Get those oversized beanbag chairs ready. PAX is back, and it's sold out once again, which means that tens of thousands of people will be descending on downtown Seattle starting on Friday for one of the biggest cultural events on the gamer's annual calendar.

In case you've never heard of it, the formal name is the Penny Arcade Expo, but formalities have no place at this thing. It's a three-day convention/festival/competition and around-the-clock party for game geeks, created in the Seattle region in 2004 by the guys behind the popular Penny Arcade webcomic. There's now a separate PAX East in Boston, but the original Seattle event -- PAX Prime, as it's now known -- remains a destination for people from around the country.

I've been there from the start, and it has been amazing to watch PAX grow. Check out the embedded videos for highlights from last year, and keep reading for some of the stuff we're looking forward to this year.

Pach-Attack! Live: Controversial and funny video-game analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities brings his popular GameTrailers.com show to the Penny Arcade stage, Friday 10:30 a.m., Unicorn Theatre.

NCSoft: Aion: Assault on Balaurea launch party, 8 p.m. Friday, Experience Music Project (public invite here). NCSoft and ArenaNet will also be showing Guild Wars 2 on the show floor.

Pitch Your Game Idea, Saturday, 1 p.m., Pegasus Theatre. A perennial favorite for me, pure entertainment.

Welcome to Reach: A behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Halo: Reach game for Xbox 360, 10 a.m. Saturday, Pegasus Theatre.

Sessions for aspiring game journalists, bloggers: Movin' on Up: How to Make It (Or Not) in Videogames Journalism, Friday, 4:30 p.m., Unicorn Theatre; Do you Have A Chance Against IGN, 1UP and GameSpot? Friday, 6 p.m., Raven Theatre; From Concept to Cover: The Game Informer Selection Process, Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Unicorn Theatre; How to Podcast Like a Pirate, Saturday, 6 p.m., Raven Theatre.

Sessions for aspiring game developers/designers: Testers vs. The Game, the Life of a Tester, Friday 2 p.m., Wolfman Theatre; Making Stories Worth Playing, Friday, 3:30 p.m., Wolfman Theatre; What Videogame School is Right for ME? Saturday, noon, Game Developer Workshop.

Xbox Live: Xbox Live - Entertainment Services at Scale, 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Pegasus Theatre; Major Nelson Podcast, 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Main Theatre; Xbox Live Enforcement: Tales from the Din Part 3: The Conclusioning, 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Pegasus Theatre. (See a portion of Part 1 in the video above.) Full schedule of Microsoft's PAX events here.

Nintendo: On the show floor, Nintendo will be showing Wii games including Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirby's Epic Yarn. Making its debut at PAX is Fluidity, a new puzzle game from the company's WiiWare downloadable game service.

Settlers of Catan: Vectorform's adaptation of the popular board game for Microsoft Surface will be on display at the Catan booth in the exhibition hall. (See the video below by my colleague John Cook for a preview.) One of three locations at the show featuring Microsoft's tabletop computer -- also look for one near the PAX sales desk, and another near the console freeplay area.

In addition to exhibits on the show floor, many companies are also conducting one-on-one briefings with game bloggers and journalists. Look for coverage of interesting stuff from companies including Sony, Valve and others in the coming days.

Also be sure to check out the multiple sessions featuring Penny Arcade's Gabe and Tycho, which are always entertaining. See the full schedule here. Looking forward to seeing everyone there, assuming you got your tickets in time.