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Seen@PAX: The Behemoth's arcade
Above is the massive control panel that powers The Behemoth's untitled fourth game, currently codenamed "Game 4." After organizing their troops across a hex-based field, players confirm their selections with a tantalizing glowing green button, and send out orders by pulling an unusually shaped lever at their side, slot machine-style. After completing the PAX Prime demo, the screen instructs players to fill out a nearby comment card to rate the experience. This isn't the only throwback hardware The Behemoth has on display at PAX, though. Hit the break below to get a look at some unique arcade cabinets created for Alien Hominid, Battleblock Theater, and Castle Crashers.
Hitman: Sniper evolves the downloadable pre-order bonus for mobile
Hitman: Sniper may carry a similar name as the Absolution pre-order bonus mini-game 'Hitman: Sniper Challenge' released in 2012, but the mobile and tablet device-exclusive is a new experience. In the game first announced at E3 2014, players return to the scene of the crime as Agent 47 – the killer for hire anti-hero from the Hitman series. Players take up a perch and rid the world of 47's targets from afar. Though the game focuses on long-range sniping, earning a high score borrows from the tenets that make the main series a success. Even from a mile away and with a rifle, stealth and being creative are paramount.
Final Fantasy Type-0 launching within the next year
Final Fantasy Type-0 is expected to launch within the next year, Square Enix confirmed to Joystiq during a hands-off demo of the game at PAX Prime. The HD port of the Japan-only PSP game is a "speedy, action-oriented" spin on the series' formula, featuring real-time battles with 14 playable characters, three of which were shown in the demo. "We probably wouldn't age another year until it's released," the game's director Hajime Tabata said. Type-0's move to PS4 and Xbox One was announced at E3 in June. Tabata stressed that Final Fantasy Type-0 is approaching a more mature tone in comparison to other games in the series, including magic and special abilities acting as "devastating attacks" that can cause enemies to burn to death, for example. Additionally, much of the feedback Square Enix received after launching the game in Japan revolved around its steep difficulty. To alleviate those concerns, the developer implemented four difficulty modes and tuned the combat balance so the HD port "makes sense for the big screen," Tabata explained.
Game Show Night at PAX Prime: 3 hours of hilarious filth (and prizes!)
Is your life missing a deep, soul-warping sense of depravity? Could you use a few chuckles? Enjoy game shows? Has Joystiq got the PAX panel for you! As part of a long-running tradition, our own Managing Editor, Susan Arendt, will be hosting Blankety Blank, a disgusting but hilarious take on the classic game show Match Game. Join Susan as she asks audience members to answer simple fill in the blank questions, in the hopes that their answers will match the answers of the five game industry panelists, including Russ Pitts of False Gravity, Kathleen de Vere and Graham Stark of Loading, Ready, Run, Chris Kohler of Wired and Ubisoft community manager Dan Amrich. The event begins at 9:00pm Pacific in the Hedgehog theatre at PAX. Fair warning (especially if you have kids): The panelists' answers will be filthy. Like, wash your mouth out with Borax filthy. Blankety Blank is part of a massive, three hour long super panel, Game Show Night. The whole thing kicks of at 7:00pm Pacific with Pyramid, followed by Jeopardy at 8:00pm and, finally, Blankety Blank at 9:00pm. If you're not attending PAX this weekend, you can catch all of Game Show Night on Twitch right here.
Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell reveals its colors at PAX Prime [Update: trailer!]
Volition has announced a new Saints Row 4 standalone expansion, titled Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, during its panel today at PAX Prime 2014. A trailer shows Saints gang members Kinzie and Johnny Gat delving - and this is not a metaphor - into Hell to rescue the Saints Row boss who was promoted to President of the United States during Saints Row 4. Hell is said to be roughly 50 percent the size of Steelport - the city from Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row 4 - and players will be able to fly around the city using demonic wings. Volition is also including weapons themed after Biblical curses and stories, including a gun that fires a plague of locusts, a gun that fires a plague of frogs, and a chair with machine guns and rockets strapped to it, representing sloth - one of the seven deadly sins. There will also be a musical number. The expansion will feature 2-player co-op where one partner plays as Kinzie while the other takes control of Johnny Gat. The expansion will be released January 27, for $19.95. Check out the trailer after the break.
