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PAX Prime tickets go on sale, four-day pass already sold out [Update: All gone!]
Tickets for PAX Prime are availa... wait, what? Already!? OK, so the PAX Prime four-day pass is already sold out, but individual days for Friday, August 30, through Monday, September 2, are still available.Last year it took a little over a week for the entire expo to sell out. Given that the four-day pass sold out in under an hour of tickets going on sale, it's best not to delay if you want in. As in: go get your wallet right now and get it done before you move on to the next thing in your day. Fair warning.Update: The official Twitter now reports that all badges have completely sold out. If you got a badge, we'll see you at the show!
PAX Prime 2013 registration is up and running
The time has come once again to prepare for PAX Prime! Registration for the four-day con went live earlier today. In typical PAX fashion, four-day tickets sold at a jaw-dropping rate and are now unavailable. You've still got a chance to swipe up single-day tickets for as many days as you like, though. PAX Prime 2013 will be held in Seattle's Washington State Convention center and runs from Friday, August 30th, until Monday, September 2nd. Of course, if you can't make it to PAX or the thought of spending that much time with that many folks is wearisome to you, we'll have all the juicy news right here. (We just can't attend the parties for you.)
PAX Prime 2012: Hands-on with Origins of Malu
PAX Prime is gone and passed, but our coverage isn't done quite yet. As it happens, we've saved one of the best for last. Burning Dog Media's upcoming MMO, Origins of Malu, has been making a few waves in the sandbox-craving community. Boasting features such as brick-by-brick player-house construction and exploration-focused gameplay, Origins of Malu is a game that I've had my eye on for some time. So of course I was rather excited to be able to go hands-on with the game at PAX, where Burning Dog had set up a small alpha-build PvP battleground in which players could battle head-to-head in a slightly twisted version of the traditional capture-the-flag gametype. Now, I don't know about y'all, but PvP isn't exactly on the top of my list of Origins of Malu features I'm looking forward to, but there were definitely some surprises to be had in the demo, plus I got to have a bit of a chat with Burning Dog's president of media, Michael Dunham. What did I think? Find out for yourself after the cut.
PAX Prime 2012: Marvel Heroes video interview touches on costumes, public combat zones
In a video interview at PAX Prime, Associate Producer Matt Group discussed different aspects of the upcoming superhero MMORPG Marvel Heroes. Some of the topics he touched on include rotating between characters, public combat zones, multiple costumes, the free-to-play philosophy, and the fact that much of the world is open (although boss fights are mostly instanced). Group also mentioned that Gazillion Entertainment has access to every Marvel character and location possible. Folks who prefer console gaming but love the idea of slipping into the skin of their favorite super heroes can take heart; Group stated, "Once we have a solid grip on [the PC game] we want to move on to whatever other platforms there are out there." When is the game launching? Group says, "Sooner than you think." Closed beta, however, is beginning on October 1st. Check out the full interview after the cut.
PAX Prime 2012: Undead Labs' State of Decay
Everyone loves zombies, right? Apparently so because they're absolutely everywhere (like Miami, for instance), but we keep on lapping it up. Secretly, though, I think a lot of us are tired of the same old zombie games. After all, if you're one of the truly hardcore that has a zombie apocalypse plan that includes where you'll hole up, how you'll find weapons, what you'll eat, and so forth, it's a little disappointing that most games tend to focus solely on the zombie-shooting part of the zombie apocalypse (not that there's anything wrong with zombie-shooting). Undead Labs' upcoming MMO State of Decay might change all that. The game will take place in a persistent world where players are responsible for rounding up survivors, finding the necessary resources to build defenses and stay alive, and of course, fighting off the zombie hordes. Finally, those of you who have long debated the merits of going to the gun store vs. not going to the gun store in the event of an apocalypse can see whose plan works better. And what's more, at PAX Prime 2012, I got to sit down and play around with it myself, though not for nearly as long as I would have liked. Regardless, if State of Decay is on your radar -- and it should be -- then I'd be glad to tell you all about my 20-odd minutes with the title.
