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PAX 2008: Omeganaut shows us his special Jenga move
Ben Gray, aka MNC Dover from Monday Night Crew, was eliminated from the Omegathon on Saturday, but they were nice enough to let him pass along his words of wisdom, and his ultra-secret Jenga move. If you want to know how to get a leg up on the competition, check out the video above.One thing's for sure, if you use this move you'll never get invited to play Jenga ever again. Which might be exactly what you're looking for.
PAX 08: Hands-on Halo 3's Assembly
Over on Joystiq, you can check out our hands-on impressions of Bungie's big PAX reveal, Assembly. And, surprise, surprise, Assembly is actually an amazingly fun Halo 3 multiplayer map. Click towards the jump to read about Assembly map specifics, some of its intricacies and generally how the map plays. Also, for those who demanded Assembly video footage, we recorded some off-screen goodness which can be viewed in the video above. Yes, that IS Benny Hill music.
PAX 2008 hands-on: Demigod
Following an interview with Gas Powered Games at PAX 2008, we got some hands on time with their newest creation, Demigod. The first thing we noticed while watching it running on glowing, envy-inducing PCs was how deliberate much of it looked. Everything from the unit/map design to the ease-of-use control scheme oozed hours of careful consideration on developer GPG's part. While the concept of Demigod tends to bewilder many who hear it -- ourselves included -- understanding the idea only took us a few minutes of playing the atypical strategy game.Players only control their Demigod and its set of abilities. Our time was spent with the RPG-style Torchbearer, a Norse flavored character that can switch between ice and fire modes. We were digging his armored-burn-victim look, which just so happened to feature more armor and less burn. The Torchbearer is all about freezing everything before switching to fire and watching the screen light up as your enemies burn. Our magical offensive certainly got us some kills, but it wasn't moving the battlefront at all. Once we began to work more attentively with our AI-controlled troops of the non-Skynet variety, the battle quickly shifted to our favor.Our actions in-game where peppered by murmurs of, "Oh, whoa." and "I want this game, now" from various onlookers behind us. We were starting to agree with this sentiment. It surprised us to find out that the game is actually running on a version of the Supreme Commander engine, as we saw more visual variety in 30 minutes with Demigod than we ever did playing hours of SupCom. GPG assured us that the system requirements are designed to include low-end machines, which is very much due to the fact that Demigod doesn't try to do a thousand things at once on-screen while you play it. (our wallets say thanks) Looking at the game, it was fairly hard to imagine that the harpy-like creatures and wiggling death-plant-things were living in the same engine that featured angular robot-spiders and hover tanks that bogged down our computers just a year and half ago. All in all, Demigod looks like it's going to steal away our precious personal time when it eventually ships on Stardock's Impulse service next year. [MP3] Download this interview in MP3 format
PAX 08: It's a PAX'ified X3F sticker gallery
We did it during E3 and figured we'd do it again. It's back and better than ever, the oh so cool and 100% organic X3F sticker gallery this time from the Penny Arcade Expo 2008. Yippy! And after two days of walking the show floor, we were able to corner and subsequently stick a few Bungie employees including the Marty as well as The Behemoth's Dan Paladin, Torpex's Bill Dugan, a Blue Knight, Gears' Josh and Pete, Claude from HBO and MORE! All the sticky X3F PAX stickering is galleried below, minus any ninja-sticks. Don't worry though, we'll get some ninja-sticks in before PAX ends ... we plomise.%Gallery-30799%
Seen@PAX08: Warhammer Online team going all out
We've spent a lot of time stomping around the exhibition hall at PAX this year and there are plenty of sights to see. One constant of the show floor was the never-wavering, always-happy-to-see-you team at the Warhammer Online booth. They also liked to make strange "w" signs with their hands at us. We think it's probably some east-coaster thing or maybe a esoteric European gang sign. It could've also been related to Warhammer Online, but that's probably unlikely.This was the first year that Paul Barnett, Jeff Hickman and Josh Drescher were there to answer questions, chat with fans and generally be cool, approachable guys. While hanging around the booth after our (soon to be available) interview with Jeff and Paul, we lost count of how many times they posed for pictures, signed things, repeatedly discussed issues, or just generally made themselves available for poking and prodding throughout the day.%Gallery-30683%
PAX 08: Castle Crashers patch to release ASAP
In a Penny Arcade Expo interview posted over on Joystiq, The Behemoth's Dan Paladin and Tom Fulp talk Castle Crashers problems, making it very clear that they're working hard to release an online co-op fixing patch "as soon as possible.""We're trying to get it out as soon as possible, because we know it's important to people" Paladin explained, saying that the main issue with Castle Crashers' online component is due to players' conflicting network conditions. But Paladin made it clear that they did all they could to work out potential network issues prior to launch saying that network problems "was something that never came up in testing." So, when will we see patch goodness? As soon as humanly possible, though truthfully, Fulp admitted that there "isn't any official time frame yet."Check out the complete The Behemoth interview over at Joystiq to learn more about the Castle Crashers development process, how pricing XBLA games really works and learn a super secret strategy for unlocking a few new in-game characters.
