Current Events > So what did I play today at PAX?

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is mostly just me trying to remember so I can refer back to it later.

I played...

The Takeover - Dangen Entertainment's side-scrolling beat 'em up, drawing heavily on the nostalgia of Streets of Rage. Looks gorgeous, plays pretty solid. Matt from the Super Best Friends is working as part of the development of the game, so I saw him there. Actually when I saw him there, I thought "Hey cool there's Matt", then I look to the right and I'm like "Hey cool there's Liam" and then I look further to the right and I'm like "Hey cool there's SUDA 51?"

Clusterpuck 99 - I think it's already out on Steam but I was playing the upcoming Switch version. Combination of air hockey and soccer, where you're using an air hockey puck to move a "ball" into the opposing team's goal. Some nice maps on it.

Travis Strikes Again - It's not the usual No More Heroes, that's for sure. Gameplay is top-down (or three-quarters) run around slashing up weak enemies almost kinda like Smash TV. The characters each have four special moves with cooldown tied to holding the L button and then one of the face buttons. Definitely different but it works, and it still has that old style.

SNK Heroines - Yup, those are your SNK girls all right. The fighting is vastly stripped down. It almost controls like Smash Bros. Probably not something I'll end up going for as I'm not a big SNK fan.

Runner 3 - So at the Nintendo booth they gave you tickets for playing games and three tickets got you a cute little bag with the Switch logo on it. This was the third game I played. It's a Bit.Trip game. Yup.

Guacamelee 2 - I think the focus of the sequel is "extended chicken usage". Whereas in GM1 you could only peck weakly as a chicken, now you'll have moves tied to attacking while being a chicken. Still GM. Still smooth and fun.

Party Hard 2 - A very fancier Party Hard. Same gameplay and I haven't seen enough to find new features. Almost got through the given mission but had to ditch for a tournament.

Dresden Files Co-Operative Card Game - It exists in physical form, but I never knew. For someone who really enjoys Dresden Files, seeing something like this made me pretty happy. I didn't win my attempt but it was pretty cool

Door Kickers Action Squad - The name implies some silliness but honestly it seems like a stripped down 2D Rainbow Six with pixel art almost like Super Time Force. Eh.

Galactose - A space flight simulator where you fly your fighters against enemies with food-based structure. Imagine flying a waffle with wings and shooting a part a giant cooked Thanksgiving turkey, where all the fixins are turrets attached to it shooting back. Cute concept but for fuck's sake use flight sim vertical controls. I should not have my nose tilt up when I push the controls tick forwards in a flight sim.

Dunklords - NBA Jam with cartoon characters, super powers, and decent gameplay. I had fun.

Carcassone on PC - Probably the most detailed iteration I've seen of seen of Carc digitally. Still don't think I'll buy it because I have it in physical form.

7 Wonders in a tournament - I love 7 Wonders so it was a nice thing to play with other people, especially with enough for the full seven players. I came in fourth, which isn't so bad, if not for the fact that I made a lot of errors in gameplay that made me look like a newb (misreading cards,etc.)
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Golf Story in a tournament - Because why not? I got through that just a couple of months ago. The tournament was all "everyone plays single-play for three 9-hole rounds and lowest score wins". Not quite... directly competitive, but it's fine, because we were all talking about how much we loved the game while we played our own rounds. I figured I was doing fine after two rounds with -9, only to botch it and get a +4 round, leaving me with -5. Turns out the winner got -26, so I wasn't even close to winning anyway.

Something I should remember to get some time on tomorrow is The Messenger. Indications coming in are apparently very promising.
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Are you going to play more games? If you are, can you play Super Meat Boy Forever and report back?
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Thanks for putting my mind at ease over No More Heroes
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Drpooplol posted...

Are you going to play more games? If you are, can you play Super Meat Boy Forever and report back?

No I figure I'd just spend the rest of the weekend face down on the convention floor.

Yeah I think I can get some time on SMBF. I'll bet it feels just like SMB, but only one way to find out I guess.

Anyone else have requests? And no, I won't wait in a four hour line for you. Especially if it's to get some code for a game you play that's only available at PAX.
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Other myriad observations while I was there.

I haven't been since 2015 (after a nonstop full combo of going starting in 2010), but the convention largely hasn't changed in format and style. There were some things I DID notice, though. It's possible these things were/weren't here in the past year or previous, so please bear with me if I bring up old news.

1) Some names that were once quite big are now no shows. There's no Riot Games booth. There's a Twitch booth but THEY'RE NOT STREAMING. No EA. No Capcom. Bandai Namco has a nice booth.

Facebook Gaming has a sizable booth despite all they have is a constructed set for two nerds to sit and talk about video games. It *looks* nice, but it's all it is.

There's a "Geico Gaming" booth that actually has prime real estate just as you get out of the queue and it's near a major expo hall entrance, but all it is is people playing games on "Geico" rigs and every so often a dude in a Gecko suit yucks it up.

Nintendo booth is still going strong, as are Blizzard and Square Enix. Microsoft booth is PUBG and Sea of Thieves central. Sony has a BIG section dedicated to Detroit: Become Human (lol).

It really seems like the smaller companies are encroaching on the bigger companies' space, which suits me just fine.

