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Penny Arcade Expo 2008 is underway in Seattle but the big news is what is to come for the growing fan oriented video game consumer show. Our sister site Joystiq is reporting that the first east coast version of PAX has finally settled on a location. It's Boston, home of the Red Sox, 2K Boston, Turbine, and many other game developers.

That's all we currently know about the new PAX EC. There's no word yet on an exact date other than the previously announced spring 2010. There's also no word about a venue yet although a big city like Boston won't lack for such locations. Hopefully we will know more about PAX EC in the near future.

Mercenaries 2 is coming out for the PC platform on September 4 and publisher Electronic Arts is doing an interesting promotion for the Pandemic developed open world action game. Today they are giving away free gasoline at a gas station at 8489 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Of course, the setting for Mercenaries 2 is in the oil-rich country of Venezuela so giving out free gas is a perfect way to make people aware of the game. As you can see from the photos the gas station is full of signage for the game along with actors dressed as the mercs from the game. If you want to see a live feed from the station, Break.com has you covered.

Stardock and its CEO Brad Wardell have always been champions of PC gaming and the belief that the platform is as viable as the console industry. Today the publisher released what their are calling the "Gamer's Bill of Rights". They are 10 statements that they believe PC gaming consumers should get for their purchases. Stardock intends to follow its own statements; it has announced that anyone that can't run their recent strategy game The Political Machine 2008 on their PC can get their money back from Stardock if they purchased the game in retail stores.

Here is the full list:
1) Gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund.
2) Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
3) Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release.
4) Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
5) Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
6) Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won't install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
7) Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
8) Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
9) Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
10) Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

Keep the women and children safe; Big Download has landed in Seattle and will be attending the fifth annual Penny Arcade Expo this weekend. This event looks to be the biggest yet; in an article over at Wired's game site, organizers are already saying they have had 42,000 people pre-register for PAX 2008; that's several thousand more than their entire attendance for PAX 2007. The event will have double the exhibit hall space and 40 percent more space overall to handle the larger crowd.

Big Download team members will be covering the event, taking photos, and checking out all of the PC game related exhibits. It promises to be the best PAX yet and that's saying something.

It looks like Penny Arcade Expo is starting to get its own special products made just for the show, much like the San Diego Comic-Con offers exclusive merchandise. The latest such announcement comes from Hothead Games, the developers of the episodic adventure-RPG Penny Arcade Adventures. The developer will sell a special edition of the first episode of the game for the PC at the show.

While the regular edition of the game is only available via download, this special edition will be sold at the Hothead booth during PAX for $40. This limited edition will feature a collectible package that contains the game on disk, a game manual, a key chain, a t-shirt and a 20 sided die. PAX attendees will be able to play demos of the second Penny Arcade Adventures episode at the Hothead booth and there will even be info on Hothead's next major game Deathspank.

If you are heading up to Seattle to attend the 2008 edition of Penny Arcade Expo and have a few dollars that you don't have any plans on spending, you might want to check out this special limited editon version of the DeathAdder PC gaming mouse from Razer. Only 400 of these will be made and they will be sold only at PAX starting tomorrow at the Razer booth for $60. As you can see from the picture it will have the PAX 2008 logo.

Razer will also be holding a mod contest at their booth during PAX, teaming up with Modders-Inc.. According to their press release, "They were given the SilverStone TJ10 ESA case, the Razer Lachesis, the Razer Lycosa, the Razer Piranha and the Razer Destructor to mod, with the finished mod being showcased at the Razer booth. Attendees will be able to vote for their favorite out of three at the Razer booth and those who voted for the winning case will have a chance to win the case. Attendees can also vote for their best modder at www.razerzone.com.

Lego Batman may be heading to retail stores in September but is a CGI Lego Batman TV series possible? It is, according to Rich Ear, the game's producer at developer Traveller's Tales. Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz he states that a 20 minute Lego Batman short is in the works.

While the UK based Traveller's Tales won't be involved with the production of any such TV series (it's being handled by a US based company), Earl states, "they're basically able to utilize the assets, because our team has brought Lego characters to life." It should be interesting to see the final product, especially since there's been a ton of Batman animated shows in the past (the newest one, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, come to Saturday mornings this fall).

How many times have we read a story about a murder or other crime out there that is blamed on the alledged criminal playing video games? From Doom to Mortal Kombat to the Grand Theft Auto titles, people and attorneys love that kind of blame game. In the real world we know crimes are committed for a ton of other real reasons but a attorney (not Jack Thompson) says that the 'blame games" defense can actually work in court.

