PAX East Recap: Day 3

[Where did this month go? Regardless, here's a new blog post.]

Day 3: 3/13/11

Last day of PAX East means do everything you wanted to do this weekend that you didn't get a chance to do before it's over. Luckily for us, there was only one panel we wanted to see on Sunday and it didn't start until 4:30PM. So, we hit the expo floor one last time to play some games. First up was Dance Central at the Kinect booth. I did not partake in either dancing nor Kinect-ing, but Melissa and Amanda played and got free t-shirts. The guy staffing the booth looked as if he had been dancing all weekend and he seemed to know all the moves for every song (poor guy).

Next we hit up the Nintendo booth one final time. This time I stayed in the booth area to try a few 3DS games, including Kid Icarus: Uprising, Street Fighter IV 3D, Pilotwings, and the built-in AR (Augmented Reality) game. Playing the AR game made me want the 3DS slightly more, but not enough to spend $250 on it. Unlike the previous two days, there were actually free 3DS beanies given away on Sunday which was a neat surprise. Of course, we also strolled around the Pokémon booth to take a final look and snap some photos.

The two other games that I played were Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD and Monday Night Combat. I had played Monday Night Combat last year and thought it was great, but I still hadn't purchased it a year later. I think the next time Steam puts it on sale I'll pick it up. I hadn't played Clash of Heroes before but I knew Capybara Games worked on it and the previous DS title of the same name. It's a pretty awesome game and lots of fun but not the type that I usually play. I am, however, looking forward to picking up the Capy-published Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP for the iPod Touch later this month.

As we have learned so far, when we have free time we play Pokémon in the handheld lounge. Sunday was no exception. After wandering around the expo hall we headed back to our beanbag hideaway. We hung around here for a little bit and then got in line for "Start Your Own Damned Company" panel with Chris, Ichiro, Eitan, and Scott from before and a new addition of Damian Isla from Moonshot Games. This panel was similar to yesterday's "Just Because You Have an Idea..." panel except it was directed towards starting an indie video game company. Like Scott's talk on Friday, this one helped me decide that I want to stick towards the art of game design rather than the business side of it.

And with that, our PAX East weekend was over. What? So soon? Yup, unfortunately the time had come for us to head home. Leaving the Cat Theatre after our last panel we took one last walk around the expo hall, took some final pictures, and headed home.

(Next up, a conclusion!)