PAX 2011: And various other games that I didn’t touch

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

Either stuff that I didn’t get the chance to check out personally, or stuff in which I wasn’t allowed to handle the controller. But still, got the goods anyway.

Boderlands 2

… Sorry to whip out the trailer that made its debut at Gamescom again, but no other real footage exists at this point I’m afraid. Gearbox was keeping their cards very close to their chest at the show, in the form of a behind closed doors presentation that folks waited literally hours in line to witness. Thank God for power of the press!

Confession: my only prior experience with Gearbox was the atrocious Duke Nukem Forever that they helped to crapped out, though in the end, they did the best they could with what they had to work with. Also, I never touched the first Borderlands, but after the demo, I’m definitely going to give it a shot.

It was clear that the game is a labor of love. They made sure to note that the first game made its premier at a previous PAX a few years back, some wacky new IP in a sea of nothing but sequels. But the folks found the game anyway, and embraced it, which has thus led to the grand success story that part one ended up being.

What was demonstrated was a portion of the game that takes place about a third into the action. Starring that guy depicted in the clip above, we watched one gigantic snow beast after another getting decimated, while also offered the chance to check out the fantastic graphics and animation. Best part was how the gun being used was never reloaded; after it ran out of bullets, it was simply chucked at the obstacle, which thusly exploded. It was the TDR, aka “Wal-Mart of guns”, something that is intended for disposal.

The game manufactures from before are back, along with new ones, which all provided a wide range of wacky arsenals. The improved AI was also demonstrated, in the form of the far smarter and more aggressive Psychos (whom I only recognize as the dude on the cover of part one). There was a boss battle, against some dude who had a midget strapped to his shield. And it was very much awesome.

Some other things were shown, much of it spoilers, so I won’t ruin it for everyone else, though I will say that the killer robots that also just run into you, only to explode, was equally neat!

Twisted Metal

The revival of everyone’s fave PSone launch title/vehicular combat title featuring an ice cream truck is back! Actually, I did get to play the game a while ago, at a NYC press junket. Was told that it was the same build from back then, hence why I pass at the show.

It’s basically the same game you remember, but with the appropriate next gen (well, current gen at this point) fixings: super wide arenas and lots of destructible environments for one. I still find the controls to be on the sloppy side, but I guess that’s what the fans want. At the very least, turning into a robot is pretty damn awesome, and reminded me of War of the Monsters (also by the same folks).

FireFall

Every year there’s that one game that spends a TON of money to let every single attendee know of its existence, regardless if its nowhere near the realm of their interests. And this year’s was most definitely FireFall; you couldn’t go anywhere without saying the logo on a PAX related banner and the like. Their booth was also gigantic.

The free to play multiplayer FPS certain looks okay… albeit a bit on the generic looking side. Because it was not my cup of tea, I kindly passed, though I now have a slight tinge of regret. Guess it didn’t hit me till afterward that the thing is free, which makes everything all the more impressive. I guess I could always sign up for the beta (anyone else interested can do so here).

Rise of Nightmares

There’s also that one booth in which one can’t help but gawk at the attendees playing its game, and Rise of Nightmares was this year’s poster child. I think I watched the following dude wave his arms and twist his body for a solid 20 minutes. It was about the look of total concentration plus total confusion on his face…

rise PAX 2011: And various other games that I didnt touch

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