Weblogs Inc : Tag pax-2008

PAX attendance rises by 2k, 60,750 people geek out

After the recent announcement by the folks at Penny Arcade that PAX 2009 sold out the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, today they officially released attendance numbers for this year's Penny Arcade Expo. Speaking with Big Download, PA's Robert Khoo said 60,750 people packed into the convention center -- though he had earlier predicted "roughly 75,000" -- and that the show's organizers are looking into expansion plans for next year to accommodate more showgoers.

We'd say with the unveiling of PAX East, some people may very well have stayed home in anticipation of a shorter travel distance early next year over this year's Washington-based soiree. This might help explain the relatively small attendance growth from 2008's 58,500 people to this 2009's numbers. However, Khoo said he's surprised how many people plan on attending both PAX East and next year's PAX, umm, West. We'll see you a year from now, Khoo -- with facts!

Hot Girl Gamers? The Frag Dolls Prove They Do Exist

The Frag Dolls first appeared at the 2005 Penny Arcade Expo. This video follows the group of gaming gals to PAX 2008 in Seattle, where they prove once again that gaming is not simply the domain of obese basement-dwelling dudes. (via Current)

Hot female gamers? The Frag Dolls prove they exist

ArenaNet discusses three years of Guild Wars

This the full PAX 2008 video of the ArenaNet panel discussing Guild Wars and the three years its been online. One of the biggest hightlights is the beginning montage, which features the orchestral music and graphics from all four games. Be aware that the video is very long (approx 51 minutes), so a streaming version could not be made available.

Download HD Three Years of Guild Wars Video (1.77 GB)

Guild Wars PAX Panel video released

If you missed this year's Penny Arcade Expo, or you simply didn't get a chance to attend the packed ArenaNet panel entitled "Three Years of Guild Wars", now you can watch the video of the entire discussion from the comfort of your own computer chair.

You can download the full high quality, 51-minute video from the Guild Wars website, or watch it in six parts on the official ArenaNet Youtube channel. Either way, you'll get to see a fantastic Q&A session with ArenaNet's James Phinney (Lead Game Designer), Ree Soesbee (Game Designer), Jeff Grubb (Game Designer), Chris Lye (Director of Marketing), Katy Hargrove (Artist), and Katy Perry (Artist). This discussion panel includes the information on the series of Guild Wars books to be released before Guild Wars 2, as first reported by Massively during PAX08. Check out the entire video for some incredible information on the history of the game from the developers themselves.

Hands-on: Mirror's Edge

You've all no doubt seen the original trailer for Mirror's Edge (and if not, where've you been?), which means you know the first part of this Mirror's Edge level pretty well. Looks easy, right? I thought so too, until I had my hands on the controls and I was plummeting to my death for the fifth time. Mirror's Edge looks incredibly stylish in the trailers, but it's easy to assume there's not much actual gameplay there. The reality is, this is one of the most intriguingly controlled games that you'll play this year.

The controls essentially boil down to two buttons and two analogue sticks; L1 is the "up" button, L2 is the "down" button and the sticks do exactly what you'd expect. This rather bizarre control set up takes some getting used to, but after a little while feels very fluid. Everything's context sensitive, so pushing L1 as you're running, standing, in mid-air or against a wall will result in different actions. Pressing L2 mid-jump, for example, will pull your legs up, allowing you to jump further. Pressing the same button just before you land after a long fall will preserve momentum by allowing you to execute a forward roll.

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Hands-on: Dead Space

In Dead Space no-one can hear you s- ... No, never mind. Dead Space deserves better than an intro like that. I'm not sure whether you've heard, but this game is fast becoming a favorite for GOTY throughout the Joystiq network. We've seen it several times now between E3, Leipzig and PAX and each time we come out impressed. The latest build, shown off at the Penny Arcade Expo, put more emphasis on the anti-grav platforming and puzzle solving, further cementing in my mind that this may be one of this year's greatest titles.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what gives me that impression. It's not one specific element of the game, but rather the way all of Dead Space's facets fit together in the package. Graphically and stylistically the game is designed to put you on edge. It's not comfortable. You're an everyman, trapped in a spaceship overrun with zombie-like aliens. Everything feels very gothic and dark. Even the main character's space suit makes him look monstrous.

You've heard about the menus before, no doubt. How they pull you into the game by being a part of the game world. I could've spent hours navigating those holographic projection menus, watching Isaac's head move as he watches you check out your inventory, almost voyeuristicly. Item drops appear similarly, with a holographic window appearing as you approach, showing what's on the ground. Again, these exist in real space and can be seen from all sides as you rotate your camera around.

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PAX 2008 Eyes-on: Velvet Assassin

Tossing its hat into the stealth-action genre later this year is the GameCock published title, Velvet Assassin. Available only in eyes-on form at PAX 2008, Velvet Assassin is a story set in World War II and inspired in part by real life French secret agent Violette Szabo. Our short demo took us through a mission midway through the game where the lead character, Violette Summer, was tasked with destroying a gas line. Jump in for our impressions of Velvet Assassin.
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BigCast 010 -- Wrap It Up!

