The alarm went off at 6:45 am today, and my body desperately tried to convince my mind that it was much too early and, please, could we have a couple more hours of sleep? I had had one too many Frangelicos on the rocks the night before at the 2K cocktail party, I was up until 2 am writing yesterday’s blog, and one of the clever youngsters rooming at my hotel thought it might be fun to pull the fire alarm around 10 pm, causing the local fire brigade to evacuate the hotel in 34-degree cold. My mind agreed with my body that a bit longer under the covers might be a good thing, but I couldn’t afford to miss the media-only hour available to me on the show floor at 9 am, so there I was, dragging my sorry butt into the shower to prepare for another long day at PAX East.

Remember I said yesterday that I was going to get a chance to play Rockstar’s new game, Red Dead Redemption, today in the media hour? Well, turns out that this was the runaway game demo of the show, generating lines rivaling the queues that E3 attendees formed to play God of War III last year. Even my media colleagues were obsessed with Red Dead, to the point that I would’ve had to have spent the entire media hour doing nothing but standing in line, so I skipped it. There were plenty of other things to see, and I’m not so anxious to play it that I can’t wait for the May 18 release date.

For the second day in a row, I failed to make a connection with a contact, this time with a representative of Perfect World, a free-to-play MMORPG. We had agreed to meet in the main lobby, not realizing at the time that there were several main lobbies in the building. By the time I caught up to him it was too late for any serious discussion about his game, but he promised to send me whatever information he had available. Note to self: start writing down contact phone numbers! I’m still somewhat new to the business card-swapping dance that game journalists do, but eventually I’ll work it out.

Next up: a visit to the Turbine booth to check out what’s new in the world of Dungeons and Dragons Online. Released originally in 2006, DDO changed to a free-play subscription model in September of 2009, and since then the game has added more than one million new players. Turbine is promising six free updates in 2010, the fourth of which releases on April 9. The new update is scheduled to include a new adventure pack and improvements to the guild system, including the introduction of a Guild Airship, which can be used as a home base and housing for your guild members. Also, a new race (Half Orc) will be included in another update slated for the end of the year.

Later in the day I touched base with several developers whose work has been featured here on the Vault in the recent past. I played a few minutes of The Devil’s Tuning Fork, an innovative sound-based adventure game developed by a team of game-design students at DePaul University that our own Alaric Teplitsky reviewed last December. All but one of the team members is graduating this year, but they plan to continue to work on the game in anticipation of obtaining a publisher. I also got some hands-on time with Making History II: War of the World, a top-down military strategy game that lets you replay World War II without being restricted by the actual events. I had the opportunity to interview one of the developers at last fall’s GameX festival, but this was my first time at the controls. There is a beta test for the game coming soon; we plan to have some coverage of the beta and an eventual full review of the final version. And I spent a few minutes with ORIGIN PC president and founder Kevin Wasielewski (a guest on Avault podcast #61 last January), who was showing off his company’s new gaming laptop, featuring the Intel Core i7 Extreme CPU and twin graphics cards in an SLI configuration. Dell teamed with Origin at the show to raffle off Origin’s laptop and Dell’s monolithic Maingear desktop PC for charity. Sure would be nice to win one, but with both being valued at more than $5,000 each, even the taxes the winner would have to pay would be daunting.

Also in the hardware department was a strange-looking but innovative gadget from Massachusetts-based Immerz, the KORFx (Kinetic Omnidirectional Resonance Fx). The device is basically an extension of the force-feedback motors found in console controllers. You drape the KORFx over your shoulders and connect a simple breakout box to your console or the sound card in your PC. Games with soundtracks that support the unit will activate the rumble motors in the collar, making you feel the impact of explosions and combat on your torso as well as in your hands. The KORFx is tentatively scheduled to be available for purchase in the fall with a retail price of $189.99, although the price could drop as the company obtains corporate sponsors and interest from game developers. I gave the device a test drive in a Left 4 Dead 2 match, and it performed as advertised, although the unit wasn’t flexible enough to rest flat. But I was informed that the device I was testing was merely a prototype; a one-size-fits-all version will be ready come launch day. I’m concerned that the price might be a daunting barrier of entry for all but the most hardcore gamer, but I suspect that, with some clever and effective marketing, the KORFx will find it’s own audience easily enough.

