Penny Arcade Expo East 2013

George Zoghbi Photography

This year, I had the opportunity to visit the Penny Arcade Expo in Boston during March 22nd to 24th. There were many exhibitors this year, and I had the chance to meet many high profile individuals in the gaming industry and test out unreleased games and technology. I also learned how to wear a scarf in three different ways! At PAX, many popular developers were there, as I found the Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo Booth. Microsoft was showing mainly the new Castle Map Pack for Halo 4, and they also had a booth for  a Dance Central setup with a Kinect Sensor, allowing a line to form for those who wanted to play. Nintendo was showcasing the 3DS along with its Wii U. I never tried out the Wii U before, and was skeptical about its performance. I was surprised though, when I was able to run an instance of a newer Burnout title seamlessly, on the television screen itself, and on the actual Wii U controller's LCD screen. The function of the touchscreen added to the game play  and made options like changing cars which usually takes many steps to do in most racing games, into a 3 step process that takes seconds. Overall, I enjoyed Nintendo's booth, and was only disappointed by the 3DS platform, only because it seemed to give me a headache. I give Nintendo an A- for their booth; the exhibitors were heavily involved and helped keep the visitors focused on their booth.

George Zoghbi Photography

Microsoft was showcasing mostly Halo 4 and Dance Central 3. Their booth was conservative, not showing any new games, but it was heavily involving the attendees at PAX by letting those who wait in line a chance to play competitive or social games of Halo 4, and even to take part in a game of Dance Central. I give Microsoft a B grade for it's booth, only because there was nothing entirely new on display, but it did involve crowds of visitors.

George Zoghbi Photography

George Zoghbi Photography

The most intriguing exhibit on display though had to be, in my opinion, Nvidia's. There were showing their new Nvidia Shield, which is basically their take on a handheld console. The Shield was light, compact, and boasts a 5 inch, capacitive touch screen. It also has a directional pad, 2 analog sticks, 4 face buttons, and 2 shoulder buttons. The game play itself was interesting, but I was limited to my options. The Shield is powered by a powerful, Tegra 4 quad core processor, so it can be sure to power through intense games. If it is unable to though, then you can connect your shield to a computer that has a newer Nvidia graphics card, and use the power of the PC to stream these games to your shield over a wifi connection, with the PC doing most of the rendering work. I give Nvidia an A+ for their booth, for they also involved the crowd especially with the giving out of free swag to those who demo their new software, which was also very enthralling because of new technologies such as streaming full fledged games over an internet browser.

George Zoghbi Photography

Overall, PAX East was a great experience, and was filled with new experiences set to enter the gaming industry later this year. I hope to go again next year and to write a more serious report while equipped with a better camera. I recommend that if you have a chance to go to PAX East, Prime, AUS, or DEV, then you should take that chance instantly, because the experience is incredible.