Hey all!

Today has been one of the hardest days in recent history. I am suffering what I like to call PAX withdrawal. As many of you might be aware of, this weekend was PAX 2008. And, as was mentioned on the front page already, WELL OVER 9,000 people attended this year. I was thankfully one of those. Why so thankful? Only because this weekend allowed me to not only take some time off work to do what I LOVE to do (play games) but I made SO MANY new friends on this trip through Destructoid that I couldn't have made without it.

I'll start with a little about PAX itself. Personally I was most excited about Rock Band 2. Although Fallout 3, and Left 4 Dead are great games that I do want to play, for some reason, I love me those rhythm games. Luckily, I did get a chance to play RB2 on the last day, and I even got the chance to play the song that I was most excited about...."You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette. Say what you want about that song, but the drum part is so much fun to play. Not to mention Dexter, Libby, Suff0cat and I rocked it out of the park :P.


The Rock Band stage: Where I would later become a God of Rock and Master of the Drums

I also stopped by the Nintendo booth. I am and will always be a Nintendo "fanboy", meaning I will always love them, regardless of how not-exciting their recent products are to me. The first thing I tried was Wii Music. I really wanted to like this demo, to try to prove the haters wrong, but there was really nothing to enjoy about it past playing a couple of songs. Now granted, the first time I played with someone, the guy I was playing with really sucked at the concept of music, but even when I tried it again, it wasn't impressive. The only "fun" part came at the end of the song, when I decided to move the Wiimote as fast as I could to play the Marimba ferociously. I also tried the "drum kit", which was kinda cool. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but eventually, with no drum training besides Rock Band, I was playing a passable drum beat. Overall, though, I was not impressed. This "game" will sell, however, no doubt about it. Parents and kids will eat that game up for breakfast.

Other games that I played included GH World Tour (very interesting mechanics and awesome instruments...even though I prefer RB's setlists), Aion (Guild Wars/WoW clone with flight), Mushroom Men (Horrible camera, but cool psychic powers), Wario Land: Shake IT (Looks sooooo great in motion, and is lots of fun to play), Skate It (use of Balance Board = learning curve, but pretty fun), and De Blob (had a Katamari quality where I spent the whole time mesmerized by painting the town, and didnt really care what the objectives were). Plus much much more. I'd say besides the highlights of the games that I played was the fact that I got to take a picture and meet FELICIA DAY of "Dr. Horrible" and "The Guild" fame. She was so nice and willing to chat in person. I seriously egged a full on conversation about NPH and Joss Whedon with her :D. Also, she's hot.


Wanna say/Love your hair/ Here I go/ Mumbling....

And now to the real reason that I suffered PAX withdrawal. You. The Community. Destructoid. If you look back at a previous post about the SF NARP, I had plenty of the same feelings, only this time multiplied by a MILLION. It felt so awesome meeting each and everyone of the Dtoiders that were in attendance; I feel like I left Seattle with so many new friends. I dont think I've ever felt so close to people that I had only just met, which is so amazing. It was really pretty awesome feeling like we owned the town. Wherever we went, people had best recognize (foo!). From the Sci-Fi Museum, to the Red Lion, to the Cheesecake Factory, and even just the streets of Seattle, I was with the coolest people at PAX. Hands down.


How many drunk Dtoiders does it take to cross Seattle? This many

With that said, I just want to give an extra special shoutout to some people. CTZ for being the coolest shark I know, GuitarAtomik for TACO MEAT, Ceark for sucking at Mario Kart DS, Rio for making amazing hats and getting nanners stuck in trees, Rio's mom for being the coolest mom ever, Suff0cat for being one of the most fun persons I hung out with on this trip, Macca for giving the best hugs, Knives por tomando Tequila conmigo (:D), Wardrox and Nintendoll for being my Queue-con buddies, DJ Duffy, Dyson, and Liz for MUSICALS! and deep PF Changs conversation, Chad for singing Aladdin (which made my day), and Dexter and Libby for waiting in line and rocking out with me. Thanks to the whole community for making me feel a part of something great, and SUPER SPECIAL THANKS to Niero, for cultivating said "something great" from a Super Secret Nintendo Power Club of 2 members to what it is now. A family.


"Hats off" to you Niero. See what you did thar? You made this possible :D


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Anyway, thanks for reading! As an extra bonus for getting this far (yay!), check out all my other pics at my Picasa site! Feel free to leave comments!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Tactixpimp/PAX2008

I <3 you Destructoid!


My new friends....You know them? I think you do....