Well, the Reckon Crew made it back to Texas in more or less one piece but thanks to a bout of “Nerd Flu??? (for which I am totally blaming Rob Welkner) I’ve been a bit out of it since getting back on Lone Star soil. But never fear, dear readers, because we have returned with news of the sights we’ve seen and games we’ve played. Over the course of the next few days, we’ll be posting up interviews and previews.

Before we begin those, however, I thought we’d do a quick list of things that really caught our eye or caught us off guard. PAX Prime was an overwhelming amount of gaming goodness with some very nice surprises and a few major disappointments. Below you’ll find the quick and dirty version of what we found to be the best… and the worst.

Biggest PAX Prime Surprise: Duke Nukem Forever. Seriously. Even the guys from Penny Arcade didn’t know this one was going to be there and after 13 years of false starts, screen shots, reported delays, and the rumor that the game was total vaporware, Take Two Games and Gearbox caught the entire convention off guard with their Duke Nukem booth. As I walked by the sign on day one, I thought someone was out of their mind to play a joke like that but the whole thing was on the up and up and the demo was playable. Throw in the fact that the wait was almost two hours to get in for the demo and no one from Take Two/Gearbox was mangled by anyone and that tells me it was legit. There was so much we were scheduled for that we didn’t get the chance to check it out but everyone was raving about it so we’ll be keeping an eye out for it.

Biggest PAX Prime Letdown: I’m a Final Fantasy fan so I was really looking forward to the playable demo of Final Fantasy XIV. The problem here was that even though I was prepared for the inevitable fact that it was going to be another MMO version of the franchise, I had hoped for some improvements over the last MMO entry. I was disappointed. I’m certain there will be some “polishing??? before it is released but it was hard not to get the “been there, done that??? feeling from the demo. I wasn’t a fan of Final Fantasy XI and it doesn’t appear much has changed from that rendition. Unless there’s a major overhaul before the release, I’m going to be giving this one a pass.

Game from PAX Prime most likely to be enjoyed by the Reckon Crew while drinking: This one was an easy choice. Slam Bolt Scrappers from Fire Hose Games is one of the most chaotic (and enjoyable) games we sampled at PAX. Scrappers is a mashup of strategy and brawling with a touch of Tetris thrown in for flavor. With a multiplayer versus mode as well as a co-op mode, Slam Bolt Scrappers may find its way into our drinking games soon after its launch at the beginning of next year.

Best PAX Prime After Party: Hands down, the guys from EVE Online have the market cornered on After Parties. Last year they went all out but this year they managed to top even that epic party. There were fire twirlers and eaters along with cute girls dressed up in leather and lace dancing the night away. Of course, all this awesome comes with a price and that price, when figuring in the open bar, is the largest collection of “white boy??? dances you can imagine. Aside from the horror of watching some of the most uncoordinated drunkards across the world congregated in one place dancing off-rhythm, CCP Games knows how to throw a mixer and may very well hold a special place in the Reckon Crew’s hearts for a long time to come.

Best PAX WTF Moment: We drink. Seriously, I mean that. When we imbibe, people who try to keep up with us often end up hiding from us. We’re also good at getting into places we’re not meant to be when we’ve been drinking. So there was a moment when we realized at one party that we had made a beeline for the VIP area, made it in, and proceeded to get sloshed off the free booze. It was only after about an hour that we realized where we were and there was a look that passed between the Reckon Crew with no one daring to ask how we had ended up where we were. There was a loudly proclaimed “WTF???? once we had left which lead to laughter… Shenanigans continued.

Best PAX “Where the hell have I been???? moment: Nestled amongst one of the noisiest corners of PAX Prime was the developers of a little gem called “Fallen Earth???. Admittedly, we’d heard of the game early last year but we’d failed to follow up on it and we’d not really thought of it since then. Sitting down with one of the crew from Icarus Studios LLC, we were introduced to one of the most lovingly crafter MMOs I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Set in a post apocalyptic world, this game has some of the features I’ve always wanted to see in an MMO. There’s also a real passion among its developers to create a unique world for players to wander about in. We’ll be running an interview with one of the game’s developers and we’re already chomping at the bit to review the game. More to come on this in the near future.

Biggest PAX Fan “Boi??? moment: To say the Reckon Crew is a bunch of Star Wars fans is an understatement. We’re absolutely certain that we collectively know more about the Star Wars universe than some of the writers who have worked with George Lucas on the EU books. So it was with a very critical eye that we approached the Bioware booth and proceeded to get our fill of the playable demo. The graphics were gorgeous, the actions and skills were smoothly animated, and there may or may not have been a moment when I loudly made the sound of a young girl presented with a birthday present of a real live unicorn. Those of you who are as critical of Star Wars’ games as we may rejoice should the final product be anything like what we witnessed at PAX.

There it is in the briefest of glimpses into our experience of PAX Prime. As I stated earlier, we will be presenting much more from our visit to the Mecca of gaming conventions as well as introducing our official PAX Gamette in the coming days… so sty tuned.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

All photos by Mitch Ahrens 2010.

Award-Winning EVE Online Developer Taking Console Gaming to New Heights

(Press Release) – CCP today revealed DUST 514™, a console-based hybrid MMO/FPS set within the EVE universe. The announcement, which included a video featuring gameplay footage, was made during a keynote address by CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson at the Game Developers Conference in Cologne, Germany.

