PAX 2008

PAX, short for Penny Arcade Expo, is this weekend in Seattle's convention center. Since it's the largest video game convention in the country (possibly the world?), I figured I ought to go, at least for a day.

There were many many systems set up for demo play. All the big dealers (EA, Blizzard, Bungie etc...) had either consoles or PC's with high def monitors littered around, loaded with the newest upcoming games.

These spots were awfully crowded, so I generally stayed away. I did play some of the Penny Arcade game. I tried to load the demo online when it was first released, but my computer won't handle it. The game itself was pretty sweet, but I was most impressed by the monitor. I had suspicions that a high quality, high definition screen would be the first big purchase, post debt pay-off, and this confirmed it. New games are designed to be played on quality screens, so there's not much point in upgrading systems without a proper screen to play on.

The other high point was getting to demo the Battlestar Galactica board game. Apparently it was released at Gen-Con, where they brought 200 copies. Someone had the foresight to save 30 of those for PAX, and it will be released to mass markets in mid October. The BSG boardgame plays a little like Munchkin: the players are divided up into factions as the game plays out, and those factions can shift. Like Munchkin, there are waves of conflict between the factions, where one faction succeeds by spending all its resources. The next faction then might have an advantage for the next turn. Unlike Munchkin, the tone is very Battlestar. In our game, I played Chief Tyrol, who had been outed as a Cylon and thrown in the brig. Now, I happened to be a human sympathizer, but I still was stuck in the brig. Meanwhile, two groups of heavy raiders landed aboard the Galactica and cylon centurian boarding parties ran amock. The FTL drive was damaged, as was the viper bay and admiral's quarters. Who could fix that damage? The chief, who was stuck in the brig. Oh, and two basestars and a small fleet of raiders were in stricking distance. It was awesome. As we ran out of time (it was a demo, so we didn't get a complete game), I was finally released and made my way to fix the FTL drive. As far as I could tell, no individual can win the game. If the fleet runs out of food, fuel, morale, population (eek!), or if the Galactica is destroyed, the Cylons win. If the fleet jumps far enough away, they escape and the humans win.