PAX 2008: The Vault-Boy Puppet
"That has to be the coolest piece of schwag ever made." People were honestly saying this about the coveted Vault-Boy puppet that Bethesda was giving away after their Fallout 3 panel. It was hard to come by too, since you had to attend the panel, get a special Fallout 3 fat boy (read: atomic bomb) card, bring it by Bethesda's booth afterwards, and hope you got the puppet as a prize instead of the t-shirt (which was pretty damn cool too).Check out the gallery below, which is full of the Vault-Boy puppet. Is he good? Is he evil? We hope to find out before he kills Ross.%Gallery-30869%
PAX 08: Red vs. Blue goes animated
Earlier yesterday, the Rooster Teeth crew held a rather interesting reveal, unveiling their latest Red vs. Blue project and it has gone animated. Yup, RvB has moved on from its machinima roots and jumped into the world of Japanese anime complete with vivid imagery and pretty colors. It's still the good old Rooster Teeth humor we've all come to know and love ... just animated with some dancing Grunts. Off-screen footage embedded above.[Thanks, to everyone who sent this in]
Penny Ar-cake makes Gabe cry, us drool
Click to giganticize Penny Arcade's Mike/Gabe told us in an interview that he hates all cake coverage. The good news is, you can't hate our cake and eat it too. So, it's with love and appreciation that we present this glorious photo of a sweet-looking, sugary Penny Arcade cake, featuring deliciousness from the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.Gabe, you might hate cake, but we think the masses would decimate this Penny Arcade pastry piece with vim and vigor. It was created by cakesmith Brian Kurtz, who is also available for weddings, bar mitzvahs, your LAN party, or "any other situation that calls for a bad-ass 3D cake that will make your guests crap their pants in disbelief." Stay tuned for our interview with Tycho and Gabe later this week.
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PAX 2008: Halo Mythic ain't mythical, it's here... sort of
Is this what Microsoft was not so quietly sweeping under the carpet when they nixed the Bungie announcement during their E3 keynote? We have no clue as of yet, and all we can get out of Bungie is a "we can't talk about it." We're going to try and batter down Bungie's doors today to get more info.So far, here's what we know. The menu screen says System Version 1.2, when the Halo 3 retail version is only at 1.1, and there's only a multiplayer option, no campaign. What does it all mean? We caught up with Bungie's Brian Jarrard who told us the screen was from a build that they brought on Friday that "wasn't really meant to be seen. However, it's really not that exciting, it's gotten kind of blown out of proportion."While the shakey-cam photo above from Addict Gaming might be the only visual evidence of Mythic, it's definitely coming. At some point. Bungie wasn't forthcoming with details, but we'll see what we can find out.[Thanks, Robert]
Rock Band PAX Pack DLC brings charity
This week's Rock Band DLC is a philanthropic one -- all the money from the tracks will be going to the Child's Play charity. The PAX Pack will contain the following songs: "Skullcrusher Mountain" -- Jonathan Coulton "Livin' on the Corner of Dude and Catastrophe" -- MC Frontalot "Shhh...." -- Darkest of the Hillside Thickets (previously unreleased track) Each band is performing at PAX and all the songs are master recordings. Look for these on the PS Store on Thursday for $0.99 each or $2.99 for the entire pack.
PAX 2008: Halo 3 Mythic? What's Halo 3 Mythic? [update]
Update: According to Joystiq, Bungie's Brian Jarrard explained that the Mythic picture was taken prior to the PAX kickoff and wasn't meant for public consumption. Jarrad then made it clear that the Mythic screen is "really not that exciting" and has "gotten kind of blown out of proportion." We attempted to get someone at Bungie to talk about it, but mum is the word.As we jet off to our next PAX appointment we thought we'd inform you about the latest and most interesting Halo 3 news bit to come from the PAX show floor that's fourteen times more exciting than Assembly. It's something called Halo 3 Mythic with a multiplayer only menu, version 1.2 marking and, if the above screen grab from the guys over at AddictGaming.com can be trusted, is something to do with Bungie's canceled E3 announcement. Or it could be just a general Halo 3 update. Or it could be something to do with the acceptance videos. Or it could be everything combined. We dunno!Like we said, the image above was snapped from Bungie's booth at PAX, so (seeing that we're here at PAX) we'll sneak over to the Bungie booth like ninjas and inquire about this mysterious Halo 3 Mythic. Story developing.