Saints Row 4 re-elected, will serve terms on Xbox One, PS4
Saints Row 4 is coming to Xbox One and PS4 as Saints Row 4: Re-elected, Volition has revealed. Developer High Voltage is helping with the port, which will contain all the game's released DLC. This updated version of the game will release January 27 - the same day as the newly-announced Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell - and will cost $29.99. [Image: Deep Silver]
New Super Meat Boy is an auto-runner for PC, tablets
Super Meat Boy Forever is an auto-runner heading to PC and tablets, coming directly from Super Meat Boy crew Team Meat. The Team Meatheads are Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, and they're showing the new game off at PAX Prime 2014. Super Meat Boy Forever is playable at the show, but there's no set launch date just yet. "When it's done," is the timeline for now. See a Vine of Super Meat Boy Forever straight from the PAX Prime 2014 show floor below. Earlier in August, Team Meat teased something called "A Voyeur for September," which conveniently anagrams to "Super Meat Boy Forever." That's about the only resemblance the teaser has to this new game, since the accompanying video was a live-action stealth(?) thing.
PAX Prime 2014: State of Decay takes steps toward something larger
Down at Undead Labs' new studio in Seattle, there is evidence of one low-tech approach to development. It's a very large, flat table that designers use to playtest pen-and-paper games that they create on the spot. By playing back and forth, organic brainstorming occurs and allows for refinement to the systems before precious time is wasted on coding failed ideas. It's this kind of iterative approach that led the team to refining its hit title State of Decay. Today, Undead Labs announced that it will be releasing a new version of the game, called State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition in the spring of next year on the Xbox One and Steam. Not only will this package in the original game and all of its DLC, but it will benefit from a jump to 1080p visuals, better animations, and immersive environmental effects. Additionally, characters from the Lifeline DLC will be made playable in the original content. It's not the MMO announcement that we might be hoping for on Massively, but it's not a dismissal of that either. The team made a strong point of saying that this was the first step into the next generation and that this edition of the game would be laying down the foundation for the future of the franchise. Massively's on the ground in Seattle during the weekend of August 29th to September 1st, bringing you all the best news from PAX Prime 2014. Whether you're dying to know more about Warlords of Draenor, The Elder Scrolls Online, Landmark, or any MMO in between, you can bet we'll have it covered!
PAX Prime 2014: Hands-on with Undead Labs' Moonrise
One of the maxims of Undead Labs is that the team is composed of "gaming omnivores" who don't want to get stuck in a rut of doing the exact same game and genre over and over again. When this was explained to me, it helped ease the shock that was caused by the realization that a studio best known for its gory zombie survival bent is also making a colorful Pokémon-like title called Moonrise. In Moonrise, you play as a Warden who is tasked with saving a wide variety of cute critters called Solari by -- of course -- enslaving them and making them fight other Wardens and their pets. Instead of striving to overcome its Pokémon heritage, the team admits that the game is specifically targeted at older teens and younger adults who grew up with those games and want to experience a slightly more mature and full-featured iteration. I got to spend some quality time curled up on a couch with a lap full of Moonrise on the iPad at PAX Prime this week. Is this due to be the next "catch 'em all" fad or a strange blip in the company's portfolio? Read on, and I shall make my guess.
The Daily Grind: What do you hope to hear at this year's PAX Prime?
PAX Prime is the last major Western multi-game tradeshow of the year relevant for MMO enthusiasts, making it the last big wave of mass studio announcements until PAX South's debut in January. Massively's Justin Olivetti will be on the PAX Prime show floor for us this year, checking out Warlords of Draenor, Landmark, ArcheAge, H1Z1, WildStar, The Repopulation, Pathfinder Online, Hearthstone, Trove, Shroud of the Avatar, and other MMOs and not-so-MMOs both big and small. But sometimes game announcements come out of nowhere during conventions, and we discover something we weren't expecting at all. What do you hope to see from this year's PAX Prime? 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!
Latest Pathfinder Online devblog emphasizes player-driven economy
Although players in Pathfinder Online's Alpha 7 run will earn 5,000 XP per hour (in order to help them test more things), the latest devblog warns that things will get decidedly harder once gameplay starts after Early Enrollment. At that point players will face a "cold start," beginning the game with only simple peasant clothes, a club, and 1,000 XP to spend on initial feats. Everything else, from feats to gear to cash, will grow from that. The devblog also details the player-driven economy; by design, nearly everything characters use will be player-crafted. Mobs will drop only starter equipment, coin, salvage, or -- the rarest and most valuable -- recipes. Players can only upgrade gear past the starter level through crafting, and gear can be crafted with certain key words that add bonuses when combined with specific slotted feats. For full details, and a look at what Pathfinder devs are doing at PAX Prime, check out the official site.
