The second day of PAX East was destined to be a full one. Having partied till the wee hours the night before, it was quite painful to wake up barely four hours later but we were determined to make it happen as we had an hour of media only time in the expo hall.
The really big blockbuster demos were already filling up so we did not get a chance to see Knights of the Old Republic, Battlefield 3, or L.A. Noire but there is plenty of coverage on those games and media to whet the appetite. At least that is what I told myself as I grudgingly walked past their booths. All three of those games do look amazing and had lines nearly three hours-plus long the entire show, so no doubt the demos were amazing.
We headed over to the Ubisoft booth and entered the relatively short line for Child of Eden. This is the latest game from Tetsuya Mizazauchi and Q Entertainment. It is in the same gameplay style as Rez and features high intensity graphics. It was also being demoed on the Kinect so we were able to try out the motion controls. I quite enjoyed the demo, but found it fairly easy and the motion controls were limited to hand movements and swipes.
Moving on, we checked out some smaller games like Fez, Warp, and Shoot Many Robots which we actually had a chance to play later in the conference. The 3DS booth was our desired end point though and we managed to squeeze in playtime on Pilot Wings Resort and Steel Diver. After so much hype this was my first chance at playing with the 3DS and I wasn’t blown away at all. The 3D effects were nice and it was very cool to see it work glasses free but it did not improve the experience in a definable way.
The 3DS games were fun if limited in their appeal, Pilotwings Resort uses your Mii and you get to choose your mode of flying (rocket belt, biplane or hang glider) then you fly around the resort. We were in freeplay mode so there was no required direction, just fly, and while it looked pretty there was not much to hold my interest for more than 10 minutes. Steel Diver has you in a submarine moving yourself in circles holding the 3DS still in order to find ships and then attack them. The effects and graphics were good, but the movement got in the way of the 3D effect and the gameplay was fairly repetitive.
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