A day to kill in the Seattle area

[Greblaja]

I'll have the whole day tomorrow (Sunday, August 30th) to kill before my redeye flight at around 11:00 PM. Any thoughts on what I should see/check out? Is the Penny Arcade Expo worth a look see? Thanks in advance.

[Kinetix]

PAX might be a good shot if you're really into videogames.

The major tourist spots are the Pike Place Market, The Pacific Science Center and the Space Needle. These last two are right next to each other in an area called Seattle Center filled with rides and fair games. Also in this area is the EMP (Experience Music Project) which is essentially a rock museum that didn't really thrill me much.

You could also wander the waterfront. There's an aquarium at Pier 59 with a Ivar's seafood restaurant nearby (they specialize in chowder.)

The airport's about 20 or 30 minutes away by cab.

[WingedAvenger]

What Kin said. And yes, if you have the means, I would recommend attending PAX (although on a Sunday, you might have missed all the really good stuff).

[Greblaja]

Thanks for the input, guys. I'm still mulling through my options

[Gaia]

I highly recommend going to Pikes Place Market (you must go to the comics store there. Its fantastic!). Go down to the wharf which is below Alaskan way and walk around. I like Ivar's down there. Go to the more fast food looking one rather than the fancy sit down restaurant. Huge difference in price. Try out the monorail (is it working?) from the Science Center to the mall Downtown. All sorts of fun places to look at in the area. Including Lark in the Morning Music and several kitchy shops.

Check out the Pioneer Square district. There is a toy store that looks like a castle. Also the Chuck Jones Gallery is in the area plus I found a really interesting glass blowing place. Along with the Underground Tour and the Gold Rush Museum.

[Kinetix]

I highly recommend going to Pikes Place Market (you must go to the comics store there. Its fantastic!). Go down to the wharf which is below Alaskan way and walk around. I like Ivar's down there. Go to the more fast food looking one rather than the fancy sit down restaurant. Huge difference in price. Try out the monorail (is it working?) from the Science Center to the mall Downtown. All sorts of fun places to look at in the area. Including Lark in the Morning Music and several kitchy shops.

Check out the Pioneer Square district. There is a toy store that looks like a castle. Also the Chuck Jones Gallery is in the area plus I found a really interesting glass blowing place. Along with the Underground Tour and the Gold Rush Museum.

The comic shop's called Golden Age Comics and is pretty good. It's in the little mall thing underneath Pike Place Market. I believe the monorail's working.

[Greblaja]

Thanks for the great ideas, guys. Here's what I did:

I parked my car at the convention center and decided to check out PAX (more on that below). When I needed a break from that, I walked down Pike to the Market. Great place! Though I somehow missed the comic book store. :( I kept walking down Pike to the waterfront area, and basically walked a huge loop, evenutally making my way back to the convention center. I had a nice sunny day - it was a fantastic walk!

Some highlights from PAX:

I stopped by the NCSoft booth and met at different times Back Alley Brawler and Blue Steel (Hero One was also there, but I did not talk directly to him).

Some tidbits from BABs:
- All shield animations are done
- I asked him if there was some sort of shield bash with the new shields power set, but, alas, he could not comment. He did say that the shield bash animation may be used for the brawl attacks, which makes me think he must have already done the animation work for it.
- He mentioned that Shields will not be used with any other weapon/power sets that include weapon use with the left hand. This includes Claws, Katana, and of course Dual Wield.
- I asked what could be expected regarding changes to Invulnerability. He first pointed out that he uses the set himself (ie he does have some first hand knowledge of the set) but he was not actively involved with the discussions of what will become of it. He did say that the -5 def on Unyielding will go, but that Invince will likely be tweaked so that it more of a zero sum game then an increase on overall defense. He also pointed out that the vast majority of the player community does not understand the numbers involved, and suggested that the -5 on Def was not as bad as most people think, but did say that devs recognize that the community really wants that -5 to go, so they are listening to the players wishes there. He further said that when he and Castle talk about Invuln that they both think it is pretty much where it should be. Bottom line: don't expect any big big buffs to Invuln.
- He did also say that, if anything, when comparing Invuln and Willpower, that WP may be slightly too strong. As I told him there, watch the forums explode if you decide to nerf WP.
- I asked him a couple of questions regarding the costume editor: why couldn't they add numbers next to the body sliders and why can't we change height. To the first idea, he said "that's a great idea", and to the second, well, he didn't know why, but postulated that if it could easily have been added they would have by now - it's a common request. But, again, as it isn't his area of expertise, he really did not know why it was not installed.

When I talked to Blue Steel, I asked him about the same costume editor questions. He, too, thought that the numbers was a great idea and asked me to follow up with him on a PM (which I just sent) to document it. He also didnt know why the body height slider was not in place (I added that to the PM as well, so maybe I can get an answer there, in time).

I also checked out the Champions demo (the western/robot thingie that they feature in some recent game videos). All I can say is I was rather underwhelmed by it. Seeing the cell shading first hand, I really don't like it as much as I thought I might, and for some reason I had a very tough time controlling the steering of the character (kept missing rocks to pick up, etc). I saw nothing on character creation, or anything sexy like that.

[Kinetix]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Did you happen to see the guys throwing fish in the market?

[Dr Jack Wolfe]

How about that walk back up from the waterfront? First time I stayed in Seattle getting to the waterfront easy, getting back to the hotel....I was underprepared :)


Sounds like you got some cool feedback at Pax, I'm vera interested in seeing what happens to Invuln.