Duh. With the success of the original Borderlands — of course a sequel is coming. It’s just good to get the nod from Gearbox themselves.

The recently announced shooter sequel, which is expected to hit sometime after March of next year, will  bring players to the unexplored regions of planet Pandora, and introduce “all-new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment.

Want to see the game in action? Borderlands 2 will be officially unveiled at this year’s GamesCom on the 17-21 of this month and PAX Prime on August 26-28/

SEATTLE — Sony brought a few Move titles to show off at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo, and with both of the major new motion technology being released soon it was interesting to see what would be available for titles.

It does kinda feel like a Wii game...

One of Sony’s new Move titles is cleverly called Heroes on the Move. You play one of the famous characters: Sly Cooper, Ratchet, Clank, Jak, or Dexter. This is a party title, with short quick games to get a group of people into it.

I was able to play through two levels of the game. The first one was a modified bowling game. The player bowls a ball in the level, then uses the controller to direct the ball to roll in certain directions to hit all the enemies on the board. The ball keeps rolling until it falls off the map. There are bumpers and ramps on the map to help direct the ball in the direction of the enemy units that must be destroyed.

You move the controller up to jump over things or to get it to get to higher areas. The level that I played was fairly easy, but was still fun. The character could also be moved around the board to other starting locations to help get to different spots, like to bowl behind where it started. The controls took small motions to nudge it in different directions, and felt a lot like a Wii Game.

With the glowing orb at the end of the Move controller it was able to very accurately track all my movements, since it knows the exact dimensions of the ball, it knows how far away it is by how big the circle is, and can tell moving forward, and backwards as well as from side to side, and up and down.

The second level I got to play was one where you could throw a disc around to hit the targets. The disc stops when it hits a wall or other object that isn’t breakable. The discs also stop if you try to go to high with them too fast — they stall out and fall to the earth. This level had a limited time and a limited number of discs. As you’re destroying the enemies, you have to also collect more discs and time bonuses to keep going.

Overall the game was fun, and I would enjoy playing it as a friendly party game, and it has potential as a family title. The only complaint is it did feel like a game more designed for the Wii, just using Sony Franchise characters.

SEATTLE — Kung Fu Rider will be coming the PlayStation Network, and it will use the Move Controller. The game features an office worker in Hong Kong riding less traditional "vehicles" down the busy streets.

It was described as similar in style to Crazy Taxi, and we wholeheartedly agree. The demo that we got to play was with an office chair. The character sits on the office chair, backwards, using the seat back as a steering wheel. The final game will feature a variety of weird vehicles.

The movements are fairly simple. You move the controller up and down to go faster, quick upward jerk will cause the chair to jump, so you can leap over objects and grind on rails if you land correctly. They also use two buttons on the controller, one to lean the character back, to duck under objects, and another to do a round house kick. This makes the controls very simple. The game was very arcade like also with the graphics very cartoonish.

The animations in the game when you’d lean back, kick or jump or even when you’d get knocked off your chair were hilarious. Getting knocked off your chair happens in slow motion, with an exaggerated fall backwards.

The object of the levels was to get to the bottom within a time limit, and falling off would punish you by losing time and speed. They have money scattered throughout the level to collect for points.

I thought it was a fun, and quick game. It’s not going to be a real deep story line game, but if you want something quick and fun, you’ll like Kung Fu Rider.

Kung Fu Rider is for 1-2 players and comes out this month.

Game features:

• Find the best routes of escape while racing through 27 exciting courses in six unique areas of Hong Kong.
• Slide solo in single-player mode or have a friend use a PlayStation Move motion controller to aim a "target" around the screen in order to collect items and fend off enemies in the offline multi-player co-op mode.
• Unlock 12 new vehicles that will help you make a speedy getaway through the streets of Hong Kong.
• Check out the tally screen at the end of each race to see your reactions captured by the PlayStation Eye camera during your most extreme wipeouts.

SEATTLE — Valve has running a hands-off demo of the co-op play for Portal 2 during the Penny Arcade Expo.

