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By Stephen Totilo

Unattended, unlabeled, unmarked... the new game from the small team led by Braid creator Jonathon Blow was stealthily present at the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend. The adventurous — and those who recognized Blow standing off in the shadows — got a delightful surprise.

All I knew of The Witness before spotting it in the same booth that housed Spy Party and Monaco was that it was being made by Blow and a handful of other game creators, that it involves an island — it's "an exploration-puzzle game on an uninhabited island" — and has gorgeous lighting.

In other words, I knew just about nothing about The Witness. I didn't need to in order to want to play it. Blow and David Hellman's subtle, time-bending Braid was the kind of scrupulously-designed video game that earns its creators a player's long-term trust.

The version of The Witness at PAX is far from finished. The game will be complete a year from now, at earliest, Blow told me once I got done playing and found him so we could discuss. He cautioned me that I was seeing a lot of "programmer art." This was the game's first showing in public, its puzzles still far from complete and refined. It was being presented in a manner intentionally detached from any references that might hype the Braid connection and bias its players. Blow wanted to see, from afar, what people made of their first touch of this game.

What I could make of The Witness is about as much as you can, watching it here in this two-part video I shot at PAX. The Witness seems to be a quiet game set on a lovely landscape landmarked with puzzles. I played it with an Xbox 360 controller, witnessing the island in first-person. Many of the puzzles I found involved using the controller to draw routes on blue squares that were set vertically on posts at the level of museum paintings, trying to inscribe the proper pattern that would solve the challenge and possibly lead to a new one. The puzzles were not just in the posted squares but in the more natural environment. One of the earliest challenges, seen partially in the video here, involves figuring out how three wires or tubes, all connected to a locked gate, can be electrified in order to progress. Trying to solve this, you wind up looking behind trees and bushes and over a roof. You find clues that lead to new mysteries that lead to solutions of their own. Early, it is clear that this is a game for the patient, the un-flustered and the observant.

From my brief conversation with Blow about the game, I heard a confirmation of my own sensation that this is a game about discovery. The pace of the game seems to be that of a gradual dawning. You stroll in first-person view. You look at beautiful or intriguing things — a windmill in the distance, a figure that is either a man or a statue — and you approach. There appears, in so many places, puzzling things. You ponder them. You try to solve them. You're given no instruction and no order, not in the PAX version, what to do next. You try to make sense of it. You play.

Blow didn't bristle when I told him that the game made me think of Myst. But I suspect that if The Witness is as much Myst as Braid was Super Mario Bros., then it can still be something very special

UPDATE: This wasn't planned, but it looks like Blow posted about his game's quiet PAX appearance at the same time that this post went live.

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by Alexander Sliwinski

A recent PAX interview by RockBandAide with Harmonix's John Drake reveals a ton of minutiae for hardcore fans, and confirms that Rock Band 3 will allow you to export the RB2 tracks for a fee -- as you could with RB1. Drake states that the the export feature will work for all three consoles, though there are always "a couple songs that get complicated" when it comes to re-licensing. Official pricing and details regarding the export should be available shortly.

Drake also states that while regular DLC will keep the regular price ($2 per song), content made for Rock Band 3's Pro Mode will "probably" be more expensive. Harmonix has "a lot more work to do" on those tracks, and doesn't wish to increase the cost of the regular DLC to subsidize the Pro DLC that's aimed at a smaller group of players.

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Reach level 69 with a free update to be released around the same time as the Borderlands GotY Edition.

By Chris Pereira

When details of the latest Borderlands DLC, Claptrap's New Robot Revolution, were announced, there was no mention of a level cap increase. Fortunately, one is coming -- and even better, it will be coming free of charge to all owners of Borderlands on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
When he wasn't busy discussing the return of Duke Nukem, Gearbox co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford spent some time at PAX revealing that, around the release of the Borderlands Game of the Year edition (scheduled for October 12), Gearbox will update the game to increase the level cap by eight, bringing it to 69. They decided on an increase of 8 because they didn't want it to be too low, or as high as the 11-level increase that the General Knoxx brought.