PAX 2008: lonely gamers LFG
Looking for group? PAX 2008 has you covered. While you're killing time or waiting for your number to be called in the console freeplay, you can chill out in here, play some tabletop games with your fellow gamers, and run around with a big LFG bubble over your head.We stopped by for a bit, and these rooms are actually a fun place to hang out, and you can easily run into a pickup game of whatever catches your fancy. It's a great way to meet people from all over the country (including one dude we met who came all the way from the UK to PAX it), and they're also near the nice, clean bathrooms. At least, they are clean on day one. We pray they remain that way.%Gallery-30778%
PAX 08: Microsoft Xbox campus tour
A day prior to PAX officially kicking off (which was this past Thursday, if we recall correctly) Mr. Paladino from the Gamerscore Blog and Mr. Major "Larry Hryb" Nelson were kind enough to invite team X3F over to one of Microsoft's Xbox campuses for a some tour fun. We had a chance to inspect the lobby (don't pre-judge, lobbies can be interesting), meet Master Chief, inspect a few awards, touch the Surface and take a looksy at the Xbox Live Online Lab. The one room that all of Xbox Live and its pieces parts are monitored from BUT a room that we couldn't photograph for obvious "super secret" reasons. We did take a picture of the door though, so be happy with that.Here you go, start your gallery tour of our Microsoft Xbox campus tour by clicking this wee little link or click-attacking the gallery images below. It's visually interesting and mentally stimulating. Oh, and thanks again to the Paladino and the Major Nelson for taking time to hold our hand and walk us through the campus. Our palms were sweaty only because we were excited. Apologies.%Gallery-30714%
PAX 08: Halo 3's Assembly officially revealed
A bit earlier today (and as promised) Bungie unleashed Halo 3 multiplayer map Assembly upon PAX attendees, letting anyone partake in the Assembly funnery. And for those who aren't lucky enough to get hands on time with the new map, Bungie released a few screenshots depicting a bunch of Spartan on Spartan violence in a purplish colored Covenant world. We'll be getting some Assembly PAX hands on time a bit later and be posting a complete writeup about our experience. Until then, enjoy the Assembly picture goodies.%Gallery-30798%
PAX 08: Witness a Bungie and The Behemoth booth construction
PAX 2008 has officially begun and we came across two companies that didn't manage there time very well (ahem, Bungie and The Behemoth). Meaning that they were diligently working on setting up their booths up until the last minute. So, we figured we'd give you a "booth construction" tour so you can get a behind the scenes peek at what it looks like when team Bungie and The Behemoth build a PAX booth. In record time! Now to the GALLERY!%Gallery-30791%
Reminder: Bungie to reveal Halo 3 Assembly map
Just in case you forgot or suddenly came down with a severe case of memory loss, we thought we'd post a friendly reminder about Bungie's upcoming Halo 3 PAX reveal of their latest multiplayer map called Assembly. Yes diddly do, according to last weeks Bungie Weekly Update, the map formerly known as "Purple Reign" is now called Assembly and is not at all affiliated with Halo 2 map Midship. Though, it is purple and Covenant themed.We expect Bungie to do the big Assembly map unveiling sometime later on Friday when PAX starts. We'll post photos, our Assembly gameplay impressions and hopefully corner Bungie for some interview fun. It'll be good times, guaranteed!
In Seattle? Join Microsoft for a PAX Meet-N-Eat
Live near Seattle? In town for PAX? Like beef? If you answered yes, then you should totally take team Microsoft's PAX Meet-N-Eat invite and head to Seattle's ever so famous Red Mill tomorrow evening. There, you'll not only have a chance to meetup with your fellow gaming peers, but Major Nelson, e, litheon, TriXie and a few folks from the Gamerscore Blog will be attending, chowing on burgers and mingling. We also have good word (from a certain Larry) that there will be stacks of bacon and plenty hot chicks ... need we sell this community event any more? Friday, August 29th from 1-2:00PM at the Seattle Red Mill. Be there.
X3F Attacks PAX!
Attention X3F Soldiers! Dustin and Xav are attacking the Penny Arcade Expo with full force from August 29-31. Along with a ton of coverage both here at X3F and on Joystiq, you can expect news and impressions throughout the weekend. Will you be hitting PAX? If you do, expect to be slapped with an X3F sticker, schooled in Gears of War 2 by Dustin and grilled with tough questions from Xav.So, who's coming?!
Gears of War 2 to be playable during PAX
Thanks to the Gamerscore Blog's handy schedule, we've been informed that Gears of War 2 is going to be demoed during this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo, though never did we expect Gears 2 to actually be playable on the show floor ... but it is!According to the official Gears website, from this Friday through Sunday during PAX, the Microsoft booth will be hosting 5v5 Gears of War 2 multiplayer matches. And you can play too! But that isn't all. On top of the Gears 2 multiplayer gaming and the on-stage "Sinkhole" campaign demonstrations, both Gears writer to the stars Joshua Ortega and Gears artist to the stars Pete Hayes will be making a PAX appearance for a quick Q&A session and autograph signing. That said, we still think the meaty bits of the Gears 2 PAX presence is the multiplayer ... we so damn excited!