This week the BigCast returns to wrap up our favorite titles from PAX 2008. Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 are all hot topics this week as we close-out our PAX coverage. Heated battles ensue over the Battlefield Heroes Beta, Fallout 3's character models and the lack of a wing-man in Megaton. Also, the outtakes make a triumphant return with a live first viewing of a classic poorly acted line! We finally turn 10 in this BigCast!

Question? Round-Table Idea? Email us: podcast [at] bigdownload [dot] com

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Hosts: Xav de Matos, Kyle Horner and from PS3Fanboy.com Jem Alexander

Produced by Xav de Matos

Music: Intro/Outro: "Am I Awake" by They Might Be Giants.

Things We Mention:
MMO: Warhammer Online and the WarCast Episode of the BigCast
Thanks: What They Play and John Davison
BritCast: Red Rant Podcast featuring Jem Alexander
Hour: Joystiq's Hour in Fallout 3
Sacked: LittleBigPlanet Sackboy creates Joystiq Logo
YouTube: Troll 2, Worst/Best Thing Ever
HUD: GameDaily HUD produced by Robin Yang

New details surface about EVE's 'Walking in Stations' expansion

Ambulation, or 'Walking in Stations' as it now seems to be known, is a hotly anticipated feature coming to EVE Online. It represents the first effort by CCP Games to add a more interactive dimension to the game, where players will finally be able to step out of their ships to socialize, play games, and ... modify one another's bodies? Apparently so.

While some information about Walking in Stations is already known, EVE Stratics recently turned up more details. Trish "Seridove" Bennon and Michael "Solace" Lutes recently got some face time at PAX 2008 with CCP Games devs Jeremy Albert (Associate Producer) and Noah Ward (Lead Game Designer, aka CCP Hammerhead) who talked about aspects of the expansion.

SI Radio hooks up with CoX's Back Alley Brawler

With the initial wave of discussion following the announcement of City of Heroes Issue 13: Architect beginning to die down, SI Radio pokes the fire with an interview from PAX. In the spotlight is Back Alley Brawler, aka CoX Senior Animator Christopher Bruce. The interview's not all that long, but fortunately interviewer Chris 'Chaotica' Carkner is on the ball and asks pertinent questions.

BaB ends forum speculation by explaining what Pain Domination will entail. This set, the villainous counterpart of the heroes' Empathy, is being tailored specifically in order to offer parallel benefits in zone PvP to what Empathy offers. It has long been a complaint of villains that they don't have anything comparable to Empathy's buffs when fighting in the level 20-30 PvP zone Siren's Call. Since it's received wisdom in some quarters that the developers not only hate PvP but hate Villains, we wonder what impact this latest announcement will have.

PAX08: Joystiq sets its sights on MMO newbies

Our sister site Joystiq sent an MMO newbie to wade through the crowds surrounding the PAX08 booths of two upcoming MMOs. One of those titles was Warhammer Online and the other was Aion. The goal was to spend some time with each game, talk to the developers and see which title appealed more to an uninitiated MMO player. The results? Well, take a look for yourself.

It's hard to spend a short amount of time with any game and draw a conclusion of some sort, especially an MMO. Even still, Initial impressions are just as important as long-term ones. Each of the two games chosen definitely give off an immediately different vibe. Most eastern MMOs from NCsoft tend to focus on the established crowd more than new players and Aion isn't an exception. Wheras Warhammer Online is doing more to appeal to a group of players who's first MMO was, well, World of Warcraft. So, as a newbie to the genre it's not hard to see where one might go.

Joystiq Interview: Resistance Retribution's Sam Villanueva

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Resistance Retribution was a surprise hit last month at E3, and we had another chance to play it at last week's Penny Arcade Expo. With more playtime, however, come burning questions that need to be answered. Thankfully, Sam Villanueva, Senior Designer at Bend Studio, was at hand to answer our queries and make sure we could sleep soundly again.

Will you be optimizing Resistance Retribution for the PSP Brite?

That's a good question. We'll be evaluating this. We're pretty deep in development right now. We'd like to optimize, but that could potentially mess with launch time. If we can do it without affecting the date our game comes out, we will.

How does the game fit into the series?

Retribution fits nicely between Resistance 1 and Resistance 2. It's a continuation of the European campaign, whereas Resistance 2 is the start of the American campaign. You are James Grayson and you're going in to destroy another Chimeran tower. We wanted the story to deal with some pretty deep, dark stuff. Lots of drama and mystery. The game starts with your brother being infected and you're forced to kill him, for example.

Is there a multiplayer mode?

Absolutely. We've got lots of cool multiplayer stuff which we'll be announcing soon.
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The story behind PAX's Ghostbuster lanyards

Ghostbusters: The Game may not have a publisher, and its fate may not be clear, but that didn't stop the title from being advertised on lanyards at PAX. Variety spoke to Penny Arcade's business guy, Robert Khoo, who said that Sierra signed to do the lanyards in January and sent them in June. It wasn't even until two weeks before the show that Sierra, the abused and neglected stepchild of Activision Blizzard, "pulled out of displaying Ghostbusters."

