PAX 2008: Liven't Blogging - Sunday Edition
As sore as my feet were from Saturday, I lived to fight another day at PAX. Walking around on Sunday was a bit like being in a survival horror game full of nerdy zombies - ready to crash (or possibly eat brains) from a weekend of energy drink fueled madness.
Anyhow, the crowds had thinned enough for me to get in and actually play a lot of the games the lines wouldn't permit on Saturday.
11:01 - Dragon Age Demo - BioWare are apparently "getting back to their roots" with a Baldur's Gate style game. The Mass Effect-like decision tree is nice, especially for a fantasy game, but the novelty is wearing off a little bit. The cut scene graphics are a tad underwhelming, especially when it's postponing action to tell me a generic medieval story. The gameplay itself is fantastic though - especially the huge area of effect magic spells and beautifully gory finishing moves. Combine that with a story that changes vastly based on your class and race choices, and we may just see this title winning over the Baldur's crowd.
11:39 - Fallout 3 Gameplay - Bethesda may have the best shooting game of the year on their hands. Incredible detail is present even in just the demo builds for the convention. The V.A.T paused targeting system adds a whole new dimension to the genre. I'm amazed by the amount of time investment and the level of detail in the menus; even if they are taking a page out of the Bioshock plasmid tutorial book, it's still the best move that Bethesda could make to build on the multi-console success of Oblivion.
12:25 - Animal Crossing: City Folk - *Squeeeeeeeeeee* So excited for more cuteness from the only Nintendo franchise I give a shit about anymore. New to this version: the ability to play over WiiConnect (as expected) and finally the ability to skin your animal with the Mii face of your choice - no longer will we have to accept the random animals they spit out at us. The graphics are a nice, neat little step up from the GameCube's Animal Crossing and at any time, you can emote with your cute little bundle of joy. Stomp in anger when you lose a fish or jump up and down when you pay off your damn mortgage to Tom Nook.
