Last day of PAX. Our plan was to wake up early and catch the Halo 4 presentation at Halo Fest (which started at 10am). Plans fail. Especially that one. We got up… buuuut we hated the idea of walking there that early in the morning. Fortunately for us, they were streaming it live on IGN. I wish I could say it would have been better live, but I can’t. We were completely unimpressed with what they had to show, honestly. It almost felt like an apology, like they were justifying Halo 4. As if they were saying “We know we’re not Bungie, but hear us out. Here is why we made these design decisions.” All that would have been alright if it had been mixed in with with stuff we were eager to see. All they gave us was some moving concept art towards the end. That being said we were really glad we didn’t walk 45 minutes just for that.

When we finally made it to PAX we began our mission: Collect as much SWAG as we can in one day. Considering we came home with a Legendary Halo backpack full to the brim, I think we did pretty well. Though unlike our last PAX experience where we could stop by a booth and grab some swag, this time we had to jump through hoops. Wait on line, play this, sign up here, tweet this, facebook that, complete this list of objectives. They really made us work for it. I had to DANCE for some of this stuff…. Don’t ask. And, I understand that getting a t-shirt should be harder than grabbing one on the way by… but standing in line for 3 hours to play for 5 min to get a shirt kind of sucked.

Sick had set her sights on one piece of swag in particular: The coveted Skyrim Hat. On both Day 1 and Day 2 the wait was 3+ hours long. I dreaded the thought. Especially since she wanted more than one. I got in line while she wandered. I waited in this god-forsaken line for an hour and a half. When I got to the front of the line, ready to play, I asked if I could have a hat for my wife too. “Where is your wife?” the guy asked. I said, “She couldn’t handle waiting in this line anymore and sat somewhere else.” He told me to ask the girl handing them out. So she gave me a second one and I stuffed it in my shirt so nobody would question it. Now, THANK GOD they didn’t know what Sick looked like, cuz SECONDS later she walks over and waves at me with one of those damn hats ON HER HEAD! WTF?!

Apparently she had struck a deal with the chic giving out the Skyrim hats. She traded the Dance Central 2 bandana we had collected earlier for it. Remember me having to Dance? yeah, she traded THAT. And then she asks me if I could go get another bandana. WHAT?!

The best part was my 15 minutes of gametime with Skyrim after the hour and a half wait. I created my character in two minutes, ran straight through a village then 10 minutes past it, killed two wolves, passed a rock cliff, and then shit myself. On the other side of the rock wall was a Giant…Giant. There was no other descriptive word I could give it. It was a fucking GIANT. It scared me, I lit it on Fire, then it squashed me. INSTANTLY. Ahh! *Burn* Squish. Done. GAME OVER GUYS!

THIS is what squished me…

Well that was fun.

I should probably back track a little… While standing in line to play Dance Central 2, Sick asked “Hey! Isn’t that the girl that makes all the Dance Central youtube videos?” Sure enough, Mighty Me Creative was helpin’ out at the Dance Central booth. She was surprised we recognized her. We took a picture with her shortly before I got on stage.

Us with Mighty Me

Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to play all the games, but here’s a short list of all the games we’re pretty excited about:

• Rocksmith– I didn’t get a chance to play this, it was just a presentation. It’s basically a game that will teach you how to play guitar. Being able to connect a real guitar to it is down right AWESOME!
• Orc’s Must Die– MUST buy this game. I saw this game the first day when I was on “Recon”, but I did not actually play until the third day. I played for 3 minutes… Hooked! It’s a Third-person Shooter/Tower Defense. Good Stuff. Check out SixOkay’s Interactive Trailer
• Dance Central 2– Now THIS is the #1 Game we’re waiting for, Hands Down. We dance up a storm with the Dance Central, and #2 has a MUCH better Track List. Oh, yeah…. and my dancing…. See below…
• Gears of War 3– OK, this post is a little late… aaaand I’m already tearing this up. You should be, too.
• FireFall– Now THIS game makes me want a gaming desktop. I don’t have one. I is sad panda…

I saw a great number of games that looked absolutely amazing, just to realize they were for PC only. But there were a greater number of awesome console games shown as well. It’s going to be a hard run for Game of the Year this year, indeed.

What PAX 2011 games are you most excited about?

Be sure to join us tomorrow for your chance to win the PAX swag we grabbed.

Note: Sick and I made a cameo appearance in Whisper Studio’s PAX Prime Video. Be sure to check it out.