The Game features two robots, an orange one and a blue one, that Glados has given a set of missions too. The game still plays with the expected commentary, where Glados will say things like "make you wish you could die," after one of the Robots gets "killed.”

The Portal colors were modified slightly, so that it makes it easier to tell which player shot which side of which portal. One portal is red and yellow, and the other is blue and purple. They also added a new “ping” tool. The developers noticed that even when the two players are in the same room telling each other what to do would be tricky, especially with how tricky some of Portal’s puzzles can be. The tool points a marker where you want the other player to place a portal. This helps coordinating, where you can tell the other side what you need them to do.

The co-op missions will be about twice the length of the original portal game. They will be the same length as the single player missions.

They then showed off some of the new puzzle devices in the game. There is a laser, which can be redirected with light cubes, but they require extra caution in the co-op mode that you don’t accidentally use it on the other player. There is a light platform that the robots can walk across, and like all other objects in the game, the new ones will move through the portals. They showed off one of the ways that two players will be needed in the new game, by having the light path going over the acid from one player’s portal, than needing to change the direction to go down another hallway. If the first player moved their portal, the path they are standing on would disappear, and both robots would fall into the acid.

They showed another co-op solution in making more practical a move that was previously a fun stunt to pull in the game. It had been fun to shoot a portal on the ceiling and the floor, so that the player falls from infinitely gaining speed to terminal velocity. In the original one, this, while still being a fun move, wasn’t very practical since the screen moves so fast that it’s near impossible to redirect the upper portal anywhere useful. With two players though, one player starts falling through the other player’s portals, and then they redirect the output to a desired location, shooting the falling player out at maximum velocity, without requiring a huge cliff.

They also added more comic relief to the game. The two robots can wave at each other, and even hug. It’s very funny to watch one of them "forget" to hit a switch, killing the other, and then offer a hug in apology. Though in a non-demo situation, I’m not sure how often either move would be used.

The video ended with a demonstration of the new features of the game, and the two robots preparing to begin their task. I’m looking forward to this when it’s released on Feb 9, 2011, on the Xbox 360, PC, Mac and PlayStation 3.

This year’s list of the world’s most influential people according to TIME magazine includes the famed creators of Penny Arcade, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. They are also the founders of PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) and PAX East – gaming shows which have become some of the largest and most influential in the industry.

What started in 1998 with a simple comic strip, has evolved into a multifaceted gaming empire that includes the comic/website, a web show called Penny Arcade TV, the incredible – always fan-focused – PAX shows and an amazing charity, Child’s Play, that delivers games to sick kids around the world.

Today, Penny Arcade has over 3.5 million readers and the duo behind it show no signs of slowing down. Congratulations, gentlemen!

Source: G4

Tonight at the Penny Arcade Expo in Boston, Infinity Ward’s Robert “FourZeroTwo” Bowling commented on the current state of affairs involving the fallout between publisher Activision and the studio, which led to the firing of Infinity Ward founders Jason Young and Vince Zampella.

Bowling adamantly affirmed to the audience that whatever we’ve heard, whatever we think we know, it’s not actually factual and morale at the studio is just fine.

“Infinity Ward is 100 super dedicated people. Vince and Jason, love those guys. Important thing to know is that there are 100 guys who slave over these games. And they’re still there.”

He went further, saying there’s nothing to fear.

“You don’t have to worry about anything. The map pack is still making its release date. News stories sensationalize it. Moral is good at Infinity Ward.”

Whether or not he’s being forced to regurgitate PR spun answers is one thing, but if he’s not lying, this is great news.

Next weekend’s inaugural east coast gaming show, PAX East, is 100 percent sold out, a show representative said today.

PAX East

The show, March 26-28 at the Hynes Convention Center in lovely Boston, Mass. is now completely sold out, with over 60,000 expected to attend.

We’ll be at the show in full force, reporting on panels with industry folk and bringing you in-depth hands-on coverage of unreleased games. So if you missed out on buying a badge and attending, keep it locked at Blast for round-the-clock coverage.

PAX East 2010

Bow before Omegathon!

