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Penny Arcade game coming to Mac next year
The Penny Arcade Expo was held this past weekend in Seattle, Washington, and we got lots of news about the Penny Arcade videogame, officially titled (you might want to sit down for this one) Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One. I told you it would be long.The game is scheduled to appear on PC, Mac, and Linux (as well as downloadable on consoles) in 2008, and will feature a robust character creation system, and all of the Penny Arcade characters. The "Episode One" part also hints at what might be an interesting mechanic-- you'll be able to create a character in the first game, and then carry that character over other episode releases. Joystiq reports that the game looks good, and should be a fun, if short, experience.So look for an interactive Penny Arcade on your Mac next year. And in the meantime, watch out for those Claw Shrimp. They're vicious.
Video: 13 minutes of H3 Guardian multiplayer
Earlier this morning we reported that the super secret surprise game that concluded the PAX 07 Omegathon was some Halo 3 multiplayer. Now fellow fanboys, you get to watch over thirteen minutes of said multiplayer fun. Embedded above is part one (part two embedded after the break) of some off-screen recorded video of the Halo 3 Omegathon battle featuring the multiplayer map Guardian and new weapons galore. Hear the crowd cheer as the rocket launcher levels the competition, the energy sword is wielded, firebombs are used, plasma turrets are detached and a gravity hammer is equipped ... the excitement is oh-so contagious. Watch the video above and part two embedded after the break and we think you'll agree that every minute of this Halo 3 Guardian multiplayer extravaganza is good times ... even though the competitors' Halo skills are somewhat lacking.[Via Joystiq]
PAX 07 Omegathon concludes with Halo 3
The Omegathon has become an annual tradition at PAX, and this year was no different. A gaming challenge that runs the gamut from the old school to tabletop gaming, the Omegathon truly tests the mettle of its participants. Another aspect that has become a tradition is the top secret final round of the Omegathon. Gamers have come to expect challenges of the old school variety, as previous Omegathons concluded with PONG and Combat (ask your parents). This year, however, was different. This year, the final round of the Omegathon was Halo 3. Yeah, you read that right. The top two Omeganauts, Accelon and MNC Dover, competed in new Halo 3 maps (Narrows and Guardian) and were able to test out new weapons and items like the firebomb, flamethrower, and flashbang. Head over to Joystiq for the full rundown.
See video of new Halo 3 levels from PAX
Two challengers are brought before a massive audience to test their opponent's gaming mettle on a gigantic screen. Though the game is familiar to them, the rules have been changed. There are new levels that they're unfamiliar with, new items they've never used. Two will enter the battle, but only one will leave victorious. It's the final round of Video Armegeddon and the game? Super Mario Bros. 3! ... No, wait, that's not right. It was the Omegathon, and the game was Halo 3. But the similarities are striking, aren't they?Now, you can be a part of the unofficial sequel to The Wizard with this video direct from the competition. Though the audience gets pretty pumped whenever they see new weapons like the flame thrower, the excitement when the sword is brought into play is palpable. The battle continues after the jump.
PAX 07: The final Omegathon challenge was ... Halo 3
PAX just wrapped up in the traditional way, with the final Omegathon challenge -- and this year they broke from the tradition of old-school games by going with Halo 3 as the final game. Gabe and Tycho unveiled the title to an ecstatic crowd, who were expecting something much more along the lines of Donkey Kong. And if that wasn't enough to whip the thousands of geeks into a frothy frenzy -- they also had the Minibosses come out and blast out a quick tune before the last two contestants sat down for their final challenge.The final Omeganauts, Accelon and MNC Dover, sat down on stage to play a brand new, never-before-seen level populated with never-before-seen weapons -- a slick move that guaranteed that neither player had an unfair advantage. Both players' screens were displayed on massive projectors so that the crowd could get into the action as well, and get into it they did. As each player explored the new level, a huge forest ruin high in the trees, the crowd oohed and aahed at each new weapon and new vista that the players discovered.
