pax-east-2012
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Co-opinion: Slaughtering Skags in Borderlands 2
.portal-left { padding: 10px; background: #CCC; margin: 20px 0; min-height: 85px; } .portal-right { padding: 10px; margin: 20px 0; min-height: 85px; } .portal-right img { padding-left: 5px; } .portal-left img { padding-right: 5px; } David Hinkle: So, Borderlands 2. How fitting I would play as the slender female and you the hulking giant mohawk guy, eh? Jessica Conditt: To be fair, Salvador is supposed to be a tiny, muscled man, not the hulking behemoth that I felt like while playing him. Double shotguns will do that to a man. Agreed. And even though you were carrying every single gun in the universe, we ran into a few bottlenecks. I certainly tried to play Maya as a tank, but I don't think that was a very good idea. Skags, man. Skags. And that new, juicy element. Slag, right? We took more damage when they flung it on us, which was an annoying experience. But the phaselock health dump was a saving grace there. You kept me alive on quite a few occasions with that. Slag, man. Slag.%Gallery-152249%
An Irrational fear of monsters
"A good monster is a monster you can imagine in repose."That was the advice acclaimed horror writer and director Guillermo del Toro gave Ken Levine, the creator of the BioShock franchise, during a conversation on the Irrational Games podcast. Levine takes those words to heart in his own creative direction, and before building any terrifying monsters, he makes sure Irrational develops a rich, empathetic backstory that places each of the deformed, viciously homicidal creatures in routine settings, where they perform the most base of actions: contributing to society, petting a dog, relaxing, mourning.Four Irrational members – Levine, art director Nate Wells, lead artist Shawn Robertson, and sound man Pat Balthrop – gave the PAX audience a glimpse into the secret lives and creation of five major BioShock Infinite villains: the Motorized Patriot, Handyman, Siren, Boys of Silence and Songbird.
The Secret World's PAX recap video talks PvP, progression
If you couldn't make it to PAX on Easter sunday, you can at least catch up on the happenings around Funcom's The Secret World booth thanks to a new video that the firm recently uploaded to its YouTube portal. The clip is about six minutes long, and it splices together random con-goer interviews with gameplay footage of The Secret World's ability wheel and progression system. Also featured is Funcom community manager Glen "Famine" Swan, who says that he is excited about the game's "persistent PvP, because [it's] doing a lot of grass-roots stuff that [he] grew up with in the MMO genre." Famine also touches on the TSW's three-faction design as well as the fact that the PvP game is ever-changing and filled with progression-related rewards. If you're not so much into the PvP, don't fret, since you can still PvE with your friends regardless of which faction you choose. Check out the full clip after the break.
How Arkedo learned to love downloadable games
Hell Yeah! is the first full-scale digital release by French studio Arkedo, after two boxed DS games and a few tentative (XBLIG) digital experiments. The transition to downloadable games was not an easy decision for a company that, according to founder Camille Guermonprez, loved packaged games. But it was a necessary one."I started Arkedo because I wanted to make a game with boxes," he told Joystiq at PAX East. "My first company was a digital game company, in 1999, for mobile games. That was a big company. I raised the money and it was lots of fun."Arkedo was a reaction to that previous work. "We wanted to be able to buy our game in a garage sale in 20 years, to be able to sell it for scrap, to give it as a gift," he explained. "You know, you can't give a gift with a digital title. Even if it's the same amount of money as a box, you look cheap. It's a shame."
The Queue: Always double down on Sacco
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host today. Experts agree: It is recommended that you double down on Sacco whenever prudent. I have to echo Sacco from yesterday -- thank you so much for coming out to the live podcast at PAX East on Saturday. It only gets better from here. If you did enjoy the panel, please let the panel and PAX organizers know -- it can help us with panel submissions for future conventions. WoW Insider has, literally, the best fans. Thank you all. instamat asked: I ran a few of my alts through the Darkmoon Faire for the first time on Sunday but the fishing quest was only available on one of them. Is there a minimum skill level to unlock the quests for secondary professions? I always keep auto loot option enabled in the game preferences but sometimes when I log in it's off. What the hell is causing that?!
