My first experience with PAX was, in a word, overwhelming.  Sights, sounds, thousands of people, hundreds of things to see, games, gear, cosplayers, public demos…the first five minutes were a classic case of sensory overload.  But, being the gamer I am, I quickly saw past the visual effects and got right down to navigating the core gameplay.

To my disappointment, I didn’t get as much swag as I had been hoping for.  In a way, this is good, because if I had, I would have needed to hire a U-Haul to get home.  The highlights include a print of Sam & Max artwork by Steve Purcell, a free copy of Knights of the Old Republic on Steam, and a Dawn of War II t-shirt.  Other than that, just a collection of generic pins, posters, and a copy of  Lord of the Rings Online, which, being the MMO hater that I am, doesn’t do much for me.

It was still very much worth going to, however.  I was able to spend some time talking with a rep from Bioware about Dragon Age: Origins, and got to get my hands on several upcoming games.  Cooler still, I was able to attend the first stateside public demonstrations of Splinter Cell: Conviction, Assassins Creed II, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not too shabby.

And so, I bring you my PAX 09 report of games I found worth writing about.  There will doubtless be a few I miss, so apologies in advance to those who didn’t impress me enough to warrant space in my long term memory.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

The new Splinter Cell went through a rather startling evolution part way through its development cycle.  The original vision for the fifth game in the series appeared like it took more cues from Assassins Creed than its own predecessors.  Sam Fisher looked like he hadn’t slept, shaved or showered in at least a month, and meandered through crowded streets to avoid detection.  This direction intrigued me when I first saw some concept footage, but apparently the feedback was negative because the game has been totally revamped.

The Sam Fisher gamers will be experiencing now has more in common with Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne than Altair or even his old self.  Instead of strategically stealthing through shadows to avoid detection or to wait for the perfect moment to ambush an enemy, the stealth action is now paced at a full sprint.  Sam runs, rolls, jumps, and pounces through and from the shadows, using them less as a place to hide and more as a place to strike from.

It seems like a cool idea on paper, but the sad truth is that it kind of tramples on everything I love about the original games.  The idea of being a fast and unstoppable killer never occurred to me playing any of the first four games – a fact which I appreciated.  You had to be stealthy because if you were spotted by the ten men with guns, you would be killified.  This strikes me as not only realistic, but also nail-bitingly tense if done right.  And it was done right.

The new Sam apparently fears nothing.  The stealth mechanic is now far less strategic, and in fact has much more in common with a generic cover system, a la Gears of War. Not that good cover systems aren’t cool, it’s just…not Splinter Cell.  The slow, nerve-shredding, precise stealth action was exactly what made the Splinter Cell games so unique and awesome.

The level of violence has also been amped up considerably.  This is now Angry Sam.  The old Sam would perform some pressure point manipulation and maybe a little threatening knifeplay to get information from enemies.  Conviction’s Sam smashes their faces through urinals and into walls and then snaps their necks when he’s through with them.  Blood flows freely, Sam speaks gravelly, and carnage flows without much thought or remorse.  In the old games, a fatality usually meant you had messed up and been seen and had to resort to violence to save your own life.  In this game, a level without fatalities will be very much the exception.  Which from a content perspective doesn’t sound entertaining or appropriate, and from a gameplay perspective just sounds really boring.

So, to sum up, the game looks senselessly brutal, faster than a stealth game really should be, and disrespectful of the source material.  Probably one to skip.

Assassins Creed II

I have a confession.  To my undying shame, I have yet to complete the original Assassins Creed.  Assuming I’m not buried under deadlines over the next couple of months, that will be corrected.  But even so, the sequel is looking pretty fantastic.

There’s not much that looks revolutionary in comparison with the first game.  Altair has been replaced by Ezio as the lead character, another assassin in the same order as his predecessor.  The game is set in Renaissance era Italy, which is predictably rendered in stunning and beautiful fashion.  The designers appear to have kept all the good bits from the first game – exploration, immersible world spaces, smooth parkour and ego boosting assassination moves – and tightened up some of the frustrations.  Namely, combat looks cooler, and assassinations will apparently be a little less formulaic.

