Pax Prime – Day One!

So in march I journeyed to Boston for the Pax East convention. And I remember being impressed by the size and enjoying things. Though being somewhat frustrated because the amount of people we had overwhelmed the building we were all trying to exist in together. Pax Prime has already outshined Pax East on its first day.

Crowd control is far better here. Lines are pretty clearly marked and they are sending out people with random quizzes to entertain the people waiting and giving out awards. People were in general good moods and cutting was pretty close to nill and folks were pretty well mannered and more tolerant.

Panels were fairly entertaining and when I wasn’t waiting and sitting in on one , I found plenty to do outside them. Such as the exhibit hall! The exhibit hall in East was pretty underwhelming. Not many game companies had been out to represent and swag/handouts were pretty scarce.

Prime is probably 4 times the size of East, which handouts at all most every other booth. Strong representation is being shown by most of the game companies (most excluding Blizzard, who had a scant 4 pcs at the radeon card booth) I am probably going to spend most of the convention day tomorrow really exploring – though I am told that it is going to be far busier on Saturday compared to today… so I might have to stick to panels.

Lucas Arts booth was pretty amazing looking. And I found my friend Brian from school working on the side for the Star Wars Republic. He was enjoying himself quite a bit and even shared some hush hush info with me! Unfortunately the lines for the games there were too long for me to really want to sit and wait, so I decided to head over to the Square Enix booth!

Might I say again, Final Fantasy XIV is looking absolutely stunning. And I cannot wait until the end of the month when my preordered copy arrives. The character customization options are absolutely stunning. And the graphics are splendid and delicious. Tonight there was a panel for Square at the theater a few blocks from the convention center and they showed us some new footage not yet seen in the US. And I was absolutely awed. To repeate what I told my friend, “I was doing my imitation of a fish. I realized my mouth was hanging open for quite a while during it.”

The demo that they showed for the individual openings for new characters was interesting as well. And I’m wondering how well it will work into things though. They have broken up the cut scenes with fighting that you will actually interact with yourself. And it looked kind of akward on the screen. But to be fair, ideally you’re new and complicated fighting might be weird. I am hoping to pick up some more information tomorrow from the booth if I can get close to it.

My only complaint I think about the panel for the entire thing was having to walk all the blocks to get there. I think I’ve not walked quite this much in a few months at best. I am definitely going to be sleeping well tonight!!!

The area around the convention is adding quite a bit to this experience as well. Its so lively and full of things to look at. There are a ton of Chinese places as well, and I’ve been stuffing myself unashamedly on them. And there are plenty of bars to enjoy with the friends as well of course.

Overall, my first day at this convention has been a blast and I’m looking forward to more! Peace my friends!