Along with the pictures I took at PAX East – mostly of the predictably solid tabletop and arcade sections – here are some brief thoughts and reactions:

  • Played a couple hours of D&D with some pre-rolled characters. That was more fun than I expected.
  • The expo floor and PC freeplay were both a lot bigger this year, which meant that the storefront and tabletop areas got shrunk. In fact, the tabletop area was packed for most of both Saturday and Sunday.
  • Tried to get into the Diablo III line, but it was super long every time we showed up, even first thing on Easter Sunday.
  • In fact, the PC freeplay sessions were limited to a mere 30 minutes this year, which was really not long enough to get a good session in. We heard rumors of a lot of political turmoil around the PC
  • Driver: San Francisco has a really cool premise, and I enjoyed the driving physics a lot.
  • We played a whole lot of tabletop. Power Grid is interesting, but it's lonngggg, and I can understand the criticism of calling it "Excel: The Game".
  • Small World is fantastic; I would have bought it immediately if it wasn't $60.
  • Magical Athlete is way more fun than it deserves to be.
  • Saboteur was a wonderful game for a group of 8 people who all only sorta knew each other.
  • The Omeganaut finale of Crokinole was inspired.
  • Boy am I glad PAX East will be in Boston for ten more years. I was worried that after this year, it'd move elsewhere on the east coast. Nice to know it's staying.