The highlight of the day was my visit to the 2K booth for an introduction to Sid Meier’s Civilization V and some time at the controls of Mafia II. Developer Firaxis has taken the already successful Civ series and added some useful tweaks, upgraded the visuals with a custom-made graphics engine, and given you the ability to build a society anywhere in a space of more than 6,000 years of human history. The user interface has been streamlined, ranged combat has been solidified, naval battles have been simplified and improved, and user mods can now be upgraded directly to Firaxis’s servers, allowing the entire Civ community to easily download and play them. The version that we saw at PAX was an alpha build, but you wouldn’t know it by how it looks and plays, although it was being played on an outrageously powerful PC designed specifically for this demo. But have no fear: the developers are working hard trying to improve scalability so that those of us without godlike rigs can still get a superior gameplay experience.

Part 2 of my time at the 2K booth was spent taking Mafia II for a spin. This was one of my games of the show last year at E3, mostly because of how gorgeous the city graphics were and how amazingly cinematic the story was. In my PAX demo, I had to steal a car and meet one of my partners in organized crime as he started selling bootleg cigarettes out of an old truck. After spending a few minutes getting used to the driving controls (which were admittedly very touchy), I managed to navigate through the crowded city streets and make my rendezvous. A rival gang arrived and attempted to shut us down, leading to some profanity-laced mayhem (the writers have pulled no punches with the salty adult dialogue in Mafia II, which is just as it should be). I had to bribe my way out of being arrested several times, and the demo ended just as I had gotten comfortable with the driving controls, but I was pleased to discover that the storytelling style that I had loved in the E3 demo was still there; you really do get the impression that you’re playing a part in an interactive movie. Another important part of the game is the music soundtrack, which includes 100 licensed tunes from the 1940s and ‘50s, used in much the same way that songs from the ‘20s were used in Fallout 3. There are also 50 types of vehicles in the game, from old jalopies to muscle cars, and 12 weapons, all of which your character can carry at the same time. Look for Mafia II on store shelves on August 24.

And that’s pretty much it for me and PAX East 2010. The show runs one more day, but since I’m driving back home and clean laundry is getting scarce, I need to get back tomorrow afternoon so that normalcy can return in time for the beginning of the work week. One of my biggest regrets about the show is not being able to attend any of the panel discussions. I had a very heavy appointment schedule, and once the show floor closed, everyone started drifting to the meeting rooms, making the lines incredibly long. But if you think you might want to attend the show next year, keep these things in mind:

Wear comfortable shoes. You will find yourself standing still for long stretches at PAX, mostly in insanely long lines. Also, the carpeting used by some of the booth builders is so thick it feels like you’re standing at the beach. Well-padded shoes will make the experience much more bearable.

Come with friends. Especially if you have mates who love Rock Band. There were two separate places where you and your buds could mount the stage, pick up the plastic instruments and jam. Chances are that you’ll find a captive but enthusiastic audience of folks waiting in line for one thing or another.

Buy your badges early. An estimated 70,000 badges were sold for PAX East, and they were all gone before the first day of the show. Add the show’s official website to your browser favorites and start checking it in January if you want to be assured admittance to next year’s event.

Bring a backpack or a canvas bag. There’s shwag everywhere in the building, all waiting for you to either buy or take for free. You’ll need somewhere to put it that will leave your hands free to hold controllers.

Book your accomodations now. PAX East is a show that is absolutely possible to totally see in one day, provided you’re not intent on attending lots of panels or playing in the various console and PC tournaments. But if you don’t live within a comfortable round trip of the venue, you’ll want to stretch out the experience to at least two days, and that will require hotel reservations. There are lots of rooms available within walking distance of the convention center, but they fill up fast, so unless you want to join me on the subway next year, make those reservations as soon as possible.

And so ends my very first PAX odyssey. It was a long, tiring, bad-on-the-feet experience, but it had lots of energy, lots of great new games to see and try, and an atmosphere geared towards the gamer instead of the media, which is the exact opposite of other industry events. If you have the stamina (and a fresh pair of Dr. Scholl’s air-cushion soles), it’s an experience that no serious gamer should miss.