Joystiq reports that Pitchford explained that Gearbox opted to make the increase a free update instead of including it in the Claptrap DLC because then "you'd have to buy every previous DLC." Also included in the free update will be a rebalancing of the original game to cater to the new level cap. Given that these are the sort of things you might expect to see in a premium DLC release, it's nice to see Gearbox instead release them to fans for free.

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"Although the fate of Carmine has been sealed, we can't tell you right now," says Cliff Bleszinski.

By Steve Watts

The Gears of War 3 "Fate of Carmine" charity campaign officially closed this weekend at the Penny Arcade Expo. Cliff Bleszinski and Rod Fergusson from Epic Games appeared on video at the G4 panel to drop word that the charity shirts had raised $150,000 for Child's Play. No breakdown was given on the real shirts versus the virtual goods; but either way, that's a lot of votes for Carmine.

The two thanked everyone for buying shirts, whether for their Xbox 360 Avatars or the real life shirts sold by NECA, along with corporate sponsors and partners like Microsoft, G4, and Penny Arcade. "Although the fate of Carmine has been sealed, we can't tell you right now," said Cliff Bleszinski. This being a marketing event as well, we'll have to wait until Gears 3 releases to learn what happens to the poor, doomed schlub.

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"We felt we were in a spot where we can fix this," says Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.

By Steve Watts

Not only has Gearbox Software gained the rights to finish Duke Nukem Forever; the developer has also gained ownership of the franchise name. Gamasutra reports that Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford's decision to transfer ownership and finish the long-delayed title is partly due to his friendship with those at 3DRealms, like Scott Miller and George Broussard.

Pitchford credits Miller with getting him into the games industry, and he even worked on Duke Nukem Forever in the early days. When 3DR closed and the game seemed dead last May, Pitchford saw Broussard at a weekly poker game. "He told me it was the worst day of his life," he said. "I was worried about him. He was committed to the thing. He loved it so much he wanted it to be perfect."

After hearing that a small group of the development team was still trying to keep the project alive, Pitchford decided to take action. "We felt like we were in a spot where we can fix this," he said. "We're local. Everyone trusts us. We can keep Duke alive." They reached a tentative agreement almost a year ago, then signed it officially a few months later. Pitchford called it a "passing of the torch moment," and was glad to see Broussard excited for his project to live on.

But the legal situation wasn't fully resolved yet. 3DR was in dispute with Take-Two over funds, so Pitchford met with 2K president Christoph Hartmann to sort it out. "When I acquired the brand, I acquired the liability," Pitchford said. "Fortunately, we have a good relationship with Take-Two and they got behind it. I was able to help clear the drama away."

Pitchford says what they received from 3DRealms was "a lot of great tech, a lot of great features and subsystems, a lot of great gameplay mechanics. It was a lot of stuff, but it wasn't assembled into a game." Gearbox took those parts with the goal of shipping the game in mind, and put them together. The result is the demo that many PAX-goers played, and a full game that's currently receiving polish.

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An Ico-inspired adventure that plays with the duality of light and dark.

By Jeremy Parish

Sometime in the past few years, shadows became a curiously pervasive trend in game design. Not the presence of shadows, but rather the ability to play as a shadow. XBLA's Limbo is the most recent high-profile example of the trope, but Wii gamers will be able to partake of the trend as well early next year thanks to Hudson's Lost in Shadow.
Lost offers a different take on shadow play than Limbo, though. Whereas the latter used its bleak graphics as an homage to German impressionist films of the early 20th century, Lost resembles nothing so much as Sony's PlayStation 2 masterpiece Ico. Its visuals are saturated with light, yet fairly monochromatic at the same time -- ethereal and dreamlike. Unlike in Ico, though, you're not responsible for the welfare of a scatterbrained princess, and you're not simply fighting shadows; you are a shadow.

This is where Lost excels. Here, the use of shadow isn't simply a matter of style. The hero's shadow and body have been forcibly separated, and his shadow must traverse an ancient trap-filled tower to reunite. Shades (literally) of Haruki Murakami, perhaps, but it translates into gameplay terms admirably. Lost in Shadow is a game that plays up the relationship between light and shadow, offering much more than the simple platformer it first appears to be.