Borderlands 2 conjures up Mechromancer class, adds character customization options
On the final day of PAX East, members of Gearbox detailed plans for Borderlands 2, which is set to drop on September 18. The biggest news nuggest is the Mechromancer, a class that will be added to the game as DLC after launch and free to those who pre-order. The Mechromancer is a female human/machine hybrid, which is totally great because we wrote all of this erotic Claptrap fan-fiction that would totally explain -- ahem, sorry. She will also have a friend: a giant robot called D374-TP (Deathtrap).Game Informer was at the panel – all of us were too busy scurrying back to our respective journalizing holes to attend today – and says that in addition to the Mechromancer, there will be options to customize the look of your character. Costumes and custom gear will be earned when players complete missions and challenges.Finally, there will be a special edition of Borderlands 2 that will retail for $149.99. It's packaged in a big plastic loot box replete with a Marcus Kincaid bobblehead and, obviously, a copy of Borderlands 2.
Runner2's 'Unkle Dill' preserved on video
The latest build of Runner2 adds way more background detail, animation, and interactivity than I saw at GDC; there are now particles everywhere, flashy effects when you pick up a powerup item, and detailed, animated ... stuff going on behind CommanderVideo (but not too detailed for it to affect clarity.) There are fun elements like an airplane whose wings you dash across in one level, and a new cannon activity that lets you shoot CV at a target at the end of a stage if you pick anything up.The most eyecatching new element added since my last playtest is "Unkle Dill," a man-sized, anthropomorphic pickle who hangs out at checkpoints. He runs and dives at you in futility if you decide to skip the checkpoint, basically providing incentive to skip every single checkpoint.Gaijin Games posted some footage of the PAX East build, allowing you to see Unkle Dill for yourself.
Antichamber and Indie Fund: A match made in M.C. Escher's basement
Antichamber mastermind Alexander Bruce enjoys screwing with people's perceptions of reality, on the screen and on the show floor of PAX East. As part of the Indie Megabooth, Bruce had full reign to make attendees perform a mystery challenge as part of the Megabooth's signature rally. Bruce gave every hopeful participant that approached Antichamber a simple command: "I need you to stand on your hands."A few people removed jackets and dropped their bags in preparation for the inevitable fall they'd suffer trying to perform a handstand in the middle of a crowded Indie Megabooth; one young man guessed he would probably kill someone with his gymnastics. Before anyone attempted the actual handstand though, it hit them -- this was Alex Bruce, and he wanted them to stand on their hands. So they stepped on their fingers and Bruce signed their punch cards, grinning the entire time, every time.
Seen@PAX East: Bomberman says hello
Someone tried to tell us this was a character from the BioShock universe, but we think we recognize Bomberman when we see him.
Check out the new Rock Band in its life 'Pre-Blitz'
It's taken us a day to upload the footage of Harmonix's Rock Band Blitz prototype, shown at the company's PAX East panel, but here it is! See the sunny "Pre-Blitz," or, as design director Chris Foster called it, "Preblitz," in action here.
Seen@PAX East: The Mass Effect crew plays Rock Band
Who knew Dr. Chakwas was such an accomplished guitarist? Or that Mordin had such a pretty singing voice?
Ready, aim, Firefall: Impressions of the closed beta
Last year at PAX Prime, I had the opportunity to get my hands on an early version of Red 5 Studios' upcoming MMOFPS, Firefall. The game's come a long way since then, having gone into closed beta shortly after PAX Prime. As of Friday, the game's NDA has finally dropped, and I can finally tell you fine folks all about my experiences with the game's beta. For those of you somehow not in the know, Firefall is essentially two games in one. On the one hand, you have the title's open-world PvE content that sees players exploring the lands of New Eden in an attempt to find a way to fight back the destructive alien force known as the Melding. On the other, there's the competitive e-sports-esque PvP, which lets players test their skills against each another to see who's the best shot in New Eden. So how much has Firefall changed between PAX Prime '11 and PAX East '12?
