PAX Prime 2015!

     Another PAX has come and gone for Cnidarium and I. We first went to PAX Prime 2014 when she won the 2K Games / Gearbox costume contest as Moon Moxxi. We had so much fun there that we decided to go to every PAX that we could from then on. We next went to PAX South 2015, which was the inaugural year for it. PAX South was fun but had a much smaller, but more intimate feeling. Finally this years PAX Prime has come and gone. It was a lot of fun and it now seems like it just blew by.

    We came up to Seattle to stay with our friend Steve from ESI Media for two days. He gave us a tour of the city and we got to checkout out the various districts since we are thinking of moving up to Seattle at some point.

    On our first day we stopped by Gasworks Park which was on the lake and has a huge industrial pumping station in it. The park and view of the city was amazing. Next we went to the Experience Music Project museum since they had a collection of costumes from Star Wars, and other Sci-Fi films. They also had an exhibit on fantasy films and costumes. The EMP was very cool, and I recommend checking it out if you are in Seattle.

Gasworks Park machinery

Seattle Bridge / Freemont

EMP Museum with Deckard's car from Bladerunner


EMP Star Wars costume exhibit


    Finally PAX was upon us. This year PAX seemed a bit less crowded. I'm not sure if attendance was down or if it could be from the re-organization of some of the expo floor. PAX always has too much to do over the course of four days and we mostly wanted to see the new games in the main expo hall.

    The lines to play the major game titles are usually pretty long so we didn't get to play any of the big titles this year. We did get to watch people playing Battleborn and it looks like it will be a blast. It seems to incorporate some aspects of all the popular FPS games such as rocket jumping from the Quake days, more modern things like superpowers ala Destiny, and lots more.

Battleborn. So hyped for this.
     Fallout 4 had a big booth at PAX but I did not get to see any gameplay from it sadly. I did get to play a few games over in the Indie Megabooth and other Indie areas. Here are a few that stood out:

Grapple: A cool little platformer where you use a grapple to swing from platforms floating in space to reach the end of the level. Seems fun and you can take a few paths through the levels depending on how good you can aim some of your swinging leaps.

Below: This is a very stylized rpg that has a Sword and Sworcery feel but without the 8-Bit asthetic. Looks really well drawn, and I want to check this out.

Hyper Light Drifter: Be still my heart. I kickstarted this way back and it was good to see the team on the floor showing it off. HLD has a Zelda meets Cyberpunk feel to it. The animations are amazing and the sound design is awesome as well. I went up to buy a poster and told one of the dev's that I kickstarted it awhile back and he stood up and gave me a hug. Was very cool to see that they care about the fans that helped get the game off the ground. Check this our for sure.

Hyper Light Drifter. Yessssssssssss!
The Rust Belt: This is a rad little top down arcade game where you drive a truck through the wasteland and attach a grapple cable to junk you find to swing it around behind you and destroy enemies. Very fun and easy to play, looking forward to this as well.




    Finally for the rest of pax we checked out the Cards Against Humanity / Exploding Kittens hall. Got to play with some kittens in a "non-exploding kittens" play area. We then ran around and went to some panels, and hung out with some folks. Got to meet Eve Beaugard, and Vensy props this trip which was rad. Hung out with Lyz, Hillary, and Issac and checked out some parties. I also got to hang with Gabe Shaw for a bit which was nice. Will be looking forward to seeing him tour with Combichrist / The Birthday Massacre this year back here in town.

Overall PAX was a blast as usual. We did a ton more at the con but I just wanted to write up about some of the games we saw and give some general photos for folks who were not there. If you get a chance, check it out!

For some more photos check out my flicker Pax Prime 2015 Album


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