At the outset of the adventure, the hero is nothing more than a shadow cast on a wall. While the game world is filled with obvious platforms, you don't actually navigate them directly. Instead, you run along the shadow they cast onto the plane that your character inhabits. It takes a bit of getting used to -- your eye is naturally drawn to the complex, three-dimensional foreground objects -- but eventually you begin to watch for how the shadows fall.

Before long, you're forced to manipulate those shadows with the help of a motion-controlled faerie companion that can venture into the real world to throw switches that activate mechanisms and move objects. She becomes especially important when you begin to face off against enemies that can't be destroyed with the hero's weapons; instead, you have to make use of complex devices that can destroy them (a rotary saw blade, for instance).

Eventually, the hero's journey ventures out of the realm of shadows and occasionally into the real world. By stepping through special gates, it's possible to move briefly into 3D space to manipulate switches and move to otherwise inaccessible areas. There are also sections that become navigable only by manipulating the light itself. In these places, objects at different distances from the background cast shadows which shift in parallax as the source of light moves from right to left and back again. These areas become puzzles to determine where and when to move the light, as your footholds constantly change and obstacles suddenly become footholds.

In short, Lost in Shadow isn't a game that simply uses its visual style as a gimmick but rather as a means by which to enrich its play mechanics. What initially seems a straightforward 2D platformer with an interesting twist is at times much more than that, breaking from the second dimension by playing with light and shadow.

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Listen up LittleBigPlanet™ fans,

We've got some pretty exciting news for you!

We need some help testing out LittleBigPlanet 2, and we have selected some of you to come along and join in the fun. If you have been selected, for a few weeks you'll be able to Play, Create and Share yourself silly in our greatest handmade adventure to date – all before anyone else sees it!





How do I know if I have been selected for this beta?

We will be sending out invitations to the LittleBigPlanet 2 beta during this week to users who’ve been really active in LittleBigPlanet (PS3™). So if you have been a busy Sackboy™ or girl then an invite might be coming your way. This decision has now been made; unfortunately we are not able to recruit any further Beta Testers at present.

(Please note that e-mails have not yet been sent. This text will change when they have)

If you don’t want to join in, you can ignore the invite. If you do want to join in, the invite will contain all the information you need to get started as well as the Beta Trial Terms and Conditions.

A few points to be aware of:

To take part in the beta you must be 18 years old or over and be a resident in a country in which we operate a PlayStation®Store. See Official PlayStation website: Country Selector for full details.
You will also need a PlayStation®3 or PlayStation®Portable (PSP) with a broadband internet connection and a PlayStation®Network master account.
The beta will be conducted in English only so you need to be able to provide your feedback in English.
Our current Beta Test Community and our existing LittleBigPlanet beta testers will automatically be included in this beta trial. Please note that being selected for this beta trial does not give you access to other beta trials we may operate.
Participation in our beta trials is subject to our Beta Trial. By accepting our invitation to join, you will be accepting the terms of this agreement so please read it carefully. These will be included in the invitation e-mails.

What if I’m not chosen?

If you’re not lucky this time, you can still find out more about LittleBigPlanet 2. Why not check out the official site:

LittleBigPlanet 2

So stay tuned and remember to check your inbox.

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According to several reports from over the weekend, the ratings board of South Korea is cracking down on the distribution of unrated video games in the country, and has everything from homebrew games to Valve's Steam service in its sights.

The law in Korea currently states that all games must be rated by the government. Doesn't matter if it's a AAA blockbuster or some mobile game a kid made in his bedroom, if it's publicly available, then it has to be rated.

This of course costs money, so many developers avoid doing this. Hence the crackdown. So far a site that lets people build their own RPG games has been targeted, being forced to remove all user-made games, while threats have also been made against Valve's online PC store Steam, which sells games in Korea but does not carry Korean ratings.

Hopefully things won't get that drastic; according to a translation of the piece by teamliquid, a "complete block is on the table", but the Korean ratings board is "seeking alternate options".

