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I was about ten minutes into the Saints Row 2 demo on the Penny Arcade show floor last week when it hit me: The game didn't feel like a GTA rip-off. More »
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Penny Arcade Expo continues to chug along, mixing friends, family and gaming into one big, happy party. The weekend has seen some amazing panels, some neat music, plenty of fans and more games than you could play in three days perusing the impressive exhibit hall. More »
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The Penny Arcade Expo hit a few road bumps this year, discovering that their exponential growth, while slightly slowed, is still enough to cause problems with line-management and space issues. But that's a problem easily solved, and the PA folks are all over it. The bigger problem, as I see it, is in the expo's name and its association with Penny Arcade. More »
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There was plenty of cool stuff to grab at this year's Penny Arcade Expo. Lots of t-shirts of course, stickers, wrist bands, all of those freebies from bungie, the boxes of stuff. You could even get a free copy of Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway if you were willing to have your head shaved. Tristan got a free spray-painted tattoo. (There were two designs) Among all of the largess two companies' swag really stood out though. More »
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Hands-down the best booth on the Penny Arcade Expo show floor is Bethesda's Fallout 3 homage. The central booth features kiosks of playable Fallout 3, singed mannequins, and an honest to god Airstream motor home on a patch of faux grass surrounded by white picket fences. The Bethesda folks tell me that the Airstream is an authentic, not a replica, that the company purchased and then paid someone to clean-up and retro fit. Inside the refrigerated air of the mobile home is a wealth of retro goodies touched-up with a Fallout ambiance. More »
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Color me skeptical whenever a game convention panel kicks around stuff like “the growing role of women in the game industry” or “women in gaming – how to make Pink games gender-neutral.” It’s not that I’m anti-feminist or that I doubt the validity of panelists that actually are girls in the game industry talking about girls in the game industry (this panel includes Microsoft’s Jo Clowes, Obsidian’s Annie Carlson, Marlo Huang from Liquid Entertainment and Linsey Mudrock from ArenaNet). It’s just that there’s always talk about women in the game industry – and for all the talking, how much is really getting done? More »
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I'm sitting in the cavernous main hall of the Washington State Convention waiting for Penny Arcade Expo 2008 to officially kick off with Ken Levine's keynote. More »
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Odd timing or a reminder that while GameStop may not be listing the game anymore, Ghostbusters The Video Game still exists? More »
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Today's the day - the fangirls are out in force and the cosplayers are carousing in every nook and cranny of the convention center. I've only been in Seattle for about four hours and already I've counted 41 utilikilts and 19 sets of cat ears. The favored motif this year appears to be Naruto, with the odd smattering of old school Nintendo characters. More »
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D3 Publisher will be bringing Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, Naruto and Bangai-O to the Penny Arcade Expo later this week. More »
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Now that BioWare revealed Dragon Age: Origins to the press at this year's E3, they're ready to take their show on the road, visiting three major gaming conventions over the course of the next week and a half. First off they are hitting up Gen Con Indy August 14th through the 17th, where they'll be presenting the game to the public for the first time. Then the Dragon Age tour splits in two, with one group heading to the Games Convention in Leipzig, where the press will get a behind-closed-doors look at "new details about combat, exploration, dialogue, the game’s origin stories and a few other juicy surprises", while special invited members and fans will be able to experience a demo of the game in a special Dragon Age lounge. More »
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You've heard us ramble on and on about how very much we love co-op cinematic survival shooter Left 4 Dead, now you'll finally get a chance to see why. More »
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The official schedule for Penny Arcade Expo hit the PAX forums over the weekend. The fairly chunky schedule includes a nice cross-section of the gaming industry and the folks who cover it. More »
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PAX is largely fantastic, but for us, one event stands out above all others. The Omegathon. It's like that bit in Neverending Story when Atreyu has to run through those statues that shoot laser beams, but instead of jumping through one pair, imagine jumping through six pairs. And they may not all shoot laser beams. Some might shoot ninja stars, or boomerangs encrusted with rusty barbs. And if he makes it to the other side, he gets an all-expenses paid trip to TGS. Yeah, that's exactly what it's like. This years event - which as usual sees combatants facing off across a series of six games/events - will kick off with Peggle, before moving onto Boom Blox, then Pictionary, then Rock Band, then Jenga, then the brutal, unforgiving, final mystery event, which we hope is some kind of old-timey yo-yo contest. Click through for the full details. More »
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Apparently in reaction to gamer-centric convention E For All's news today that Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel will be the face of their show, Penny Arcade announced that Fatal1ty won't be the face of theirs.... or even welcome. More »
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As I started my prep work for coverage of this year's Penny Arcade Expo I pulled up a copy of this year's show floor: Pretty impressive stuff. More »
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Let me start by saying that, yes, I do know that each year massive groups of die-hard Penny-Arcade fans band together to drive through the day and night to get to the expo. In fact, the Cross-Country Super Trip was one of the inspirations for my decision to drive instead of fly to Penny Arcade Expo this year. More »
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The Penny Arcade team, having had Texas governor Rick Perry snatched out from under them by the organizers of E3, will have to settle for Ken Levine as their Penny Arcade Expo opener. Mr. Levine apparently made a game known as "BioShock" and is rumored to be working on a sequel to something called "X-COM." I suppose it could be interesting, but probably won't touch on southern state politics or the Texan gaming industry and its growth like many PAX attendees were probably hoping for. More »
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Just a quick heads up. Tickets for the Penny Arcade Expo 2008 have gone on sale. Dates run August 29th to August 31st. Last year's PAX made the event North America's largest game festival. Last year's event drew 37,000 gamers, while this year is expected to reach "forty-seven million bajillion people." Can't wait. Early bird three-day badges are going for US $40. Significantly cheaper than a three-day Disneyland pass! Alrighty, who's going? More »
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The Penny Arcade folks today announced the dates for next year's Penny Arcade Expo, set once again in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. More »
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