Let me tell you a little bit about PAX. There’s a lot to do there, and most of the activities are centered on three important areas. The first consists of the Console Freeplay, Tabletop, and Bring Your Own Computer areas. PAX started as a huge LAN party, so it makes sense that this would still be a major portion of the festivities. Panel discussions with various members of the gaming communities also figured prominently. Somewhere along the way, major developers began showing up to sponsor the event, as well as bringing some of their new titles to demo for the masses.

These three ingredients, gameplay, panels, and exhibition hall, help make PAX what it is, the mecca for the nerdcore of ALL disciplines. Unfortunately, there are only three days to get as much gaming in as possible. Added to this scarcity of time is the fact that there are even MORE panels and the exhibition hall is almost twice as large as it was last year. 

Forced to choose, I spent the lion’s share of my time on the exhibition floor checking out whether Gears 2 has as much chainsawiness (it does), whether Starcraft has advanced at all in 10 years (it hasn’t), and whether Left 4 Dead has as much zombie chewiness as I was hoping (oh man, does it). I also managed to spend a lot of time with some of EA’s upcoming titles, including Warhammer Online, Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, Spore, and Crysis Warhead.

Spore

Will Wright, the ultimate sandbox game designer, has done what Peter Molyneux couldn’t with Black & White. There is so much game here, I don’t even know where to begin. If you’ve liked fl0w, Black & White, Civilization, or Galactic Civilizations there will be something here for you.

I talked with EA about Spore and they explained that the game has been specifically geared towards “creative types” which explains why everyone at my office is excited about it and none of them (except one) are gamers, let alone “core” gamers. There was an entire afternoon lost to everyone building creatures in the Spore Creature Creator. This is probably the main reason that there is a Mac client.

I’m not sure if the chainsaw and energy sword-wielding Xbox Live denizens are going to want to break out their gaming rigs for Spore, but if you’ve even MODERATELY enjoyed a Will Wright or Maxis game, you owe it to yourself to check out Spore.

Crysis Warhead

Gameplay-wise, the standalone expansion pack for Crysis, titled Crysis Warhead, doesn’t bring anything too terribly revolutionary to the table. However, there are some MAJOR technical upgrades. At PAX, Crysis Warhead was running on a $700 machine with a Geforce 8800 GT and 2 GB of RAM. And even on this machine, Crysis Warhead looked phenomenal. I am very impressed with what they were able to do. IMHO, this bodes well for the future of Crytek releases in the console space.

If you enjoyed Crysis as much as I did, this is another EA title you’ll need to pick up.

Dead Space

I’ve been lukewarm about Dead Space. At first glance, it appeared to me as nothing more than trying to cash in on the success of Bioshock. “Oh here we go,” I said, “EA is back to their old formula. Copying what they can’t create on their own.” 

Holy crap, was I surprised. 

The level they showed us at PAX highlighted the qualities that make Dead Space truly unique and original. The weaponry is not more of the same, but actually helps control the environment or creatures is interesting ways, such as the stasis beam that will slow enemies down, allowing you to chop them up into little pieces.

The level design itself focused on the physical aspects of moving and interacting with zero-gravity environs. Since you wear magnetic boots, you can walk on just about any surface. When I asked them about level design, they explained that creating levels that don’t cause the player to become totally lost during zero-gee is a major challenge. No wonder they chose to go the single-player-only route. Remember Prey multiplayer? You do? I feel your pain…

But if I were to amend my list of great physics games, I have a feeling Dead Space will be added to that list. Hold on though, there’s another great physics game that EA showed off at PAX…

Mirror’s Edge

There is something visceral that is tapped by Mirror’s Edge. That part of the gamer brain that causes one to endlessly bunny hop across the map, or roadie run whenever possible. The part of the brain that loves Jet Set Radio Future and grenade jumping in Halo 3. Careening over fences and pipes or running across walls is just… fun! 

I’m not even sure what else to say about Mirror’s Edge. You better have seen the videos. If you have, then you know what my expectations were. The gameplay at PAX was what we’ve already seen, but what stood out to me as I played was how smooth the controls seemed, even at this unfinished stage.

But wait, apparently, a major ingredient of Mirror’s Edge is the story. That’s great, because I love story… and based on everything else I’ve seen from EA at this year’s PAX, I am actually hopeful that Mirror’s Edge will deliver on what it promises.

Wait, what? Did you just use “hopeful” and “EA” in the same sentence?

I sure did. After getting so much hands on time with EA’s titles, and playing a Madden 09 that isn’t completely horrible (albeit, far from perfect) I am ready to make an announcement.

I am throwing out my EA haterade… flushing it right down the toilet. If these titles are as good as they seem right now, then EA will once again be known (at least in my household) as a company that can publish high quality original content. I honestly never thought this day would come. I figured EA would fade into nothingness like so many bloated, soulless publishers before it. It seems though, that EA has been able to throw a scroll of resurrection on itself and (I can’t believe I’m saying this) created a holiday lineup that is going to be downright awesome.

At this point, EA kind of reminds me of the vampire Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a vampire he had lost his soul, but eventually he is humbled by continually getting his butt kicked by Buffy. After some questing he manages to regain his soul, but some questions remained. Was he truly redeemed? Would he be able to leave his past behind and move forward with purpose?

Now, the pessimist in me is SCREAMING that it’s too good to be true. And that may be, but EA was at PAX 07 as well, and this truly feels like a new beast. I’m sure I’ll still have plenty of chances to call EA on it’s BS, like microtransactions, but all things considered, I like what I see for EA in 2008.