Gamertell

E3 2008 was an unmitigated disaster.

This singular sentence summed up the reaction that gamers felt towards this version of the long-running video-game based trade show. Once an event celebrated as much for its extravagance as its large variety of video games on display, the 2008 version of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, now known as the E3 Media & Business Summit, was a shadow of its former self, stripped of its style and verve which resulted in its popularity with gamers plummeting faster than the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The reason E3 lost its luster can be attributed to…

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At PAX 08 I had a chance to visit Twin Skies’ booth.  What I found out about Twin Skies is the truth in their slogan of being “much more than an MMO”.  It appears that Meteor Games is trying to do more than just create the next Everquest or World of Warcraft by revolutionizing the gaming industry with a service that is part MMO, part social networking site plus a site for cool Flash games. 

As an MMO, Twin Skies is powered by BigWorld Technology, which gives it some terrific animations, lighting effects, shadows. The demo I saw looks quite good…

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This isn’t the first time that we have reported on Mirror’s Edge, a soon-to-be released game from EA, and I am guessing it won’t be the last. 

Mirror’s Edge is a game I described in a previous article as a first-person shooter without any shooting but I was wrong about that.  There is some shooting but it isn’t the sole action in the game which helps make Mirror’s Edge different…

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While I was at PAX 08, I saw a demo of South Peak’s Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Danger.  I was surprised that this game was not getting the attention that it should be getting.

Raven Squad is a hybrid of first-person shooter and strategy genres resulting in a rare and distinct mix…

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I had the opportunity to try Gamecock’s Velvet Assassin in an appropriately dark, curtained back room at this year’s PAX 08. After all, the game’s tagline is, “Battles are won on the fronts but wars are won in the shadows.”

In Velvet Assassin the protagonist is Violette Summer, a British secret agent in World War II Europe, who begins the game in a hospital in a comatose state as “death dances upon the ruin of her life”. 

The gameplay consists of flashbacks of former sabotage missions behind Nazi lines. Some of these missions are actually based on real-life events from World War II.

From the portion I played, you’ll spend a lot of time going through dark corridors armed with

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I believe that I promised a follow-up about Dragon Age: Origins, a soon-to-be released game from EA and Bioware.  I briefly mentioned in another article that the Bioware booth was devoted to Dragon Age: Origins, and it was completely enclosed.  PAX attendees had to wait in line to enter into a miniature movie theater that was designed to look like a medieval dungeon, only with a large LCD screen. 

Much of what I saw on the on-screen demo was…

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I realize that we have covered Fallout 3’s presence at PAX before, but I got a chance to experience it firsthand.  Bethesda Software had one of the biggest gamer magnets at the Penny Arcade Expo this year.

It was tough getting through the crowd (which is where a media badge comes in handy). When I saw Fallout 3 being demoed…

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EA had quite a presence at PAX 08 including entire booth devoted to Dead Space, a science fiction RPG being released around Halloween 2008.  I got a chance to play a demo of the game while Chuck Beaver, one of the game’s designers, was standing by my side as a guide.

The booth where I was playing the game was completely dark, which is definitely how you want to play a game that reminds you of the tagline to…

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As you can see from this photo I took from PAX, someone has given Left 4 Dead, a new game from Valve, the finger.  Or, more accurately, the thumb. 

Left 4 Dead takes place during that time that we all know is coming, when zombies walk the Earth.  What makes the game different from other zombie invasion games is that this isn’t a first-person shooter game where you go through the same environments every time you play, with the inevitable goal to “beat” the game…

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Some of you might recognize the above comic as Penny Arcade, whose creators also ran the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) last weekend in Seattle, WA (USA).  While the above comic represents industry-focused expo E3, it does not at all summarize the fan-focused experience that is PAX. 

One of the things I liked about PAX is that it really is a chance for a bunch of gamers, whether they play video games, card games, tabletop games or traditional RPGs, they all get together under one very large roof.  As keynote speaker, Ken Levine said, “We are all just a great big bunch of nerds”. 

This fan focus affected the booths, as they were definitely designed to…

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