PAX Prime 2012: Our first look at MMORTS Novus Aeterno
The MMORTS genre is a relatively unexplored one, generally relegated to free-to-play titles that tend to be mediocre at best and warcrimes at worst. It's beginning to pick up some steam these days, though, with titles like Trion Worlds' upcoming End of Nations. But I'm not here to talk about Trion or other big AAA studios; I'm here to talk about one guy who got bored and decided he'd make the game he wanted to play. That's Nick Nieuwoudt, the mastermind behind in-development MMORTS Novus Aeterno. As a hardcore StarCraft II player, he realized that he enjoyed the RTS playstyle but was left wanting something more. So as any sensible person would do, he gathered together a team and got to work creating the game he wanted to play. Many months of work later, TAITALE Studios has put together the foundation of Novus Aeterno. And as luck would have it, I had the opportunity to take a look at the game at PAX Prime 2012, so if you'd like to take a look behind the curtain at a potentially promising new MMORTS, follow on with me and I'll give you all the details.
Breaking free with your own IP: Insomniac's CEO on what's next (besides Ratchet & Clank)
There's a big craze these days with independent developers, though the idea isn't all that crazy. Developers, as it turns out, like to own the stuff they create – Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games is no different. And here's something you might not know about Insomniac: the studio owns virtually none of the iconic characters or worlds it's created. Not Ratchet, not Clank, not the world of Spyro the Dragon. That last one cuts especially deep considering the vast riches Activision's reaped from its Spyro-based Skylanders game. The former two are Sony-owned.With Fuse (which we think used to be Overstrike) and Outernauts, Insomniac is pushing in a new direction. "For us, we're at the point in our growth as a company where we can own our intellectual property," Insomniac president and CEO Ted Price told us in an interview last week. "That's been gratifying for us because, as creators, controlling your own destiny – controlling the IP that you build – is important." Beyond its financial importance, owning IP also means unfortunate spin-offs of properties you created can't be farmed out to other studios (see: Resistance: Burning Skies).It's important to note what Price says about his studio not being able to own its previous projects. When Insomniac started in 1994, it produced only franchises owned by its publishers. Quite literally everything the company created up until Outernauts and Overstrike/Fuse was owned by outside forces. That's why you will assuredly see more Resistance games, despite Insomniac outright stating it won't work on any more (at least any time soon) – Sony owns the IP rights to the Resistance franchise and can do with them as it pleases.
PAX Prime 2012: Hammerpoint shows off The War Z gameplay
The War Z has generated a significant amount of fan interest since its initial hello-world announcement in July. The zombie-centric sandbox MMO boasts a large feature set and plenty of ambitious design goals. It's also generated some skepticism as to whether or not the development team can actually pull it all off. Last weekend's PAX Prime event brought the first opportunity to see for ourselves, as the team from Hammerpoint showed off alpha-state gameplay and allowed GameTrailers to film it. The resulting clip is yours for the viewing after the cut.
Insomniac's 'Fuse' likely to be a reworked 'Overstrike'
With Insomniac president and CEO Ted Price obliquely teasing an unknown project called "Fuse" during his PAX Prime 2012 keynote last week, it wasn't too difficult to put together the teaser image he produced and the teaser video released last year (above) for EA Partners project Overstrike. Price wouldn't admit as much to us during a followup interview last week, but he didn't really need to."I'm gonna point you to Fusegame.com," Price answered when asked about Overstrike's long absence from the public eye. Is it still a current-gen game (it was originally announced for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)? He wouldn't say. When directly asked whether Overstrike and Fuse are the same game: "I'm being cagey here because I want to be consistent with how we're answering these questions," he said, deferring to his PR manager.The PR man offered a bit more than Price would. "We're very deliberate in what we're showing right now, and that's why we're just pointing people to the website and saying, 'Hey, this is a process. We're going to share more information with you, stay tuned.'" That said, why in the world would the two guys be pointing us to a website for Fuse when we're asking about Overstrike? The answer seems pretty clear to us.Price additionally refused to answer whether Fuse is an EA Partners project – Overstrike is an EA Partners-published four player co-op game.Unsurprisingly, Game Informer is also positing that Overstrike is now named Fuse, calling it a "reworking" of the originally announced concept (what that means is up to your own interpretation). We'll presumably find out for sure when the Fuse website's countdown clock runs out in another seven days.And wouldn't you know it, there's an upcoming Insomniac press event offering hands-on time with an unannounced game. Sounds like we'll find out what the mystery is all about soon enough.
