Even though NinjaSistah is suffering from jet lag, Pandalicious is suffering from a stairway fall and MagicMystic is suffering from a mysterious ailment, this episode of the ESH podcast is surprisingly cogent.

The Ninja starts it out by talking more about her experiences at the Penny Arcade Expo the previous weekend, particularly new gadgets from Razer and a velvety, but ultimately disappointing videogame. In the meantime, Panda has fallen into lust over a sidescroller called Castle Crashers.

Along the way, their discussions inspired these potential episode titles:

Chris Paladino Can't Feel It Vibrate

Gravity -- It's the Law!

The Sistahs Don't Have a Point-and-Shoot Interface

Panda Would Grow Two More Ears for Another Razer Headset

I Love It When Things Dangle Off My Laptop

She Didn't Know 007, But She Could Probably Count That Hight

Don't Ask NinjaSistah About Her Panty Story

Panda Kissed All the Princesses

Listen, PAX Attendees: Hot Water Plus Soap Equals Clean

Ecstacy for Everyone? That's a Different E4All

I Hate Lag -- It's Impeding My Social Lifes

In any case, we thing you're gonna like Episode 112: Dongles Dangle But They Don't Fall Down.

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So, the Penny Arcade Expo is now over and I'm bushed, but it is Monday so I had to hit you guys with a special episode of the ESH podcast created by yours truly.

I got to spend a bunch of time on the show floor all over the place and see some great stuff over the past three days and collected all my thoughts onto this nice little show. From the XBox experience to RockBand 2, I have seen so much crap that it's all running together, but the most important piece of the show was that I was able to see and touch all the things you wish you could have if you were able to be in Seattle yourself.

I talked to MajorNelson and N'Gai for you. They say hi.

So sit back, relax and enjoy ESH podcast My Top 5 Things I Saw At PAX!

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Ok, so I suck at getting pictures fixed, cropped, and upped on a fast basis but don't yell at me...I'm a team of one at this event dude.

In any case, here are pics from day two and three of the PAX expo. Please note the very happy pic of me and MajorNelson. I'm hoping that this time he'll remember both the site and my name. Two out of three ain't bad. Did I forget to mention the third one? It's by me a drink. When you meet me at an expo/con/event/street, you need to remember my website/podcast name, my name, and buy me a drink. These are simple rules people, simple rules.

Enjoy, the last of the pics from PAX 08!

Day 2, Day 3

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It's the last day of the PAX convention, and I'm sitting here trying to think what is left to see or do. My self tells myself, "PLENTY!"

N'Gai Croal will be in town today moderating a panel on Sex, Violence, and Video Games which I want to attend and hopefully get to see N'Gai again.[CES was fun.] I'm hoping to get hands on with Fallout 3 today, if nothing else just to shut Pandalicious up about it. I also want to talk to SEGA about about Yakuza 2 coming out on the PS2 and not PS3 and why, and I figure cap my time off with a bit of people watching and photo snapping.

I may even stop by the Bioware booth as they are giving away fake tattoo sleeves as their swag. After all of that, if I have any energy left in me, I'll probably hit the freeplay rooms for a bit and get my game on with some other gamers which I haven't been able to do much of this entire trip.

Stay tuned for the final words from PAX and more pics!

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Games that start off with a description involving scantily-clad women usually don't rate high on my radar, so Oneechanbara was definitely not something I had been pining away for since it's development.

If you said to me three months ago, "NinJa, there is this game out there where you are one of two asian chicks either in a school girl outfit or your undies and a boa fighting zombies and you are going to love it..." I would probably have laughed in your face and cussed at you for a very long time, but after seeing Oneechanbara trailers for the first time I kinda changed my mind. D3 helped me seal the deal a bit her at PAX 08.

Even though they are not demoing the game at PAX, D3 did bring a teaser video that had the opening of the game and some gameplay elements on loop at their booth and after spending a bit of time with one of the PR reps, I'm sold on this game.