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During the Gearbox panel at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle this weekend, studio president Randy Pitchford announced Borderlands: Claptrap's New Robot Revolution, the fourth downloadable add-on pack for the game, will be released on Sept. 28, 2010.

Pitchford also had another surprise up his sleeve for fans by saying a new patch for Borderlands will be released that increases players' level cap by eight. The patch will be available to everyone for free, even if you did not purchase the The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, which increased the level cap from 50 to 61. The new cap limit is now level 69.

Claptrap's New Robot Revolution will be available for download on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC for $9.99. Gearbox previously announced a Game of the Year edition for Borderlands will be out on Oct. 12 that includes all four downloadable add-on packs for $59.99.

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Even though it adds jumping to the mix, Rearmed 2 feels faithful to the series' legacy.

By Jeremy Parish

I'm not going to lie: When I first heard that Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 would be following up on 2008's fantastic HD remake by adding jumping to Rad Spencer's skill set, my knee jerked so hard it's a wonder my desk didn't crack in half. The original NES Bionic Commando remains one of the very few games that, in my estimation, achieved near-perfection, and Rearmed was an amazing modernized recreation of its mechanics. But much of the essential genius of both games was in the way they presented players with engrossing platform-based gameplay while completely removing the genre's universal ability to jump. Without the ability to leap into the air, Spencer was forced to master his bionic arm to grapple, climb, and swing around the world. It worked in large part because of the game's spot-on physics and controls; zipping around on the bionic arm was natural, fluid, and precise.
Adding the ability to jumping into the mix seems like a terrible mistake -- not just an example of missing the point, but of completely undermining the essential point of the entire series. Or so I thought until I actually tried the game on the Penny Arcade Expo show floor. I'm still not sold on the ability to jump. The thing is, though, I don't have be. In fact, I don't have to jump, period.

According to Capcom's reps, it's entirely possible to complete BCR2 by taking the "purist" approach. The game has been balanced around the ability to leap, but I'm told that fans who feel Bionic Commando just isn't Bionic Commando if you're not relying entirely on your bionic arm can not only finish the game by ignoring the jump button, but deactivate the jump option entirely. It's a little like tying your arm behind your back, or more accurately your leg, but it's a small promise that has major ramifications on the level design. And on top of that, it demonstrates the developers actually do get what makes Bionic Commando great: an essential starting point for any worthwhile sequel.

BCR2 is interesting because it's the first genuine sequel the series has seen outside of the oddball Bionic Commando: Elite Forces for Game Boy Color and the horribly ill-fitting 3D sequel from last year. Which is to say, it's not the first BC sequel, but it's the first to be directly patterned after the NES game. Sometimes, the simplest and best ideas are the ones that take the longest to be realized.

On the plus side, BCR2 seems determined to make up for lost time. It feels remarkably similar to the first Rearmed, which in turn was beautifully faithful to the NES game. There are a few new tricks in the characters' repertoire, even over and above the ability to jump. Which, incidentally, doesn't change the game quite as radically as you might expect: Spencer has a fairly realistic jump that doesn't send him hurdling into the air. His leaps are more like hops, best used for scrambling over low obstacles and getting a better start on wide swings. Additionally, Spencer can employ his bionic arm to grab and throw objects, stun enemies, all the usual.

Like Rearmed, BCR2 offers cooperative multiplayer -- though, weirdly, it's currently less refined than in the earlier game. Where Rearmed offered seamless split-screen transitions when players strayed too far apart, BCR2 simply centers on player one and boots player two into the first character's general area if they stray. Hopefully this is something that will be fixed before the game launches early next year. Intriguingly, Capcom won't say who the second playable character is, although I'm told that he's "definitely a character from the series." He looks exactly like Spencer's appearance on the cover of the NES game -- blue jacket, burgundy pants -- so it will be interesting to learn the true identity of this mystery character.

But most of all, I'm eager to find out whether or not the game really can be played without making use of Spencer's new jumping skill. I played through the first level focusing almost entirely on taking the traditional approach and it paid off. The question, of course, is whether or not the level design throughout the entire game maintains this dual-pronged control scheme.

