With little time left to get new lanyards together, the PAX folks just ran with it, thus creating the sad little Ghostbusters promotional items. There’s a bright side at least. As Variety’s Ben Fritz points out, whoever winds up publishing the game just got a boatload of free advertising courtesy of Sierra.

The deal with those Ghostbusters lanyards at PAX [Variety]

It was still free-roaming and featured detailed 3D avatars. It still had plenty of running and gunning. But the vibe, the feel of the game didn’t have the same GTA-ness to it that, to many, marked the first Saints Row a Grand Theft Auto clone.

I actually mentioned this to the Saints Row folks on hand and they agreed with me. Even the marketing for the game has been geared toward differentiating the free-roaming shooter from GTA.

But it’s hard to put your finger on exactly how the games are different when playing Saints Row 2. It sort of feels that GTA and Saints Row were both heading down the same road and at some point GTA veered off in one direction and Saints Row headed off in another.

The chunk of demo I played through had me playing around with a skinny bald chick escaping from a prison. (I’ll avoid the obvious Britney jokes.) The controls for shooting felt fairly tight and melee combat was a joy. I could also, I discovered, run up on a hapless victim, using them as a shield before dispensing them.

The game was packed full of humor both of the developers making and my own. For instance, after one particularly fierce battle with a guard I back-hand bitched slapped him to the ground, killing him.

I’m not quite sure yet how well Saints Row 2 is going to hold up once I have the full title in my hand, but I do know with absolute certainty that more games need fatal bitch slaps.

Hit the jump for hazy, disjointed hands-on impressions for Infinite Undisovery, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Damnation, Rise of the Argonauts, Lord of the Rings: Conquest, and Mirror’s Edge.

I literally got no more than 10 minutes with each title in the Exhibition Hall and with the exception of The Conduit, I didn’t get to chat up the demo-keepers for the usual details a journalist needs to report on her games. But since most of these titles are coming out soon, already have demos available or were previewed at E3 and Leipzig only a week or so ago, 10 minutes is really all you need to get to know a game for yourself, if you’ve been following it in the news.

Above: Tabletop… meh.

I bee lined for Infinite Undiscovery first thing, since it’ll be the first thing I buy in that list of games. This action JRPG is the closest replacement Square Enix has offered me to replace Kingdom Hearts, and while I could deal with the lack of Disney, I’m not sure I could deal with the art design. Like Lost Odyssey, everything was proportional and colours were muted for a more realistic-looking experience – to me, it seemed ugly, but we were only playing in two areas that weren’t very well-lit (caves and stuff). The combat served me well enough – button mashing is what I expect when someone says “action” RPG. I sort of liked that you could be strategic when it came to setting up your primary party and your secondary party, and even a third party to have in reserve – but then I realised all of these characters were onscreen with me as I ran off to locate hidden energy crystals. Talk about crowded! At least Goofy and Donald weren’t so far up Sora’s arse, you couldn’t see the boss.

Despite not being able to see the demo boss, I took him out in short order (the save featured over-leveled characters, huzzah!) and gave up the controller to the girl in line behind me.

Above: You catch more bees with honey… and more gamers with food.

Then it was on to Animal Crossing: City Folk, but that was only because the line for Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was longer. Animal Crossing: City Folk looked like it was directly imported from the GameCube Animal Crossing, with a larger town area to run around in and different NPCs. I was the most fugly-looking little boy with a beanie and I spent most of my time in the demo, running around and trying to find my house so I could empty my pockets. Failing that, I just settled for dropping cherries, fossils and decorative end tables to make enough room in my inventory to put my watering can away.

Then the line for Symphonia abruptly got shorter, so I made my move. However, the guy ahead of me got his hands on the controls and played Dawn of the New World for a solid 23 minutes straight. Other people gathered around me, fidgeting, wondering when this guy would give it up – but nobody wanted to be the asshole who asked for a turn. So I watched him play and marveled that he couldn’t seem to get the motion controls to work. How hard could it be to point the cursor at the flower and press A to trigger the flower bridge? He kept getting attacked from behind as he struggled, and most of the battles he spent mashing on the artes button to send his character into aerial attacks. Dude didn’t even bother to change his elements the way Nintendo Power says you’re supposed to…

Finally, I got my turn and wandered around the world map, trying to trigger the flower bridges. But the motion controls sucked and I found myself piddling around just as much as the guy ahead of me had. The only difference was I gave up after only 10 minutes instead of making the poor bastards behind me wait another half hour.

In disgust, I wandered over towards the back of the Exhibition Hall, maybe to get another look at the Pink Godzilla store, but I got turned around and wound up getting my hands on Damnation – since there wasn’t a line. I’d read a little bit about the game and knew that it was supposed to be this big, open-world adventure that featured acrobatic-type stunts and stuff. But I hadn’t read anything about cowboys, so I was surprised to see myself playing as one – gun slinging some far-off enemy I couldn’t figure out how to target (yeah, yeah, I don’t do shooters, so kill me). A small cluster of 12-year-olds formed behind me and one of them told me to use my “spirit vision” to target the sniper I was having trouble hitting. When I couldn’t figure out how to do it, I handed over the controller and watched to see what he would do – but I’d left him in a bad place and the sniper took him out three seconds later.

