This week pretty much rounds out our PAX 2008 coverage. We've got interviews with The lead artist and writer behind Gears of War 2 as well as an interview with the creator of Schizoid. Let's not forget our hands-on look at Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball and a chance to win a copy of Smash Court Tennis 3. Click on.

Community

• Xbox 360 Fancast Special -- PAX 2008
  Listen. Or don't. But seriously, listen.
• Fanswag Weekly: Smash Court Tennis 3
  We're giving it away for free. It's tennis!
• X3F TV -- Watch the Rock Band song export process
  Prepare for the future
• PAX 08: Lead GoW2 artist and writer talk Lancer polys, deaths and comics
  Talkin' 'bout Gears of War 2
• Ask X3F: The solitude of space edition
  So ... how's your girl?
• PAX 08: Wrapping up the X3F Sticker Gallery
  You got stuck, son!

News

• Hands-on: PvN Dodgeball's new multiplayer modes
  Pirates? Ninjas? Dodgeball? Vs?
• PAX 08: Torpex talks Schizoid, sales, marketing strategies and XNA development
  On Schizoid sales
  
• PAX 08: Hands-on Halo 3's Assembly
  So purple ...
• PAX 08: Castle Crashers patch promised to release ASAP
  It had better
• Official list of Gears of War 2 achievements
  Beat that meatflag!

Worth it or not, to me personally, pay-to-play MMOs always felt like a ridiculous proposition. Paying to play a game I already paid for is like paying $5 to bite into a delicious burger I just got at the drive-through. Still, the genre continues to spawn new titles as proven at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo.

While many MMO titles were on display, two were the most talked-about massively multiplayer role-playing games of the show: Warhammer Online and Aion: The Tower of Eternity. Realizing my limited experience with MMOs in the past, the team at Joystiq tasked me with learning as much as I could about each title and see if they could appeal to a genre newbie willing to jump into the online fray.

Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq, a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

There's been a lot of talk about copyright piracy lately, largely from a few high profile convictions. What we've been short on lately is some high profile trademark infringement suits, but trademark piracy in the gaming world can and has been as rampant as copyright piracy. In fact, the concept of what all constitutes trademark infringement isn't even as well known as copyright infringement. Everyone knows about Napster and warez, but these are all copyright issues. So I'd like to take some time to talk about trademark infringement and piracy.

We've been through the basics of trademark before, and that's a good place to start if you're a complete trademark neophyte. However, with a basic understanding of what is trademarked, it's easy to see the areas where trademarks can be infringed. Basic infringement is based on the idea that someone will take advantage of a trademark to confuse the consumer into purchasing their product based on the reputation of the trademark they're infringing. Put into simpler terms, if you believe Nintendo is a good brand, then you'd be likely to buy a Nintendo product. Therefore, if I make a product and put "Nintendo" on it, then you'd be likely to buy my product because of the illusion that it's a Nintendo product. I get the benefit of selling more product by infringing Nintendo's trademark, so if there wasn't a penalty, trademarks would be infringed on a regular basis.

We recently had the chance to check out Combat Arms, the free-to-play online FPS brought to US shores by Nexon of America. Nexon is best known in the states for its unique side-scrolling MMORPG Maple Story. Despite the company's grounding in the MMO genre, Nexon chooses to see itself as a purveyor of online games in general. From online racing in Kart Rider to virtual karaoke in Audition, the company publishes or develops a multitude of multiplayer experiences. Its extension to first-person shooters, in that light, makes a great deal of sense.

What's surprising is not that Nexon has chosen to jump into the FPS genre, but that the offering is as good as it is. The company has combined elements of mindless combat shooters like XIII with the multiplayer tactical orientation of a game like Counter-Strike. In doing so, it's delivered a title that can be as explosion- or strategy-focused as players want. And, of course, it wouldn't be Nexon without some unique twists -- namely, the incorporation of its successful microtransaction-based business model.

One last question: I'm sure that as a fantasy writer, you read a lot of fantasy as well. Who are some authors you would suggest to gamers that are looking forward to Dragon Age, as a sort of primer to get them in the mood for the world?

There is one series of books that is required reading for any Dragon Age fan. It's not to say we copied him, but it's required reading for what it represented when I was thinking about the game. I sort of got tired of the same old fantasy-style stories. I read The Belgariad and Wheel of Time back to back, right? And they both started the same way, with a "chosen one" with a boy in a remote village who is carried away just as his village is destroyed ... they both started the same way. They're both decent series, but they're very high fantasy titles.

Then I picked up a series of books by George R.R. Martin called A Song of Ice and Fire. It's a low magic world there, and ours is a bit higher. Dragon Age is lower than the normal fantasy world, though, because magic is sort of rare and mages are very distrusted. As I described how Darkspawn came to be, people kind of have a bad opinion about them as a group.

