At times both better and worse than last year, PAX East was still nevertheless unforgettable.
If I had to choose one word to represent this year’s PAX East expo, it’d be “big.” Everything about the show this year eclipsed last year’s showing at the Hynes Convention Center. For one, the location was about five times as large. Crowd attendance was dramatically increased, and even the amount of games on the show floor seemed more impressive.
Nintendo’s showing, specifically, was greatly improved. Last year their booth was small, unimpressive, and only contained a handful of Wii/DS games, some of which were already released. This year, however, Nintendo was showing its 3DS off to the public and lines to try out the system wrapped around the expo hall. In addition, there was a completely separate Pokemon booth to show off their new online card game and trumpet the arrivals of Black and White.
In addition to the large expo hall, the show had many returning features like current and classic Console Free-Play, numerous panels, and a large arcade with all games set to Free Play. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed with the list of panels this year. While there were certainly some standouts, a lot of them seemed to be repeats of panels from last year.
Also, the size of the show this year ended up being both a boon and a curse. The expo center ended up being more difficult to navigate than the relatively smaller Hynes Center. I found myself bumping into dead ends more than once, and spent a long while trying to find the same entrance I entered at. There was also a lot of unused space that felt wasted. Instead of crowding the expo hall with booths back to back, creating human traffic jams and claustrophobia, the planners would have done well to split it up into halves, like last year. There was an entire area of the expo hall that was solely dedicated to a mere handful of truly vile concession stands, and rows upon rows of empty tables. Why not use this space instead of wasting it?
Speaking of food, the choices were extremely slim and even more over-priced. Last year’s expo was attached to a shopping mall, which spoiled us with variety and slightly more reasonable pricing. This year’s hall was a city unto itself; mostly isolated and therefore not exactly offering many choices. You could play $7.00 for a slice of pizza, or you could starve. There was, however, a bar. Take that as you will.
The amount of cosplayers this year seemed to be greatly decreased, which depending on the person is either a good or bad thing. It did foil my plans to feature an entirely separate article for them. However, it did seem that the few cosplayers that did show up put a great deal of effort into their costumes and overall were more impressive visually than last year’s.
All in all, some aspects of this year’s show were improved, and some were not. But with so much sheer geek heaven to see and do and experience, the question must still be asked: where were you?
