Post-PAX wrap up thoughts – the big studios

Hey loyal Dorkadians! PAX Prime 2013 was a blast and I managed to get my hands on several very interesting games and see trailers with live play demos of others. As usual, I really enjoyed getting to check out a number of titles that I already knew I was interested in and found a lot more to play that I didn’t even know existed until now. For me, PAX is all about the games and getting to go hands on with the amazing projects that developers large and small bring to show off to actual gamers. It isn’t about creating a giant press release to be disseminated to the masses. As such, I’m excited to share with you the games I’m really excited about from some larger game studios after PAX.

Triple A titles from PAX

Clearly there were a number of flashy titles from big studios and I barely scratched the surface with these. While some of them were playable, others were shown off as video and live play demos that we were ushered into a room and sat in front of to watch. Frankly, I’ve been bitter about this whole process since Portal 2 was first shown off in this fashion after I waited in line for nearly 2 hours to see it.

Ubisoft

There were two titles that Ubisoft showed off that I was interested in: Watchdogs and Assassin’s Creed 4. The trailer for Watchdogs was pretty interesting and showed off a lot of the cool stuff you’ll be able to do as a hacker running through computer controlled Chicago with your crazy ass cell phone. The live play was for a multiplayer challenge feature that I wasn’t a huge fan of only because it seems like it wouldn’t be nearly as spontaneous as the pitch that was given to us at PAX.

Assassin’s Creed 4 had a number of cool ideas put into it and pitched at us. The diving bell and underwater missions to fund the improvement of your ship, the Jack Doe, seemed like a cool mechanic. You spend your time recovering sunken treasure and fighting eels and sharks without the aid of your hidden blade. However, one of the sea based things that kind of irked me was the harpooning missions. Yes, harpooning was probably a great source of income during the golden age of piracy, but I don’t really think that it’s something that required being built into a game just to add that particular level of economy to it.

My biggest problem with both of these games in a nutshell is that they’re being promoted as “sandboxy” titles. On a personal level, what I really want out of a game is an interactive story. If it meanders a bit to let me have fun with a combat mechanic, that’s fine. What I don’t want is endless exploration. You guys would get tired of reading about it pretty quick as well, I would imagine.

Bethesda

Just a few brief words about upcoming Bethesda titles. The first being Elder Scrolls Online. ESO was not only being shown off in playable form on the convention floor, but there was also a food truck handing out free grub on Saturday. That has nothing to do with the game, but good on Bethesda for creating a massive line in a parking lot to feed con goers. That said, Chris already shared his thoughts on ESO based on his hands on experience, so I’m going to move on.

One of the other titles they brought to PAX was Wolfenstein: The New Order. I spent a short amount of time running on the demo of this one and I was blown away. Realism can suck it! BJ gets to take on Nazis that have robots that border on being Metal Gears. The game aesthetic is one of a gritty grindhouse movie and it was running exceptionally smoothly on the PCs that Bethesda brought to PAX. Unfortunately, I’m a mouse and keyboard guy when it comes to FPS games and I was having a little bit of difficulty dodging the attacks of the large mech that was blasting my skull off every time I respawned. Still a game I’m looking forward to spending some time with when it finally releases.

2K Games

Okay, I didn’t actually play it, but WWE 2k14 looked pretty sweet as wrestling games go. They’re not my bag. Not even remotely, but it still looked cool and brought in characters old enough for me to actually remember. 2K also brought the a boss battle from the newest expansion to Borderlands 2 for teams to run time trials against. Remember that part where I suck on controllers for FPS games? Same deal with this one, only I got to drag down a team of 3 other people with me. Good times.

What I’m really excited about from 2K that they only showed in video at PAX was XCOM Enemy Within. Yes, it is just an expansion for Enemy Unknown, but what an expansion. Sadly, we were only shown a short canned demo, but the inclusion of bionic and genetic enhancement for soldiers is going to be worth playing through again if you ask me. Of course, it’s only fair that the aliens also get more powers as well. We were also shown a new weapon: the needle grenade. It’s a powerful grenade that doesn’t penetrate cover, so it can be used close to your own troops without killing them as long as they’re behind a wall. It should be like playing a new game with all of the new inclusions.

Of course, this short list doesn’t really scratch the surface of the games that were being shown off at PAX. Check out my next article where I’ll give an overview of the indie titles that I had a blast checking out. And check out our podcast page for before and after discussions of our PAX Prime 2013 excitement and impressions.