-
It Sounds Like the Next Duke Nukem Game will be Better and will be Revealed ‘Soon’
You don’t acquire the rights to one of video game’s most famous characters without planning on doing something great with him. And if you’re Randy Pitchford, the Gearbox game development chief who expected to discover a “trainwreck” of a game when he set about reviving Duke Nukem Forever, you don’t plan to let a flawed,…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 30, 2011 -
Possible Alternate Ending to Zelda II
Either these cosplayers at PAX 2011 in Seattle were relaxing when they agreed to let me take their photo this past weekend, or they were role-playing the more mellow, never-before-seen alternate ending the second-best Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System. For much more PAX cosplay, check out this gallery and this one You can contact…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 30, 2011 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves With Portals
Welcome back to Talk Amongst Yourselves, where, today, I have a curveball for you. We’ve changed plans. Not in a big way. Not in a way that I think will ruin TAY forever. But we’re changing—no, I’m changing—a teeny thing. You can still talk here all you want. You can still talk about video games…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 30, 2011 -
Sonic CD Looks Less Jaggy on the Xbox 360, But Only When You Want it To
In the wee hours of PAX, I rushed into the Xbox booth to catch a minute of the Xbox Live Arcade version of Sonic CD. The old Sega CD game is coming back later this year The attraction in this video is that players of the new version of Sonic CD can switch from old-school…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 29, 2011 -
Let’s See How the Co-Op Gears of War Board Game Works
There are bullet holes on the dice, Marcus and Dom figurines on the board and up to four people around the table, playing co-operatively in Gears of War: The Board Game Think you can’t make a game out of a hit Xbox 360 cover-based shooter? You can, and Fantasy Flight Games was at the Penny…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 29, 2011 -
Universe Sandbox Getting Stellar Update (Not a Pun) Next Year, Mac Compatibility Too
Dan Dixon, escaped former This is Vegas producer now working on improving his galaxy and planet-smashing sim, Universe Sandbox, told me at PAX that he’s working on a significant update to his terrific not-quite-a-game. He expects will be out next year. The new version, built for the Unity engine, will expand Universe Sandbox to Macs…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 29, 2011 -
8 1/2 Minutes of Antichamber My Favorite Game of PAX 2011. It’s ‘First-Person Escher.’
Formerly known as Hazard: The Journey of Life, Alexander Bruce’s extraordinary game Antichamber will hereby known as Oh My God, My Favorite Game of PAX. It’s a first-person puzzle game, made for people who like Portal or salivate for The Witness. Or for people who want to play a game that doesn’t play by other…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 29, 2011 -
The Most Unexpected Pokémon Cosplay, in Male and Female Poses
It was hard to miss the man cosplaying as female Pokémon trainer Misty at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. When I finally caught up to him, I asked to pose for our cosplay gallery. Alas, there was so little cosplay on day three that there will be no final gallery for the show.…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 29, 2011 -
Gearbox Pulls an Oprah, Gives Away Borderlands 2 To Everyone in Raucous Crowd
You get a Borderlands 2! You get a Borderlands 2! This is Randy Pitchford and other top people from Gearbox Software giving away a copy of Borderlands 2 to every one of the 900 people who showed up at their community panel at PAX. Everyone got a card that includes a redemption code for the…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2011 -
New Borderlands Patch Will Test Borderlands 2 Tech, Adds Steamworks
A new patch coming September 9 for the PC version of Borderlands will add Steamworks support and will begin to test some new systems development studio Gearbox Software wants to incorporate into Borderlands 2 “This technology, dubbed B-Test for this patch, is about increasing the relationship between you and us, ” Gearbox president Randy Pitchford…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2011 -
A Historical Brothers in Arms Game is in the Works, But Furious 4 is Next
The next Brothers in Arms will be the E3-announced over-the-top, gleeful Nazi-killing Furious 4, but fans of the series’ earlier historically authentic games need not fret. “We’re going to do more of that,” Gearbox chief Randy PItchford said at PAX today. More of Sgt. Baker’s exploits are in the works, but he had nothing to…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2011 -
Q.U.B.E. is Portaly, and that’s All Right By Me
When I finish playing one first-person shooter, there’s always another one for me to choose from. The same is true when I finish racing games or when the alternate-universe version of me finishes playing games that include the words Shin, Megami and Tensei in the title. But what’s a man to play when he’s finished…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2011 -
Cobalt isn’t a Minecraft Charity Case. It’s Super Meat Halo.
I booked an appointment with the game studio Mojang at the Penny Arcade Expo so that I could chat with the company’s star, Notch, about the next evolution of Minecraft I asked to see Mojang’s other PAX game, Cobalt out of professional curiosity and, honestly, to be polite. I wasn’t expecting much. Low expectations have…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2011 -
XCOM Has the Freakiest Display At PAX Prime 2011
This XCOM display, which features no real human beings, is a head-turner here at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. Does this make you want to play the game? The retro sci-fi first-person shooter has been sounding much better than it used to, but this thing is just a freak show. It did get me…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2011 -
The Evolution of a BioShock Infinite Scene, in Two Minutes
Let’s watch how one of the in-game scenes from BioShock Infinite was made, from storyboards to final version, shall we? Your narrator is BioShock creative director Ken Levine. I shot this on Saturday at the BioShock Infinite panel at PAX Prime. At the same panel, they also showed other cool behind-the-scenes videos, focused on the…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 28, 2011 -
There Really is a Lando Calrissian Society, and I Just Filmed Their Rally
First, I noticed that the people pushing past me near the Star Wars: The Old Republic booth at Penny Arcade Expo today were wearing teal capes. Then I noticed they had moustaches. This was the Lando Society, and they had a simple, ridiculous message to shout at the top of their lungs: “Never forget.” They…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 27, 2011 -
Which Hollywood Hero was at The Behemoth’s PAX Booth? You Get Three Guesses.
The Penny Arcade Expo is good for silly sights. Over there, you’ve got the world’s oldest booth babes. And over there, bad bathroom humor. Here, in the booth of The Behemoth, the studio behind Castle Crashers and the upcoming Battle Block Theater, we have an unexpected cosplaying guest. You get three guesses. Then press play…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 27, 2011 -
Notch Gives us a Tour of the Ever-Expanding, Radical Minecraft 1.8 Update
The Minecraft 1.8 update was supposed to add more of a sense of adventure to one of the world’s most popular computer games. It’s adding more than that. It’s adding so much more, in fact, that it’s probably going to split into two updates, 1.8 and 1.9. I got a demo of the new content…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 27, 2011 -
Counter-Strike: GO‘s PAX Booth is Using a Scope
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive booth at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle is a madhouse. People are waiting on long lines to play it. But if you can’t get in, you can at least watch it played on the big screen, through the largest crosshairs in town. You can contact Stephen Totilo, the author of…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 27, 2011 -
These Massive Original Xbox Controllers Were Transformed into Xbox 360 Controllers, for Halo
As promised, Microsoft’s Halo team is bringing Duke to their big Halofest celebration this weekend—that is, the massive Duke controller that originally sold with the original Xbox. The Halo crew commissioned hardware modder Ben Heck to transform eight classic Dukes into wireless pads that will work with Xbox 360s. Watch the video to see how…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 27, 2011
Stephen Totilo
Stephen Totilo's posts