I'm sure it's clear to even the most jaded Destructoid reader that PAX is widely considered to be pretty much the best thing ever. I've been meaning to write a bit about my experience at the show. Unfortunately for my plans, school started the day I returned, and work's been kicking me square in the ass for the last week. Still, as a couple of wise men once said, sometimes you just have to grow a pair and make time for blogging.

With that being said, I'm sure most people here couldn't care less about my pedantic ramblings and are here for the contest. Can't say I blame ya. Here's the deal.

Penny Arcade has been doing a special series of comics for Bethesda to promote the upcoming release of Fallout 3. There was an hourlong demonstration of the game on Saturday, and during the show everyone in the audience recieved a facedown card. The group I went up to Seattle with wasn't entirely composed of hardcore gamers, so I ended up with a couple of extra cards. These were redeemable at the Fallout booth for one of a variety of prizes, ranging from T-shirts to signed and framed posters to what I'm giving away here; a Fallout "Vault Boy" puppet.


It's still in the original bag for you obsessive types. These are currently going for between $20 and $75 on eBay.

It took a little while to figure out how best to give it away, but I think I've come up with an answer. It's simple, doesn't require much effort and to the best of my knowledge hasn't been done before. All you have to do to be entered into my contest is change your avatar to some form of the Fallout series' Vault Boy mascot and post in this thread. Only one post per person will be counted in this thread... you can post multiple times, but it won't help your chances of winning. I will choose one of the posts randomly at 11:59 PM Pacific time on Sunday, September 14th. Everyone is welcome to enter, but I'm a broke college student and can't really afford to send it internationally. If you want to enter and are from another country you're welcome to do so, but I may have to ask you to pay the shipping if you win.

To change your avatar, just click the "YOU" tab at the top of the site. Then click "My profile." There should be a button on screen that reads "Edit your profile." The top box will be where you should enter the URL for your avatar. I recommend copying the link for your current avatar and keeping it in a safe place for when the contest is over. During Workmeng Week I put my squid avatar at the top of my profile, for example.


The puppets were everywhere on the last day of the show.

I know lots of people track their friends' posts by their avatar, so I apologize in advance for the confusion this may cause. Unfortunately I don't have time or the experience in the Fallout universe to go through a lot of fan fiction or anything like that. Keep in mind, it's only for a week. Good luck!