Best of PAX 2010

You could not walk more than two feet without seeing someone who had one of these on. The masses of the undead, or at least those who had their faces painted to look like one, roamed the halls of PAX and streets of Seattle. It's a miracle any of us survived to tell the tale. The popularity of PvZ just goes to show that there is no difference between the hardcore and casual gamer. They're usually one and the same.

All I'm saying is, I wouldn't kick her out of the hive after infesting her. Not only is this chick hot, but she's got one hell of an intricate costume going on here. The only time we saw her was when she was getting ready to enter the show but couldn't quite get there, because everyone and their mother was stopping her to snap a pic. I have no idea if she ever made it past the foyer, and if she did, how she managed to maneuver through all the crowds with those spider-leg appendages popping out.

Sarah Kerrigan, if you're reading this, call me!

Everyone's favorite game company with a blue-haired rodent mascot threw one hell of party at the Gameworks arcade in downtown Seattle. We weren't on the list, but I pulled some strings to get us in. We were given game cards good for 2 hours of freeplay on pretty much every game in the arcade. I hadn't been to an arcade in ages and had not seen a lot of the newer rigs they had there, so I was all gung-ho about nerding it up. Of course, I wasn't about to take on any of the guys playing Street Fighter III: Third Strike, so I opted more for the gun games, including one shooter that measured your love compatibility with your partner. And yes, I did play it with a girl.

Chuck Greene bobbleheads, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 T-shirts and posters, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 mustaches! And that's just scratching the surface of all the cool stuff they had. There's just no beating these guys when it comes to cool and original hand-outs for fans. Capcom knows their consumers well when it comes to shiny objects that fanboys will drool over. (Anyone remember the Mega Man 9 press kit?) The original MvC3 Meat Bun art I got for beating a couple folks in a quick tournament will be hanging on my office wall for years to come.

No other company went as far out with their booth presentation as these guys. Giant decaying icons of Vegas, life-size statues of the heroes from the upcoming Hunted, a nautical theme for Brink, and a giant sign exploding with RAGE make up some of the finer details to this very fancy pants booth. The only thing that came close to competing was the giant neon TRON sign, but even then, that's just a neon sign. Anything involving a big fake Dinosaur will always win!

The cool thing about my job is that I get to see and play so many awesome games before they ever see the light of day on storefront shelves. The lame part? They're not always games that I would prefer to be checking out, not that they're not cool in their own right. Really though, if it comes down to a game like Portal 2 vs. the newest free-to-play import from China, Portal 2 will always win in my book. Sadly, they never got back to us about an appointment and I didn't have time to wait in the line, so we'll have to wait even longer now for some hands-on time. And that kinda sucks donkey balls.

During some downtime as we wandered the show floor, we came upon this interesting looking new title. Its visuals looked like a mix of Team Fortress 2 and Borderlands, Firefall played like them in many a sense. It's hard to argue with a game that looks good and is totally free to play. I may hate MMORPGs, but I love first and third-person shooters and they only get better when taken online. Definitely the coolest game that no one knew a thing about before last weekend.

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The minds behind the totally awesome soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World were second up on stage at the first night of official PAX-sponsored concerts, and man, did they blow it. Or at least their lead guitarist did. After about 10-15 minutes of decently rocking out, though, things started to take a turn for the worst.

Guitar dude got on the mic to tell his sound guy that he couldn't hear himself in the monitor, and it was all downhill from there. As he neurotically apologized to the audience for what seemed like an eternity as opposed to just sucking it up and going along with the show. I can't count how many shows I've done where I couldn't here a damn thing I was playing, even when I was soloing. If you're in a band where your frontmen is two hacked NES', and they're much louder than you, jut roll with it.

Give me a couple of days with very little sleep, put me in front of a camera, and I'll make a total ass out of myself. Never has that been more present than in my talk with Colin Johanson from NCSoft. While it was a big deal for me personally to meet and interview Warren Spector, things just weren't as laid back and easy going at the Disney press room. I'm wearing a GW2 bandana because I'm hella gangsta like that, yo!

I've gotta give it to Gearbox and 2K for this one. Rumors were flying around the week before PAX that Duke Nukem would be showing up there. But after sooooooooooooooooooo many years of waiting and being denied, it was a case of the boy who cried wolf. So even with the Internet trying to spoil the surprise with gossip, you couldn't help but be surprised that it wasn't total bullshit. And to take it a step forward and actually have it be playable to the public, even before the press got to see it? That's how you fucking do it.

Not only was the game total badassery, so was how they gave back to the gaming community that had held out hope beyond hope even after 3D Realms closed it's doors and announced the projects cancellation. Duke Nukem Forever, best in show, hands down.