PAX-East-2013
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PAX East 2013: ArenaNet on Guild Wars 2's near and far future
This year's PAX East is the first one to take place in a post-launch world for Guild Wars 2. Last year, one of the big rewards for panelgoers was scoring a beta key; this year, anyone can grab a copy right now without a problem (just a fee). Consequently, the game hasn't had quite as much presence this year. But the team at ArenaNet decided to do something different this time around by sending out two of the designers to sit down and just answer questions from media representatives. Before the palaver began in earnest, we were given a brief recap of the game's current state and the overall design focus. At the moment, we know that the game's developers are not looking to release a major expansion, focusing instead on more immediate content releases on a short schedule to make the game as good as it can be. While they don't like to use the term sandbox, they want the game to be a living world where people have a reason to be out in the world instead of stuck in small, instanced areas.
BioWare Edmonton and producer Casey Hudson working on 'a whole new fictional universe'
During a panel this weekend at PAX East, Mass Effect producer Casey Hudson revealed that his team at BioWare Edmonton has started work on "a whole new fictional universe." Other details weren't shared, except that Hudson said that he and BioWare's Senior Creative Director Preston Watamaniuk are going to be "building something new" together.Hudson oversaw Mass Effect 3 as an executive producer, and he says he'll still serve that role on the next Mass Effect title. But that game is being developed at BioWare Montreal, so Hudson's team at BioWare Edmonton has moved on to something completely new. Hopefully we'll hear more about it soon.
Seen@PAX East: PopCap plays tricks
PopCap's PAX East booth was carnival-themed this year, and featured a magician that decided to attempt a "social experiment" Saturday. Stepping down from the small stage, he instructed the crowd to gather closely around the Plants vs Zombies developer's booth, then stood among them. After a brief explanation, he incited a loud, manufactured applause from the crowd before taking the stage and starting his short, but charming routine.The magician believed that by kicking off the presentation with a cheering crowd, those passing by would naturally stop and join the audience. He was right; the video above shows a few folks gathering near our spot on the left side of the stage, but the total crowd gathering around the booth might have doubled in size from the time before the enigmatic performer began his instructions.
Borderlands 2 getting new class, level cap raise in the next few months
The new Vault Hunter for Borderlands 2, teased at SXSW, has been revealed at PAX East. Krieg the Psycho will be the game's sixth playable class, and you can see a quick teaser of what he looks and plays like in the video above. He's primarily a melee character, but has a few ranged abilities and can skill up in the Bloodlust tree (focused on combat bonuses), go insane with the Mania tree, or break out fire-based attacks with the Hellborn tree. Krieg is part of the Psycho Pack, which will be available in May for $9.99, or 800 Microsoft points. On April 2, Borderlands 2 will get the Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade pack ($5, or 400 MSP), which will raise the game's level cap from 50 up to 61. Unlike the Psycho Pack, it will be part of the game's Season Pass content and unlock a third playthrough in the "Ultimate Vault Hunter mode." Finally, Gearbox teased the game's last piece of campaign DLC at its panel, which it simply said was due out sometime in June. %Gallery-183718%
Here's that Mega Man 25th anniversary statue
It may not be a new game, but Capcom is celebrating Mega Man's 25th anniversary with a collectible statue, which it announced during its PAX East panel this weekend. Capcom offered a few photos and details about the statue, which you can view in the gallery below.The collectible character stands at 10 inches tall, and is made by Multiverse Studios. It features USB-powered LED lights on the statue's base as well as Mega Man's helmet and arm cannon. Capcom hasn't said exactly how many will be produced, but there will be under 2,000 of them made. It will go on sale exclusively at San Diego Comic Con in July. %Gallery-183674%
Contrast preview: Shadow puppet theater
Once upon a time there was a young girl with a troubled home life who took solace in the imaginary universe she dreamed up when she was alone. We've heard this story before, told in variant forms by Guillermo del Toro, Lewis Carroll and Zack Snyder, but Compulsion Studios puts a new twist on the tale with Contrast.Didi, an inquisitive 9-year-old living with her mother in a 1920s noir world, manufactures a landscape of shadows populated by her lone, best friend, Dawn. Dawn is a young woman, more mature and powerful than Didi, and has the ability to shift between the real and shadow worlds. In Didi's reality, Dawn can climb shadows as if they were solid ground, allowing her to scale areas unreachable by flesh characters. She interacts with few real-world objects, and people, aside from Didi, are invisible to her -- only their silhouettes exist.Contrast is a puzzle platformer, starring Dawn as she shifts between shade and density, helping Didi as she follows her mother through the dark city streets. The game is infused with jazz and tainted innocence: Didi's mom, the cabaret singer; her dad, absent; and a decrepit circus, just rolling into town.%Gallery-183660%
Double Fine Adventure unveiled as 'Broken Age'
Double Fine Adventure, the adventure game whose progress has been a secret to all but Kickstarter backers, was revealed as "Broken Age" at a PAX East panel today. The website for the game is now live, offering art and plot information to the rest of us outside of the privileged Kickstarter class."Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure telling the stories of a young boy and girl leading parallel lives," the website explains. "The girl has been chosen by her village to be sacrificed to a terrible monster--but she decides to fight back. Meanwhile, a boy on a spaceship is living a solitary life under the care of a motherly computer, but he wants to break free to lead adventures and do good in the world. Adventures ensue."Pre-orders are still available on the site, and provide access to the backer-only forums, as well as all past and future episodes of the documentary series about Broken Age's development, by 2 Player Productions.
