I wanted to write down my thoughts on all the games I saw and played at PAX. Why should you care? You shouldn't really but I wanted to share my experience because it was an unbelievable. Also my reviews are shorter and more honest than like gamespot coverage of the games and I got to ask the developers lots of questions. Plus you can ask me questions. And please feel free to ask me questions because I'm just briefly touching on all the games. I know that there might be some small element that is a huge selling point for you and you need to know about it. (Like Murasame, the sort of sequel to Odin Sphere. The developer assured me there would be no stupid item system and growing plants or item limit.).

I spent over 12 hours just on the Expo floor (a lot of that was waiting in lines) but I could have easily spent 30 hours and not seen everything. So I didn't play the big Xbox games, the lines were too long, like Halo ODST, Left for Dead 2, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age Origins (crap I just realized this wasn't an MMORPG and it's on the PS3 as well) and Forza. I also avoided all the PC games, lots of MMORPG but Diablo 2 and Starcraft did peak my interest. I'm also not writing about all the PSP, Wii and DS games I played so if you're really concerned about one coming out then just ask. The big games I missed that I wanted to see were Red Dead Redemption and Scribblenauts, just ran out of time. I also just kind of walked through Nintendo. I wasn't going to wait in a line to play Wii Resort or Metroid Collection. Big disappointments were no Konami, no Activision, and no Square.

Also when reading my thoughts keep in mind that some of the games were at a very rough stage but I still judged them all as if they were a finished product. Most of them I was using a 360 controller, which screwed me up too.

Most Surprisingly Good: 1) Borderlands 2) Dante's Inferno 3) Brink

Must Buys: 1) Heavy Rain 2) Uncharted 2 3) Borderlands/GoW3/Dante's Inferno/White Knight Chronicles (Too many games!)

Worst Games: 1) Darksiders 2) Deadspace Extraction 3) Saboteur/Wet (but give the edge to Wet because it's actually coming out in a week)

2k

Bioshock 2 (Q1 2010) – Very disappointing. You waited to go into a small theatre and all they showed a trailer for the multiplayer and a video walkthrough (that I'd already seen months ago on the internet) of the single player. So there was no playable demo and not even a live demo. So basically nothing new. The multiplayer did show a couple things. Customizable characters. Taking pictures of dead enemies. Looked pretty chaotic. And you could play as a big daddy and clobber people. The maps looked all indoors and really tight. I'm positive the singleplayer is finished completely and they're just working on multiplayer at this point (and I do release it's two different teams working on each).

Borderlands (Oct 20) – Biggest surprise of the show for me. I waited an hour and a half to play this game and it made me a believer. This game was originally completely off my radar. After playing it and talking to the developers (who were super cool) tomorrow I'm going to pre-order it. It became a must buy for me. Just imagine Fallout 3 without VATS and with an awesome FPS feel (Fallout 3 was great but the FPS parts were pretty clunky, I always fought in VATS). Throw in 4 player co-op. SOLD. It was really really fun. The upgrade tree looks pretty short but a lot of it revolves around the many customizable weapons. The developers were pretty honest and said the guns really won't feel that different but the damage levels and secondary effects will change. There's also sort of a class system with the special abilities your guys have. The feel to the game is pretty light hearted and it's got that cell shading, although went your actually playing I forgot it was even drawn that way.

Capcom

Lost Planet 2 (Q4 2009) – Just got to play that part fighting the huge salamander, which I'm sure you've seen videos of. Decent third person action game. The weapons were really cool. Co-op is always cool (I'm a huge fan of co-op if you haven't guessed). I couldn't figure out the stupid grappling hook but I didn't play the first game so maybe it's just me. Decent game.

Dark Void (Jan 12) – When you take a single element of game X and turn it into the main gimmick element on an entire other game, I think it's a pretty big complement to game X. That being said this game plays just like the flying portions of Warhawk. I usually get really sick and dizzy by game that invert the screen (like that one bloody level in PixelJunk Eden or the zero gravity part of Deadspace) so I wasn't even considering getting this game. But after playing the game it really wasn't half bad and it didn't force you into the inversion parts, you could just fly through them if you wanted. Again it controls like the planes in Warhawks and so it has those frustrating moments of going from flying to hover mode and back again. Kind of generic enemies, and guns and main character but it's not so bad. Probably won't pick this one up but it's okay. I'd rather pull out Warhawk!

Nintendo

New Super Mario Bros (Q4 2009) – It was decent. Four player 2D Mario. I didn't actually play it but watch some people for a while.

Sega (Sega had like a smallest booth of the whole show but the hottest booth babes)

Bayonetta (Jan) – A lot like DMC4 but a little crazier. In my opinion it can't even be compared to GoW3 or Dante's Inferno. Button mashing, crazy over the top combos. Static screen so right analogue is the doge. It's kind of funny because every attack has like a sexually explicit name and she goes naked for her ultimate attacks and finishing moves. You can pick up enemy weapons. I especially liked the neat, semi-angelic enemies you fight, they look awesome. I don't particularly like this type of game but it seems to me as more fun than DMC4 was.