PAX 07: The World in Conflict party
Sure, we had a lot of blogging to catch up on, but we couldn't help but stop by Sierra's splashy Word in Conflict party last night if only to play our favorite game: "How Much Do You Bet This All Cost?" Alongside what appeared to be real military vehicles (they're scary looking in Real Life) and Communist propaganda were the requisite "booth" (party?) babes and overpriced drinks. How overpriced? How does upwards of $7 or $8 sound? It's a good thing anyways, we'd have just drank too much, riflebutted a guard, then drove one of those tank-things out of the building and through downtown Seattle. %Gallery-6395%
PAX 07: Audio from the Wil Wheaton keynote
We admit it. Our writeup of Wil Wheaton's PAX keynote didn't manage to capture the palpable energy of the crowd. And that's why we're happy to present you with this here audio file which should manage to better communicate the cheers of adulation and camaraderie. But don't go thinking audio is an infallible format! For example, can you hear the audience's fists pumping in the air during the speech's high energy moments? You may be able to feel it, but you can't hear it. So there.Listen – Wil Wheaton's PAX keynote (.mp3 link)
PAX 07 hands-on: Indy 500 Legends (Wii, DS), Homie Rollerz, WordJong (DS)
Destineer had a bunch of new stuff on display for the Wii and DS. Indianapolis 500 Legends (Wii) was a racing game with an impressive historical bent. The game starts you in 1961, with each subsequent year to 1971 representing a new difficulty level, and presents (in addition to the full Indy 500) mission objectives based on actual races, organized by driver. Each year has three drivers, and each driver has at least three missions, for about 100 different missions, involving tasks like passing a rival or surviving a crash scenario. The track was modeled on the real Indianapolis Speedway and changes by year to match the authentic appearance at the time; almost every car's engine noise is recorded from that actual model. It's an incredible effort for what turns out to be a not-spectacular-looking Wii racing game with extremely touchy motion-based steering. I kind of got used to it, but we still felt like I was fighting the controls most of the time. The tire-changing pit-stop minigame was fun, though! The game fared quite a bit better on the DS, though-- graphics that were disappointing on the Wii looked much better on the DS, and the game contains the same drivers, missions, and structure. The stylus-based steering works much better in my opinion than waggle. I don't know how interested in historical racing games on the DS you are (I'm usually not very) but I enjoyed my five minutes with it, at least.
PAX 07: Our very own Penny Arcade Adventures trailer
It's Interactive Day for Joystiq's PAX coverage! First we got to assist in the creation of a Sam & Max scene, and now we made a dude in the Penny Arcade game trailer bald! The Hothead booth at PAX had a demo of the character creation system in On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. After we finished our character editing, the demo presented a video from the game with our character in the lead role. It then offered to email us the video, which means we get to share it with all of you! Enjoy the video, starring a guy who looks not that much like any of us!
PAX 07: Penny Arcade Adventures coming to XBLA
At the Penny Arcade game panel today at PAX, they've just confirmed that Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness – the first installment of their episodic series – will "debut" on Xbox Live Arcade in 2008. That's in addition to the already announced PC, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. It's unclear if the game is console exclusive to the XBLA platform or if other console ports are in the works. This is the first digitally distributed episodic title to be announced for a home console download service. Telltale is working on Xbox 360 and Wii ports of Sam & Max, but it's unclear if the title will be distributed as a full season retail product or as individual releases through Xbox Live Arcade and Wii Ware respectively. You can check out the game's recently launched site here. %Gallery-1545%
PAX 07 hands-on: Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire
D3's Dragon Blade makes a very good attempt at representative motion for a sword-based Wii game. It's not 1-to-1, of course, but at least the canned attack animations are mapped to reasonable motions. For example, swinging the Wiimote to the right slashes to the right, instead of executing some spin attack or opening the menu. Having a logical basis for the control scheme makes it very simple to know what's going on when you get into a frantic battle against some, I don't know, evil dogs or whatever they were. The attacks themselves form rhythmic three-attack combos, exactly like those found in Phantasy Star Online.The Wii graphics were nice, but nothing special, with the exception of the dragon-power effects. The hero gains abilities as he finds pieces of the Dragon Blade, and is able to activate those abilities with the D-pad, controlling them with the Wiimote. These effects fill the screen with huge flaming hands (or whatever the part may be), and they are stylistically very nice. The dragon hands allow you to attack with two giant fire hands, each controlled by one of the Wii controllers. I actually really wished I could have done this the whole time. It's nice-- and surprising-- to see an original action game for the Wii, and, based on my time with it, Dragon Blade could be something of a sleeper when it releases this September.
