Alright so yesterday was my review of Sony's booth at PAX. I spent the first day and half the second day at the Sony booth. However day two was my day to check out everything Microsoft. Understandably I did not have as much time to check out Microsoft as I would have liked but I'll tell you my experience at their booth.
After the Sony booth I headed straight for Microsoft's booth which was just next door. Playable at their booth were tons of Kinect games including GunStringer and StarWars. Dance Central 2 was the biggest game in their Kinect section, however after playing Fruit Ninja I really didn't feel like standing in line to play the other Kinect games. Instead I went by each game and watched people play them, from talking with developers and those playing I heard StarWars was amazing, it featured a Pod Racer rip off which seemed to be the biggest hit of the demo. Dance Central looked just as good as the first game which interests me a lot.
After checking out the Kinect section I had to check out Age Of Empires online. AOE:Online played just like the old AOE games, it brought back good memories. I talked with the MS representative who sadly did not work on the game, however he was very knowledgeable about the product. The game while great was a little disappointing. I found out that what I played was not the free version that everyone gets, I also found out about how expensive other civ's would be and technologies and such. The game was impressive , unique art style and really addictive but I am a little concerned that the game in its entirety is just too expensive. I asked the MS guy if I bought all of the civ's and technologies that are available today and will be available soon how much would it cost. He said to buy all the content it could cost more then 200$. A very costly experience.
After playing AOE I went to check out Gears 3. While in line I got a call from a friend at HaloFest and they insisted I come down and check out a Halo Universe Panel. I decided to stand behind someone and watch them play Gears as I had already played it last year. It looked prettier and the game is really coming together.
Before heading to HaloFest I decided to check out the rest of Microsoft's games. I checked out Forza 4 its coming along very nicely and looks amazing. I talked to some of the Microsoft team about the game and was impressed by everything I saw.
Then it was off to HaloFest, I checked out the panel on building a toy Universe. The panel I found was alot of common knowledge they followed a Halo figures development from the game to the shelves at Walmart. However I already know how toys are made so it wasn't really enlightening. After the panel I heard Microsoft was giving out MegaBlock's, so I went to the section and got my set. However when I went to leave with the set the Microsoft employee said I needed to assemble it before I could leave. I sat down openned the set up and began working on it, however fourty five minutes later I was only about half finished. I looked at the time and realized I wasn't done seeing the MS booth. I got up and left the MegaBlock's set behind, the 343 guy stepped in my way to keep me from leaving asking "Where do you think your going, you need to finish your set"I was pretty upset and I told him to keep the Mega blocks and left.
I did try checking out Halo Anniversary the big game I wanted to check out but the line would have taken 3-4 hours. Their was only a few demo stations of the game. Instead a 343 employee told me I should play Reach. After a round of Reach I checked out a Warthog with Kinect showing in Forza 4. It was pretty trippy.
But time was running out and their was still one MS game I hadn't checked out. MassEffect3, I ran back to the MS booth to play it however decided instead of checking out the demo at the MS booth to hit up BioWare's actual demo. The game played like any of BioWares other AAA+ games. Now granted I have never played any of their games to completion, but this was easily one of the best I have tried. I was very impressed and got to talk to some of the development team.
The day was over and I was sad, I never got to get hands on with many of Microsoft's games. Unlike Sony's booth which only had five games , Microsoft's booth had about a dozen. Then include HaloFest and that stupid Mega Blocks thing and I just didn't have time to do everything I wanted.
The next day I wrapped up my tour of Microsoft's booth and experianced the Halo4 panel. Stood in line for three hours, listened to the panel. I wasn't all that impressed , it was cool to hear stuff about the new universe but they never showed much in the line of new footage, infact the music they played wasn't even the games music. The time came for the Q&A and I rushed to get my question in, but their wasn't enough time and it went unanswered.
In the end Microsoft's booth and HaloFest was good , but they could have done so much better. The biggest flaws were the lack of Halo Anniversary their should have been way more demo stations at HaloFest. The ploy to get you to stay in their event by making you assemble the MegaBlock's, I wasted 45 minutes doing that. Then their actual booth had way to many demo's to check out in one day. Throw in all the panel's and such and their was just way to much to take in.
Sadly I never got to play Forza, Gears3 or the Kinect titles. But I did the best I could to enjoy the booth as much as possible. Sadly I would say the 343 guys and other developers were not as friendly as Sony's teams. The games were good but too many to see in one day. The panel's at HaloFest and the ploys to keep people inside like trying to get you to sign up for MegaBlock's online, fill out a HaloFest survey, not to mention the gift shop where I blew 300$.
It was just too much. If I were a fanboy I would have spent all three days their. But the average gamer and journalist just wouldn't be able to realistically take it all in.
Tomorrow I will launch the final console manufacturer's booth review. Look forward to hearing about Nintendo's PAX booth.
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