In Oneechanbara you play one of two asian sisters Aya or Saki and are forced to hack and slash your way through zombies that are after your blood for some reason. There is something in your lineage that makes you prime targets for the zombies and it is up to you to find out what it is and rid the world of these damn things. The game is a bit different than other sword slashing games in that you have a gauge indicating your weapon's bloodlust [which when filled your weapon has a good chance of sticking in to enemies making you have to yank it out] and you have to clean your sword constantly to keep it from doing less damage or sticking in a enemy leaving your vulnerable. I was able to find these bullet points from the D3 website, even though a search for the title on their site didn't find it:

• Control Two Super Sexy Sisters and Their Sword Swinging Samurai Skills – Master sword swinging martial arts at their finest on the ground and in the air, slashing, swinging and thrusting into zombie enemy hordes.
• Exclusive Dress-Up Mode – Go behind the scenes to expose the hottest samurai wardrobe on the planet.  Unlock an arsenal of customized clothing and looks to maximize and personalize the Onechanbara experience.

• Go Deep Inside Aya, Saki, and the Legend of Onechanbara in Multiple Gameplay Modes – In addition to the main Story Mode, players can experience the game in Free Play Mode, Survival Mode, Quest Mode and more to let gamers dive deeper into the Onechanbara experience.
• Killer Combat Control System – Each character has a variety of moves, weapons, and throws to combat enemies on the ground and in the air, and can unleash killer Rage Mode attacks when desperate and surrounded.

• Co-op Multiplayer – Invite a friend to join in the fight with Co-Op mode and try unique fighting styles together to rid the world of zombie infestation.

D3 is kinda tight lipped about a ship date for Oneechan but it will be available for the XB360 and Nintendo Wii at some point.

Bitches hate zombies!

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I was not a big fan of the game FEAR. I thought it was a bit dark, and a bit cumbersome to control when I started playing the game, so for the most part, I had written Origin off. After what I’ve played here at PAX I think I might have changed my mind.

There are now four weapons in the game and not three with two new types of grenades [shrapnel, and incendiary] The gameplay is crazy fluid on the XB360 and it looks as terrifying as ever.

While I’m not a big fan of FPS games, I am looking forward to Project Origins. Sure I’ll have to play it in a well lit room, but when don’t I have to play an FPS that I like in a well lit place? Let’s be honest, the only FPS titles that I ten to be attracted to are the thriller/survival based titles.

I love Gears [don’t ask me to play as I say unto thee that I sucketh] and Bioshock took a lot out of me and still haven’t finished it. [There aren’t enough daylight hours to play that thing, seriously.] But there is something about Origins that excites me more than it scares me. I find the story really engaging, which I don’t feel happens enough in FPS titles, and I hate to be shallow, but aesthetics have always played a small role in whether or not I spend the time it takes to finish a game.

Origin is not a sequel to FEAR, and is to focus more on how Alma came to be so gawd damned powerful. I have been sitting here at the Microsoft booth, with Fable 2 and Infinite Undiscovery being manhandled over and over again, and kinda blown away by the fact that few people sat in for the Origins demo, but many showed up for the Gears 2 demo. I don’t know if the name change is hurting the title on the brand recognition side, but something is definitely up and I hope this post [and the subsequent ones to come] help Origins find homes across the land when it launches Fall of 08.

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Just kidding.

I got to spend some time with a PR rep for D3 publishing to talk a bit about two games: Oneechanbara which I will definitely talk about at a later time, this article is about Bangai-o: Spirits.

Bangai-o is a classic arcade shooter. You will spend the majority of your time button mashing like a fiend a-la-harrier type in order to blow up everything on the screen. But why would you want to play this game? Generic mecha art aside there are a few things that set Bangai-o apart from other arcade shooters, one of which is it’s level editor.

In the game you can edit a level in real time, meaning as you are in the middle of it. Level too difficult? Edit that boss out. Level too long? Shorten it. While this may sound cheap or gimmicky, keep in mind this is a DS title. If you're playing on the go on the train, you might just want a short level to play through during my commute to help keep me you from missing my your stop.

Taking the level creation thing a step further, D3 has added a sound transfer system that allows you to share any level you have edited or created with a friend using the speaker/mic built into the DS to wireless send your stuff to their stuff. As the feature was explained to me, it sounded a bit complicated, but D3 has a tutorial online to help you get the hang of audio sharing.

It’s been a while since I bought a DS game, but I think I might give Bangai-o a try. Check it out, and rent it if you can.