PAX 07: The Sam & Max panel (we made a scene!)
Despite being told we'd be creating an episode, it turns out games (even episodic ones!) take a little longer than an hour (but just barely we imagine). Improv comedy style, they take suggestions from the crowd for events in the game. First, a favorite fruit? Pomegrenates we yell out. A vacation destination? Someone yells "North Pole." A new career for Sybil? "Taxidermist" two blurt out over each other. The writing process has begun. Sam: Hiya Sybil!Max: What's your story lady? Sybil: I'm an orthopedic surgeon, baby!Sam: Holy heavenly horse radish in a Houston whorehouse!Max: Who cares, I'm running for re-election!Sam: More importantly we need a pastrami on rye to save the world!Sybil: Why do you think I have a pastrami on rye sandwich? Max: Orthopedic surgeons always have pastrami on rye sandwiches!Sam: They use them for lubrication!Max: It's science, Sybil. Sybil: The problem with science is you can't prove it. Also I need condiments. Sam: To Bosco's little buddy!
DS Daily: PAX ahoy!
Our own JC Fletcher is out at PAX this weekend, so you can catch him over on Joystiq reporting on everything worth talking about. We're pretty sure he's not there alone (we hear a few people attend), but are you there? If you're reading from your hotel, or somewhere around PAX, we want to know! Have you been before? Would you like to go? And speaking of shows of all types, now that E3 has changed, is there any particular gaming-related event you'd like to attend more than others?
PAX 07: Uwe Boll's guest appearance on video
Don't say the guys at Penny Arcade don't love you. With a large auditorium full of fans, they really wanted to give everyone something special, something we'd all remember for a long time. So they invited a special guest. Apparently good buddy Jack Thompson wasn't available, so they opted for Public Enemy #2: "filmmaker" Uwe Boll.First, we'd like to personally congratulate Uwe for climbing on stage in front of hundreds of people who ... dislike his films to present his side of the story. Sure, a lot of folks got right up and walked out (not unlike seeing his films in theaters!) and the clips he showed off didn't elicit an overwhelmingly positive fan reaction ... but we're still proud of Uwe for sticking to his clichéd guns without resorting to fisticuffs.
PAX 07: The Penny Arcade panel
Just like last year, the duo enter the stage to "Hustlin'" which, we much admit, is pretty pimp. (Is that right, is that how you say it?). This is Q&A style, where fans ask wacky questions and the pair respond with witty ripostes. We'll spare you a blow-by-blow here, and just limit our writeup to the good stuff (which is really in the air, it's difficult to capture in a bottle). They discuss the fascinating Halo 3 testing process recently covered in Wired; what's better Guitar Hero 1 or Guitar Hero 2; and whether or not Jerry is a fan of professional wrestling. Is Jerry interested in writing a book? "No, I am super, super lazy." Is there hope for the future of downloadable content and who do you think will lead the way? No, he's not talking about the podcast. They're of a mind that as long as we stop buying horse armor, they'll stop making it. Will Rock Band kill off Guitar Hero completely? Do they save or harvest Little Sisters? Mike saves 'em (he says "it's worth it") while Jerry kills 'em. He's up to twelve. "They're not little girls anymore." Are they working on an animated series? Basically, the animated scenes in the game are their animated series. A fangirl request: Jerry sings an a capella rendition of My Belruel while the crowd waves their various portable handhelds in the nerd equivalent of lighters. Touching, to be sure.