One of PAX’s most anticipated events every year is the hilarious Omegathon. The new PAX East version has an ‘East Coast’ twist which will feature team play in every single round.

Previous Omegathons have featured team play, but never in the finals. The PAX East competition features a Prize Pack including 2500 gold – in addition to tickets, airfare and hotels for Gamescom.

The First 3 Rounds of the competition will feature:

Round 1)  Mario Kart: Double Dash

Round 2) Geometry Wars 2

Round 3) Unnamed Rythym Game

The game played in the 4th round is a well-guarded secret and will only be announced the night of the competition (March 28th). Contestants will be selected during the Wil Wheaton keynote. Past Omegathons have produced some considerable hostility between teammates who were not performing up to expectations. This year’s event looks to take the level of verbal abuse toward strangers to a whole new level.  Who would ever want to miss that?

The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX, is coming East in March and landing in our backyard in Boston.

It’s open to the public and for one weekend in late March it’ll be the gaming capital of the world. You’re going to be there right?

A recent posting on PAX East’s Web site simply reads: FACT. We will sell out of badges for PAX East Coast 2010. And continued with based on what we’re seeing on pre-registration numbers there will be NO BADGES AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR.

Blast Magazine will be at the show in full force bringing you live coverage of the show’s many panels and getting our hands on every game on the show floor, but you should join us.

Will be sold out soon!

If you haven’t already, head over to the PAX East page and grab yourself a ticket today before they’re gone.

PAX East

The 2009 PAX, or the Penny Arcade Expo, a nerd-gathering and social gaming destination held in Seattle over the summer was a grand hit. It drew thousands of guests who came to play games, listen to music, and join in the general revelry of the event.

We went and wrote all the hands-on previews you could read, but if you desire a documentary-style DVD of the happenings, PAX has you covered.

The DVD collection, with over 10 hours of content on six discs, will arrive in the PAX Store later this month.

And keep an eye out for PAX East, a mammoth-sized event landing in Boston in late March.

Harmonix is paying tribute to this weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) convention in Seattle by offering up tunes from bands playing the show as next week’s DLC for Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3, and for half-off the regular $2 price to play.

So if you cannot attend PAX over the next 4 days and see these bands live, why not enjoy them in the comfort of your living room, in digital form in Rock Band?

Furthermore, for the more mainstream audience, Harmonix is also selling tunes from A.F.I., 3 Doors Down, Audioslave, and The Jackson 5, at full price however.

*99 cents instead of $1.99

‚· Freezepop “" “Get Ready 2 Rokk” *

‚· Freezepop “" “Less Talk More Rokk” *

‚· Freezepop “" “Science Genius Girl” *

‚· Jonathan Coulton “" “Re: Your Brains” *

‚· MC Frontalot “" “Origin of Species” *

‚· Paul & Storm “" “Opening Band” *

+ Full Price

‚· 3 Doors Down “" “Kryptonite” +

‚· AFI “" “Miss Murder” +

‚· Audioslave “" “Gasoline” +

‚· Jackson 5 “" “ABC” +

And as always, Harmonix continues to play catch-up with Wii rockers, adding the following tunes to their growing library September 8.

‚· Avenged Sevenfold “" “Bat Country”

‚· The Jam “" “A Town Called Malice”

‚· The Jam “" “Going Underground”

‚· Oasis “" “Supersonic” (Live)

‚· Rage Against the Machine “" “Guerilla Radio”

‚· Talking Heads “" “And She Was”

‚· Talking Heads “" “Crosseyed & Painless”

‚· Talking Heads “" “Girlfriend is Better”

‚· Talking Heads “" “Once in a Lifetime”

‚· Talking Heads “" “Take Me to the River”

And finally, if you love your Rock Band on the go, the following tunes will be added to the “Rock Band: Unplugged” catalog on September 10.

