Bethesda first showed off its revamp of Rogue Warrior earlier this year at a UK press event and at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The publisher revealed that the game had been overhauled from a tactical shooter to a more personality focused first-person shooter. At the time, we weren't able to get our hands on the game and were simply given guided demos of gameplay. Now that the game is getting closer to release, Bethesda is letting PAX attendees get their hands on a playable level. Rogue Warrior is slated to hit the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 later this year. Continue Reading »

One of the games in Bethesda's booth at PAX is the upcoming version of Doom II for Xbox Live Arcade that's due later this year. The forthcoming conversion follows on the heels of the original Doom on Xbox Live Arcade, which saw the classic PC game get a visual face-lift and some online support added. We get our hands on a work-in-progress version of the game to see how it's coming together.

Who's Making This Game: Nerve Software, the development house that worked on the 2006 XBLA version of the original Doom.

What The Game Looks Like: Doom II follows in the footsteps of the original Doom on XBLA and gives the classic PC game's graphics a respectful face-lift. The visuals have been buffed up a bit for HD displays, but they still maintain the blocky charm of the original game. Continue Reading »

Who Was There: The "Medium Is the Massage: Story Matters" panel at the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo featured a few names that might sound familiar, as well as a somewhat ambiguous intentional typo in its title. On hand were Double Fine's Tim Schafer, BioWare's Greg Zeschuk, Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack, and Bungie's Joseph Staten.

What They Talked About: Storytelling and the gaming industry have a love-hate relationship. On the one hand, the medium offers near-endless possibilities on the types and ways in which a story can be told. On the other, most players just want to get into the action and kill stuff. This and other topics were discussed in a story-driven panel lorded over by some of the biggest names in the gaming industry.

Leading off the proceedings, the moderator elicited opinions on what, exactly, interactive storytelling is. For BioWare cofounder Zeschuk, interactive storytelling entails in-game narrative, such as dialogue, choices, and environmental tells, as well as out-of-game experiences. He then gave the example of sharing "watercooler" stories, where players recount their experiences about what they did with others, outside the game. Continue Reading »

Originally called Ransen! Pokemon Scramble, this WiiWare title was released in Japan earlier this year and has been renamed Pokemon Rumble for the North American audience. Instead of sounding like something you'd order for breakfast, Pokemon Rumble is a much more appropriate name, given that this is an action brawler with windup Pokemon toys.

Who's Making This Game: The game is developed by Ambrella, who also worked on My Pokemon Ranch.

What The Game Looks Like: Pokemon models were reused from Pokemon Ranch, so your lovable characters are going to look like little plastic toys. In the game, they actually get wound up before jumping in a fight, so try not to get too attached, because they're just toys, and you'll toss them aside for a newer model soon enough. Continue Reading »

Here on the show floor of PAX 2009, Valve is showing off one of the new campaigns from Left 4 Dead 2. It’s called Dark Carnival, and it’s a bit of a departure from some of the previous environments Valve has revealed. Unlike the first campaign Valve showed, Parish, which took place in the streets of New Orleans under broad daylight, Dark Carnival is set during nighttime and drops the game’s four survivors on a course through zombie-infested fairgrounds. We took an all-too-brief run through the campaign’s second chapter and managed to see a bit more than just the new terrain.

Dark Carnival is like an imaginative child’s worst nightmare manifested in video game form. The team of survivors must make their way through all manner of carnival-themed scenery, including striped tents, carousels, and, at one point, a giant slippery slide. But don’t take that to mean Left 4 Dead 2 has gone cheery, because this fair is every bit as creepy and twisted as the series’ other environments. In fact, it might even be more creepy, thanks in large part to one of the new “uncommon common” zombies you’ll find. At certain points, you’ll run into zombies dressed like clowns. Clowns. They’re no more powerful than the other common infected, but their squeaky clown shoes will attract more zombies the longer they stay alive. At one point, we shot one clown zombie with a shotgun, and we presumed him to be dead after he hit the ground with a missing arm. That was our mistake--a moment later this clown slowly rose back up and shambled toward us with just one arm and a gaping chunk removed from his torso. It was easily one of the more disturbing moments we’ve witnessed in either Left 4 Dead game. Continue Reading »