My first journey to PAX started out with Issac and no, not the dude from Dead Space. I planned this trip back in January and even got my plane ticket then as well. Little did I know, I had to do battle with a hurricane to get to PAX Prime. Once a notice went out about the ability to change my flight for no extra change, I called up my airline straight away to get my flight changed. It would have either been the day before my actual flight or wait for the storm to pass by and I wasn’t about to wait. By sheer luck, the customer service rep found me a flight for Saturday, a day before I was set to leave. Within the mad rush of a hurricane coming and needing to get ready, I was in a state of mix emotion. Things are never simple, even when you plan far in advanced.

Push all of that aside, I made it to PAX and I couldn’t wait to get it started. Shame that the events we want to savior are the ones that happen all to fast. Why can’t my work shifts be as quick as PAX felt. However, in a way, it felt like these past three days went on forever.

Halo 4 Time to Play Catch!

First off, I knew the game that I needed to play and to play it first was Halo 4. If there’s a Halo game at a gaming convention, you know the lines will be massive. Fellow TGFers William and Ryan joined me in a match of Capture the Flag followed by Slayer. I haven’t played a Halo game in a while, but it didn’t take me long to get the feel of it once again. The controls are just like Halo 3‘s style and if you don’t like that set up, you can always adjust in the layout in the settings. Playing Halo 4 was great and the game sells itself. They had a panel at PAX called Halo Reborn, where it went more into Halo 4 and what we all can expect from the game. The line was massive which resulted in turning away roughly 100 people. Shame that this panel wasn’t in the main theater, and I’m shocked that it wasn’t. I guess we all can thank Ubisoft for that one since they hosted Assassin’s Creed 3 in there instead. We had the great people of 343 there (some sitting on beanbags) as well as the voices of Master Chief, Steve Downes and Cortana, Jen Taylor. They went into how they want to make The Chief more human, and not just a suit of armor and for Cortana, to face her mortality. From the tone of where they want to take these two iconic characters makes me feel that something tragic will happen within the game. As far as everything multiplayer, in Capture the Flag, you will be able to kill your opponents with the flag and the visuals are quiet bloody. In addition, you will have a gun! Not only can you kill your foes with the flag, you will now have a mag to shoot them in the face with. Grifball is back and it is better than ever, the same goes for Oddball. In Halo 4, you will be able to throw the ball. This will make for some good games of keep-away.

X-COM They Did Make it Better!

Do you see what they did there?

I never played the original X-COM but I’ve seen it in action since my husband loves the game, and that is an understatement. I’m not one for tactical games, I rather just run in and shoot, so I wasn’t that excited for X-COM, especially after hearing all the bumps in the road that the people of Fraxis had getting to the final product. I got my hands on X-COM on the show floor and played some of the campaign, the XB360 version. When you think RTS or any strategy game, you think PC, not console. A lot of those type of games just don’t well with a controller. X-COM is that exception. From what I played on the XB360, X-COM does work well on a console. The controls are easy to get used to, even for someone not used to that type of game. I’m actually interested in playing this game once it launches. This was one of my good surprises of PAX.

Its a Sacred Riptide with a lot of Primal Carnage without being to Dishonored!

Sacred 3 is your over the top RPG adventure game that brings back memories of Gauntlet, which is not a bad thing. Sacred 3 looks fun and you can play up to four players on either XB360, PC, or Ps3. There’s environmental traps, combat arts and you can take different paths within the game. Depending on which class you play, could determine which path your can or cannot take based on your skill set. The target date for Scared 3 is in 2013. Dead Island is on my to-do list. With so much that came out last year, I’m still playing catch-up, so I haven’t been able to experience Dead Island. Riptide, is on an island that is mostly filled with water. You get to fortify your base with mines and fences as the horde of zombies try to rip your head off. For me, Riptide kept screaming Left 4 Dead and it actually made me want to play Left 4 Dead instead of Dead Island, which might be a bad thing, but fans of Dead Island will enjoy it, I’m sure. Primal Carnage isn’t dinosaurs on a space ship, but instead humans vs dinosaurs. You can either play as a human or play as one of the five dinosaurs. If you play as a human, the game plays as a FPS game, while the dinos are in third person. The game is just fun and for $15 bucks, you really can’t beat that. Beta for Primal Carnage should be starting up soon, so make sure to look out for that. Dishonored was just meh for me. Maybe I needed more time with the game, but I just couldn’t get into it at all. Sending rats out to do your dirty work was interesting at least.

NiGHTS into Dreams The Sega Saturn Classic Returns!

NiGHTS releases this October

I played NiGHTS when it first came out back in the 1990′s and loved it. When I heard about the game returning for XBLA and PsN I was excited and worried at the same time. Games ported or polished over for a new generation can either be great or terrible. From what I played at the SEGA booth, they got it right. Not only can you play the polish “new” version of NiGHTS but you can switch it over to retro and play as how it was intended back in the Saturndays. Looking forward to playing this again, for achievements this time around and the retro feel.

League of Legends Tournament Will Rock You!

I’ve never played a single game of League of Legends yet somehow William and I walked in on the first round of the tournament that was held the Thursday before PAX officially started. Seeing professional gamers play live can change your view on the sport. It is intense, exciting, and I got these feelings from a game that I have never played before. After witnessing the first round, I want to try out League of Legends now. The game itself looks to be fun. The word is that people paid to get into PAX just to be part of the crowd at the tournament. The effect that professional gaming has on people is surreal.

Walking Dead into a FireFall will Leave you with a Metal Gear Rising!

You can even get a mohawk while at PAX.

There’s so much to do at PAX and three days is not enough. Thankfully its been bumped up to four days for next year’s event. I found myself finding booths and vendors that I didn’t know where there until a day or two after. Take Bioware for instance, I had no idea they were there until Saturday. I stopped by on Sunday and got into a panel about voice acting with Ali Hillis, who afterward signed autographs for the fans. She is a sweetheart, very humble, and if you are unaware of who she is, Ali is the voice of Liara from the Mass Effect series. Her passion for Liara is amazing mixed with dedication and love. Voice actors like Ali Hillis makes the game believable and allows us to get lost within a story. PAX is filled with excitement for the games we love and for what is to come but also crowds plus a lot of walking. Pleasure and pain mixed together and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The staff and enforcers of PAX are top notch and very friendly, despite the large lines and chaos. From all of us, thank you. Make sure to stick around to The Game Fanatics as we bring you more articles from PAX, including our impressions, the podcast and everything else that is PAX Prime 2012!