So this was my first PAX.

ottoman673

and oh. my. god.
i have been missing out.

between the guys in the room and everyone else i met, everything just fell together fantastically.

top highlights:
/dance
freeplaying dance central with anyone that wanted to look stupid with me
interacting with all of you
the expo floor
winning that iPod at the game scoop panel

lowlights:
pax ended. :[

anyone else's first time? thoughts?

Badonkadonk

It was my first time there as well, my roommate and I could only get Sunday passes so we were only there for one day. I spent nearly all of my time on the show floor since I've always wanted to go to E3 and I felt like I was getting a small taste of what it would be like to be there.

Highlights:
-Child of Eden. Rez is more or less my favorite game ever so I powerwalked to Ubisoft's booth as soon as the doors opened at 10am and played it three times over the course of the day. I'm fairly certain that it's the last videogame I'll ever need.

-Mortal Kombat. While my roommate and I didn't have a great time playing it because we didn't know the game, I really liked the faux arcade cabinets they had set up with the nice sticks. I'm used to playing on a stick with sensitive Sanwa parts, so playing with the more resistive HAPP parts was an interesting change.

-People in cool costumes. I was especially impressed with one girl who was dressed as Ezio and I loved the guy dressed as Mr. T. It was also cool to see Supergirl there.

-People in lines. No matter what I was waiting in line for or how long I was there, I could always strike up a conversation with the person behind or in front of me. It honestly made me more optimistic about meeting people after I graduate from college in a few months.

-Dedicated console stations. I wanted to get some practice in Marvel and Tekken so I bought my fightstick, but the dedicated Marvel stations had sticks set up so that wasn't necessary. I got bodied in Marvel for a good 20 minutes, but it was a good learning experience.

-So many N7s. I wear an N7 hoodie every day, and before PAX I had only seen one other person wearing one in person. I wanted to count how many dopplegangers I had at PAX but I actually lost count 15 minutes into the day. I still can't get over how many people were wearing it, I wish I had thought to go up to every single one of them and say "Well this is embarrassing. One of us should change."

Lowlights:
-Not enough time. Since I spent almost all of my time on the show floor I only got to walk briskly through the console freeplay area to see what it looked like. I didn't take the time to play anything with anyone except about 20 minutes of Marvel, and if I had the time I would have tried to get some Tekken going. My friend who had been there all weekend told me about the stuff he did on Saturday night and it sounded great. Next time I go to PAX, be it Prime or East, I'll make a special effort to spend all three days there to smell the roses and meet people.

-After we left, my friend told me about the great classic arcade on the top floor. I had no idea, I didn't even go to the top floor.

-I'm not in the habit of taking pictures, it's just not something I think to do. I took a grand total of 14 during my day at PAX, I wish I had taken a lot more.

-I missed meeting the creator of Rez by one day

I seriously want to save up for a trip to the other side of the country for PAX Prime just so that I don't have to wait a whole year.