Godsmack “" “I Stand Alone”

Stone Roses “" “Love Spreads”

BioWare and Gabe & Tycho have come together to create a new 8 part web comic based on the upcoming fantasy epic Dragon Age: Origins. The comic focuses on a dangerous encounter between a party of mage-hunting Templar Knights, the reviled “Witch of the Wilds” Flemeth and her deadly daughter Morrigan. The comic provides a dark introduction to the game’s brutal world. The first page of the series is available here, with a new page released each week. The site will also hold an exclusive Q & A with Penny Arcade on the site as they share some of their impressions and favorite moments. Anyone who wants to see the game and play it can get an advanced look at the game at Penny Arcade Expo! Anyone who wants to should go to booth # 622. The game is being released on PC and Xbox 360 on November 3 with a later PS3 release to be announced. Comment below with impressions and thoughts!

Fans of the Wii and DSi should be lining up to buy tickets to Seattle, because Nintendo will be showing off many of their new and upcoming games at the Penny Arcade Expo! They’ve got their own booth (#352) and are ready to give fans a sneak peek at upcoming games and let them meet several video game artists in the process.

Nintendo’s video game line up at PAX will showcase games like New Super Mario Bros Wii, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Metroid Prime Trilogy (check out our review here), Wii Sports Resort and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. In addition to these games, Nintendo will be showing off the new WiiWare game Pokemon Rumble, which allows players to fight against enemies and allows for multiplayer co-op battles.

In addition to showcasing their upcoming games, Nintendo has scheduled a Flipnote Studio presentation with several well known artists. Flipnote Studio is a free DSi Ware application which allows gamers to draw a series of pictures which are then animated to resemble pictures drawn on notepads. Among the artists chosen for the demonstrations are Scott Kurtz (PvP), Eric Jones (DC Comics: Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade), Christina Strain (Marvel Comics: Runaways), Mike Choi (Marvel: X-Force), Edison Yan (5th Cell: Scribblenauts) and Ryan Jones (Telltale Games: Tales of Monkey Island).

So from September 4-6, Nintendo will be showing off their latest developments. Be sure to stop buy their booth and check them out!

Electronic Arts today announced that the highly anticipated Dead Space: Extraction has officially gone gold in preparation for a September 29 debut and will be playable to the game-crazy masses at PAX this weekend in Seattle.

The Wii exclusive, developed by Visceral Games, formerly EA Redwood Shores, is a prequel to the award winning and pants-wetting “Dead Space” and promises to bring gamers the same elevated heart rates and horrid nightmares its big brother did.

What’s more is EA is bringing the M-rated “Extraction” to PAX this weekend in Washington state to help win over undecided gamers and journalists alike. Our editor, Marc, will be on site playing the title and sending you his thoughts. Stay tuned!

Riot Games, an independent game studio famous for crafting online games, announced today that their latest digital endeavor, League of Legends for the PC will be playable for PAX attendees this weekend in Seattle, WA.

What’s more is that the first 20,000 PAX attendees will receive an in-game treasure; a champion skin designed by Penny Arcade and everyone that plays League of Legends, or simply stops by the team’s booth, will receive a beta key for the title.

And finally, Riot plans on unveiling the playable versions of 8 new heroes imaged below at the show. And fear not, for our big boss man, Marc, is flying out to the west coast to soak in all the glorious information on League Of Legends and everything else!

Written by‚ Brian Szabelski

SEATTLE — The general consensus on‚ Wii Music, at least based off their disastrous E3 press conference showing, is that the game is utter garbage, a waggle-fest geared towards the preschool and the extremely elderly. However, after getting hands-on time at PAX with‚ Wii Music, I can tell you those perceptions are incorrect.‚ Wii Music‚ is not nearly as bad as the E3 crowd might have made it out to be. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s not utter garbage.

First off, if you are a “hardcore” gamer, this game is not designed with you in mind. Some people may take an interest in certain aspects of the game, which I will give detail on in a bit, but the simplicity of‚ Wii Music‚ is clearly geared towards those new to the gaming scene.

At PAX, the free play and drum set modes were available for play. The free play mode is the one you are most familiar with. Free play has a “no-fail” setting by default, meaning you can’t lose no matter what you play. And yes, there are note charts for each of the songs, but you don’t have to play along exactly on the right beat. This turns free play into more of an experiment than anything else, but there will be close to 60 instruments in the final version of the game, ranging from the now-infamous dog suit to drums, guitars, and saxophones. Each of these instruments has different motions that are used to play it, and pressing different buttons on the Wii remote or nunchuk will produce different notes. At any time, up to four players can participate in a song, with six total musicians on stage: a minimum of two musicians are always computer-controlled, but you can select which parts you want to play.

