PAX Prime 2012: Everything you need to know

Everything you need to know about PAX Prime 2012.

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) began in 2004 as "big ass, two day party for gamers." The show is the brainchild Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the team behind Penny Arcade, which is most famous for the duo's long running webcomic starring their alter egos, Tycho and Gabe.

Its focus has always been gaming, and PAX remains fundamentally a celebration of games and the culture that surrounds them. PAX features hundreds of current and classic gaming consoles, and provides entertainment from geek-certified artists like Jonathan Coulton and nerdcore pioneer MC Frontalot.

As PAX has grown since its inception, it attracted publishers and game developers, who were brought into the fold. Players major and minor will be in attendance.

We'll have our gumshoes on the ground, ready to dig up all the best news. It's about this time that the anticipation starts to drive us mad, so we like to put that to good use and cope with a bit of writing therapy to let you know what you can expect from PAX Prime 2012.

The Lay of the Land

In the exhibit hall, publishers and developers bring their games to the public. It's E3 exhibitors hall, but open to the public.

The console freeplay area includes hundreds of current and classic consoles and games, booted and ready for attendees to play. PAX also has a PC area, in which no-console gamers can get their gaming on. PAX even has an area dedicated to fans of tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons.

The hundreds of beanbag chairs in the handheld lounge are there for everybody with a 3DS, PSP, and Vita who wants to get their gaming on the go.

The omegathon event pits 20 randomly selected contestants against each other in a variety of games. After six rounds of play throughout PAX's three days, the winner gets flown to Japan.

No show would be complete without panels, and PAX is no exception.

Day by day

PAX has less of an emphasis on big keynotes than other shows, though it all begins with the PAX keynote at 10:30 PT on Friday with "Story Time with Ted Price," in which the CEO of Insomniac Games kicks the show off.

Companies

There are so many companies and so many games at PAX Prime that we made a list of them!

• 2 Dawn Games, Alienware, and Reverb Publishing will bring the upcoming shooter Ravaged for the first time to PAX.

• 2K Games will have demos for Borderlands 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

• 17-bit will have Skulls of the Shogun.

• Atari will team up with Microsoft Internet Explorer to launch Atari Arcade.

• Capcom will have a mega collection of games, including DmC: Devil May Cry, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure HD, Lost Planet 3, Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, Okami HD, Resident Evil 6, and Street Fighter X Tekken.

• Deep Silver will have Dead Island Riptide and Sacred 3 to show off.

• Epic Games will be highlighting Gears of War Judgment's new free-for-all multiplayer mode and two new maps, Gondola and Library.

• Gearbox will unveil Aliens: Colonial Marines' "Escape mode" competitive multiplayer mode.

• John Carmack's Oculus Rift headset will be on the floor.

• Konami will have Metal Gear Rising Revengeance on the show floor, and will also sponsor a panel with series' creator Hideo Kojima at 1:00 p.m. PT on Saturday.

• The Indie Megabooth will house over 30 indie developers and their games.

• Infinite Game Publishing and Piranha Games will have MechWarrior Online and MechWarrior Tactics.

• Klei Entertainment will have Don't Starve.

• Microsoft's booth will include Halo 4 multiplayer open to the public, Forza Horizon, Gears of War: Judgment, Fable: The Journey, Resident Evil 6, Tomb Raider, and FIFA Soccer 13. The booth will also have finalists from the Dream.Build.Play 2012 Challenge.

• Red 5 Studios will have Firefall on the show floor and the Firefall Mobile Gaming Unit, a "tournament-on-wheels" that will make a pitstop at PAX Prime before a cross country road trip.

• Reverb Publishing will have Alien Spidy, Dollar Dash, Double Dragon: Neon, Pid, Primal Carnage, Insurgency 2, Rocketbirds: Hard Boiled Chicken, Beatbuddy, and Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller.

• Sega will bring the first public showing of PlanetSide 2 along with Aliens: Colonial Marines, The Cave, Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, Jet Set Radio, NiGHTS Into Dreams, Phantasy Star Online 2, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

• Square Enix will have Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs playable on the show floor. The publisher will also celebrate 25 years of Final Fantasy games with the "Experience Final Fantasy" event on Friday, August 31.

• Unknown Worlds will have Natural Selection 2 on hand.

• Mobage will have Transformers Legends, and Marvel Heroes.

• Sony will have God of War: Ascension, including a panel on from 5 — 6 p.m. PT on Friday, which will stream on Twitch.TV.

• Twisted Pixel is bringing Lococycle.

• Interceptor Entertainment will have Rise of the Triad.

• Ubisoft will host a daily Shootmania Storm tournament at its booth and have Assassin’s Creed 3, Far Cry 3, Splinter Cell Blacklist, and the Wii U versions of Rayman Legends and ZombiUProducers from Assassin's Creed 3 will give a presentation on the making of the game on Friday night.

• Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Monolith Productions will bring a tournament for Guardians of Milddle-earth, the upcoming MOBA for consoles, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition, and the now free-to-play on Steam Gotham City Impostors.

• Plastic Piranha's Rekoil will be on the show floor.

• Nvidia's got a booth showing off their hardware, and on Saturday, they'll be featuring Unreal Engine 4.

Extracurricular Activities

PAX Prime takes place in Seattle, the city that inspired some at Polygon to demand flannel shirts from JC Penney for the new 1992 school year, and there's plenty to do and see in and around the Washington State Convention Center.

eSports have a strong presence at PAX, including a League of Legends tournament, leading up to the world championship later this year. You don't have to be a participant to see and hear the action.

If you want to use your feet and take a tour of Seattle, three's always the iconic Space Needle, which is celebrating 50 years of needling space this year. Pike's Place Market is open 19 1/2 hours a day, 362 days a year for day for your farmer's market needs. Also, for those of you who haven't played the spectacular Alan Wake, first go do that, then realize how accurate Remedy Entertainment's portrayal of the Pacific Northwest is.