PAX Overview and Haul

Total list below the picture; apologies for late blogging. Blame Verizon. Also, next year, more photos. For more photos, and a few of Cheers, click here. I also think I need to finally get a better camera sometime this year.

My favorite costume. Hooray Chrono Trigger. Boo Chrono Cross.

General Swag
Magic Starter Decks: Blue, White, Black
Chandra's Fury Promo Card
League of Legends Promo Skins: Rammus and Graves
League of Legends Bracelets: Full set of 5
Neverwinter Nights bag
Neverwinter Nights dice bag
Dragon Dice Army board
Wildstar mini-backpack

T-Shirts
Endless Summer
Elder Scrolls
Monk -- Dungeon Defenders 2
Blue Mana Symbol (Magic the Gathering)
Wildstar (Promotional)
Wildstar (Curse After Party)
NVidia Shield

Posters
Capcom: Dungeons and Dragons Shadows over Mystara
Square-Enix: Lightning Returns
Dungeon Defenders 2: Apprentice promotional

Games (Computer)
Dungeon Defenders 2: Promo pet (Monk)
Dungeon Defenders 2: Promo weapon (Bow)
Tower of Elements: (http://toe.frogdice.com) -- I played this demo and liked it; I could buy it there for one dollar, so I did.
Aztaka (http://indiegamestand.com) -- Don't know much; won it with a free spin at the indie booth. 
Cognition (http://indiegamestand.com) -- Saw an ad at the indie booth and won it on a free spin the next day. It is an adventure game, so, I should like it.

Other Demos Played (Computer)
Capcom: Dungeons and Dragons Arcade re-release. Quick thoughts: Incredibly fun old school beat-em up. Took a bit to remember the commands, but once I did, I played through three levels easily.

Neverwinter Nights: A very smooth, action-style RPG that borrows and steals from the best. It doesn't "feel" D&D, but it does feel heroic fantasy. Worth watching out for. Also, they gave me a Beta invite, so, you know.

Dungeon Defenders 2: A MOBA-style game with a zoomed in third-person perspective. It felt a little claustrophobic, but as the Monk, I felt like my support was infinitely more noticed than when I support in League, but that might be because the Monk had a lot more direct healing than is usually acceptable in a League hero (except Soraka.)

Wildstar: Another smooth MMO, but with a sci-fi bent. You'll basically be picking between either this or Neverwinter Nights, most likely based on either where your friends are going or which setting appeals to you more: High fantasy or science fantasy.

Telepath Tactics: An indie game with a lot of promise. It is a tactical RPG in the vein of Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre, but a bit more old school. I liked it, but it is niche. It is now on Kickstarter. I'm a backer now.

Castle Crashers: Not really a demo; I own the game already on Steam. I just never have had a chance to play it; doing so convinced me I should do it more.

Board Games

Minigame Library (Signed): Pretty much every one of the games in here is fun, and it covers a variety, from two-player games to a 10-11 player game. I've liked each one I played, and the designer was a nice guy to talk to while I was at PAX. Would recommend; the price point is also very good.

The Duke: I got a free copy, but I never played it. It looks like a nifty chess variant, but I'm hesitant to say much more about it.

Cutthroat Caverns: There's a genre of games I call pseudo-cooperative. It's where everyone needs to work together for the team to win, but you need to be cagey to win-win. Sort of like if you're playing to max your trophies in Arkham. This is that with a fantasy theme; I played in a demo for three rounds, and I was thoroughly impressed.

Compact Heroes: A simplification of RPGs by swapping you to a card-based encounter system. It seems elegant, and the little we played of it people liked it.

Pittsburgh 68: I saw a demo of this; a series of players play against a director. A simple system gets complicated as pseudo-cooperation comes into play with players helping each other or being selfish. I liked it enough to buy it without playing a demo.

ARC (Purist and Politician Decks): A "combat" game, where each player uses predefined decks. I got this for free with another purchase and have yet to play it, so, expect more later.

Square Shooters: There's an app for this game, but I have the actual dice. It was fun, and it is a nice, quick and simple game that a lot of people can get without having to delve too deep into rules.

Board Games (Demos)

Castellan: A glorified version of the dot game, but don't take that as a dig. Someone took a video of the end-state of my play as green in a four-player game (I won with a tie breaker by having more towers,) which if anyone finds, I'll link here. It's fun because I liked the dot game, but if you did not, then you won't like this.

Linear: Another fun game with no real theme to it. You make lines, you score lines. Quick, easy to learn and all around clean fun. I'll buy this when it goes live.

Unnamed RPG: No link. This is a story for a whole other post.

Lanyards

League of Legends: Mid and support lanyards; these were just a means to an end.
Square-Enix Lanyard
Penny Arcade Lanyard
PAX East Behemoth Lanyard

Pins & Buttons

Pinny Arcade base set
Pinny Arcade PAX East 2013 Set
Pinny Arcade Pin Trading Pin (2012)
EON Altar Button: I don't even know what this is for, but it was in my bag
Wildstar Buttons: A complete set of four for each archetype
Colliding Forces: An iPad game that looks fun that, alas, I can never play due to my lack of iPad.
Smite, Cognition, Marvel Heroes and Telepath Tactics buttons
Smirk and Dagger: The makers of Cutthroat Caverns
Arachnid Theater: A PAX East button
Light Weight RPG: A game system with potential to bring in role players, but I have yet to test the system.

Anyway, expect regular fiction to begin anew this week. Also: If you want to hear more about any of the games or things mentioned here (or if you're one of the people working/designing them and stumbled on here via Google, leave a message. I like talking about games, but I want to talk about games people want to hear about.)