PAX 07: The Wil Wheaton keynote, just for geeks
The lights go out, and a phone call voice-over plays. Two hours ago...Lazlo's OfficeRockstar GamesNew York City Wil Wheaton is calling his buddy, an audio producer at Rockstar, trying to figure out a way to make a memorable entrance. They settle on something epic, something Lord of the Ringsy. The music bellows and Wheaton takes the stage. "My name is Wil Wheaton and Jack Thompson can suck my balls." The audience cheers. "I should note that today's keynote has been rated MA by the ESRB and if you have a problem with that, you can go fuck yourselves." He rattles off his geek cred: he's played NightWatch, he had an original Gameboy, and he carries around every 2600 game on a USB key (a USB key? We had them embedded subdermally years ago). He sure knows how to get the crowd going, citing classic gaming one-liners each one resulting in a chorus of applause. He rattles off popular internet memes like "the internet is a series of tubes" and "we need more cowbell" and "Leeroy Jenkins."His infectious preaching of "geek power" has a very rapt audience at PAX. He lays out his history as a geek, explains his manipulations, all geared towards giving him more time to play arcade games in between a busy school and audition schedule. One of his most endearing stories was about playing Wizard of War.
PAX 07: The last Metroid is a hat. The universe is at peace.
We ran into this Metroid attack in progress while perusing the show floor here at PAX. We went for our Ice Beam, but, because those totally don't exist, we used our camera instead. It was ineffective for stopping the Metroid, but it made for an awesome picture.The model here (whose name we didn't get, mostly because we were distracted by haberdashery) is also the artist responsible for the hat, and we've linked her DeviantArt page here.
We're live from PAX!
Joystiq has made it to PAX with a small team in tow. Like last year, we'll be bringing you interviews with industry insiders (as well as some Gabe and Tycho guys), hands-ons with the games at the show, as well as the slice of life culture stuff that makes PAX such a unique experience for the gaming community. If you spot us here, say hi!
Focus on Nintendo at PAX
Nintendo's list of playable Wii games at this year's Penny Arcade Expo may be somewhat lacking-- Fire Emblem and stuff that's already out-- but there's enough of interest on the DS to keep us occupied. We're very excited that the new Zelda game will be on display, as it's been getting some extremely positive reactions. We also look forward to some exposure to the exiled Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol, as well as the sequel to DK King of Swing. But for us, the real draw is Flash Focus. Because we're weird and we tend to go for the weird experiences! The first-party DS games playable at PAX include: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Brain Age 2 Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol DK Jungle Climber Flash Focus We're hoping the third-party DS games include the following: Contra 4 Contra 4 Contra 4 Contra 4 Barnyard Blast We'll be at PAX this weekend, doing our best to keep our social anxiety under control, having panic attacks, and maybe playing some games or something. [Via GoNintendo]
Win the PG Dev Kit tournie, make your own video game at PAX
We told you it'd be fabulous. Pink Godzilla has exclusively revealed to Joystiq the grand prize for their Pink Godzilla Dev Kit tournament at PAX 2007, and boy is it a doozy. Not only will the winner receive $200 spending money for the Pink Godzilla booth, but the winner also gets to design his or her own video game, to be developed with the help of the Pink Godzilla team, and featured on the Pink Godzilla web site.In addition to receiving credit as game designer for the project, the winner will also have their game featured as a title card in an upcoming expansion set for the Pink Godzilla Dev Kit card game. Registration for the tournament will be limited, so Pink Godzilla urges players to sign up as soon as PAX begins on August 24th. More details about both the tournament and the prizes after the break.
