At PAX 2009 this past weekend, Kotaku sat down with Funcom to delve into the secrets behind The Secret World, learning about the societies, Cabals, and PVP combat in the upcoming modern-day MMO.

During PAX 09 I got a chance to play through a few levels of Darkest of Days, 8monkey Labs time-travelling first-person shooter that marries futuristic technology with great moments in history.

Days away from opening up to the general public, Turbine is already overwhelmed by the positive performance of the newly free-to-play Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited.

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, better known as Gabe and Tycho, the characters in their Penny Arcade just finished hosting a massive expo they like. But making video games? They have mixed feelings.

The outside of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles PAX display was laregly about the new TMNT: Smash-Up game, but the inside was a trip back in time to the late 80s/early 90s.

The build-up for BioWare's Mass Effect 2, still not planned for release until next year, has been one of gaming's more mysterious. Hints of Commander Shepard's possible death in trailers and demos confuse ever more. What's going on? Kotaku asked.

Pokemon experts may snicker. They may laugh at me the way they laugh at a pale blogger caught next to a flexible cos-player. But can they deny that Pokemon games are confusing to newcomers? And that simplicity might help?

It's the final day of PAX 2009, and that means the final round of cosplay photos, captured not by Adam Barenblat, but by myself and AJ, the cosplay backup crew.

2K Games brought professional illustrator Eric Maruscak to PAX to create a masterpiece of epic proportions.

Step inside The Succubus Club as we share some rather bad photos and a couple of video clips from CCP's infamous goth meets geek party event.

Klei Entertainment takes on the side-scrolling beat-em up with Shank, managing to create something fresh and compelling from a genre that's grown old and stale.

Stephen Toulouse gave a presentation at PAX that, like most of his outreach, leavened the dirty work of running Xbox Live's banhammer ops with comedy. His sermon is about how the wicked "Poonhunter" came to be banned from Battlefield 1943.

A certain someone (me) did a guest appearance this weekend on Giant Bomb's podcast, where it was my duty to officially settle a Splinter Cell Conviction bet.

Let 2009 hereby be known as The Year Of The More Interesting Hub World. The spokes of Wolfenstein emanate from a German city overrun by Nazis; those of Halo 3 ODST to New Mombasa. The new Ratchet? An action-packed galaxy.