Sony

Pixel Junk Shooter (Q4 2009) – I love the Pixel Junk games and this one seems just as funky. There was no music available but I can only assume it would be awesome. You fly around with left control stick and rotate your ship to shoot with the right. As you can tell by the video it's about breaking walls to release water to cool lava and then break that lava so the water can move through. You also rescue little dudes. I can assume there will be tons of weapons but for now I just had a shoot button that you could hold down for a rocket. You don't really take damage but instead you take "heat" from enemies and being near the lava so you have to jump back in the water to cool down. After playing it I actually might not buy it because I find these top down fliers really tough and frustrating but it seems to have all the Pixeljunk charm.

MAG (Jan 26) - I'm sure most of you have tried the Beta so there's isn't much to add but I'll just brag about the exclusive MAG Screening or whatever it was that I went to. It was separate from PAX and it was for 256 people. I thought it was going to be like a big LAN party but instead it was this super swanky event. Security in suits and dark glasses. Free booze and awesome food (crab cakes, lobster dishes, mini gourmet burgers etc). They had 8 big screens in a room and there were 3 rooms (one for each faction). So you got to play in the beta while the developers walked around and asked you questions and stuff. It was so amazing. I got to tell a few of them the problems I had with the game and my suggestions. What an experience!

Heavy Rain (Q1 2010) – Out effing standing! I lined up on Sunday at 8 am (2 hours before the doors opened) just to play this game after having watched it for the first two days. My expectations were super high and it blew those away. The graphics and design are incredible. The characters look amazing, the dialogue was so rich. I was getting pulled into the world while standing up watching someone else play in a crowd of nerds. That's how great this game is. There were two scenarios. One was a dad picking his kid up and making him supper. It was basically just to show you the mechanics. The other one (which everyone played) was the old cop questioning a shop keeper. The shop keeper refuses and you go to buy something. Then a robber comes into the store. You can do nothing. Sneak up on the robber and clobber him. Talk the robber down. Talk to the robber until he is distracted and tackle him. Or get shot. (Those are the only ones I saw.) What impressed me the most was the controls. I knew the game looked incredible but how was the gameplay? It was stellar. You walk by holding R2 and the right stick, then you use the leg stick for a lot of commands. You have the four button mapped to answers you can give when talking. Basically you walk up to things and the commands jump at you. How is this fun you ask? Well imagine sneaking up on the robber. You edge down the isle and you see a bottle. You have to carefully press the left stick to the right to grab the bottle without making a sound (if you don't then you drop it). You then sneak forward and suddenly you bump some boxes so you have to quickly press triangle to grab them. Then you come up behind him and wiggle the remote to bash him in the head. It's actually super intense and fun. Please buy this game! It's something that's actually innovative and creative, don't pour your money into another FPS copycat and let Heavy Rain flop.

God of War 3 (March 2010) – I waited close to an hour to play 15 minutes of the demo. You start off in a burning city with skeletons attacking people. You fight your way until some harpies that you have to grab onto and beat them with the circle button to make them rise a little and get you over gaps. You then fight a bunch of skeletons with a big centaur. Then you fight a huge chimera. All the while there is an absolutely massive fire titan in the background fighting a flaming guy on a flaming chariot. After you beat the Chimera you actually shoot a giant bolt gun at the flaming chariot guy (who is like smaller than the titan's hand). You hit the chariot and the titan uses the opportunity to grab the chariot and toss it into a mountain. You have the chain blades and then those massive fists that you saw in the first couple trailers. He has the icarus wings. The camera is static like Heavenly Sword and the left analogue is dodge. For the centaur and the Chimera you had to beat them enough to start a button press sequence. The Chimera had three of them. It's super gory. You cut turn the centaur on his side and cut him down the stomach and all his guts spill out. To finish the Chimera you tear out his horn and ram it through his eye. The graphics looked great. The background (looking down on the burning city and the clouds) looks gorgeous. Great game, I'm sure I'm forgetting something I wanted to say about it.

White Knight Chronicles (Q1 2010) I spent a good deal of time with this exploring the menus and stuff. It looks like an awesome JRPG, the one we've all been waiting for. It feels a lot like FF12, especially the battle system (but a little simpler version of the gambit system). The story seems a little more light hearted than final fantasy, almost a little Japanese silly if you get my drift. The main city you start in is huge just like ff12. Basically just think ff12. But I didn't get my guy to transform. Also it wasn't fully translated. It was strange too because when you pressed triangle it brought up a PSN message screen, I'm sure that has to do with the multiplayer. All around this looks like the solid JRPG we've been waiting for. Oh and the graphics looked pretty good, better than they've looked in the trailers.

Uncharted 2 (Oct 13) – For anyone that played the beta, this game will be outstanding and there isn't much for me to add. They just had a section of the single player fighting through the same city we've seen in the beta. It's Uncharted, it's awesome. Everything you would expect. The graphics were hands down the best of the entire show. Including the PC stuff. The lighting is outstanding, I don't even remember it being that good in the beta. Killzone for me is GOTY 2009 but this could give it a serious run.