The PAX line-up featured only 5 songs, including the themes from‚ Super Mario Bros.and‚ The Legend of Zelda; when the game is released, a full roster of 50 songs will be available, mixing more modern songs along with classical tunes and Nintendo themes. In this sense, it’ll probably be similar to Nintendo’s previous music game offering,Donkey Konga. Each of the songs can be played at a number of different tempos and in a variety of different styles, including Japanese, reggae, rock and country among others. It’s a nice way to change the game up a little bit, but it’s not the only way.

While being able to record your performances and send them to your friends doesn’t sound like a whole lot,‚ Wii Music‚ offers a few options that add to the replay value. You can rate your performances on how well you thought you did, but your friends can adjust those scores if they think you did better or worse. While that all still sounds like nothing, there is one more thing your friends can do with your performances: remix them.‚ Wii Music‚ will allow you to change the tempo, style, and instrumentation of performances your friends send to you, offering up a chance to change things around a little bit and experiment. I personally think that feature will be one of the hidden gems in‚ Wii Music, much like how the music maker was in‚ Mario Paint.

Also on display at PAX was a drum set mini-game. By pressing different buttons on the Wii remote and nunchuk, you will be able to hit different drums and cymbals on the set. The Wii balance board is used to control the bass drum and hi-hat cymbal pedals. It takes a bit of getting used to this setup, but after a while, it feels natural. Most of the people I saw playing this at PAX seemed to enjoy it, though they weren’t going as nuts as Ravi Drums was at E3. Other games that will be included are the conducting mini-game from E3 a few years back as well as other drum-like solo games and lessons on how to play.

Like other‚ Wii‚ series titles, graphics are kept rather simple on purpose, both in design and in its bright color scheme. There are different backgrounds in free play mode to pick from, but overall, everything about this game screams simple. For‚ Wii Music, it works fine, because the game doesn’t need to be graphics intensive like‚ Fallout 3‚ orGears of War 2.

Wii Music‚ is not intended to be‚ Guitar Hero‚ or‚ Rock Band. It’s more likeElectroplankton, an experiment in games for the newer gamer. At the end of the day,Wii Music‚ is going to sell well, perhaps not as well as‚ Wii Play‚ or‚ Wii Fit, but it is not the end of Nintendo, like some will have you believe. With so much of‚ Wii Musicshrouded in mystery, though, keep an eye out for some future announcements from Nintendo on more content for the game.

The Penny Arcade Expo ran August 29-31.‚ The 5-year-old exposition is regarded at one of the seminal in the video game industry, adding music and pop culture elements. The Miniboses performed this year.

Popular Internet comic Penny Arcade announced today that the fifth Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) will be held August 29-31, 2008.

The 2007 expo brought in 37,000 gamers at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, and outpaced any other event of its kind.

PAX is a three-day “celebration of games and gamer culture,” the company said.

The festival includes an exhibition floor filled with playable builds of upcoming tabletop, console, and computer games; a conference program of game-industry speakers on gaming topics; music concerts; freeplay areas; industry parties; game tournaments and more. Since its inception in 2004 the show has doubled in size each year, with 4,500 attendees in 2004, 9,500 in 2005, 19,300 in 2006, and 37,000 in 2007.

Last year’s keynote speaker, Wil Wheaton attacked video game stereotypes and questioned opinions that gaming was related to antisocial behavior. PAX is consistently filled with the notion that gaming is a social interaction. Last year, groups competed face-to-face, and played new games like Rock Band and SingStar

“PAX has always been about community,” said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade, “and I think that was really reflected in the overall vibe of the show. PAX celebrates what it means to be a gamer, and walking onto the show floor gives you this sense of kinship … it just feels right.”

Exhibitor packets are available now, and attendee registration starts in January, according to Michael Meyers PR.