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Hudson's 16-bit mascot returns for his first genuine sequel in decades.

By Jeremy Parish

If ever there was a mascot worthy of starring in a game called Brink of Extinction, it would definitely be Hudson's Bonk. The affable caveman was the de facto face of the NEC TurboGrafx-16 console, and he and his futuristic progeny Zonk starred in half a dozen 16-bit titles that ranged from good to great. And then, Bonk pretty much disappeared, only cropping up in a handful of releases for Nintendo's older consoles and the occasional port or remake. For all intents and purposes, Bonk was as wiped out as the dinosaurs he so determinedly head-butted in his Mesozoic travels.
So, I was pleasantly surprised when I spent a little time on the Penny Arcade Expo show floor this weekend and discovered that Brink of Extinction is neither a port nor a remake, but rather a completely new game with completely new features for the series. While it plays faithfully to the older Bonk titles -- players control a rock-skulled caveman who solves problems by smashing them with his forehead -- the entire game is rendered with high-definition polygonal graphics. More importantly, Brink also features cooperative multiplayer, both local and over Xbox Live.

The game's level design reflects this new feature. The environs call back to older Bonk titles, sure, but Brink's stage layouts are larger and more expansive in order to give a duo of players space to maneuver. That being said, they're not too roomy, so there's a perpetual sense of competition as players jockey for space, points, kills, and power-ups.

All the little Bonk touchstones are here. You can repeatedly headbutt a defeated enemy, bobbling it in the air for no real purpose but for the sheer bloody-minded fun of it. You can perform a high-speed diving head smash at enemies below. You get about the world by climbing waterfalls. And, of course, you can devour hunks of meat to super-charge Bonk into a raging maniac.

That meat-fueled frenzy isn't the only power available to Bonk this time, though. He actually has the ability to cycle through half a dozen different powers at any time. Well, almost any time; Bonk's transformations are enabled by his "primordial ooze" meter, and time spent in his alternate forms eats away at his ooze, which can only be replenished by tracking down the associated collectible in each stage.

Bonk's alternate forms are fairly standard plat former fare. There's a mini-Bonk form that has a high, floaty jump, much like New Super Mario Bros.' micro mushroom. There's a rhino form that lets Bonk perform a dashing head butt charge. He can switch into both fiery and icy forms, blasting obstacle-smashing fireballs and freezing enemies into solid makeshift platforms, respectively. It's all very standard fare, but it's also distinctly Bonk in style and feel.

Hudson hasn't indicated a release date for Brink of Extinction. But given how long Bonk fans have been waiting for a true sequel to the series, it probably can't come soon enough.

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By Stephen Totilo

Nintendo's new game at Penny Arcade Expo 2010 is Fluidity, a downloadable WiiWare game that has you sloshing water through the pages of a magical book called the Aquaticus. This game's a beauty. I have three clips to prove it.

In the first clip, you can see a Nintendo representative showing the basics of the controls. Hold the Wii remote sideways and tilt it to tilt the word; shake it to make the water jump. These are essentially the same movement mechanics seen in Sony's beloved and beautiful Loco Roco series. In Sony's game, you amass globs of round Loco Roco creatures who can clump into a bigger blob or re-separate. In Fluidity, you amass water drops into a splash of water

The second clip shows more of the puzzle gameplay. The watery physics makes me think of Q-Games' PixelJunk Shooter. The muted-color graphic novel style makes me think of science textbooks and Chris Ware graphic novels. These are all good aesthetic overlaps, as far as I'm concerned.

As you find rainbow drops, as seen in the clip above, you unlock new sections of the interactive book, allowing you access to harder levels.

Nintendo released an official trailer, which shows more of the game in action, including the ability to change the water. It can be ice or, I believe, some sort of explosive steam.

There is no release date for the game yet. Nintendo is publishing, but it was unclear who made the game. If you're at PAX in Seattle this weekend, I recommend stopping by Nintendo's booth and playing it.

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"Large-scale" team-based shooter coming from World of Warcraft and Tribes developer veterans.

