If you know anything about gaming, you've heard of Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, aka "Tycho and Gabe". They're the creators of Penny Arcade, probably the most famous webcomic on the internet, which is mostly about gaming. Mostly... They've also dabbled with making games themselves, with the steampunk shenanigans of On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. And they do conventions.
Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX, started in 2004 in Washington State. It's less tradeshow, more gaming festival. Rubbing shoulders with trade stands from Ubisoft, Warner Brothers and Nvidia,there's nerdcore concerts, weekend long gaming marathons, Cosplayers and tabletop gamers. Its attendance is close to 70,000, and it books out fast. So fast, that since 2010 they now run 2 conventions, PAX Prime in Washington, and PAX East, in Boston.
With such a carnival atmosphere in Seattle, any Game studio that wanted their product to stand out had to come up with something special. That prize goes to Gearbox, who provided bread and circuses to all the attendees of their discussion panel: 140 free pizzas, then a free voucher to their upcoming Borderlands 2.
343 Industries, Microsoft's 'Halo' subsidiary, released a concept art video for Halo 4. This will be the first post-Bungie Halo Game, and time will tell whether 343i, whose staff number a few Bungie alumni, will be up to the challenge.
BioWare Mythic released more information and a demo video for Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, which will be free to play and focused on PVP. This is Bioware Mythic's second attempt at a Warhammer MMO, after 2008's well received if underplayed Age of Reckoning. Valve offered the world the manic carnage that is Counterstrike: Global Offensive. Originally a spin off mod for Half Life, the game series has sold over 25 million units and Counterstrike: GO looks like it will sell plenty more, with its simple graphics and fast paced teamplay mayhem. Dead Rising 2: Off The Record is adding a sandbox mode, so you can raise merry hell throughout Fortune City without a timer. And Gears of War 3 has a bit of spit and polish, but is largely the same game that made Gears of War 2 popular and fun. Special focus is the Horde mode, making the third person shooter more of a strategy game.
While not strictly computer gaming related, but definitely part of the "Gamer culture" of PAX, the first demo images of Scrolls, a board/card game from Notch (creator of massive indy hit Minecraft) and Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins. Bethesda, the studio behind the Fantasy series The Elder Scrolls, are making vague legal rumblings about the world "Scroll", but that hasn't hampered the game that is announced as "coming eventually".
And if you have $2,800 burning a hole in your pocket, you could buy the new Razer Blade gaming laptop, which demoed at PAX. And, yes, it only comes in black.
Halo 4 Concept Art