Seen@PAX East: 'Super Poor Indie Area'
Engineer Thomas Macrina set up an anarchic indie booth along one wall of the PAX East showfloor, behind a row of exhibits and under a pair of escalators, with three very hand-made signs. Still, he attracted our attention and a small crowd of curious players: Each person took turns holding Macrina's iPhone 5 as if snapping a MySpace profile photo, made a gun with one hand, held it to one cheek and went to town, snapping that thumb and rotating the phone around the room. Macrina called it Pig Hunt, an augmented reality game for iOS devices. Think Duck Hunt, with your hand as the zapper and the world as your playground. Try not to smile.
Dust: An Elysian Tail coming to Steam
Humble Heart's 2012 XBLA debut Dust: An Elysian Tail is headed to Steam and could potentially be available as soon as next month, Polygon reports. The announcement was made by Dust designers Alex Kain and Dean Dodrill during a panel at PAX East, wherein Dodril explained that he isn't going to "do a whole lot different" with the PC port, being satisfied with the current experience.Dodril also teased the possibility of a Dust 2 at some point in the future, with Kain adding that there is "no shortage" of ideas for a sequel.
PAX 2013: Hands-on with Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a brand-spankin'-new online collectible card game from Blizzard, announced just yesterday here at PAX East 2013. And since I love you guys soooo much, I took the time to stand in line to take a look for myself. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that I flock to CCGs like a moth to flame. No sirree. Of course, this isn't your traditional MMO, so it's difficult to write a traditional review, especially considering I was able to play only a single match (which I won by a landslide, thank you very much), so instead I'm just going to give y'all a rundown of how the game plays and let you draw your own conclusions. Shuffle your cards, cut your decks, and read on for the skinny on Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.
Civilization 5: Brave New World launches in July, XCOM units playable
The Civilization 5: Brave New World expansion has been given a launch date of July 9 for North America, July 12 internationally.During today's Firaxis PAX East panel, the team also announced that the game will feature XCOM squads as late-game units. The units are paratroopers who can drop in 40 units away (delivered by Skyranger), the standard is 9. Would you expect any less from the elite squad of humanity's last hope?%Gallery-182905%
Don't Starve coming April 24, six months of additional content to follow
Don't Starve, Klei Entertainment's upcoming survival PC game, is slated to launch on April 24 for $15 on Steam, the Mark of the Ninja developer told Joystiq at PAX East today. Don't Starve drops players into a procedurally-generated world in which they guide their character through an island on a quest to survive the elements.The game operates on the notion that in order to survive, players must balance three gauges: health, hunger and sanity. As the character loses his or her sanity, they will begin to see creatures that exist only in their heads, which also gradually become more real and more hostile."You can entirely lose all of your sanity, and then come back from that," Sound designer Matthew Marteinsson said. "There's lots of things you can do to keep up your sanity: you wear dapper clothing, you pick flowers, you do civilized things, and then your sanity comes back." The game offers an advantage to those that lose their sanity, as some items can only be collected when players are severely unstable.The game won't just feature its main character, Wilson, but will include other unlockable characters with their own special abilities. One example shown at PAX East was Willow, a girl that lights her own fires when the screen goes pitch black during the game's night cycle.Klei Entertainment is promising six months of free content to come after the game's full release in April. Don't Starve is currently in closed beta, during which Marteinsson says the team has released additional content every two weeks.
PAX East 2013: EVE Online Odyssey expansion announced
CCP Games has just announced at PAX East that EVE Online's next expansion will be called Odyssey and will hit the live servers this summer on June 4th. CCP told convention attendees that the focus of the expansion will be on exploration and shaking up the status quo of the classic space sandbox. The studio has simultaneously unveiled an official website for the expansion; it promises, among other features, "a re-imagined scanning system, intuitive navigation and new exploration modules" that "will aid you as you search the heavens for your next conquest." [This story is developing -- stay tuned as our PAX attendees post more info!]%Gallery-183651%
PAX East 2013: Hands-on with WildStar's Spellslinger and Warrior
When you start following a game, you always worry that it won't live up to your expectations. It's inevitable, really. I didn't fall in love with WildStar after years of playing; I fell in love based upon a trailer and a design philosophy that appealed to me. The game itself could be far removed from my first impressions, or it could be a cocktail of half-finished systems and unsatisfying gameplay. Without some personal experience in Nexus, all I could to do was wait for the game and hope that it matched my hopes. Of course, WildStar hit the ground running at PAX East 2013. I wrote on Friday about my experiences with the new housing video and some of the game's zones, but that's no substitute for playing the game. So it was with a slight sense of apprehension that I found myself standing behind the demo station controls and jumping in for the first time at PAX. Would I be satisfied, or would this turn out to be a love affair that didn't survive contact with the game itself?