PAX Prime 2012: Neverwinter and Raiderz flaunt their stuff
Did you realize that PAX was going on this weekend? I bet you did. I bet something gave it away, like the puddle flood of posts titled with PAX Prime 2012 all over our feed. If you didn't notice, here's thew news: PAX Prime went down this weekend. You're a little late, though; it's pretty much all over. But you can read about stuff we did. Go ahead. I'll wait. This post ain't going anywhere. So now that you're up to speed, let's talk about about Neverwinter and RaiderZ, both of which Perfect World Entertainment was showing off this weekend.
PAX Prime 2012: Riot and the North American regionals
It's a good time to be a League of Legends fan. With the European regionals at Gamescom and North American regionals here at PAX Prime, there's plenty of excitement. The Riot team is gearing up for big changes in Season Three while continuing to support its incredibly large community. We sat down with the busy and gracious Associate Producer Paul Bellezza to talk about what Riot is looking forward to in the near future.
Ron Gilbert's platformer / adventure game 'The Cave' also headed to Wii U eShop
The Cave isn't just destined for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, apparently. During a demo at PAX Prime this afternoon, DoubleFine rep Greg Rice pointed out that the game's also headed to the Nintendo Wii U's eShop.The platformer slash adventure game wasn't actually playable on Wii U at the studio's booth, so it's unclear how different (if at all) the game will be on Nintendo's next home console. We're hoping that the Wii U's tablet controller (the WiiPad™) has a giant touchscreen button that simply says "Solve," though it'll probably be something more clever.
PAX Prime 2012: Hands-on with PlanetSide 2
Sony Online Entertainment's PlanetSide 2 is still in the process of development and beta testing, but the team brought the game to PAX for its North American tradeshow debut. If you really want to know what it's like, you can always sign up for the beta yourself. Otherwise, you can skip below this cut to hear about our hands-on time with the game on the show floor.
Runic's post-Torchlight 2 plans: Mac port, patches, and a trip to the mountains
Runic's CEO Max Schaefer seems both simultaneously relieved and nervous as he sits in the Torchlight 2 booth at PAX Prime 2012. Relieved, because his company finally announced a release date for its long-awaited game, and slightly nervous, because he knows the community's judgment is finally coming. But even launch won't bring a real break for Runic: Schaefer says the company has a clear plan laid out for post-release work.A Mac port and language translations are first on the list, says Schaefer – both of those are real priorities for the team. Runic's also working on patching the game (if necessary), and getting the content editor up and running so both users and devs can make some mods and add-ons for the game. After that, says Schaefer, he's not sure. "We'll go up into the mountains or something and figure out what to do next."Schaefer says that both a console port of Torchlight 2 and "an MMO" aren't out of the question, but there are problems with both of those ideas. "We will not be making a traditional MMO under any circumstances," he says, so a possible Torchlight MMO could look very different from what players might imagine – a pretty different stance from what we've heard in the past from Runic Games.And while the studio had plenty of success with an Xbox Live port of its first Torchlight game (and Microsoft showed interest in a port of the second game), Schaefer says "it's a lot harder this time," given the way the game is built, to put together an Xbox port. All of that is a long way off, however – Schaefer's more concerned about getting this game released first.
