Very soon I will be heading to bed, awakening later to the sounds of hurried packing and shuffling of feet for Comic Con 2008 is nearly upon us! I have confirmed that Kiki will be attending by my side on at least a few of the days, but I will do my best to post relevant gaming information from the floor as it happens (or close to it.)

Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) has indeed confirmed that he and Xbox will have a presence on the con floor, so keep your eyes here for potential breaking information from Comic Con 2008!

If you enjoyed the Dead Space E3 trailer, wait until you see this! The Lullaby Trailer was not approved by the ESRB, but that has not stopped the red, white and blue folk from experiencing the trailer. It was approved in EU and upload on the internets (of course!) for our viewing pleasure. Gory? check. Creepy music? check. full of awesome? check.

Yesterday morning at E3, the “New Xbox Experience” was shown off to the media. This completely revamped software for the Xbox 360 brings not only a brand new visual aesthetic to the console (replacing the blades system we have now) but brings interesting features devoted to enhancing the community experience.

The first addition comes with customizable avatars. They are reminiscent of Nintendo Wii’s Mii system, but in a more detailed and highly customizable fashion. Crafted in conjunction with Rare, the avatars will be available to all Xbox 360 users and will be able to represent the player (or what the player wishes to look like). They will also be integrated into some future games and…

The Primetime Channel. This will be a community-centric multiplayer channel that focuses on Game Show type casual games like UNO and the newly announced 1 vs. 100. The great icing on top of all this is a global Party System that allows you to network with a series of friends over Xbox Live and maintain your party not only within a single game, but between multiple games without the need to reconnect with your group. This will also work with the confirmed Netflix integration, allowing you to not only watch your Netflix movies over Xbox Live by yourself but also with a group of your friends… Online.

The Xbox 360 established itself as a multimedia giant with a great multiplayer community. With the NXE software on its way it will become a multiuser multimedia experience. Just imagine MST3King movies live with your friends over Xbox Live, or merely sharing a movie that makes you cry with a very special lady. (I’m looking at you, Ooopy.)

Top submissions to be displayed at Penny Arcade Expo Aug. 29 - 31

SEATTLE - July 9, 2008 - After sifting through over 80 submissions from a wealth of genres and gameplay hybrids from ‘exploratory puzzle’ to tactical to rhythm/action, The PAX 10 panel of industry experts selected the ten best submissions in terms of gameplay and “fun factor” for inclusion in The PAX 10. Penny Arcade was pleased to announce today The PAX 10 winners to be displayed at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle Aug. 29-31, 2008.

The PAX 10 are (in alphabetical order):

- The Amazing Brain Train by Grubby Games (puzzle/strategy)

- Audio Surf by Dylan Fitterer (rhythm/action)

- Chronotron by Scarybug Games (puzzle/platformer)

- Impulse by a team of Rochester Institute of Technology students (puzzle)

- The Maw by Twisted Pixel Games (action/adventure)

- Polarity by a team of Carnegie Mellon University students (platformer/puzzle)

- Project Aftermath by Games Faction (tactical/action)

- Schizoid by Torpex Games (action/strategy)

- Strange Attractors 2 by Ominous Development (puzzle/strategy)

- Sushi Bar Samurai by Molly Rocket (exploratory puzzle)

Announced earlier this year in cooperation with the DigiPen Institute of Technology, The PAX 10 is a games showcase open to independent developers worldwide. The winners will be shown in the PAX Exhibit Hall alongside over 70 other exhibitors - including top publishers like Activision, EA and Ubisoft - allowing those publishers, attendees and media to view their home-grown potential. Attendees will have the opportunity to vote on the exhibited games, honoring one of The PAX 10 with the “Audience Choice Award,” to be announced on www.penny-arcade.com following this year’s expo.

“The variety and caliber of the titles blew us away,” says Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade. “Narrowing down the group was a challenging process for the judges, but we’re incredibly proud to have these ten games as our kickoff showcase and can’t wait to see them on the show floor.”

About Penny Arcade Expo: The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) gaming festival is a three-day celebration of games and gamer culture. The annual convention includes an exhibition floor filled with playable builds of upcoming tabletop, console, and computer games; a conference program of game industry speakers; music concerts; freeplay areas; industry parties; an independent games showcase; game tournaments and more. Since its inception in 2004 the show has doubled in size year-over-year, growing from 4,500 attendees to 37,000 in 2007, making it the largest gaming festival in North America. For more information visit www.pennyarcadeexpo.com.

About Penny Arcade: Equal parts online comic and commentary, Penny Arcade (www.penny-arcade.com) keeps its finger on the pulse of the gaming industry, prompting conversation and controversy alike from community members and industry experts. What started as a hobby in 1998 for Jerry “Tycho” Holkins and Mike “Gabe” Krahulik has grown into an online phenomenon serving 70 million page views a month to millions of readers worldwide. In addition to the comic strip and PAX gaming festival (www.pennyarcadeexpo.com), Penny Arcade has expanded its reach to include a growing line of merchandise, a video game and management of Child’s Play (www.childsplaycharity.org), a gamer-driven charity for children that spans the globe.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

Purchase tickets here:
Single Ticket $20
Couples Tickets $40

Press Release:

Show hosts to discuss podcasting and its emergence as a new media format

SEATTLE, WA, June 26, 2008 – With just over two months until the 2008 edition of the Penny Arcade Expo kicks off, Gamercast Network is pleased to announce their plans to present a panel discussion titled Podcasting: The New Media. Focusing on the recent emergence of podcasting as a new method of communication, the panel takes place on Sunday, August 31st from 10:00am through 11:00am PDT in Satellite Room 400.