DUST 514, featuring first-person shooter and RTS-style gameplay, will interact directly with EVE Online, CCP’s critically acclaimed flagship MMO. This interplay between the two games opens the EVE universe to console gamers and gives them a chance to become part of one of the most massive cooperative play and social experiences ever.

“We launched EVE Online in 2003 and have experienced steady annual growth– a fact we appreciate as a rarity in the world of MMOs, especially given the global economy of the past year,??? said Petursson. “Our success with EVE Online has afforded us the highest caliber global design and production talent in gaming. With a team of the best minds in the industry, we conceived an ambitious new take on virtual world development with DUST 514.???

The primary gameplay of DUST 514 features brutal ground combat that takes place on the surface of planets from EVE, delivering the visceral, adrenaline-fueled experience of futuristic firefights. Developed for the current generation of consoles, DUST 514 combines equal parts battlefield reflexes and strategic planning, giving commanders and ground infantry real-time configurable weapons and modular vehicles to manage dynamic battlefield conditions.

Now entering its third year of production, DUST 514 is the primary development focus of CCP’s Shanghai studio. The team includes veteran designers of EVE Online and experienced talent from various sectors of the video game industry.

“Since opening our Shanghai studio, we have invested in building a team that wants to push the envelope in gaming and be pioneers in the industry,??? said Kjartan Pierre Emilsson, Managing Director of CCP Shanghai. “Having led the design and development efforts of the project from start to finish, our studio is honored to call DUST 514 our first title release.???

Further details will be revealed at CCP’s annual Fanfest event October 1-3, 2009 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

About CCP
CCP is widely recognized as an industry-leading pioneer of the single-server persistent universe architecture as the developer and publisher of EVE Online, the critically-acclaimed, science fiction-based massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). Utilizing a cross-discipline approach combining cutting-edge technology and artistic excellence, CCP is dedicated to providing vibrant, compelling products that transcend the boundaries of conventional MMOGs and facilitate social networking through virtual worlds. Privately held and founded in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1997, CCP’s international reach now spans the globe with offices in Atlanta and Shanghai as well as a base of operations in London. More information about CCP is available at the company’s website, www.ccpgames.com.

(CCP GAMES PRESS RELEASE) – Albatron Technology has announced today that the current series of NVIDIA VGA Cards will bundle the epic MMORPG, EVE Online, one of the most popular action-strategy online games available worldwide. Albatron aims to add significant value to their VGA products by featuring this internationally acclaimed interstellar adventure developed by world renowned CCP of Iceland.

Brilliant nebulas, endless asteroid belts and celestial planets within the vastness of empty space are the backdrop to a galactic conflict between empires and independent warring factions as they vie for territory, wealth and power. Build your own fleet of customized ships with superb detail and exquisite variety to patrol space, fully loaded with sophisticated weaponry and the ability to leap stars with a breathtaking “warp” technology. You can easily maneuver your perspective on the 3D landscape by dragging and pulling your mouse in any direction. It’s simply nothing short of amazing.

EVE Online boasts over a quarter of a million subscribers from around the world all playing on a single server. Players join empires, form alliances, mine for resources, trade commodities and of course, go to war.

The EVE website (www.eveonline.com) provides full support for its burgeoning user community with free expansions, frequent updates, user forums, tournament announcements, knowledge base, trailers and more.

About EVE Online
Set tens of thousands of years in the future, EVE Online is a breathtaking journey to the stars, to an immersive experience filled with adventure, riches, danger and glory. With over a quarter of a million subscribers worldwide inhabiting the same virtual universe, EVE features a vast player-run economy where your greatest asset is the starship, designed to accommodate your specific needs, skills and ambitions. EVE offers professions ranging from commodities trader to mercenary, industrial entrepreneur to pirate, mining engineer to battle fleet commander or any combination of these and much more. From brokering business deals to waging war, you will have access to a diverse array of sophisticated tools and interfaces to forge your own destiny in EVE.

Gaming’s biggest virtual world just got bigger

(February ’09) – CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, today announced the full features list for EVE Online: Apocrypha, the tenth free expansion for EVE Online subscribers, which is due out on March 10th, coinciding with the availability of EVE in retail outlets across North America, Europe and Pan Asia. Pilots will be able to scan down and enter massive, chaotic wormholes that have opened into unexplored solar systems. There, untold opportunities await behind the powerful defensive curtain of an ancient, deadly race. When defeated and pillaged, their ships and fortifications become the basis of the next level of technology back on the “safer” side of the wormholes.

EVE’s Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olafsson on Apocrypha: “Just like the human body is said to regenerate itself every seven years, EVE Online continues to grow and evolve in its sixth year of operation, with systems being added, refined, refactored and polished with every expansion we make. As the player base continually grows, we are able to increase the development team and bring in more engineers, designers and artists for each expansion. This allows us to deliver such a broad range of features catering to a variety of playstyles in a volume that we can be proud of.”

“It’s both comforting and disturbing to come home after work, log in to EVE late in the evening and find the same developers that spend their long day building EVE, playing it and enjoying it deep into the night. We are a company that truly sips its own champagne, likes it and strives to make it more tasty whenever we can.”
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