There have been several sudden and dramatic changes in my life recently, which I’ll get around to posting soon. But at the tail end of that storm of change, PAX happened. I wasn’t sure I’d go. But I already had tickets, reservations, and plans made. Plus the wife not only have permission, but her insistence that I take advantage of this annual pilgrimage to center myself.
Afterwards, I was certain I would not have the bandwidth to make another blog post just about PAX. I’ve got a backlog of way more important stuff to talk about here, and not a lot of free time with which to do it. But in spite of all that, I found myself constantly remembering bits and pieces of my truncated PAX 2016 experience that I wished I could blast out to multiple friends at once. Plus I’ve got writer’s block on the big posts, so I might as well get the easy-to-talk-about stuff typed out first, maybe jump-start my brain a bit.
Apologies in advance for the wall of text. I didn’t really have the wherewithal to take pictures.
Loud Noises
I’ve said before that that $50/day price of admission is worth it just for the two nights of concerts. It was mostly still true this time around, but this time the shows were more hit-or-miss.
Bit Brigade is a band with a novel live show. They play the entire soundtrack to a single retro game while a speed-running tears through it on screen. It makes for quite a show, and I was impressed by everybody involved. However, they picked Ninja Gaiden for this particular show, which just happens to be a franchise I don’t care much about. So it didn’t really hit me the way, say, a Megaman or Zelda run/set would have.
The Protomen, however, fucking brought it.
Finally, we dropped in for the VGO show at the end of Saturday night. These guys are impossibly talented musicians and performers. But this was a strange set. They’ve apparently been on a Capcom-sponsored Japanese tour, and they played pretty much the set that they’ve been doing as part of it. I love that Capcom is so cool about fan music. But, I also really don’t care about most of Capcom’s current lineup. The Street Fighter music was great, because it was familiar to me. But I don’t care about Devil May Cry, I don’t care about Phoenix Wright (does anybody!?), I don’t care about weird spirit dog game, and I don’t care about Monster Hunter. So it was a cover show about songs I’ve never heard.
But then at the end, my favorite game music cover band was joined on stage by my favorite video game composer and they played my favorite classic rock song. Performance redeemed, worth it, 10/10 would see again.
Fancy Virtual Boy
It took three days of trying but I managed to do one 3 minute Oculus VR demo for a game called Pollen, which appears to be a first person game about surviving in a space habitat. The demo content was unbearably boring, and just involved walking around some habitat while lights occasionally flickered. And while I didn’t get any motion sickness, I also found myself having trouble with using a combination of mouse, keyboard, and head tilt to interact with objects and navigate the space around me. While I’m sure VR has a very big future in gaming, first person games might be the least compelling use of the technology, and I have no interest in this game.
The accelerometer fidelity was pretty incredible. The screen quality was better than the previous iterations but still seemed a little grainy, and blurry if not situated well.
I wish I could have checked out the Vive. But the lines were stupid long (>4 hours) and I’m not going to PAX to just sit around.
Panels
Or maybe I am.
I only went to three panels this year. The Speedrunning panel, run by the fantastic crew behind Games Done Quick, was honestly pretty disappointing. They were generally low-energy and not really prepared for their questions, and the live demos had tons of tech issues. Hey, guys. This is PAX. You do this once, maybe twice a year. Don’t bring your shitty laptop. Bring a PC and make sure it works. Prep your panelists. Show us interesting stuff.
We went to line up for the panel on the reboot of Master of Orion, the original 4X strategy game from the 90s. There was a giant crowd behind and ahead of us, and we could not fathom why. Then we realized that the panel included several of the star-studded voice acting cast, included Alan Tudyk (of Firefly fame). So maybe that many folks are excited about a grand space strategy game, or maybe that many people just wanted to see Wash talk in a funny voice. Either way it was a good panel, and I’m actually finding myself looking forward to this game. Usually I hate to see devs blow tons of money hiring big name Hollywood talent for voice casts, when there are so many talented new actors out there who will work at a fraction of the cost (hell, Logan Cunningham never did voice acting before Bastion and proceeded to deliver some of the best performances in gaming history). But, Wargaming is developing this title, and they have pretty much infinite money and apparently a deep seated love of this IP. I’m allowing myself to be optimistic.
Finally we checked out the PressXY panel on Crossplay, gender-bending cosplay. It was uplifting, lighthearted, and really did shed some light on the issues of diversity in the gaming world, especially in such a passionate subculture. I came away feeling like we’re living in a better time than the previous generation, and that gaming culture is becoming more inclusive and accepting every day. And this is based on the statements of LGBT cosplayers, who remain both passionate and optimistic about their hobby.
Insane Contraptions
I’ve suddenly found myself in the market for a very specific niche of video games. I’m looking for puzzle games that are accessible, with a low difficulty curve and short time commitment. Crayon Physics is okay but the difficulty ramps up really quickly. Minecraft is a bit too complicated.
On the PAX Expo Hall floor, I talked to the developer of a game called Crazy Machines 3, which might just be what I’m looking for. Not only does it have a decent number of not-too-challenging puzzles, but he also showed me what might be the most feature-rich level editor I’ve seen in a game. Combined with Steam Workshop, I can hopefully generate a constant stream of inventive but not overwhelming puzzles. I will be looking into this.
Ready to Rokh?
I got to spend a couple minutes in the Kickstarter lounge trying out a game called Rokh. I’m already invested in Space Engineers, which (according to the dev) was a major inspiration for this game. Clearly they are very similar products. But there’s a key reason why I’d still be interested in checking out Rokh when it releases: it’s built on UE4.
Engine choice is a big deal. UE4 is a cross-platform engine. Space Engineers, while a beautiful game with a bright future, is being developed on a home-brewed engine in .NET, as well as incorporating PhysX software for server-side physics calculations. As such, it’s inextricably tied to Windows not just for the client, but for the server. So not only do I have to dual-boot just to play it, but I also can’t host my own dedicated server to play with my friends. If another space construction/survival game can get Linux client and servers, I’m jumping ship.
It’s still pretty early in development and I’m not sure if there’s a release date. But it will be interesting to see if they can get the cross-platform capability working for them.
That’s all I have for now. Stay tuned for heavier fare.