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pax 07
The Army Invades PAX
Whilst strolling around PAX I happened into the back of the of the hall and noticed this massive Army booth. I was surprised and a little curious because not only could I not see any games present, but the sign hanging over the booth seemed a bit odd, reading ""No Power-Ups, No Cheat Codes, No Easy Mode." I mean, I understand the point they were trying to make, but it almost seemed a tad insulting. Needless to say the Army booth had tumbleweeds rolling through it, so after spying the Bungie Store around the side of the booth I went over to check that out. As I turned the corner, I saw that the Army actually did have one lone gaming station set up to show off their America's army game, strategically placed directly across from the Bungie Store.
Now I'm certainly not saying the Army had no right to be there, they paid their money for a booth just like everyone else, but I do find it a bit disturbing seeing such things at a gaming convention. Especially with all the talk about violence in video games and how it influences young people. As gamers we strive to quash that myth and yet here is the Army showing up promoting a game that is basically just a tool to try and get people to sign up for the military. Our government wants to bash violent games and then turn around and use them to lure kids into an actual war? Seems more than a bit hypocritical on their part.
What are your feelings on this? Personally, it scares the crap out of me.
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A Polite Smattering of Cosplay
PAX isn't exactly brimming with cosplay. Everyone is too busy playing games, grabbing the copious amounts of swag and not showering. But, I did manage to grab a few snaps (along with the help of my friends Chris and Qais) of some of the costumes roaming about. This one here definitely wins my special prize for best cosplay of PAX. When he arrived on the scene, the hall was filled with wolf whistles and catcalls, in fact he may have even been the hottest girl at the show.
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Frag Doll Finalists Grilled
The PAX floor opened an hour early each day so press could come in and check some of the offerings out before the crowds arrived and I got in early yesterday to check out Folklore and Heavenly Sword. As I was walking towards the Sony booth, I saw this sign advertising a casting call for a new member of the Frag Dolls. Knowing how much the majority of our readers like the ladies, I figured I'd take a snap of the poster and find out a little bit more about it. More »
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Men In Kilts
While my esteemed colleagues were running around Germany boozing it up, eating sausages and ogling girls in various states of consciousness, I was left to wander the halls of PAX alone, taking in as much as I could. I'm sorry to report that there was a distinct lack of hotness, both male and female although there were a few stand outs here and there. More »
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Penny Arcade Adventures Gallery
I didn't get to post a whole lot of screens for the upcoming Penny Arcade Adventures when I gave my impressions of it yesterday, so I thought I would make up for it by posting this massive twenty photo gallery. The screens show a number of different parts of the game including the battle system, regular gameplay and a shot of the character creation screen. This game just keeps looking better and better and after what I saw at PAX, it will be a definite download for me.
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The Mass Effect 360 Winner
One of the main games being focused on this year at the Microsoft booth was Mass Effect with the game being demoed to large crowds every couple of hours. They also ran a contest with the prize being a "customized" Mass Effect Elite 360, "customized" in this case meaning autographed by everyone who worked on the game and featuring a Mass Effect faceplate. As the end of the conference drew near, the crowd gathered en masse to hear who the winner was going to be and I was on hand to snap a photo of the happy winner. Congrats to Brian Webb on his awesome prize! Make the jump to check out a close up of his hard won treasure. More »
pax 07
When I found out that I would be attending PAX, one of the things I was most excited about was getting a really good look at the new Penny Arcade Adventures game being put together by Hothead Games with some help from Gabe and Tycho themselves. A few trailers have been out so far and in the last two days, a website has surfaced as well as the news that the game will be coming to XBLA. Well this morning I finally got a chance to see it for myself live and in person.
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Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness First Impressions
When I found out that I would be attending PAX, one of the things I was most excited about was getting a really good look at the new Penny Arcade Adventures game being put together by Hothead Games with some help from Gabe and Tycho themselves. A few trailers have been out so far and in the last two days, a website has surfaced as well as the news that the game will be coming to XBLA. Well this morning I finally got a chance to see it for myself live and in person.
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Gamers, Everywhere Gamers
In case you have never been here or have noticed that I haven't been posting lots of "hands on" articles, PAX is really about gamers. It's not an E3 where you will see all the latest games (although there are some thing s here) it's more a giant social gaming party. Everywhere you look there are gamers playing games. And not just video games either, there is plenty of board gaming, card gaming, RPG gaming, D&D gaming and pertty much any other kind of gaming you can think of. As I've been wandering around I've marveled at all these gamers peacefully co-existing with each other, making friends and just generally having a good time. If you've ever doubted the camaraderie of the cult of gaming, come to PAX and it will change your outlook completely.
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The Halo 3 Merchandise Booth
PAX goers were treated to a whole raft of new exclusive Halo 3 merchandise that will soon be available on Bungiestore.com (if there's any left) for those of you who weren't able to attend the conference. There was a little something for everyone including calendars, man purses, keepsake photos, back packs, four styles of T-shirt and even a fancy bedazzled Halo 3 logo T-shirt for the ladies or you few daring gentlemen. make the jump to peruse some more pics and start making your shopping lists.