By Kris Pigna

At PAX Prime, Red 5 Studios announced FireFall, a new team-based shooter created by Mark Kern, who led development on World of Warcraft at Blizzard, and Scott Youngblood, former lead designer of Tribes.
While it's not described as an MMO in the press release, it does say FireFall brings "hundreds of players together" into a "dynamic open world combining intense competitive multiplayer and large-scale cooperative gameplay." FireFall is set on a devastated Earth 200 years in the future, and has survivors battling against a race called "The Chosen," which are trying to destroy humanity. The game's twist on team-based shooters is the use of "battleframes," items players can equip and then customize to make their character into a class that suits their play style.

"When I founded Red 5, I knew I wanted to do something different than anything I'd done before," said Kern, who also acts as Red 5's CEO and chief creative officer. "I wanted to take the best of what I learned making online games and bring that to skill-based shooters."

Red 5 is going with a free-to-play, microtransaction model for FireFall, allowing players to "experience every detail of the vibrant world without having to pay a penny" (including any additional content like updates and dynamic world events), while also offering premium "optional enhancements" players can purchase in a marketplace.

Firefall is planned for release near the end of 2011, and Red 5 is accepting beta applications at the game's official website now.

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by JC Fletcher

Following Atlus's announcement of a merger into its parent company Index Holdings, you may have been concerned about the state of the developer and publisher. "But what of our RPGs about super-stylish high school students?," you may have asked. "Any news about my beloved sci-fi surgery simulators?" "Will I still have dungeons in which to crawl?"

Atlus USA president Shinichi Suzuki issued a statement today to allay our fears. " We want to assure our fans and affiliates that Atlus remains in operation and will continue, as always, to support our beloved community with the finest quality game experiences possible," Suzuki said. You can read the full statement after the break, then take a sigh of relief and get back to your everyday life of wondering when Atlus USA is going to announce a localization of Catherine.

Recent news out of Japan that Index Holdings, the parent company of Atlus Co., Ltd. (and its wholly-owned private subsidiary Atlus U.S.A, Inc.), would be merging the Atlus brand into itself has created uncertainty as to the future of Atlus and its games. We want to assure our fans and affiliates that Atlus remains in operation and will continue, as always, to support our beloved community with the finest quality game experiences possible.

The Atlus-Index merger allows us to achieve greater synergy among the Index group companies and further strengthens the foundation of Atlus, both in Japan and here in the United States.

-Shinichi Suzuki
President/CEO, Atlus U.S.A., Inc.

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by David Hinkle

While demoing Retro City Rampage, one of the PAX 10, its creator Brian Provinciano revealed to Joystiq that the game would likely launch in December of this year. Up until now, all we had was a tentative Q4 2010 window -- Provinciano nailed the last month of the year as being an optimal time to subject the world to his experiment at seeing how many inside jokes he could fit into a single game.

WiiWare is currently the only platform, though Provinciano noted that he was currently "in talks" with Microsoft on bringing the game to XBLA. PSN was also on the table, he offered. A PC version would be out of the cards for "at least a year."

Provinciano began the game as Project Grand Theftendo, where he sought to create an 8-bit version of Grand Theft Auto 3 that ran on the NES. We'll have a preview of the game soon.

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Andrew Kauz

The Batman is very pleased this day. His next adventure, Batman: Arkham City, is "complete," playable from start to finish and in need only of some tender polishing.

The information was discovered on a recent OPM podcast (#11 for those who want to hear for themselves), which revealed some exciting new details about the sequel. For one, there's a new grapple system that propels you into the air, which should make for some extended bat flight and some harsh punishment from above.

There was also a discussion of co-op play (which would make sense considering there were previous hints of multiplayer), but nothing is confirmed yet. There's definitely something brewing in the land of multiplayer, but we'll have to wait and see just what it is. I'm sure it involves punching.

It's important to remember that "complete" doesn't mean that the game's going to be in our hands tomorrow, but, you know, I don't even care. Just knowing that all the parts are in place makes my fists ready for bashing. In the best way possible.

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