Above: Mountain of Pink Godzillas!

I wandered away before the demo level restarted and found myself staring at Rise of the Argonauts. And my only question is: how have I not heard of this game before? I’m totally down with mythology and I even suffered through God of War and God of War II just because I get a fangirl’s thrill of watching Zeus interact with Hera (it’s like the original soap opera). The game is still in early days yet, so the graphics were a bit chunky and the frame-rate was crap – but it played pretty well as far as movement. The environments were rich with detail and the cartoon-ish style of the characters totally worked for me; so I was really loath to give up the controller after only 10 minutes. But I didn’t want to be a dick and there were a lot more games to play.

Later, I felt bad because I realised I hadn’t actually experienced any combat in Rise of the Argonauts – I just ran around a hallway and made slaves open doors for me. But when I went back for a second bite at the apple, the line had suddenly swelled to ten people (I guess that E3 Game of the Year Nominee sticker above the demo table got some attention). However, it turned out man friend had played through the demo from the start and he filled me in on what I missed later.

Apparently, this game is ultra-violent between light attacks and execution moves. “Like Ninja Gaiden II?” I asked. “No,” he said. “Like Conan – except all the animations are canned.” He totally dug the big arse mace, the big arse shield, the big arse spear and the smaller-arse sword. You can switch weapons in the middle of the combo, so if you start out hacking someone with a sword, you can finish by pulling out the mace and caving in a guy’s skull. “It’s a pretty big deal,” said man friend. The combos didn’t feel really fluid to him, but we agreed that that had more to do with the game being in early development stages as opposed to the game potentially sucking.

Oddly enough, man friend was sold on the deep-looking advancement system. I had Googled the game for info about the god-based affiliations, but he was talking about aspects related to astronomy. Whatever that means. I don’t care, because I’m totally going to get this game just based on my 10 minutes with it – never mind man friend’s experience.

Next up was Lord of the Rings: Conquest – and that’s only because Mirror’s Edge had a line out to next week. My man friend volunteered to start waiting while I wandered off, and the closest console available was where I wound up. There wasn’t much of a wait
to play Conquest – I assume because everyone’s already seen it. Even I’d already seen it at EA’s last Showcase event; and not much has changed between then and now – it’s still a Star Wars: Battlefront-style of action game where you can get by with button mashing. It’s pretty, though.

Man friend stood on tiptoe and waved me over to him. I dashed, thinking he’d gotten his chance at Mirror’s Edge, but it turned out he just wanted to vent. Some Parkour expert had cut ahead of everyone in line and was being given the royal treatment by the demo handler. The guy right behind Parkour dude got a consolation shirt, but the rest of the the jilted line-waiters had to suffer.

“It’s because of his shoes,” I consoled my man friend, staring at the funky-toed footwear the Parkour guy was sporting. It certainly wasn’t because this guy was good with games – he died like half a dozen times. To be fair, the demo level started you off with a pretty serious jump and if you botched it, down you went. But after that, he was getting shot because he wasn’t running up stairs fast enough to get away and he kept over-balancing on the part where you’ve got to walk across a cable stretched between buildings.

“Why is everything red?” Parkour guy demanded. Clearly, he hadn’t read up on the game… Then the PS3 overheated and I thought he’d give up and go away. But the demo handler – anxious to please – restarted the demo for him and ran through the level to get back to the point where he’d left off.

I checked my watch. It’d been more than half an hour with just this one guy!

Finally, he finished the level and the line moved up. At long last, we got our turn with the game and I let man friend take it since he’d been a dear about waiting in line. Man friend says the controls were a lot simpler than he thought they’d be. He was really impressed by the sense of moment and speed – the faster you went, the better it felt. And the combat was very minimal, which fit in with the rest of the game. He disarmed at least three guys and stole their guns – but “it didn’t feel right” so he threw each firearm away and kept running. He also didn’t really use the “bullet time” feature because it made the free-running feel less fluid (even if it did make disarm moves look cooler). The little touches impressed him the most – the multiple paths through environments, the way Faith touched the wall before rounding corners. I thought it was kind of dumb that you had to punch open doors, but he didn’t seem to mind.

My favourite part? The dot they added to the middle of the screen to reduce motion sickness. Seriously – a life-saver.

Man friend finished the level in 10 minutes and I pried him away from the console, stressing my etiquette about not taking too much time. I felt like I had been pretty efficient with the whole day, but when I check my watch again, I realised three hours had gone by and I hadn’t even seen half the games on the floor.

And that’s why I’m glad Crecente had his magic yellow badge and that I had three friends with me at the convention. Because there is no way one PAX-goer could ever do it this year all without some way to cut in line or some way to be in four places at once.

Stupid Parkour guy…*mutter, mutter*

Stranger still was the fact that there were almost no lines for the beautifully crafted 2D platformer. I handed the controller to Tristan and watched him take to the title like a gamer thirsting for some old-school, hardcore fun on a casual gaming platform.