In a story for the Palm Beach Post web site, llinois attorney James H. Waller states, "While I don't believe that violent video games tend to have any negative effects on otherwise healthy people, my job is to present ANY theory to a jury that would explain why my client did the things he did." He says placing blame on outside forces, including the playing of violent games, "humanizes the client and shifts the culpability." The defense works, he claims, mainly on "an unsophisticated, typically older, somewhat more rural jury pool or judge."

However, game publishers have to take a little responsiblity, according to Waller. "The manufacturers do everything they can to make sure that they are a household name, if not cartridge. Restricting supply to create buzz, sensationalizing their own violence to the media, doing idiotic things like leaving the "Hot Coffee" code in the game...the jury knows that a lot of kids today are playing this Grand Theft Auto game and that it's very violent or adult before we even walk into the courtroom."

By now we know that Electronic Arts is going to be pushing hard to hype up the release of the long awaited life simulation game Spore but we didn't know exactly how they would do it. CNet's News.com reports that EA has already been putting up large posters for the game on the side of buildings in San Francisco.

EA wants to make this game a huge mainstream success like The Sims but this time they are really making sure people know about this game beforehand. The CNet author speculates about more possible promotions for the game. Will there be TV ads? Yep. Will there be magazine ads? They are already out there. But then he adds speculation about a Spore ARG (alternate reality game) to which we have to say, "Huh?" Isn't Spore a kind of ARG already? That seems kind of pointless.

Electronic Arts is really pushing the marketing of its upcoming survival horror game Dead Space. This week, details were revealed on one of the side projects for the game; the direct-to-DVD animated prequel that's being handled by Film Roman and Starz Media. The DVD will be released on Oct. 28 by Anchor Bay, a week after the game's release.

The film will be released in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats and High-Def Digest reports that both versions will have deleted scenes and trailers, a digital copy version that can be transferred (legally) to your PC or mobile video device and two exclusive cheat codes for the game. The Blu-Ray version will have additional downloadable animatics from the movie and a Blu-Ray first; an isolated music score that you can download in MP3 format.

We are not quite sure how this bit of news wasn't covered more by the tons of journalists at Games Convention last week but G4TV has it on their video interview with the producer of Call of Duty: World at War. The upcoming WWII shooter has enlisted Gary Oldman to portray one of the characters in the game.

It sounds like Oldman will be voicing a Russian sergeant in the game's second campaign as the Soviets invade Berlin in the end of the War. Kiefer Sutherland has already been announced as another Hollywood actor joining the voice cast; he will be an American sergeant in the game's Pacific campaign. The title, from developer Treyarch and publisher Activision is due for release this fall.

Common wisdom has it that if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it. What, then, should we think of the recent trend in gaming to bring back, and in some cases revamp past video games? I'm thinking here mostly of Bionic Commando's recent upgrade to be both a completely new reimagining of the franchise (yes, now it's a franchise at last) and an update of the classic arcade hit which itself includes a version of the original. Developer Grin is covering all bases, giving die-hard fans what they want while at the same time bringing in new fans who may never have played the first release.

Is it a good idea to keep mining the past for the hits of the future? How much life do these games still have in them? Is it possible to revamp an old game sufficiently to make it feel new while retaining its old-school flavor? Let's take a look.

Earlier this week we reported on the massive success of the 2008 Leipzig Games Convention which announced that the five day trade and consumer video/PC game event in Leipzig, Germany had brought in 203,000 attendees last week. The organizers announced their 2009 dates and even hinted at plans for a North American expansion.

Well, the organizers of the Cologne based GAMEScon came out with their own statement, basically saying, "Leipzig is doomed." The event was announced last year by the industry consortium BIU and will be held in Cologne on September 9-13. Gamasutra reports that the organizers of the event claim to have broad industry support, adding, "Whatever happens in Germany in 2009 outside of Cologne cannot claim to represent this sector." Ouch. Them's fightin' words. We should see in a few months which German games convention comes out on top.

He's an acclaimed director of films like the Hellboy movies and Pan's Labyrinth and his next project is two Hobbit films. But Guillermo del Toro is also a fan of games and Edge Online has a brief chat with the director about his gaming interests.

Del Toro's first game was Pong and he has played games ever since. He believed that games "are an incredible storytelling tool, one that filmmakers should embrace instead of reject. In the next ten years, they'll yield a couple of narrative masterpieces." He lists Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and BioShock as favorites. A few years ago he came up with his own game title, Sundown, but that idea didn't gain traction with game developers. He states, "I'm a game player, and I can keep thinking about what I want to see and make it reality when I finally get to design one. Maybe I'll reinitiate contacts in the industry in the near future."