PAX East 2013: Hands-on with City of Steam
I don't know what it is about steam engines, brass goggles, and copious amounts of clockwork mechanisms that excites me so much, but the steampunk genre has a special place in my heart. With that in mind, it should be no surprise that when I discovered that Mechanist Games, the studio behind upcoming F2P browser MMO City of Steam, was going to be at PAX East, I immediately claimed the assignment. For the uninitiated, City of Steam is a title that mixes the traditional fantasy flavors of magic, elves, and goblins with steampunk staples of industrialism, clockwork automatons, and airships to create what is described as "industrial age fantasy in a fallen world." During my time at PAX East, I got to spend just under an hour exploring the world of City of Steam and chatting with the game's developers who were milling about the booth. It's a fairly ambitious title that's aiming to bring a high-quality, modern MMO experience to players' browsers, but will it run like clockwork or go up in a cloud of steam?
Original voice actors return for DuckTales Remastered
The full voice cast of the original DuckTales cartoon will reprise their respective roles for the newly announced nostalgiapocalypse DuckTales Remastered, Capcom senior vice-president Christian Svensson revealed in a Capcom Unity forum thread yesterday."We have ALL the original voice actors from the show," Svensson said, including Scrooge voice actor Alan Young, who "still came into the studio and did his thing like a pro. The voice work really adds a lot to the package.""Scrooge's voice actor," as a quick aside, is a man named Alan Young, who's been in the entertainment industry since the 1940s. Before he endeared himself to the hearts of millions as a penny-pinching old duck, Young's original claim to fame was as Wilbur Post, the star of Mister Ed. We wonder if Young knew at the time that talking animals would become a running theme for his 70-odd years in show business?Update: Joystiq has been contacted by a representative for Alan Young, who clarified the details of Mr. Young's entertainment career.
Supergiant may break free of publisher model with Transistor
Supergiant doesn't have a publisher for its next game, Transistor – but more importantly, it doesn't need one. Supergiant worked with Warner Bros. to publish Bastion, and since its launch in 2011, it's sold 1.7 million copies across PC, Mac, Linux, XBLA and iOS."It did well everywhere," Supergiant Lead Designer Amir Rao tells Joystiq at PAX East. Supergiant is now in a position to publish its own games, and Transistor might be the ideal candidate."We're showing it to the world for the first time," Rao says. "We don't have deals with anyone. This is the first time anybody has seen this game. It's really way too early for us to say if we'll have a publisher or what platforms it will be on."For what it's worth, Bastion moved the most units on Steam, Rao says. Supergiant may not seek a publisher at all, but anything's possible, Rao says. If it did want to snag a publisher, Transistor faces an issue recently vocalized by Epic Games and Dontnod. It features a female lead, and apparently that can make it a tough sell to publishers. Internally, it's not an issue for Supergiant."We put characters in our games that are representative of the worlds they're in," Rao says. "We don't think of her as a female character. She's just our character."
Seen@PAX East: A tactical poster for your time
Hanging at the 2K booth at PAX East is an inspirational poster of marketing, featuring the characters from Firaxis' Civilization and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. If you're at the show, you can pick up the poster at the "Strategy Masterminds Mega Panel - Behind the Scenes at Firaxis Games" panel. The panel features the team of Firaxis showing off "never-before-seen footage" and teasing "big reveals" at 4:30PM.
PAX East 2013: Red 5 on Firefall's new gaming TV channel
Red 5 Studios' MMOFPS Firefall is probably familiar to the Massively family, but it presentation Friday at PAX East was a chance to get a look behind the curtain at how far it's come and how far it has to go during testing. CEO Mark Kern and Lead Game Designer Scott Youngblood presented a little history of the game's development so far, with a look to the future. But if that's not enough to get you to gear up and plant a Thumper, maybe their announcement about a brand-new video channel devoted to everything and anything involving gaming will catch your interest.%Gallery-183638%
Ronimo Games considering crowdfunding for Awesomenauts content
Awesomenauts developer Ronimo Games is considering a crowdfunding approach to make its next project a reality. The developer self-published Awesomenauts on Steam in August 2012, and has since offered a number of updates and extra content for the PC version of the game.Though the developer's next project is "not Awesomenauts 2," it does have ambitions to expand on Awesomenauts. "There are some bigger features that we want to try to do, but we don't have the capacity to really do that right now," Ronimo Games co-founder Jasper Koning told Joystiq during PAX East.Crowdfunding extra content has lead to success before, most recently in the case of a successful Indiegogo campaign to bring new characters to Skullgirls. The campaign reached its $150,000 goal in less than 24 hours.As seen with Lab Zero Games, the costs for creating new content for its fighting game made the goal a reasonable one to obtain. Likewise, Ronimo Games has added four characters and a number of maps to Awesomenauts in the game's lifetime, and has offered that content to Steam players for free.Not every piece of additional Awesomenauts content is free, as the developer sells character skins. Without revealing any specific numbers, Koning told Joystiq the "skins do very well, we're not getting really rich off of it, but well enough for us."