The game plays mostly with the D-pad and buttons but you do have to pull off the occasional motion-activated slam. Wario Land Shake It seems fairly straight forward, but Nintendo has buried plenty of hidden items and side quests to make the game fun to replay.

The thing most captivating about the game is its clean, hand-drawn look. It’s simply beautiful to behold in action.

In the game you play as Frank, a hapless alien armed with only a Plasma Leash. Fortunately he has the frighteningly large and easily frightened blob-like pet Maw. Frank can use his leash to guide Maw around to eat thing and clear paths, but despite being nearly all teeth, Maw is an easily frightened creature. So Frank has to spend a lot of time bulking up Maw and dealing with obstacles that the creature won’t face.

The game has a lot going for it. First there’s the amazing personality built into the game. The Maw and its lead creature are sure to win over the hearts of gamers as they play through it. The game itself is a nice combination of unique mechanic and fun puzzles. To take on many challenged gamers have to move Frank around which, in turn thanks to the leash, gets Maw to move around. But the fact that you don’t have total control over Maw and can merely suggest where it should go, adds a whole other level of challenge to the game.

While seems big enough to take on everything in the game if it wanted to, the fact that everything even slightly close to his size, makes the game much more challenging. Often Frank will have to find ways around scary creatures to move Maw along through the game. Frank can use his leash on other creatures, he can also use it to occasionally grab some items for puzzle solving.

Maw grows as you feed it, it also takes on the powers of the things it eats. So when he sups on a fire creature he temporarily gains the ability to shoot out flames.

The Maw seems to have that pleasing mix of fun graphics, engaging character art and interesting game mechanic that virtually insures success. The game is due to hit the Xbox Live Arcade next year.

The Maw

As I mentioned earlier, the Airstream was completely gutted and refitted with a wonderful blending of 50s and Fallout 3 era knick knacks. The centre piece to the whole thing wasn’t the working mini-fridge packed with Nuka Cola, but the flat-screen television installed in the back wall, complete with faux woodgrain framing and a mammoth wall mounted speaker.

Now you should be getting enthused about the Nuclear Airstream too. Turns out that Bethesda plans to donate the amazing piece of schwag to Child’s Play following the launch of the game. Can you imagine winning this bad boy and parking it in your front yard for late night gaming sessions. The whole thing, I’m told, even runs on electricity.

How do i know?

Tristan was so mesmerized by the game that he pushed through a crowd of onlookers to play the game on the Ubisoft stage. He even risked certain exposure to Frag Dolls-based cooties to get some ass-time with the Balance Board driven game. The particular mini-game he played had him steering a cow down a snowboard course by shifting his weight back and forth on the balance board. Sitting up on stage, his full attention locked on the flat screen, he didn’t even seem to mind that he was book-ended by two of the FGs while playing the game as a third tried to harass him off his course.

A free haircut and video game apparently seemed like a sweet deal to a lot of people, even if it did turn them into walking billboards. There was a line. A long, long line. For this.

Catch PAC-MAN Fever with Mobile Tournament at Penny Arcade Expo

Namco Networks challenges customers with PAC-MAN mobile tournament

SAN JOSE, Calif. (August 29, 2008) – Namco Networks, the leading publisher and developer of mobile games and entertainment for mass-market casual gamers, today announced the PAC-MAN® Fever Mobile Tournament at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). The tournament will be held at Namco Networks’ booth #141 at PAX, August 29-31, 2008.

Contestants in the PAC-MAN Fever Mobile Tournament at PAX will compete on AT&T phones and battle for the best score in PAC-MAN. The top four daily scores earn a spot in the daily final challenge where they will compete for a prize pack that includes a new phone from AT&T. PAX attendees can also demo many other mobile games at Namco Networks’ booth including classics like PAC-MAN and Galaga® or some of Namco Networks’ latest games including PAC-MAN ® Arcade Golf™.

“PAX is one of the largest events in the casual gaming industry and is where game enthusiasts and general consumers alike can experience the latest games and, most importantly, have fun,” said Scott Rubin, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Namco Networks. “This mobile gaming tournament at PAX is the perfect way to highlight the level of quality and fun of Namco Networks’ classic arcade games on a mobile platform to fans of the original titles.”

The finalist with the highest score will be named the day’s grand-prize winner and will receive an exciting prize pack featuring an AT&T mobile phone and great products from clubNAMCO, the exclusive provider of PAC-MAN merchandise, including a PAC-MAN Plush Doll, a PAC-MAN 1980 Champion t-shirt, one set of PAC-MAN mini-figures, a PAC-MAN Plush Cushion and a PAC-MAN mouse pad. Runners up will receive a PAC-MAN Plush Doll and a $25 gift certificate to purchase their choice of great products from www.clubNAMCO.com.

To download PAC-MAN and other hit mobile games from Namco, text PACFEVER to 386 from your AT&T mobile phone. To download a free demo of PAC-MAN and Ms. PAC-MAN to any AT&T handset, text PACDEMO to 386. For additional information on Namco, please visit www.namcogames.com.