For some reason Harmonix has a DropMix booth where you can demo the game, but they're not selling packs there, which seems like a gigantic missed opportunity.
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Disco elysium
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Tournaments - I was roundly surprised to see no Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament, and no Smash 4 tournament (unless they're the *mystery* tournaments that are advertised daily). There are two Smash 64 tournaments and a "kids" Melee tourney, but no Smash 4.

This despite in the Console Freeplay area there being *SEVENTEEN* setups for Smash 4. One in a place of prominence and the other sixteen lined up behind it.

There IS a DBFZ setup in Console Freeplay, but they didn't unlock anyone or download any DLC so what. Maybe I wanted to try out Bardock or Broly, nerds.
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You should check out the Mixer booth. I've got a lot of friends at PAX that will be there throughout the day. Lots of great streamers. :D

I just wish I could go to PAX, but I'm stuck here at work. :(
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apolloooo posted...

Disco elysium

Not the kind of thing I'd play at a convention, but I did watch some people play it for a bit and it looks pretty cool.

QassTank posted...

I've got a lot of friends at PAX that will be there throughout the day. Lots of great streamers. :D

Pass. I don't know of many streamers. I mean, I'd go wearing a mask with your face on it and offer your love, but that's about it.
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CyricZ posted...

7 Wonders in a tournament - I love 7 Wonders so it was a nice thing to play with other people, especially with enough for the full seven players. I came in fourth, which isn't so bad, if not for the fact that I made a lot of errors in gameplay that made me look like a newb (misreading cards,etc.)

what is your preferred strategy

i find that early-drafting military is highly effective in 3P and still pretty good in 7P. once I start, I even bury additional military cards that come my way

i think in 3P this is the only way to play.
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Science comes pretty easy in high player games so I was gonna go for that, but everyone noticed and shut me down, although I did end up accruing one of each. I ended up gravitating towards yellows, and then making up in reds in the 2nd and 3rd age.

The guy to my right went ham on blues and was a little smug that he wonder'd the Guild card that gets you VP for your neighbors' blues. He was a cool guy, so it was okay. :)
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i'm never sure if science is really worth it past age 2

if it's not giving an average of 5+ points in age III i'd rather pursue military (10 points plus the swing of denying it to neighbors) or blues/purples myself

age 2 science is great for making age 3 military cheap though
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Day 2 -

The Messenger - Ultra-slick Ninja Gaiden-esque game. Tight and responsive controls and points where the whole thing switches from 8-bit to 16-bit. Not much to say except this is my Game of the Show so far. Can't wait for it to be done.

Super Slime Arena - Came out in January. This is a simple party fighter with smacks of Kirby Battle Royale, only each life you get dropped in with a random power, and your slime can only jump or attack. Notable in that up to 50 people can play and it supports almost every controller under the sun. The booth had a Genesis Arcade Stick, a Guitar Hero controller, Donkey Kong Bongos, the Dreamcast fishing rod controller, and a model airplane RC controller, among many other less fancy types.

Cosmo's Quickstop - A cute game about an interstellar service station. Basically finding what all your customers need and keeping up with them.

Russian Subway Dogs - A 2D pixelly thing where you're a cute doggo in a Metro station barking at civilians to scare the food out of them and keep your hunger from emptying out. You deal with rival dobermen as well as dudes carrying vodka bottles, which explode if you bark them away from their humans. Controversially, it's possible to eat chocolate as the dog, which poisons you as it should, but the "mission command" doggo actually challenged me to do so, knowing of course that it would drain me.

The Italianeer - A VERY early beat 'em up done in a style that kinda reminds me of the Scott Pilgrim game. The schtick is that you're a happy-go-lucky Italian kid fighting a bunch of stereotypes.

The Good Life - I sat down at the Kickstarter booth to watch Swery demo the game. It's still quite early, but definitely tuned enough to show the parts he wanted to. He showed walking around the town, doing little sidequests, and so forth, capping it off with the murder which is the game's central plot point.

The rest of the day was meeting with friends, playing some Smash, some DBFZ. Not sure yet what I want to do tomorrow. Maybe I'll tour tabletop more thoroughly. I'll be rolling as Dio, trying to get more cosplay photos and find cosplay pals.
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Bruhhhhhhh meat boy
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OH YES! Sorry.

Super Meat Boy Forever - It's... Super Meat Boy, only you can slide and punch. I haven't played enough SMB to distinguish much else, but it's fine. *shrug*
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thanks, muh dude. This is pretty much what I was expecting, and it's all I could hope for.
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CyricZ posted...

The Good Life - I sat down at the Kickstarter booth to watch Swery demo the game. It's still quite early, but definitely tuned enough to show the parts he wanted to. He showed walking around the town, doing little sidequests, and so forth, capping it off with the murder which is the game's central plot point.

I hope it gets funded.

Pretty great concept but i have no money atm
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Today was big cosplay day. Less focus on games more on vouging. Met up with some cosplay friends and saw some more Zero Escape cosplayers.

Phogs - "Physics Dogs". Two players control the heads of a phog, a two headed snakey dog who needs to feed a big snake. Cute and some neat puzzles.
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Pics of cosplay
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