BG Crew with Pax Gamette Lhars Steck, Ross Steck and Rob Welkner of Coin-Op TV.

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.

Tron Evolution The Game - Photo By Mitch Ahrens

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.

Chatting it up with the Devs from Fallen Earth.

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.

Borderlands ready for Z-Day?

(Gamespot) – Just after the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Borderlands creator Gearbox Software filed a host of applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office to secure the rights to possible future game titles. Among these titles were “World War II Hero,” “Brothers In Arms War Hero,” “Modern War Hero,” and “War Hero.” Of the last, studio CEO Randy Pitchford confirmed to GameSpot that a game of that name was in development, but well “down the road.”

This week, one more of those “down the road” projects may have emerged, courtesy of a new trademark application that Gearbox has filed with the USPTO. The game name in question is “Z-Day,” and it carries the customary telltale description of “computer game software for personal computers and home video game consoles; motion picture films about action and adventure.”

Gearbox has yet to respond to requests for comment on the project. However, on the studio’s Web site, the developer currently has four in-development projects listed. Among these are Aliens: Colonial Marines, as well as three unnamed developments.

One of these untitled works is likely a sequel to its highly stylized double-platinum shooter Borderlands. Though a sequel has not yet been announced, Borderland’s critical and commercial success led creative director Mike Neumann to call a follow-up “a no-brainer” in November, and Take-Two has trumpeted the fact that it retains the “long-term publishing rights” to the franchise.

[Full story at Gamespot.com]

Yeah, we fought one of these. They suck.

It’s possible you haven’t played Borderlands. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on one of the most addictive games ever. It’s also possible that even if you have played Borderlands that you aren’t aware of the latest of three DLCs for the game, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. And it’s entirely possible that even if you are aware of the latest DLC that you aren’t aware that the DLC is currently available for the Xbox 360 version since it was launched without much fanfare.

Well, here’s the scoop… The Secret Armory of General Knoxx has landed on Xbox Live and is available for download and play. If you got bored with “Playthrough 2.5″, conquered Moxxi’s Underdome, and survived the undead horrors of Jakob’s Cove, you’re in for a treat with this one.

The Reckon Crew has been playing through this latest DLC and we have to say that we like what we see so far. Raising the level cap from 50 to 61, Gearbox and 2K Games is billing “Secret Armory” as the “largest DLC for Borderlands to date”. Weighing in at a hefty 1.6 GB, it’s certainly one of the largest DLCs to date, period.

Picking up where the main storyline left off, “Secret Armory” contains more of the outrageous humor, fantastic voice acting, and beautifully rendered graphics we’ve come to know and love in the Borderlands universe. It introduces more powerful weapons, the raised level cap, several new vehicles and some vast new areas to explore.

We ran into one of these as well. They suck, too.

From what the Reckon Crew has seen so far, there are also new beasties to fight. We’re not talking about old skins slapped on old models but entirely new critters and baddies who do their best to rip your virtual face off. And while some old enemies make new appearances, you’ll be well pleased with the amount of new content this DLC has to offer.

You can count on our review of the new content to be up and running as soon as we’ve had the time to more fully explore it but for now, we’re already giving it our thumbs up.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

The New Borderlands (3rd DLC installment) entitled ‘The Secret Armory of General Knox’ is en route to your download station this year. Gearbox states that this package is “bigger and better than the previous two installments” and is aimed at levelling and skilling out your level 20-50 pandora stomping toon. Gearbox is also promising a level cap rise, but have not yet indicated how high, and expects to deliver “brutal, never-before-seen enemies in a huge new environment complete with tons of brand new missions, entirely new weapons and items.???

Rumors are also floating around of a new ground vehicle to roll around in (see pic), and possibly even a new character to power up. Either way, the last episodes have well extended our fun at BusyGamer, and we are certain this one will too. Still no price or confirmed date, just some gnarly press screen shots.

Check out our BusyGamer review of Borderlands while your here.

Over at the official Borderlands forums this weekend, Gearbox dropped some news on us indicating that there would be a new DLC on it’s way to the Xbox 360 marketplace and Playstation Network.

Gearbox says that the new DLC for Borderlands will be the “biggest we have made”, and the team is working on a new update for the game as well. Neither the update nor the DLC have a release date at this point, but are saying more info will be coming shortly.

The last two DLC’s for Borderlands, ‘Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot’ and ‘The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned’ have proven to be smash hits for rpg shooter fans, adding a whopping 15 hrs of game time to the already very lengthy game (for the BusyGamer that is). And Moxxi’s Underdome still challenges us over at BG every time we fire it up, it being one of our top mulitplayer titles to date.

[Official Borderlands Site]

(1UP) – Three weeks ago, gamers finally got their chance to shoot their way through Borderlands and already downloadable content has been announced a few days before launch.

This DLC bring players to Jakob’s Cove where players will discover the evident and scary fact that Dr. Ned has created a rotting army of monsters. Forcing players to mindlessly eliminate all zombies while helping Dr. Ned discover a cure for the virus, this mishap by the doctor has seemed to have created a horrible story but a great slaughter-fest.

Seeming to be a little late, Gearbox Software is releasing content of the undead: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned. Being released on November 24th, this DLC is going to bringing the family together in time to be thankful for awesome zombie action for Thanksgiving. This new content will include brand new quests, enemies and environments for players to wonder around taking out the recently revived.

Dropping officially on the PS3 and Xbox 360, the content has yet to be confirmed for the PC but I have a feeling that the PC version will be released before the zombies slip around the ice around the beginning of December. Instead of just hording through Left 4 Dead 2, get this content to grab some more loot to share with your buddies while giving the undead the pleasure of dying for a second time.