Rock Band Blitz is not a cover of Frequency or Amplitude
Yes, I'm surprised too. Rock Band Blitz, despite its superficial similarity to Harmonix's PS2 music games, Frequency and Amplitude, is fundamentally different from those -- and from Rock Band. Well, okay, you're still hitting buttons in time to music, represented by icons coming down the screen. It's not that far gone.But almost everything else has been rethought. Instead of Rock Band's five "buttons" per instrument or Frequency's three, each instrument track in Blitz is limited to two tracks, with imported tracks converted algorithmically from the original Rock Band version. It is, technically, a simplification, but it's still challenging enough when you're juggling four or five instruments. And when you're playing Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction."%Gallery-152627%
Gears of War: Exile was once a thing, isn't a thing anymore
Way back in January 2011, a trademark for Gears of War: Exile surfaced on the US Patent and Trademark office website. Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski has revealed the studio was working on a project named that, but that it has since been canned."Let's just bury the hatchet now," he told Gamespot here at PAX East. "Gears of War: Exile was an unannounced game that I can't give any details about that has since been cancelled." Outside of the existence of the trademark, there really isn't any other information.Some speculated Gears of War: Exile was to be a Kinect title and an on-rails experience, but without any further information from Epic it looks like we're left to speculate on what could've been.
The Daily Grind: Do you like gaming conventions?
As you read this, PAX East is entering its final day for the year, and the Massively writers have been working on covering the event as best we can. Of course, some people would rather be on the ground instead of reading about the show second-hand because there's nothing quite like the thrill of being knee-deep in a convention. For others, though, the idea of standing around in a convention hall with thousands of other people sounds like a special kind of torture. Do you like gaming conventions? If you do, what's your favorite element of the shows -- the new games, the special giveaways, or just the energy level? If you don't, what bothers you -- the crowds, the spectacle, or the necessity of travel and cramped scheduling? Or are you the sort of person for whom it really depends on the show, i.e., you've been to some you loved and some you couldn't stand? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Making a new friend in Orcs Must Die! 2
When we were picking our Best of the Rest games for 2011, I commented that all I wanted in an Orcs Must Die! sequel was multiplayer. It was at the top of everyone's request list, and Orcs Must Die! 2 delivers.%Gallery-152005%
PAX East 2012: The Secret World demo
Funcom's The Secret World has had a big weekend at PAX East with its first public chance for hands-on interaction! It's a game that's been stirring up quite a bit of interest; the classless, level-less progression system, secret societies, and sword-and-automatic-rifle genre-bending are just a few of its selling points. My ears tend to perk up when the game gets mentioned, so of course I was all but falling over myself to hop into the playable demo this weekend. Walking away from that experience, though, I'm unconvinced.
Sonic 4: Episode 2 spin-dashes to PSN May 15, XBLA May 16
The second episode of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 will debut on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade next month. Sega is showcasing the game at PAX East, where a representative confirmed to Joystiq that the PSN version will be released on May 15, with the XBLA version arriving the following day. The PC and mobile versions will follow at a later date.Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 will likely be the last episode, as Sega revealed earlier this year that no more episodes are currently planned.
Seen@PAX East: Journey between halls
Joystiq: Oh, hello! We love your costume. What's the secret to effective, truly evocative cosplay?
PAX East 2012: Guns of Icarus announces closed beta, details adventure mode
STEAMPUNK! AHH! OK, now that that's out of my system, let's talk Guns of Icarus Online. This morning, I had the pleasure of meeting with some of the folks from Muse Games at PAX East to talk about the studio's upcoming steampunk-airship-battling title. The title is still in alpha testing, though it will be springing into the early stages of closed beta at some point in the next couple of weeks. At launch, the title will be focused on competitive, match-made PvP matches a la first-person-shooters. But this is Massively, so let's talk MMOs. Strictly speaking, I'd have to say Guns of Icarus Online isn't one -- at least not yet. After the initial match-based "skirmish" mode of the game is released, the studio will continue to support it by slowly adding in "adventure" mode features. Adventure mode is more akin to a traditional MMO in that it provide a more open world for players to navigate and explore, tradeskill and economy systems, missions, towns, and settlements, all within a persistent world. While it remains to be seen whether the game will ultimately become a "true" MMO, this stylish foray into the steampunk/dieselpunk genres is definitely one to watch. Massively's on the ground in Boston during the weekend of April 6-8, bringing you all the best news from PAX East 2012. Whether you're dying to know more about TERA or PlanetSide 2 or any MMO in between, we aim to have it covered!