PAX Prime 2012: RIFT's Storm Legion approaches
The Storm Legion is coming. Even now, those touched by Crucia are preparing to unleash her will. But RIFT's Storm Legion expansion is bringing more than just dragon minion foes. A new soul for each calling, player housing instances, new continents, new dungeons, and new raids are all part of the bundle. We caught up with the Trion team at PAX to catch a glimpse of what the oncoming storm will bring.%Gallery-161264%
Tour Mojang's pop-up museum: view the beautiful lawsuit docs for Scrolls, the insides of a Creeper
Mojang's more than just the studio that birthed Minecraft – it's also the studio that birthed the amazing fan art you see above. Beyond said art, Mojang erected a faux museum in honor of its short life on the PAX Prime 2012 show floor.In it, we witnessed the actual legal documents served to Mojang head Marcus "Notch" Persson over Scrolls, the inner workings of a Creeper (its heart is dynamite!), and a very impressive set of Legos. Take the tour with us in the gallery below.%Gallery-164126%
PAX Prime 2012: Up close and personal with Torchlight II
Torchlight II is marching toward its September 20th launch date. Actually, it's probably skipping joyously with a little ferret or adorable puppy trailing along behind it. Is your clicking-finger ready? We took some time at PAX to dabble our toes in the game and splash around a bit. Now we have damp toes and a hands-on experience with Torchlight II.
PAX Prime 2012: Hands-on with Phantasy Star Online 2
I'm sure I'm not the only one around here who has fond memories of sitting in front of a Sega Dreamcast (a moment of silence, please), hacking-and-slashing my way through the original Phantasy Star Online, and I'm also sure that I'm not the only one who's positively giddy for Sega's upcoming Phantasy Star Online 2. So of course, when I found out I'd be able to get my hands on the game at PAX, I was pretty ecstatic. But nostalgia can only go so far, and I'll admit I was somewhat nervous as I stepped up to the demo station. Would this new iteration in the PSO series live up to my rose-tinted memories of the title? I stepped into the boots of a Human Hunter to find out for myself.
PAX Prime 2012: WildStar presentation and Q&A
Carbine Studios' premiere foray into the MMO field, the deliciously sci-fi WildStar, has been high on my to-watch list since PAX Prime 2011 when I got my first look at the game (over Rubi's shoulder, admittedly). So I was delighted to have the opportunity to sit down with a few members of WildStar's development team for a short presentation and Q&A session at this year's PAX Prime. The developers, led by Lead Narrative Designer Chad Moore, set the tone of the presentation by leading off with the recently released housing preview video (which you should go watch if you haven't already), followed by a short explanation of the game's backstory. For the uninitiated: The game takes place on the planet Nexus. Nexus was once inhabited by a race of hyper-technological beings known as the Eldan before they mysteriously disappeared, causing the location of the planet to be lost to the annals of time. Until now, that is. Now everyone wants a piece of that sweet, technologically advanced pie, and players arrive from all over the universe to explore this mysterious planet and the secrets within. Admit it: You wanna know what those secrets are, right?%Gallery-130867%
Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is gorgeous, open-world, and not Metal Gear Solid 5
Hideo Kojima divulged details on Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes at an "introspective" PAX session about the series today. The game's demo was shown recently to attendees at a Metal Gear 25th anniversary event in Japan, and involved Snake sneaking his way through an open world.So what else is new about Ground Zeroes? It's a "prologue" to Metal Gear Solid 5, says Hideo Kojima. The open world of Ground Zeroes is literally the entire world – a helicopter can be called to help during missions or ferry Snake in and out of mission levels. Moreover, you can customize the music that the helicopter plays when it arrives to help you ("Flight of the Valkyries" played during the demo we were shown today – Kojima says the louder the song is, the more of a chance of you getting caught, so maybe Slayer wouldn't be the best choice).Kojima reiterates that Ground Zeroes is a current-gen game, though Fox Engine is scalable for next-gen as well. He wouldn't give specifics on the name, but calls the game "a beginning" rather than an end for the series.Is Ground Zeroes the "Project Ogre" we've been wondering about? That's still not clear. What we do know is it's headed to current-gen consoles (360 and PS3 were mentioned) rather than the next, yet-to-be-determined hardware generation.
