Nearly thirty years after the dorky, sub-culture debut of Tron, Flynn returns with his crew to the big screen and gaming platforms near you. The hands-on demo at PAX Prime this year proved chaotic and unorganized, but nonetheless entertaining. By the way, our favorite PAX titles can be found here!
The line extending from Disney's booth coiled within itself, easily a one hour wait for half the play time. Towering "TRON" letters flanked either side of the booth, glowing ominously from the blue-white backlighting; a slick lightcycle (below) remained the subjects of photography all weekend, and even the game controllers had special Tron lettering. Disney ranks as a world-leader in entertainment and presentation - they spend lots of money and spruce up the exterior, and hopefully do not neglect the content within. Notorious for games that are either too hard, too repetitive, or just lame, the publisher already had its back up against the shiny, glowing Tron wall.
Seattle's Convention Center doubled as the coliseum of gaming (and cosplay) at PAX this weekend. Hundreds of developers were akin to gladiators, battling in a full scale bloodbath (without the bath, it was pretty stinky by day three) for consumer attention. Under the weight of the Medal of Honor, Duke Nukem Forever, Portal 2, and Dragon Age 2 booths, the lesser hyped contenders did their best to lasso attention.
In the beforetimes, stadiums were divided into stables of slaves and trained warriors - PAX followed this example, and like Rome, occasionally an underdog rose above even the most funded combatants. Three days of hands-on experience at PAX Prime have exposed the biggest flaws and accentuated the nuances of even the smallest developers. Aside from the big-namers we've all heard of, what were the most worthy titles of PAX '10? Find out more about Hoard, Nexuiz, Darkspore, End of Nations, and Torchlight 2 below!
Note: each of the below may be featured in larger previews soon, so stay tuned!
For all you Rapture fans, the long-awaited singleplayer DLC for Bioshock 2 will be released this upcoming Tuesday on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3! The content is warmly welcomed by veterans of the second installment of the thrilling series, possibly answering some of those loose ends left after completion of the game. The add-on will extend Rapture and expand on the sordid story of the city, as well as add new types of Big Daddies, splicers, and more weapons to pummel opponents to death!
Whirring keyboards, large banners, woo-ing crowds, and over-enthusiastic commentators kept us busy all Saturday at MLG Pro in Raleigh, NC. The prizes were large, the egos were big, and the food was free - it was awesome. Never could I have imagined the power of raw excitement emitted from hundreds of gamers, their eyes cast hungrily on StarCraft 2 grandmaster HuK and other gaming icons, it was overwhelming. Although we did visit all of the booths and tournaments, our focus was on the absolutely riveting competition at the SC2 tables: replay commentating tag-team HD/Husky graced us with their presence, imbuing the tournament with the best combination of exhilaration and hilarity.
Commander: Conquest of the Americas Review
By FJ YbarraCommander: Conquest of the Americas brings fun, easy, and invigorating naval battles to the forefront of strategy gaming... wait, that sounds familiar. For those that remember the clunky and overcomplicated navies of Empire: Total War, Commander sails past its strategic counterpart as the more exciting, less glitchy victor.
Grandiose expos like E3 publicize American gaming culture to the world, but what is it like to be a gamer in other countries – like Pakistan? Every year I am tempted to attend E3 when it broadcasts live. The expo is a gaming symbol to the world, and thanks to events like E3, we all know what it is like to game in the US and Europe. Have you ever wondered if gaming elsewhere would be any different?
"I have a constant fear that something's always near." -Iron Maiden
Whether you’re trapped in a dark elevator shaft, cornered near an air duct, or just plain surrounded by zombies, only a handful of game designers have stimulated that dark-fearing, claustrophobic child within all of us. Scaring your audience is one of the hardest things to do as a designer – gamers are a giddy bunch: constantly giggling at twitching corpse glitches and missing limbs, the task itself is a scarier prospect than the execution. The games that truly frighten us don’t need the fanciest graphics, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accomplish.
TaleWorlds released a new update for Mount & Blade: Warband today, adding a duel mode due to high demand. The user base has been duelling based purely on an 'honor system,' - if two people are in a fight, don't go kill them both (tempting as it may be), but the new patch implements pure 1v1 duels without interruption. Duel mode supports up to 64 players.
Find out why pure domination is bursting from the platters of our hard drive in this latest budget gaming build!
The only magazine capable of relating seafaring pirates to your gaming splendor has returned, and this time, with booty. You need to hoard the cash (and the cache) for gaming excellence, and nothing is more excellent than spending a weak $498 on a new rig (for those of you getting the calculators out, that’s nine games). Time to dig up that pirate’s treasure from your backyard, let’s take a look at these parts.
APB: All Points Bulletin received poor reviews right from the start, in part due to the excessive number of severe defects shipped with the game, the balance and matchmaking, and general frustrations. Luckily, the developers are listening to us (kind of), and they've responded with a large list of fixes to be released in the 1.3 patch. According to Neil Castle, you can look forward to these fixes and enhancements:
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