Hello, person from the future. This space used to have an embed from the video hosting site Viddler. The video is gone now. If you want to find out why and laugh at Viddler in the process, you can read the entire silly story for yourself. At any rate, the video is gone. Sorry. On the upside, we're gradually re-posting these old videos to YouTube. Check the Spoiler Warning page to see the full index. |
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If there were two booths that I lurked around the most at PAX, it had to have been Monaco and SpyParty. With other game booths, especially the big ones, people seemed to be very determined and slightly annoyed while standing in line and playing the games. In fact, the people playing Fallout: New Vegas didn’t appear to be that different from someone who was wine tasting. They understood that they’d only be given a hint of a particularly expensive game and needed to gather as much information as they could with such a small sample. Instead of trying to guess if there was an oak or nutty flavor, players were silently asking questions. What was the gameplay like? How much of the story can I get a peek at? Is this game going to be worth my money and time?
Meanwhile, the Monaco and SpyParty booths reminded me more of a late-night college common room. People were laughing, joking with each other, shouting and even holding meaningful conversations off to the side. Both of these indie games knew they were going into the convention as underdogs, so they had to prove how fun their game was going to be or people would walk right on past. Along with an upbeat energy, both games exhibited extremely unique multiplayer features that caught the attention of gamers and turned their little section of the con into something of an arcade.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “PAX Coverage: SpyParty and Monaco”
This video show Jerry Holkins – Tycho of Penny Arcade fame – performing a song in Rock Band for the crowd at PAX. He wrote the lyrics. Harmonix put it in the game. He sang the song. Soon you can get it on Xbox LIVE. (All proceeds benefit Child’s Play.)
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Continue reading ⟩⟩ “WARMACHINE”
We’ve hardly had time for my comics this week, what with all the crazy PAX stuff and such. But the Old Traditions must be upheld, so here are the links to my stuff at the Escapist.
Stolen Pixels #225: Public Service Announcement – Breen has An Important Message for gamers everywhere. He might make some off-color remarks, but he means well.
Experienced Points: What’s Wrong with Xbox LIVE? – Nothing really earth shattering. Just outlining that the disadvantages of Microsoft’s hermetically sealed experience are not the price, but the omission of freedoms which can be taken for granted elsewhere.
Shamus Plays Champions Online, Part 8 – I’m still re-running this series over there, in case you’re in the mood to read it again.
If you follow the MMORPG market closely, as I do, you may have noticed one very specific thread in regards to Star Wars: The Old Republic: It will be awesome. More than that, it will be the single greatest video game of all time, and will soundly crush the competition into a finely-ground powder that will then be baked into the bread of sandwiches for the EA execs.
Or, at least, that’s what all the pre-release press would like you to believe. Now, to be fair, almost everything written prior to the release of a game is probably a good deal more generous than it right well should be, but honestly, the hype machine for this game is enormous. I don’t think I’ve seen a single critical preview of the game, and the community is passionately supportive of it. Looking at the hype, it almost seems as if it would be impossible for the game to fail. As if The Old Republic were â€" dare I say â€" unsinkable.
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| There has never been a recorded case in history where this sort of attitude has caused any problems whatsoever. |
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “PAX Coverage: The Old Republic”
Here is part 2 of my interview with Josh and Mumbles about their last day at PAX. Once again, huge thanks goes to reader Gale for putting this together. Transcribing nearly 55 minutes of conversation is a lot of work.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Twenty Sided @ Pax, Part 2 – TRANSCRIPT”
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When Josh and I started to divvy up the games at PAX that we were going to cover, the line between our interests and experience became very clear. I’ve always been on the action side of the spectrum, while Josh knows a lot more about strategy games and MMOs. For that reason, it might come to a surprise that Tera was my favorite game that I played at PAX. This Korean made MMO was passed into the hands of American developers for Western distribution and has the potential to be a serious contender with Guild Wars 2 and Old Republic. It’s beautiful to look at and the combat is full of action and fun. In fact, I’m certain Tera will pull in gamers like me who aren’t attracted to the typical MMO targeting combat system. And, no one is more surprised about that than me.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “PAX Coverage: Tera”
Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.
Back in 1999, I rode the dot-com bubble. Got rich. Worked hard. Went crazy. Turned poor. It was fun.
We were so upset by the server problems and real money auction that we overlooked just how terrible everything else is.
This version of Silver Sable is poorly designed, horribly written, and placed in the game for all the wrong reasons.
Let's do some scripting to make the Starcraft AI fight itself, and see how smart it is. Or isn't.
Small changes to the animations can have a huge impact on how the audience interprets a scene.
The product of fandom run unchecked, this novel began as a short story and grew into something of a cult hit.
Game developer Jon Blow is making a programming language just for games. Why is he doing this, and what will it mean for game development?
This Korean title would be the greatest MMO ever made if not for the horrendous monetization system. And the embarrassing translation. And the terrible progression. And the developer's general apathy towards its western audience.
Yes, this game is loud, crude, childish, and stupid. But it it knows what it wants to be and nails it. And that's admirable.
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