Sketch comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun.com was at PAX East and entertained the crowd not just with previews of their upcoming videos, but also by filming one during their panel. Way to hire unpaid extras, guys!

Graham Stark gives directions for an LLR video shot at PAX East.

Seriously, everyone at the show was awesome. They specified at the beginning of the Q&A session that questions were not to be answered by all seven panelists; as a result, each question was addressed in under 2.5 minutes, allowing everyone to get a chance to speak with the comics. I worried that my question about whether or not they've ever considered doing a RiffTrax would require a description of the medium, but naturally the team responsible for Unskippable is familiar with the latest iteration of Mystery Science Theater 3000, so far as Paul Saunders encouraging us to "keep passing the tapes!" I ended up sitting one seat removed from Paul during Sunday's Penny Arcade panel; he's lucky I wasn't better situated to inundate him with further questions.

If I was a bit starstruck, it's because LLR's members are gamers, comedians, and philanthropists. Graham Stark and Kathleen DeVere also offered advice the previous day on organizing a Child's Play fundraiser akin to their own Desert Bus for Hope. For them to lend their celebrity to such a noble cause speaks well of our entire demographic.

Their latest Unskippable, which usually reviews the latest gaming cinematics, is a great April Fool's take on Final Fantasy XIII:

Fans of this classic RPG should check out a podcast interview with that crazy Japanese guy, Ted Woolsey. (A transcript of the interview is also available.)

Last weekend, Boston was the mecca for 60,000 gamers from around the world as we hosted Penny Arcade Expo East, the inaugural East Coast counterpart to Seattle's annual celebration of gaming in all its forms.

The three-day event included a spacious show floor for both renowned and independent publishers to show off their wares. Gamers could play recent and upcoming titles, from Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption to Aksys Games BIT.TRIP Runner. Dedicated rooms hosted tournaments of not just video and PC games such as Joust and Street Fighter IV, but also board and card games like Munchkin and Settlers of Catan. Hallways were littered with beanbags for gamers needing to rest or to engage other attendees in wireless handheld gameplay.

Read the rest of my PAX coverage at Bostonist.com »

PAX Day One

Penny Arcade Expo East, held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mar 26-28, 2010. Here are pictures from Friday.

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PAX Day Two

Penny Arcade Expo East, held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mar 26-28, 2010. Here are pictures from Saturday.

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PAX Day Three

Penny Arcade Expo East, held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mar 26-28, 2010. Here are pictures from Sunday.

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Here are the last round of pictures from this weekend's inaugural PAX East. More details to follow.

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Here are Saturday's pictures from PAX East, including plenty of cosplay. See also Friday's gallery.

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Here are pictures from my first day of PAX East, which opened yesterday at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Sixty thousand attendees prevented me from seeing everything I wanted to, but there's still much more to come. I'll report more as time allows; in the meantime, follow the event on Twitter.

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Everyone is excited to see the new movie trailer for TRON Legacy, the sequel to the 1982 cult classic about a game programmer who is transported to the digital realm he created. As with the original film, look for a simultaneous video game tie-in for Windows, Sony PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Xbox 360. In fact, the game may come out even sooner: the film has a release date of Dec 17, 2010, but GameTrailers puts TRON Evolution at Nov 1. Here's their preview:

In the meantime, Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a retrospective on TRON 2.0, the franchise's previous video game iteration. And to further explore the concept of life inside your computer, check out the television series ReBoot.

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) East, a gaming convention traditionally held in Seattle and making its East Coast debut this month in Boston, recently posted their event schedule. As a former attendee of the industry-only E3, I'm surprised and nearly overwhelmed at how comprehensive and diverse the PAX offerings are. Whether you're a gamer, developer, musician, or journalist, there are more sessions than you can possibly attend.

I counted no less than 27 that piqued my interest, starting with the keynote speech by geek extraordinaire Wil Wheaton. After that, as someone whose professional interests are in social and print media and with a personal interest in non-profit organization, I'll find my way to "The Death of Print", "Traversing the Twitterverse", and "Organizing a Child's Play Fundraiser". As a fan of both machinima and chiptune, there's "A Sophisticated Evening with Rooster Teeth Productions" as well as numerous concerts and panels. Jason Scott will be on-hand to debut GET LAMP, a documentary of text adventures and interactive fiction, and both Major Nelson (pictured above) and Radio Free Nintendo will be recording and discussing podcasts.

Not only do several of these sessions conflict with each other (how to choose?!), but I'll be challenged to find opportunities to escape the structured schedule and roam the show floor. There will also be plenty of games to be played, from pending releases to old-school classics, the latter courtesy the American Classic Arcade Museum. And, as my PAX partner-in-crime put it, "we need to fill our swag bags."

If these delectable delights have enticed you to attend PAX but you didn't register at my recommendation a half-year ago, your dreams may go only half-filled. Three-day passes have been sold out for a month, but if there's a particular day of sessions that interest you, you might still be able to get individual day passes.

With over 60,000 fans in attendance, PAX East is ramping up to be even bigger and better than PAX Prime. If you are any sort of gamer within driving or flying distance of Boston, be sure to be a part of this inaugural event.