For me, it was the tonal shift that really changed for me personally. It was such a dark story, and sometimes I think he may get too dark ... but it was focused on politics and civil war, dark and gritty, and there was the possibility that characters you loved might die. I went from being kind of "meh" on fantasy in general to really excited because of these books. We didn't go out to copy his works, but that sort of shift, that darkness, that seriousness are all elements we've embraced for our game. That's the tone of Dragon Age.

Thanks so much for your time, sir.

How would you compare what you've done with the story in Dragon Age to what you did with Baldur's Gate?

Dragon Age is a huge game, much like Baldur's Gate. I don't know that we'd ever make a game as big as Baldur's Gate again, though. That game was just ridiculously huge. That said, there is something to making a game that is substantial like that. The word "epic" is thrown around like there's no tomorrow, but in some ways epic does fit with the scope of the game's story. It's a long story that takes your character through this large arc. It's appropriate for what we're doing.

It is also similar to Baldur's Gate insofar as how much we focus on character. You have all your party members, and I would say almost a third of the writing that's been done is just for the members themselves. The amount of talking they do may in fact be sort of endless. I think for a lot of players that's really important. To this day in any given forum, people will still bring up characters from Baldur's Gate. Some of them are quite beloved. I would like to think as a writer that Dragon Age is the next step from there. Not to knock the Baldur's Gate characters, but these are the characters you'll be interacting with at length for a long period of time ... they're important to the story.

Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!

Exactly.

It seems as though Dragon Age is very much BioWare returning to its roots. Was that a conscious decision or just a reaction to the way the company and gaming as a hobby has been going?

The company has gotten big enough now that we can have several projects on the go at any given time. Console has its place, of course, and we can't ignore them.

"We chose the subtitle 'Origins' specifically. This is where it begins, and we're not abandoning the PC gamer."

I'm sure a lot of PC gamers would love it if we did, but we can't. What PC players hate, though, is when you have a game that tries to work on a PC and a console at the same time. It has to go for the "lowest common denominator." I think that's a legitimate concern. I think there are games that have successfully worked on both platforms, I don't think it needs to be that way. But here we're focusing on, we're starting on the PC.

We're doing a couple of things differently with this game, though. I mean, we announced Dragon Age really really early. In the normal scheme of things, we would have probably only been announcing it around now for release next year. Instead we announced it really early so that PC gamers wouldn't feel left out. They could look at Mass Effect and know we had huge plans for Dragon Age as a world. We chose the subtitle "Origins" specifically. This is where it begins, this is where the new story starts, and we're not abandoning the PC gamer.

That's something I wanted to mention; origins would seem to suggest a number of things especially for PC gamers. A lot of them still see the Baldur's Gate series as this great franchise that they'll really appreciate forever. Do you see Dragon Age as an attempt to go for that kind of success?

In the end the proof is going to be in the pudding. Rather, the proof is in the eating of the pudding. A lot will depend on how well the game does, right? Before we go crazy with it we want to see how the game is received. I think we're very confident, though, that there's a big group out there that has been anxiously waiting for something like this. I think they'll really respond if we've done well.

I have a good feeling about it, it's not just because I created the world. I watched this game grow before my eyes, I got to start see the cutscenes back, see the world I created take on a life of its own. The coolest thing is when the artists started getting on board. They're one step ahead of me now, instead of me being the one to say "well this is what this should look like". I have that same feeling as I did when we were at this point in developing Baldur's Gate. There's always that point where you're like 'this game is utter crap!' Then it starts to change, and finally we're at the point where we're like 'wow, this game is awesome!'

We really hope this is the launching point for something bigger.

BioWare's return to PC as a primary platform has been met with rapture and glee from the PC gaming crowd. The development chops of the Canadian company are almost impossible to question, with hit after hit being released from its Edmonton headquarters. Now the reunion with keyboard and mouse is accompanied by the most ambitious fantasy RPG BioWare has attempted since the original Baldur's Gate. Dragon Age: Origins is a true return to roots for the company, a homecoming with its dearest fans.

It makes sense then to find David Gaider, one of the original writers of the Baldur's Gate plot, at the keyboard behind Dragon Age. We had the chance to talk briefly with the author about what this highly-anticipated title will offer. Though he couldn't reveal much in the way of story components, he did offer a tantalizing view into the world's history. Join us as we talk with Gaider about stepping back from Mass Effect's advances, the joys of returning to PC gaming, and what he considers required reading for any Dragon Age fan.

We were given one hour with Fallout 3 at this year's PAX, and we don't mean some pared down, nerfed, demo-ized level; this was the full version. Not only that, but the Bethesda folks showed it to us in the tricked out Fallout 3 Airstream Trailer, complete with a nuclear family peering in.