PAX10 Humble Flash Bundle discounts the showstoppers
The PAX 10 Humble Flash Bundle is live for five days and offers a lineup of really cool independent games that have been featured at PAX Prime over the years. Up for any price you feel like paying is Badland Premium, Solar 2, Containment: The Zombie Puzzler and Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony Deluxe Pack, plus a DigiPen three-pack including Deity, A Flipping Good Time and Solace. Pay more than the average to add in Fez and The Swapper. Throw down more than $15 and get Cannon Brawl (Early Access version) and Life Goes On, too. Life Goes On is a selection in this year's PAX 10, while the rest are pulled from 2011 and upward. The PAX 10 Humble Flash Bundle supports, in part, Child's Play Charity. We'll have all the news and previews live from PAX Prime 2014 right here. [Image: Humble Bundle]
See Joystiq at PAX Prime 2014!
Are you headed to PAX Prime later this week? So are we! Your pals at Joystiq will be scouring the show floor for scoops on upcoming games, and we'll be making appearances at a number of panels throughout the weekend. Come see us and say hi! Search for "Joystiq" at PAX Prime's website and you'll find out which panels we're appearing at. Joystiq's Managing Editor Susan Arendt hosts the always hilarious (and unspeakably profane) Game Show Night: Blankety Blank on Friday. Saturday finds Feature Content Director Xav de Matos directing the fictional life sim Game Journalism Story, and Sunday sees Weekend Editor Sam Prell helming Not My Problem: Why Everyone Has A Role In Promoting Equality. PAX Prime will showcase a number of standout indie games this coming weekend, including new projects from The Behemoth, Team Meat, and Spry Fox. We'll bring you the latest developments direct from Seattle starting this Friday. [Image: PAX]
New Alone in the Dark, Haunted House games in Atari's horror revival
Despite recent strife, Atari's 2014 offensive continues with upcoming reveals of new Alone in the Dark and Haunted House games. Both games are coming to PC this fall, and Atari plans to reveal them behind closed doors at next week's PAX Prime conference in Seattle. Alone in the Dark: Illumination marks the first entry in the horror series since the 2008 release, which failed to set the world alight despite its hi-tech fire physics. Illumination is in development at Pure FPS, a Californian studio with little info to go on except it holds the trademark to Rekoil, a game made by Plastic Piranha. Consider one of our eyebrows raised.
Super Meat Boy dev teases 'A Voyeur for September'
What to make of this, hmm? Super Meat Boy and Mew-Genics studio Team Meat is teasing a new "live-action stealth game" called A Voyeur for September, which in and of itself is a bit weird. Let's face it, live-action stealth... whatever that is... would be a seismic departure from what we're used to from the team of Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes. Is there another explanation? Smarty-pants online sleuths reckon so, having discovered A Voyeur for September just so happens to be an anagram of Super Meat Boy Forever. That does sound more plausible, although we've discovered the title's also an anagram of Tea Proves Beefy Rumor. Does that mean the answer's in the tea? Somebody, put the kettle on! Check out Team Meat's mysterious teaser trailer below the break.
PAX 10 spotlights Framed and Duet
This year's PAX 10, a collection of games from independent developers, has been determined and will be highlighted at next month's PAX Prime convention. The ten games were hand-picked by 50 industry experts, starting with Duet, Kumobius' elegant arcade-style action game for iOS. Duet is joined by LoveShack's Framed, a narrative puzzle game trapped in a comic world. Both Duet and Framed received attention earlier this year when the games were among six total mobile titles in the PAX East Indie Showcase. Those two games are joined by an abstract 2D PC platformer from DigiPen's Neat Snake known as Flickers. Infinity Monkeys' Life Goes On is also in the mix, in which players set out to find the Cup of Life by ironically sacrificing knights to the game's deathly contraptions. Untame's amorphous puzzler Mushroom 11 will be included in the showcase, as will Funktronic Labs' sci-fi, turn-based adventure game Nova-111.
Perfect Ten: Why the second half of 2014 will be awesome for MMOs
In the midst of mid-summer doldrums, it's easy to fall into a mild depression thinking that everything cool that was going to happen this year already has -- especially in gaming. The spring launch blitz is now officially over, with two highly anticipated MMOs launched, and now some people might be wondering if the rest of 2014 will be all downhill. Spoiler: It will not be. We started talking the other day in the Massively office about just how much there's coming for the latter half of this year and why we're excited to see what the fall and winter months bring. There's so much to look forward to, in fact, that it was incredibly difficult to narrow it down to a mere 10 entries. But that's my job, and that's what I did. Here's why the second half of 2014 will be awesome.
PAX Prime tickets are now on sale, sold out in 3...2...1...
PAX Prime tickets are now on sale. Don't dawdle. We're keeping this short because by the time you finish reading it may be sold out. No joke! Update: We weren't kidding! As of 2:07PM ET, which is less than an hour since they went on sale, all that's left are tickets for Monday, September 1.