Moderated by Chris Paladino, Xbox Community Manager and member of the Gamerscore Blog team, the panel consists of five hosts from the podcasts which form Gamercast Network. The session is being offered as a true-to-life discussion on the realities of podcasting, learning how to connect with an audience in a fun and unique way, and as an insight into the inner workings of successful podcasts.

Attending panel members include Jeromy “Doc” Adams from Sarcastic Gamer, Chad Hantak from the Video Game Show, Danny “Godfree” Pena from Gamertag Radio, Natalie Sousa from Achievement Junkie, and Jay Van Beveren from UncleGamer Radio and Remember When.
As hosts of popular podcasts that appear frequently in the Top 50 gaming podcasts on the iTunes Music Store and the Zune Marketplace, the Gamercast Network members hope to answer questions about podcasting, the individual shows, and what it takes to turn a few people in front of a microphone into a fun, successful commodity that can reach a new group of listeners while still branching off into a more accessible form of communication.

Podcasting: The New Media is open to all attendees at PAX 2008, with the panel taking questions throughout this fun and exciting event. Listeners of the Gamercast Network shows are encouraged to come by and spend a few minutes with the people behind the voices of their favorite shows.

About Gamercast Network
For years, Gamercast Network has been one of the leading associations of community podcasts, presenting high quality shows that manage to appeal to a very wide and diverse group of listeners, with many of its shows consistently ranking within the Top 50 gaming podcasts on the iTunes Music Store and Zune Marketplace. Gamercast Network’s members include Achievement Junkie, Gamertag Radio, Podtacular, The Post Game Report, Sarcastic Gamer, UncleGamer Radio, and the Video Game Show. The network offers regular gaming content to an incredibly high number of listeners on a weekly basis, and is dedicated to bringing the best in video game podcasts to internet users across the world.

FINALLY! After many agonizing hours of not being able to play Zuma off line since it was purchased on another console, I will be able to play my beloved game whenever I want, with or without a working Internet. MS has announced the license transfer tool. You can now transfer the licenses of all your previously downloaded content from your old console to a new one.

It’s a simple two-part process.

First, you must transfer your authorized licenses here on the site.

Second, you must download the transferred licenses onto your new Xbox 360.

The Xbox page also notes: if you received your new Xbox 360 as the result of a refurbishment or repair, the licenses have already been transferred as part of the repair process, and you do not need to use the license transfer tool, but you may need to download the content again. Check the repair and refurbishment instructions page for more information.

For more information about restoring your licenses, see the Xbox 360 Content License Transfer FAQ.

In a recent interview with Venture Beat, Robbie Bach from Microsoft spoke on how gamers’ love for the Xbox 360 has been largely unswayed in the face of the tragic console failure epidemic that has so many of us seeing red (rings).

“The amazing part of that whole situation is that when we look at brand preference, customer satisfaction, willingness to recommend, none of that data has moved through that whole process.”

Bach continues,

“It speaks to the power of the product offering and service we provide. That’s my point. In the ordinary course of something like this, you would expect it to show up in the customer reaction data. We just haven’t seen that. It speaks to the fact that they love their games and Xbox Live. Does it frustrate them? Yes. On the other hand, they know we’re taking care of them. People have a certain amount of respect for that. If it had happened on a product that had less baseline customer satisfaction, it would have had a bigger impact. We really haven’t seen that.”

It’s interesting to see an official statement on this as I, myself, mused on exactly this situation in my article “Xbox 360, will you be mine?” in our February issue. It’s good to see that statistics are backing up my theory.

Keep 800 Microsoft Points free for this Wednesday! Capcom is releasing Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Following in the tradition of the series started by MERCS, Commando 3 is a cooperative arcade style shooter that implements a top-down perspective. As if online and local shoot-em up multiplayer wasn’t appealing enough, every purchase of Commando 3 comes with access to the beta of Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

SFIITHDR is set to be released on both the XBLA and the PlayStation Network this Fall and features the same popular, high-octane arcade fighting brought to us through SFII Turbo, but with some small tweaks and a major artwork overhaul.

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 (Official Site)
Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Official Site)

I am kilaMOMjaro. I have 5 children. I play Grand Theft Auto IV.

I always said the GTA series of games would never be in my home, but when my 21 yr old bought it himself I was interested. I saw the online play and couldn’t resist. I found some parts of it annoying more than offensive so I turn off the volume and I made the choice to NOT play the campaign. It is interesting to me, though, that people assume I allow my younger kids to play the game also.

I was honored to be spotlighted as a gamermom on Inside Xbox this past week. I was surprised to get messages that said “How can you let your little kids play GTAIV?” They assumed, I guess, that since it was on my gamercard as having been played by ME that I allow my younger children to play it!

Let me clear things up: I play GTAIV. My adult son plays it as well. At times I will let my 13 year old play under the supervision of his older brother who turns the volume off and skips the cut scenes for him. I also allow my 13 yr old to play racing games with his friends as long as he is in the family room with all of us and the volume is off. I don’t throw a game at my child and walk away.

But the point really is this…you have to take an interest in what your children are doing! Who they game with, what hours they play. Get them outside as well! I do NOT believe that video games make people violent. If anything video games are a way to vent and calm down after a bad day. Yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ECA. We fight those lobbyists who despise the Video Game Industry and want to convince you that said games will ruin your lives. If a child becomes violent it isn’t the video game he has been playing…it’s his environment or an issue of his/her mental health.

Don’t flame me for the games I play. Save your writing-nasty-messages energy and go be with your kids.