Lead designer Emil Pagliarulo started us out roughly an hour into the game, when you exit the vault for the very first time. We missed the whole "growing up" phase in order to rush right into the action. We didn't mind. but what of our first 18 or so years? Maybe you start out on the cellular level, and fight your way out in a glorious Spore/Fallout hybrid. Your guess is as good as ours.

Final Fantasy Tactics meets X-Com in a Miyazaki-esque, Advance Wars universe. With watercolors. That's what you get when you play Sega's upcoming strategy RPG, Valkyria Chronicles. The PS3 exclusive is already out in Japan but will be heading West before the end of the year and, from what we saw of the game at PAX, it will be Sega's console gem of the year.

We were guided through the game's tutorial by the producer, Christopher Kaminski, who showed off the basic gameplay mechanics. It's a strategy RPG, but there's no grid. Instead, you have a "fuel" meter, which depletes as you move farther, giving the game more of an action RPG feel.

During PAX 2008 we had a chance to sit down (on very comfortable bean bags, mind you) and talk with Felicia Day, producer and star of The Guild and star of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Day also sang "Still Alive" with Jonathan Coulton the first night of the convention. Some notes from the interview:

• Filming for Season 2 will begin next month. HD cameras will be used, not so much for web streaming but for potential download and the Season 2 DVD. The 13- to 15-episode season will be "a little bit longer," approximately 5 to 6 minutes apiece.
• Day has a level 66 Warlock and level 63 Priest. As an example of life imitating art, Day explains that her fans from the show and the actors who play Zaboo, Vork and Bladezz all play in a guild together.
• She signed the chest of one Dr. Horrible cosplayer and saw another with "actual Wonderflonium." (Warning: Interview contains spoilers.)
• Day guest stars as the patient in episode 2 of the upcoming season of House, but she does not have Lupus.
• Not mentioned: Her demand that Tycho groom her.

[MP3] Download the interview

(Note: When the interview starts, Day is talking about a planned live introduction for a showing of The Guild at Dragon*Con the day before.)

Out of the many games that Sony was showing off at PAX this year, the one that easily dominated their show booth was Resistance 2. They had 16 stations setup, each linked into the ongoing private beta servers so that expo attendees could get a true taste of 60 player online action. While it was a bit disappointing that Sony wasn't showing off anything from either the single player or co-op portions of the game, it was great being able to try out the actual scope of Resistance 2's multiplayer matches.

One of the first things you'll notice when you pick up the controller, is that the controls have been subtly improved. The awkward weapon select wheel and the slight aiming stiffness of the first game have been replaced with a two-weapon system and a considerably more fluid aiming / moving mechanic. While it's still not on par with the tightness of Call of Duty 4's controls, they are much more comfortable now and definitely made running around the level easier.

While adventuring to PAX 2008, the team at Big Download recorded three special edition episodes. While the audio quality in the first was laughably bad, the episode is a hilarious look into the minds of tired Warhammer Online developers, Paul Barnett, Jeff Hickman and Josh Drescher. Give it a listen, if you can! In the second special edition, GameDaily's Robin Yang joined the team to discuss everyone's favorite titles at the show. In the final installment of the special series, former 1UP editorial director and co-founder of WhatTheyPlay.com, John Davison, went into some detail on the sex and violence in games debate. Check out the episodes if you get a chance -- we assure you the first audio hiccup was corrected in episodes two and three.

Wow. We know we talked about it in our weekly new games post, but the fall is in full swing. We're featuring 17 big releases this month, and we didn't even have room for all of the ones we wanted to talk about. Is the first time we're going to go broke in September?

By the way, we're not complaining.

A few hours before PAX 2008 opened its doors to the public last Friday, we had a chance to speak with Penny Arcade creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik -- for simplicity's sake referred to here by their respective pseudonyms Tycho and Gabe -- about the Expo, its future expansion, the intensity of Jenga and the Duke Nukem Forever Omegathon round that never was. Audio embedded below; we've also gone ahead and transcribed highlights from the interview. (Note: To make it easier to read, we've put Gabe's name in red and Tycho's name in blue.)

[MP3] Download the Interview

We're back with another round of required listening, but first we've got to point you to the special PAX 2008 edition of the Joystiq Podcast. It's different that the normal Joystiq Podcast, but it's still got a foreign guy, a guy with glasses and a guy named Kevin. ... Well, two out of three isn't bad.

The Moofcast: It's got a completely silly name! It's got a guy whose gamertag is BigDogg! It's got an actual girl (or an incredible girl facsimile)! What more could you possibly want? How about discussion of game reviews and nerdcore? Well, you're in luck, because those are there too.

NooBTooB: You know what we wish about the NooBTooB? We wish they recorded a bit more often. For instance, the episode we're directing you to today is like two weeks old. But if you want to hear talk of SoulCalibur IV and Pixeljunk Eden, you could do much, much worse than our friends Tobin and Yuzo.