PAX 09 Day 1
Yes, the show is over, but here’s the first day of the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo recap
Tags: Penny Arcade Expo 2009 Categories: Blog, Monk's Blog
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Sep 9th, 2009
The day started much later than I had hoped – at 6a.m.
I wanted to get up earlier in order to get caught up on some work before heading down to the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo. The website had gotten a few glitches the night before, so I couldn’t finish the day’s work. My hope was that things would be fixed when I woke up so I could not only finish the previous day’s work, but also get a jump on the day ahead.
Unfortunately, not only did I wake up later than I had hoped, but the website was not fixed. Not only that, but after 12 hours after waking up the website was not only still “broken” but no visible timeline for having it go back to “normal” operations.
After getting a few things done, I took care of a few routine matters at home, such as getting August off to school, changing diapers on Ciárán, etc. After finally getting to PAX I decided to take a different tactic this year – I’m not going to preview every game available, but simply check out what’s on offer and see what’s cool. I’ll still write up some previews, but not evry game will get the full treatment if it doesn’t need it. I mean, do I need to write up a preview of Katamari Forever? I mean, really, if you’re unfamiliar with the Katamari style of gameplay, just pick up one of the games because they are very fun, but this upcoming PS3 title is more of the same for the most part, and the stuff that is new that the hardcore fans are interested in knowing that differentiates this came from its predecessors is either negligible or already in tho press release (or you could wait for the review).
I did check out games – like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I played the first game, and feel that most of this game is more of the same, with a couple of new moves thrown in to the mix. I’m looking forward to it. I also checked out Beatles: Rock Band, and am very glad I put down a pre-order. I was also able to check in with a number of public relations folks that I hadn’t seen in a long time, so that was nice.
Another tactic that I employed this year was a designated lunch break. Not only did it help to break up the day, but it also helped my sanity for a number of reasons. Getting away from the crowd was nice, as well as the flashing lights and noise. Relieving myself of the (granted, artificial) pressure of having to see everything and write up a preview for it, put me in a much better mood, and much more amenable to those titles I did see.
There were a few appointments I hit, but this new strategy of actually going around and enjoying the show allowed me to get in line and play Beatles: Rock Band. No, I’m not going to write up a preview for it (it’s Rock Band, but with the greatest rock and roll band on Earth) but instead I did it for the t-shirt they were giving away as well as to dip my toe back into the genre. Before Rock Band: Unplugged on the PSP, the last game of similar nature I played was Guitar Hero II.
Tomorrow (at least as I write this) will be more of the same, a mixture of appointments and wandering around and seeing what I like. Hopefully this will include some tabletop stuff. As far as you, the reader, are concerned, I can’t say when “tomorrow” will actually be since the website is not functional and I am unable to fix it myself. While the people responsible for actually working on the website to keep it up and running are doing their best, there is only so much they can do at any given time. I fervently hope that the website will be operational tomorrow, which is Saturday, so that I don’t fall too far behind in the coverage.
Right now, I just need some sleep.
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Tags: Penny Arcade Expo 2009
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Sep 9th, 2009 and is filed under Blog, Monk's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