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Wanna see more from da floor? Hit the jump for the links.

Here are a few more places I stopped by yesterday while traipsing around the showroom floor. Enjoy!!

Click here to view gallery

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I know it's like beating a dead horse, but I just am becoming more and more impressed with Little Big Planet from Sony.

Today I got to actually play a hands on demo before show hours of the game at Sony's booth, and it really made me want to steal the dev-kit it was running on.

LBP is a side scroller at it's core, with multiplayer racing game mechanics on the facade. You create a puzzle level, and then post it on the PSN or simply play it on your system. The game supports up to four players, and is a downright hoot! I was privileged enough today to play two levels, the "Skulldozer" level and one that the developer had just created earlier that morning.

In the "Skulldozer" level, we had to get to the finish line of the level without being touched by a bulldozer made out of skeleton bones that gave us chase...and from the rear no less. While you do have a limited number of times you can respawn in the game, being able to watch others play is a huge piece of the game play. At no point in time during the day today was the line for LBP shorter than a 45-1hour wait, and that I think says a lot about the game.

One of the first things that strikes me about the LBP demo is that the level creation is ridiculously deep. LBP has it’s players moving left to right through each level on three planes of existence depth wise, which is really the only difficult piece of the game controls to get used to. Everything else in the game deals with you jumping, grabbing, pulling and pushing objects in the level using the “X” and “R1” keys making LBP an easily picked up and played game. It will be a game that I think I can even get ESH Mom to play when she comes to visit. Now back to the level creator, and it’s being deep.

LBP does need some way to rank you though for finishing the race, and that's where bubbles come in. During the levels of the game you have to collect these bubbles as they are the equivalent of points in the game, and she who has the most points laughs last... or something like that.

There is not firm ship date on LBP yet, but I'm not going to work on whatever day it is.

More news to come

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Wanna see what I am seeing at PAX? Well, now you can.

I'll be posting pictures to this gallery and creating others as the show goes on. For now, enjoy gallery numero uno.

News to come later, as soon as my hangover is either over or kicks in... whichever comes first

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I landed in Seattle late this afternoon with no idea who was going to be here from the AGR family or when they were descending, but I did send an email to a friend that wound up delivering a great surprise.

As many of you loyal readers/listeners know I shed a lot of love on Destructoid.com. Niero [the DToid founder] gave me a lot of advice when I was a young and anxious ninja first exploring this "video game blog" thing, and has been a great friend to the ESH Crew over our two years of existence. And while papa DToid has been awesome to us [and me specifically] we've never met in person.

We have played "I owe you a drink" for two years; events that I was going to be attending, he was not and vice versus. I would be coming into town on a day when he was leaving or already gone... it was like a crazy "missed connections" from craigslist or something. Until tonight.

I finally met up with Niero from DToid tonight, and I got to tell you, it made my night. Sure, I had already had a drink or two by the time we met up, but it's a conference... who hasn't had a few already. The meetup at the Redwood bar was great. Food was awesome [and fairly priced] the drink we strong, [and cheap compared to DC] there was a big screen TV with football blaring in the background, and the place was full of gamers, geeks, and the artistic... a great way to end night one in Seattle.

Freeloader Megwin was with me, and we had a ball. She'll be running around the show floor with me this weekend so be on the lookout for some of her stuff. It was a great way to kick off my first PAX. Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.

Beeteedubs, Niero gives great hugs!

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I'm not kidding. While we never wound up getting any love out of the ESA in order to roll three deep to E3 this year, we did get a nice reach around from PAX and will be on a plane to Seattle next Thursday.

What am I looking forward to? Well, I'm looking forward to hitting the booths for EA, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, D3, and Activision to name a few. I want to see what is going to go down with the rhythm game wars, if Oneechanbura is going to be one of the games that makes it to my "Replay Classics" list, and if Sony has "Home" ready to go.

And bee-tee-dubs, when I say "we'z goin,'" I mean that "I" [just NinJaSistah] will be in attendance. Pandalicious punked out and will not be heading to the coast with me. I'm sure she'll refute the "punked out" piece of that statement, but it's the truth folks.

How about you, what do you want to see come out of PAX 08? I'll try to spend some time checking out some of the titles you want to know about.

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