In true German fashion, we ate meat and starch after consuming precisely two mammoth Jager bombs (we polished off the tiny bottle).
Synopsis: Subjects shows a propensity to discuss topics of high school activities.
Over lunch, we learned that Mark played trombone, Brian mended a broken leg and Michael asked that you not confuse him with Fahey. He also ran track and wrestled. Yes, he was a jock. Throw rotten food at will. More »
One of the more surprising aspects of Games Convention is the availability of alcohol, a rarity at a video game expo, BlizzCon not included. We’ve ridden into town with a drinking population of Leipzig-bound teens that was much higher than expected. Therefore, we’ve decided to try to see the sights and sound of Games Convention through the eyes of the German youth. By drinking. A lot.
We’ve already secured a mini-bottle of the local poison (Jagermeister) with which to start our hall crawl, but the rest of the drinking (mostly beer, we suspect) will be done on the show floor itself. The rules are that any time we pass a beer stand, we drink.
We’ll be posting progressive updates and expect that by the time we reach Hall 5, we’ll be praising Pony Friends for its fresh take on the horse grooming genre. We may even take up the mic on the SingStar stage to belt out some Scissor Sisters. More »
It’s funny what can easily turn one on (and off) to an upcoming video game. In the case of Gearbox Studios’ just announced Borderlands, it was Game Informer’s teaser cover blurb that described the 4-player co-op shooter as “Diablo meets Mad Max” that whet my nerd appetite. Gearbox themselves pitched the shooter as “Mad Max meets Indiana Jones.”
Reality, however, levelled off my personal expectations, as the game seems to be more accurately described as “Hellgate: London meets Firefly meets Pitch Black”. That’s the reality of it, a franchise step down that’s very grounding. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Jesus. No. While Borderlands may not be a wet dream blend of two uber-franchise favourites, it still has plenty going for it—over 500,000 guns for example. Bullet point alert! More »
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. More »
We had the opportunity to sit in on a LittleBigPlanet demo with Media Molecule creative director Mark Healey at Games Convention to get a quick update on how the PLAYSTATION 3 game is progressing. Unfortunately, the build on hand was from E3 ’06 meaning there was little in the way of new features or content. Healey did tell us though that we can expect an improved version of the “create, play, share” software at Tokyo Game Show.
In addition to loads of new stuff to futz with, edit and graffiti, exactly where you can place your customised materials is going to change (read: there’s even more flexibility there). In addition to that very dry detail, one that probably needs to be seen in person to understand properly, Healey promised that we’d be impressed—quite possibly even doubled-over with laughter—at the new puppet emotes and “acting” skills. More »
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. More »
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.
Make the jump to check out the seedy (and surprisingly not stinky) underbelly… More »
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. More »
Nexon – the Korean company responsible for MapleStory and KartRider – has been expanding (quietly) beyond its home borders. With MapleStory already in the US and KartRider due to launch sometime in the near future, Nexon’s been making a quiet-but-succesful entry into Western markets. Worlds In Motion has an interview up with Min Kim of Nexon America talking about MapleStory, KartRider, the Nexon recipe for success, and what’s next for the company. Not surprisingly, great swaths of his thoughts are pretty sensible (in a market glutted with free-to-play games, yours better be fun or else no one’s going to play it), but sensible and game company plans do not always go hand in hand. More »
Fahey already discussed the mainstream media’s take on ‘killing little girls’, but the weekly Aberrant Gamer column over at GameSetWatch has yet another take (far less prone to the hysteria of the mainstream, to be sure). Creepy kids, creepy little girls in particular, are nothing new to the horror-survival genre – books, movies, games, you name it, there’s plenty of unsettling children to choose from. BioShock may head into less travelled waters by giving players the choice between killing or freeing them, but it’s hardly a first in using creepy kids to frequently powerful effects. More »
