PAX East 2011 Day 2

The weather was definitely nicer on Day 2. We could clearly see the long line forming in front of the BCEC in the morning.

Before we headed out, I took a photo of the free shwag from the day before.

And here’s a photo with stuff I bought.

Penny Arcade Make-a-Strip Panel, 10:30am – 11:30am
We love going to the Make-a-Strip panel. Jerry and Mike are generally funny especially when it comes to answering random questions from fans but also you get to watch Mike draws a comic strip right in front of your eyes.

Derek made a video from the photos I took from this panel, just like the last time. (The video is safe for work!)

After that, we walked around the Exhibit hall again.

Around 1:00, we went to the Irrational Games (the studio which created Bioshock) booth trying to get some free t-shirts. I got a black t-shirt the day before but I really wanted the white one, so we went there again. Most of the booths that were giving away shirts for free had some kind of system, like you had to get in the line to play the demo, but not for Irrational Games. There were 50 or more people gathered around their booth, and a couple of staff members would yell the size of the shirt and throw it. It was chaos. I got another black shirt and not the white one. Oh well. It was free after all, besides, the design on the shirt “a happy puppy in a wheelchair” is just so adorable.

When I was talking to Derek after the t-shirts give-away, a cute girl came up and said “Are you Anna The Red?” O_O
She said she reads my blog. I was completely flattered. But at the same time, I couldn’t help myself feeling a bit embarrassed since she probably saw me jumping up and down for a free t-shirt. But anyway, she totally made my day.

Pitch Your Game Idea, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
We really liked Pick Your Game Idea panel at PAX East last year so we decided to check it out this year as well, and glad that we did. This time, the panel was hosted by Jeff Kalles, Kris Straub, and Porkfry. This panel is NOT meant for the people who really want to have their game made but just for fun, but many people actually did have funny ideas and it was a lot more entertaining than the last year’s panel.

The winner was “00Intern” (double 0 intern) where you are an intern who works at the same organization as the main character of a game. Your job is to unlock the doors, scatter ammunition, weapons, food, make sure the key is in the ignition on the getaway car, etc… so that the main character of a game can beat a stage. We thought this was a brilliant idea for a game. It was totally something that we always make comments about when we play Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid, BioShock or any games that requires you to load your weapons with the found ammo along the way.

Ken Levine, Shawn Robertson, Nate Wells signing, 5:00
We knew that the creators of BioShock would be doing a signing at the Irrational Games booth at 5:00, but looking at how crazy it got at their t-shirt giveaway, we decided to get in the line at 4:00.(Actually the first person in the line was already in the line at 3:30.)

Since last PAX East we’ve been having the photos of my bento signed by the original creators. Here are some bento photos I got signed.

So I brought two photos of Bioshock bento, one for them and one for them to sign for me.

Once the signing started, we were surprised that they were giving everyone in the line an exclusive poster (which was actually very nice) from BioShock Infinite for the creators to sign! There were two posters to choose from but since there were two of us, we got one each and approached the signing table.

I gave them a photo of BioShock bento with the poster. As soon as Ken Levine saw it, he said “Ooh! I’ve seen this online!” or something like that but in a very dignified manner, of course. They asked me if I made it, etc… but I was so nervous all I could do was just smile. I gave him a copy of the photo, then he asked me sign the photo for him. This was the first time someone asked me to sign a photo of my own bento. I was nervous, happy and flattered that I almost messed up my signature.

One of my dreams came true that day. Meeting Ken Levine, Shawn Robertson, and Nate Wells and having them sign a photo of my BioShock bento which I created based on their creation. Now I have to make a bento with “Him” and the floating city of Columbia out of food.

After the signing, we went back to the Exhibit hall and walked around again, decided to check out the 3DS at the Sprint booth. What many people didn’t know was that Nintendo booth wasn’t the only one that had the 3DS at PAX East. There was a looooooong line for the 3DS at Nintendo booth, but we knew that there was almost no line for 3DS at Sprint booth.

Nintendo did have a playable Zelda game for 3DS but the Sprint booth had Street Fighter and Resident Evil for 3DS for as far as we know and that was good enough for us. We still don’t know why Sprint had the 3DS though. For those who are wondering what kind of “3D” effect the 3DS really has, here’s a video of Derek playing Resident Evil. You can see the image focuses (3D) about 10 seconds into the video.

You can’t see any 3D unless it’s in real life, but nothing really “pops out” from 3DS like the commercial made us believe but it adds more “depth.” But just like other 3D moving images, it can be way too blurry and annoying to some people. I have a slight astigmatism, so some 3D moving images can strain my eyes quite heavily. We really weren’t thinking of getting a 3DS anytime soon but it was a bit disappointing.

We stayed at the Exhibit hall until it closed and took more photos.

We went back to our room and had a quick dinner before heading out for the last panel for the day.

After Hours with Kris and Scott (Scott and Kris), 9:30pm – 10:30pm
It was a big decision to pick this panel over Saturday night concerts. We really wanted to see VGO (Video Game Orchestra), Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton but we missed After Hours with Kris and Scott last year at PAX East, and it was all everyone talked about after the convention. They are known to get drunk on  the panel and get silly, and they did not disappoint us. The panel started about an half hour late, and we noticed that Jerry from Penny Arcade was sitting a couple of rows from us so we knew something was up. After Kris and Scott showed up and sat down, Jerry stood up and started singing. And Kris grabbed a microphone and two started rapping.

I’m sure you can find a video of this panel somewhere, but a lot of alcohol was consumed. Scott’s bathroom story, drunk calling Kris’ brother, Robert Khoo story, Scott’s brother’s story, etc… They had the developers of the game Bastion up on the panel, talked about their game and rapped, but in the end, they also all had alcoholic whipped cream shots. I did not know about alcoholic whipped cream until that day. Apparently there are many flavors as well. I really want to try strawberry flavor now. Just so you know, alcoholic whipped cream contains 15%~18.25% alcohol volume, so please be responsible when you eat it!

Everything was hilarious except for the constant interruptions from super drunk friends of Kris and Scott . They were sitting in the front section with other audience, They were drunk out of their minds and it was kind of funny in the beginning, but it got annoying when they started interrupting while Kris and Scott talked. Kris and Scott are very good at getting drunk and still being really funny in front of hundreds of people, but their friends became nothing but a distraction. (Especially since they were sitting in the front, the people in the back couldn’t understand what they were saying.)

The panel ended around 1:30 AM but only after Kris and Scott told us to leave repeatedly.

We walked back our room, and Derek passed out as soon as he hit the bed. I packed my stuff before I went to bed. I could not believe the next day was already the last day of PAX…

For more pictures of PAX East 2011, visit PAX East 2011 set!

Tagged as: bastion, bioshock infinite, boston, fez, ken levine, kris straub, mass effect, metroid, nintendo 3ds, PAX East, penny arcade, portal 2, resident evil, scott kurtz, the behemoth, warp