even though the tiny lump of black plastic that is DMC-LX3 looks kinda funny mounted to it, much like those steadicam rigs for the iPhone.
1053: EA has a laptop at their Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit booth, where you can convivently preorder the game.
Two things: 1. Ha ha ha ha ha ha, seriously? 2. Who the hell is dumb enough to type their credit card number into a public computer?
They've also got a pair of booth babes. Sigh.
PAX has a long-standing policy against booth babes, since they're a critically embarrassing detail of gamer culture, but apparently the rules don't apply to you if you've got enough money.
1056: Darkspore can best be described as "Spore crossed with Diablo".
1058: The Nvidia booth has a SLI setup with three 1080p monitors, running Fallout 3: New Vegas. It is really, really cool, and I spend some quality time with it.
They've added a grenade machinegun, which is murder on fully automatic wheels. Except against Deathclaws, which are grenadeproof. The autobalancing must be tuned way down, if the demo's level 6 character is running into Deathclaws.
There also appears to be a weapons modification system, and a more involved repair system, but the PR flack is getting antsy at how I'm monopolizing the demo unit, and I move on. I'll be back!
1121: Always bet on Duke.
Both the people in the cutouts are guys, by the way.
1154: I'm in a panel featuring people I don't know, playing a game I don't understand.
1156: According to Dude In The Seat Behind Me, they're omeganauts, and this is the first stage. Thanks, DITSBM. Attempting to connect to paxnet here hard locks my laptop. My linux laptop!
1207: Apparently Isa isn't going to get here until 2000. Lame-er.
1210: All the wifi, everywhere, is fucked.
1230: "Free Wsctc WiFi" outside Caffe Dion on the ground floor works fine.
1321: I just thought this was a neat shot.
Nvidia appear to have misspelled "shit" on their banner. How embarrassing.
It's da Lorean!
1409: Intel have a hilarious demo with a mechanical hard drive and a solid state hard drive mounted to a paintcan shaker.
When you turn it on, the laptop running on the mechanical hard drive becomes colossally unhappy, while the SSD just keeps on running. The flack mentions offhandedly that they'll probably go through two or three hard drives a day.
1423: I took this picture, but heck if I can remember what video game the booth was about.
Turbine wins the "most abysmal pun" award this year.
Microsoft has a handful of Windows Phone 7 demo units. Predictably, most of the people playing with them are gadget nerds, and are ignoring the (mostly terrible) games.
They're also showing off a Mario Kart clone for Kinect, which, judging from this picture, requires steely determination and grim concentration.
Oh no, walls!
1609: I uploaded a video of the Intel SSD demo to youtube.
I have no idea how good the sound is, since this room is less than quiet, and of course, there's no editing. But it's only 35 seconds long, so there's that.
2029: Break for dinner, rendezvous with Isa, and then to the Monday Night Concerts.
2040: The Protomen are really, really energetic, live. The guy next to me is really, really happy to be here. I am really, really glad I brought earplugs.
2056: Really, really glad. Isa somehow ended up on the other side of the Hall.
2136: The Protomen rock off the stage, and Dude Next To Me vibrates right out of his seat and out of the hall in joy. I'm happy too, DNTM. Happy to see you go. My laptop's keyboard is flaking out, which is just great. I've been up for twelve hours, and am fading.
2150: Anamanaguchi are having equipment problems! I catch Pete here in full-apology.
2240: Metroid Metal are completely instrumental, something I didn't know.
0031: There are still quite a lot of people in PC Freeplay.
It's late. I'm going home.