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Surface
September 1, 2013

0 Days 00 Hrs00 Mins00 Secs…PAX Prime 2013!



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It is Sunday. What used to be the final day of PAX, where things began winding down and the despair of knowing something awesome was about to end starts to build, but not this year! Four days, woot!

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So far I have been having a blast, I have gotten hands on time with a lot of games: ESO, Wolfenstein The New Order (Bethesda junky), Titan Fall, etc., picked up some Pinny Arcade Pins (Wildstar has you answer trivia questions about the game to get their pins. I picked up Granok, and will be heading over to get Draken this afternoon.), and took in a few panels.

Before we go any further, you might be wondering who I aa, well, I’m Adam Dixon and I just joined the Surface team a couple of weeks ago. Before that I spent five years working on Magic: The Gathering at Wizards of the Coast and before that I spent a lot of time playing table top RPGs, digital games, going to Cons, etc. Actually I still do all of that, but that’s enough about me, let’s talk more about PAX and some of the cool things happening around the Surface Pro at the show.

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Penny Arcade Make-a-Strip!

Saturday morning I got to watch Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins create a live Penny Arcade comic strip with the Surface Pro. Mike and Jerry spent time answering questions and incorporating ideas from the crowd. Someone from the audience suggested that Gabe’s hair, massive as it is, may actually be rather short and simply covering a uniquely protruding skull, a new Pinny Arcade pin design concept may have been born!

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Inspired by Mike’s work, and the apparent ease with which he crafted the strip, I tried my hand at it. Clearly zero design chops.

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However, we had some folks stop by to try out Fresh Paint on the Surface Pro and they were a bit more talented.

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Gaming

After walking around PAX for a couple of days and talking to attendees, I realized that running games like Skyrim, Portal 2, and other modern titles on a tablet is a new concept. That said, I have been playing Skyrim, Mark of the Ninja, Portal 2, Age of Empires 2 HD, and Halo Spartan Assault off and on for the last couple of weeks and the experience has been great.

If you are at PAX and want to check out gaming on the Surface Pro, we are showing off the upcoming The Forgotten expansion to Age of Empires 2 HD and Halo Spartan Assault all weekend. You’ll find AOE in the main convention center and Halo Spartan Assault just down the road at the Benroya Hall, where the 2013 Halo 4 Championships are being held.

Age Of Empires 2 HD The Forgotten

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Halo: Spartan Assault

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I would love to hear your comments about what games you have been playing and would recommend to other Surface users.

Have a great PAX!