Khoo explains that there wasn't enough time to get a new lanyard provider, so even though Actilizzard isn't going to benefit from the promotion, they still paid the bill.

PAX 2008: Insomniac confirms drop-in/drop-out Resistance 2 co-op

Last weekend at PAX, we sat down with Bryan Intihar, the Community Manager / Hand Model (yes, that is on his business card) for Insomniac to go over Resistance 2. We were able to get some fascinating details about the secretive co-op mode (drop-in/drop-out confirmed!), as well as some interesting story tidbits (evidently this time around, Hale remembers he can talk).

To start things off, could you give us a quick rundown of changes from the first Resistance?

Sure, there's a lot of course -- but in terms of the campaign we've put a lot more emphasis on Nathan Hale and that comes through in the story and how we're presenting the story. In R1, it was much more of a narrative approach with Rachel Parker telling the story, giving it a third-person feel. This time around it's all about Hale.
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PAX 2008: Appealing to an MMO Newbie

Worth it or not, to me personally, pay-to-play MMOs always felt like a ridiculous proposition. Paying to play a game I already paid for is like paying $5 to bite into a delicious burger I just got at the drive-through. Still, the genre continues to spawn new titles as proven at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo.

While many MMO titles were on display, two were the most talked-about massively multiplayer role-playing games of the show: Warhammer Online and Aion: The Tower of Eternity. Realizing my limited experience with MMOs in the past, the team at Joystiq tasked me with learning as much as I could about each title and see if they could appeal to a genre newbie willing to jump into the online fray.

New Aion videos give aerial tour of environments and classes in action

Flight in MMOs is often focused on having mounts that let you take to the skies. NCsoft's latest twist on this idea is to give players their own pair of wings in Aion: The Tower of Eternity, which Massively recently got to see at PAX. So far we've seen a video showing off the character customization in Aion and a bit about the game's lore as well. NCsoft is steadily releasing more video footage of the new title though, most of which shows off some gorgeous graphics.

Our friends over at BigDownload are offering up two new Aion videos. One gives a soaring aerial tour of the game's environment an the other is a breakdown of the available classes, showing each of them in action. Check out the footage of both videos below the cut, as well as the links for BigDownload's HD versions.

PAX08: Interview with Dane Caruthers of Tabula Rasa

At PAX08, we were able to catch up with NCsoft's Dane Caruthers, the Associate Producer for Tabula Rasa, for a quick interview. While the TR booth was busy and Caruthers was swamped with showing attendees all about the sci-fi MMO, he was kind enough to answer a few questions.

With Deployment 12 now on the Public Test Server, Caruthers talks a bit about what to expect with Deployment 13 and how it should make many Tabula Rasa players very happy. He also goes on to explain a bit about the recent contests they've been holding, including an explanation of Operation Immortality. Plus, Caruthers talks candidly about Tabula Rasa's beta through to its launch, and despite the fact that he says it was "quite possibly the smoothest MMO launch in history", they realize the mistakes that were made and are confident that the product they have to offer currently will win back those who tried the game and have since left.

Check out a transcript of the entire interview after the cut.

Alt-Tab: On the subject of Demigod

There were many PC titles this last weekend at PAX08, but out of everything that I got my grubby hands on, Demigod was easily the biggest surprise. The fine folks from Gas Powered Games and Stardock were there in full force and as much as I love Sins of a Solar Empire, it seems like Demigod is my new favorite real-time strategy underdog.

Just as Sins is a strange blend of RTS and Civ-style games, Demigod is a blend of RTS and various PC RPGs. Given my penchant for games that blend RPGs into a genre I already enjoy, I'd always been interested in what Demigod had to offer. After playing it at PAX08, I'm ready to lay down my pre-order directly to Stardock's Impulse service. Follow the image above for plenty of discussion on GPS's newest creation, Demigod. %Gallery-31159%

PAX08: GamerDNA interview focuses on subscription numbers

During our time at PAX08 this year, we got together with Jon Radoff, Founder and CEO of GamerDNA, a company that focuses on the community aspect of today's online games. Radoff was kind enough to give us an overview of what the company is about and how it pertains to the ever-growing MMO market. Originally this rough audio was meant for notes only, but it came out fairly well, so we thought we'd go ahead and post it for all to hear themselves.

So in this audio interview that you'll find enclosed below, Radoff explains something that we found quite peculiar. "Interestingly, a high percentage of those people who quit Age of Conan didn't go back to WoW, they actually just went off MMORPGs in general," he explains. This is the type of number-crunching that they do at GamerDNA to discover not only subscription numbers and box sales, but who is actually playing what, and how dedicated they are to their games. We encourage you to learn more about this truly unique company at their website, and be sure to listen to the complete interview below.