Also, getting to play with Da Vincis inventions is a stroke of genius and will hopefully add to the novelty value considerably.  Here’s hoping you can fire the sleeve pistol while gliding above the city using the steampunk-looking wings.

Dante’s Inferno

This game intrigued me when I first heard about it some time ago, if only because of what it’s based on.  However, it appears that there will be little to see here.  It’s a God of War clone stuffed with ultraviolence and sprinkled heavily with sexual and just-plain-gross overtones.  It does appear to be technically proficient and smooth, but that doesn’t register easily when you’re rolling around trying to avoid being poisoned by the vomit of an obese, nude, demon woman.

Enough said.

Deathspank

This is the latest creation of Ron Gilbert, the guy behind the Monkey Island games.  It’s an action roleplaying game with a unique art style and what appears to be a pretty sharp sense of humor.  You play as Deathspank, and evil-vanquishing knight who is apparently working his way back to the top after a failure of some kind.  The five minute demo I saw had enough laughs in it to get me excited for this game’s release. Probably one to look forward to.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I’ve said it before – I get more excited about this game every time I see something about it.  Even though it’s an MMO.  Even though it’s not KoToR 3, in spite of their pithy little PR campaign that it’s 3, 4, 5 etc.  In spite of those things, this looks like a really excellent game.  The amount of voice over it will contain is absolutely staggering.  Every character, including the player, will have full voice over, and if the demo footage is anything to go by, it’s pretty well done voice acting to boot.

The thing that has me truly excited, though, is Bioware’s emphasis on story in the game.  Every character class will have its own unique story arch.  When taken in context with the scope of the game, that could mean each class will have a campaign that rivals the length of most single player games.  And since it’s an MMO, they’ll probably keep adding content to it.  If the quality matches the quantity, this could be an absolutely mind blowing experience.

Only time will tell.

Dragon Age: Origins

This is definitely one to look forward to, albeit with a bit of caution.  I had a chance to spend some time playing through the first little bit of the game while at PAX.  It feels like a tasty combination of Knight of the Old Republic and a delicious high fantasy universe, sprinkled with the seasoning salt of Bioware’s legendary storytelling ability.  Of course, there’s also Bioware’s recent unfortunate trend of adding sexual content to their games to consider.  We’ll have to see how it plays out.

The interesting twist with Origins is the way their handling character backstories.  In most RPGs, you’re either force-fitted with a backstory, or you’re asked to invent your own tale of how your character found their way to the threshold of heroism at the beginning of said game.  Either that or your character has amnesia, which means the game you’re playing is probably cliche and not worth your time.

Origins, however, takes a different approach.  When you create your character, you’re asked to pick a race (Dwarf, Elf, of Human) a gender, and a class (warrior dude, magicky type, etc.).  Then, you’re asked to select a general background (city or country elf, noble or common dwarf, and so on).  Those choices determine which origin story you will play for the first few hours of the game.  Noble dwarfs play one story, magicky humans another story.  The origin story will tell the tale of the events that led your character from an otherwise normal life to the hacky-slashy type of living that makes up a good RPG.  It’s not quite as immersive as Fallout 3′s trick of starting you out in your mother’s womb, but it’s a neat way to approach the genre nonetheless.

Origins will be released for Xbox and PC in early November, followed by the PS3 version a couple of weeks later.

Jerod Jarvis is an independent gaming journalist and founder of Duality Games. He maintains gaming columns for The Washington Times Communities and for The Outpost. When not blogging madly about games, he freelances for the Spokesman-Review in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and attends school at Whitworth University. Check out his presence on Facebook and Twitter to stay up on Duality Games updates and the inside scoop on the gaming news you care about.