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Kane & Lynch Gameplay Clip
From the PAX floor, GameVideos bring us a gameplay clip from the upcoming Kane & Lynch. Sorry fellows, I don't think there are any panty shots in this one. But there are guns. Lots and lots of guns.
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Penny Arcade Adventures To Appear On XBLA
More Penny Arcade news from PAX, imagine that! Hothead Games announced today that the Penny Arcade Adventures downloadable episodic game will be available over Xbox Live arcade. It will join the releases destined for Windows, Mac OS X and even Linux. Now that's what I call hi-tech! The game is set to release in the early part of 2008. I'll be checking it out tomorrow morning so if I can push back my hangover and get the hooker out of the room early enough, I'll be sure to let you know what it was like.
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The Giant LAN Room Of Doom
No, I don't mean they are playing Doom. Actually, I don't really know what they were playing, but there sure were a lot of them doing it. The room was enormous and allowed players to play on PCs that were provided plus an area set up for those obsessive enough to actually bring their own computers to set up and play. Surprisingly, there were quite a few of these hardcores dragging in all their equipment on pack dogs and wagons. I hope they live in the area because I can't even imagine hauling my heavy ass computer and monitor across the country to sit in a dark room and play games. My dedication to PC gaming is obviously lacking. More »
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Three Great Blogs = One Awesome Band
The doors of PAX opened an hour early for press and when I arrived there was a small smattering of media folks hanging out in a line waiting to get in. Once they let us have the run of the place I made a beeline for the Rock Band booth. At E3 (or any other event I've been to this year for that matter) I wasn't able to get anywhere near it, so I was determined to check it out this time. I got my name in the hat for checking it out and when they called me they asked if i had anyone else I wanted to play with. Well, standing with me was none other than Mr. Destructoid and the lovely Colette from Destructoid.com as well as my friend Chris Furniss of the Weekly Geek so we decided to become the hottest multi-blog band at PAX and stormed the stage to give a stellar performance of Creep. We did pretty well with Chris on bass, Mr. Destructoid on drums, myself on guitar and Colette selling the crowd with her melodious voice and scored a respectable 97%.
The game was a blast and sharing it with my fellow friends and bloggers made it an extra amazing experience. This will definitely be a title that will quickly become a party classic, bringing drunken wanna be rockers together in the comfort of their living rooms regardless of talent. Just add a fog machine and you're a star, baby.
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Surprise, It's Uwe Boll!
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I missed the tail end of Gabe and Tycho's Q&A with the crowd at PAX. After hearing the boys answer the audiences in their typically hilarious style and watching Tycho sing a song of his own creation they announced that they had a special guest arriving to greet the crowd. Being as I had a previously scheduled appointment, I was unable to stay and for the safety of my sanity, this was probably a good thing.
Apparently, the gleeful pair let loose with what may go down in history as one of the biggest let downs in surprise history, the introduction on director Uwe Boll. Luckily, the folks at Joystiq were on hand to catch every painful moment from his arrival on stage to massive booing and jeers to the crowd leaving in droves like rats from a sinking ship. Even more fun awaited in this half hour journey into hell including a hideous bit of his upcoming Postal movie and a gal who just couldn't help herself from telling Uwe how she really felt about it. Watch and cringe in terror if you dare.
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Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Website Opens
Just in time to miraculously coincide with PAX, Hothead Games had announced that the Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness website is now open for business. The episodic game is set to launch launch this year and will feature the ability to custom create a character that will join Gabe and Tycho in their exploits. PAX attendees will get a chance to try out the character creation at the Hothead Games booth. I have an interview with the Hothead folks tomorrow morning and will presumably get the chance to create a character myself which I will then try to convince them to let me photograph for posting later.
They are also running a contest at the show to find a name to be used for a character in the game and PAX goers were encouraged to submit their real names for possible inclusion. I went ahead and submitted mine so perhaps I'll be lucky and my ridiculous sounding name will be chosen. I mean I know it's no Florian Eckhardt, but then, what is.
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Website [Hothead Games]
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First Impressions
2007 has been a landmark year for me. I had my first E3, my first GDC, my first Comic Con and today, my first PAX. I wasn't really sure what to expect, not really having anything to compare it to, and knowing that I would be the lone Kotaku representative at this momentous event was a little more than daunting. Seeing as it was the first day, I decided to take it a bit easy, see the keynote and try and get a general lay of the land before diving in headfirst. More »
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The Keynote Speech
"My name is Wil Wheaton and Jack Thompson can suck my balls."
If there's one thing Wil Wheaton knows how to do, it's get a reaction from a crowd. Whether he's inciting the ire of millions as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek or kicking off PAX 07 with his keynote speech, he never fails to make an impression. He makes his way onto the stage with dramatic musical accompaniment, citing the above line to an adoring crowd. After railing through every gamer cliche' that one could imagine and dropping a few f-bombs along the way, he begins recounting his days as a young nerd playing video games in the local arcade. He compares his generation's love of the old arcade to this generations attachment to World of Warcraft and Xbox Live. These, he says, are the arcades of today. The crowd is in the palm of his hand as he moves on from arcade classics to home consoles, hitting every classic title along the way and filling everyone's heads with nostalgic memories of the golden age of gaming.
