pax-2010 posts

Flocking behavior is becoming more and more common in games. From interesting browser games to Left 4 Dead, flocking AI behavior is being explored in new and interesting ways all the time. This trailer for Hothead's Swarm looks just like the kind of game we could love, and it includes that delightful little AI routine! In this case, the implementation leads to lots of slice, dicing, explosions, horrific burns, and comedic violence. At least if the gameplay shown is any indication. There's nothing like slapstick to liven up your gaming experience.

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Lord of the Rings Online has been chugging along quietly for years now, and its free-to-play update is finally upon us. At PAX, the developers gave con-goers a sample of the game as well as a fancy new trailer. While the trailer itself is fairly standard for MMOs (mixture of CGI and gameplay, typical sweeping statement), there's one major issue with it: the audio is mastered really poorly. Not a trailer to watch if you are sensitive to that kind of thing. Regardless, it's the same Lord of the Rings spiel, so you know what to expect.

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PAX Prime 2010 was expected to be the largest event in the history of the Penny Arcade Expo and today Big Download can exclusively reveal that the seventh annual fan-themed game event in Seattle, Washington brought in a total of 67,600 attendees last weekend. The numbers were revealed to us by Penny Arcade's business head Robert Khoo.

The number is well over last year's attendance figure of 60,750 thanks in part to Penny Arcade's decision to expand the show's exhibit hall area at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center and move the main theater presentations off site to a nearby location. Even with the higher numbers tickets for PAX Prime 2010 sold out several days before it was held.

The show remains the single biggest US-based consumer show devoted to PC and console games. Of course the next PAX show is PAX East 2011 to be held in Boston, Massachusetts but exact dates for that event have yet to be revealed.

Check after the jump to read some more comments on PAX Prime 2010 from Khoo:

So are you ready to hear about something BIG? Then you will have to wait until Friday at 1 pm Eastern time. That's when 2K Games is supposedly revealing something BIG at its booth at PAX Prime 2010. It's apparently so BIG that the publisher is streaming live video from the event so everyone can know what it is about.

What could it be? Some people are speculating that it could be the rumored revival of the long awaited first person shooter Duke Nuke Forever via developer Gearbox Software. In related news, George Broussard, the present of Duke Nukem's owner 3D Realms, has "tweeted" a link to an interesting illustration. What does it really mean?

With PAX Prime 2010 now completely sold out of tickets, publishers that are attending the annual event in Seattle this weekend are announcing their special fan events. Capcom has something unusual it has planned its PAX Prime fan event designed to promote the upcoming zombie action game Dead Rising 2.

As you can see from the image, Capcom is promoting a special "sale" at Green's Hardware on Friday, September 3 at a location a few blocks away from PAX Prime's convention center. PAX Prime attendees have to head to the Capcom booth to get their invites which come in the form of Green's Hardware newspaper ad flyers. We suspect there will be some playable builds of Dead Rising 2 at the event but what else is going on. Will you really be able to get good deals on a box of nails or even a handgun? Stay tuned.

Last month, all the three day tickets for PAX Prime 2010 sold out. Now the official Penny Arcade Expo web site has posted word that all of the one day tickets for the Seattle game event next weekend are gone as well. So if you think you can just show up at the door of the Washington State Trade and Convention Center hoping to buy event a one day ticket, you can pretty much stay home.

Last's year's PAX Prime event also sold out a few days beforehand and managed to bring in 60,750 attendees. However this year's event could see a large increase in attendees due to the fact that the main theater for the show has been moved to a location a few minutes walk from the convention center. That means there's more exhibit hall space which means more people can now be allowed to attend.

In Portal, your only two companions were the ever-present spectre of death and the lovable, if inanimate, Companion Cube. However, Portal 2 wants to be much more friendly to the friendship of two repurposed androids. There will be no incineration here, we hope! This trailer is nothing more than a cinematic, although it can be interpreted as having some gameplay footage thanks to a brief first-person segment. It gives a good, if stylized, idea of what the players will be getting up to, and also feels free to casually invite anybody interested to PAX. If you are going, this means you get to have a helping of the new co-op mode before anyone else.

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We have been waiting for a long time for developer Red 5 Studios to reveal concrete details on its first game and it looks like that wait is finally over. We noticed that the company was an exhibitor at PAX Prime 2010 in Seattle in early September. Late on Thursday Big Download got confirmation from both Red 5 Studios and a PR firm that is representing them that the studio will indeed debut its first game at PAX. The PR rep specifically stated the game would be an "team-based action shooter" title.

Formed in 2005 by former members of Blizzard's World of Warcraft team Red 5 has managed to stay silent about their title although we do know it is using a modified version of the Offset Engine. The company ran into some financial issues in early 2010 that included some layoffs but Red 5 later got a majority of its holdings bought by China-based publisher The9 for $20 million.

The main Big Download page and its download files are back up and running again. We want to thank everyone with their patience with the situation. Now onto the news bits, please:

• The first Saw game from Konami is now available via the OnLive streaming PC game service.
• Look! It's another minor Easter Egg in StarCraft II.
• Steam has offered bug updates for Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Garry's Mod and Monkey Island 2 Special Edition.
• Minecraft's maker is making money thanks in part to a mention on Team Fortress 2's blog.
• Pax Prime 2010's web site has revealed the full list of exhibitors.
• The Elemental War of Magic web site has some info on the upcoming game's mod tools.

The keynote speaker for PAX Prime 2010 (that's the one in Seattle for those of you keeping score at home) has now been announced via a "tweet" from the official PAX Twitter page. It will be handled by none other than Warren Spector who has a huge list of memorable PC games he's been in charge of (Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Deus Ex and more). Of course he's now working at Junction Point Studios for Epic Mickey for the Wii but perhaps he will use this keynote speech to announce his return to PC gaming . . . right Warren?

By the way, this year's PAX Prime, to be held in Seattle on September 3-5, will be a little different in that the main stage for the keynote and other events at the show will actually be off-site from PAX's home base, the Washington State Trade and Convention Center. According to a post on the PAX message boards, the big theater events will be held at the Benaroya Hall which is about a five minute walk from the convention center. The upside to this is that this will free up space to expand PAX's exhibit hall. Oh, and if you want to go to PAX this year you had better hustle as tickets for the show are going fast . . .