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Fan Expo 2010 – Geoff Lapaire Interview

To round out our Pure Pwnage coverage from Fan Expo 2010, we return to Geoff Lapaire, who earlier gave us a sneak peek at the official Pure Pwnage Android app.  Although he doesn’t name the location, the Pure Pwnage TV show has been picked up in another market. Alex talks with him about working on the TV series compared to the web show, and where things stand with the second season of the TV show.  On that subject, they have two episodes scripted, and are still waiting to get the…

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Plants vs Zombie on XBLA – the least great version? (review)

It’s no secret that Plants vs Zombies from Pop Cap is one of the favourite ‘go-to’ games in the RGB Filter bullpen.  Solid gameplay and great visuals, along with with a good sense of humour (and zombies) is a winning combination, and PvZ is proof of that.  When Pop Cap announced that it was shambling over to Xbox LIVE Arcade, with new game modes and a truly HD visual makeover, we had our 1200 MS Points at the ready. Does the the game hold up in its console incarnation, or…

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Halo: Reach – a review and a fond farewell

A Fond Farewell When Halo: Reach was announced as a prequel, a lot of gamers expressed their concerns,making comparisons to Lucas’s critical failure with the Star Wars movie prequels.  This totally ignores that one of the defining differences between film and video games is that it’s pretty hard to make a game worse than the original.  Unless, as a developer, you’re completely phoning it in, a large part of the art of game making, as opposed to film making, is tweaking the elements of gameplay, not just making the graphics…

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CBC’s “Pushing Buttons” – an in depth look at games and a Top 10 list

Video games have been garnering a lot more attention in the mainstream press these days, and it’s not just enraged parents groups concerned with the effects a Mature rated title is having on their 13 year old who’s playing it in the den. Today marked the launch of a new feature on the CBC website called Pushing Buttons, which over the course of the week will take an in depth look at video games and their cultural and financial impact in Canada.  Today is all about the history of games,…

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Fan Expo 2010 – Robin D. Laws Interview

One of Peter’s main quests during this years Fan Expo was to seek out writer and game designer Robin Laws.  In the midst of the fire marshal declaring the building over capacity, they found the time to have a lengthy discussion on gaming.  In particular, Robin discusses the Hamlet’s Hit Points project, which analyzes other forms of storytelling, with the objective of taking those dramatic beats, and adapting them to a role-playing environment. You can catch part two of the interview after the break…

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Fan Expo 2010 – Longbow Games Interview

Toronto developer Longbow Games was on hand at Fan Expo demonstrating and selling their new real time strategy game Hegemony: Philip of Macedon.  Developed by a staggeringly small team of about 5 people, the game maps out a huge area around ancient Greece, and includes a smooth zooming engine for navigating between field level battles to overall strategies. Longbow president Jim McNally was kind enough to talk to us in detail not only about Hegemony, but the challenges and opportunities that arise in a small game development house.

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Fan Expo 2010 – Jarett Cale Interview

Every time we get a chance to talk to the guys from Pure Pwnage, it’s always a blast.  We catch up with Jarett Cale at Fan Expo this year, to talk about what’s happening with season 2 of the TV series, and where the web series stands… “Honestly, it’s a bit depressing working on the web series, having to rewrite because of what happened to Troy and being able to have the ending we originally envisioned.  So I get kind of bummed out, so I work in small intervals, I…

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Duke’s back, Hail to the King – lines courtesy of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, John Carpenter & Roddy Piper

Now that Duke Nukem is back in the public eye, perhaps Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, John Carpenter, and Roddy Piper should consider taking action to ensure that they are properly credited in the new game for the lines ‘appropriated’ from Army of Darkness and They Live…(oh and Scarface). Check out a clip from They Live after the break.

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The End is Nigh: Duke Nukem Forever is coming out in 2011

Woah! Duke Nukem Forever is actually coming out. In 2011. At PAX Take Two announced that Gearbox Software would be completing the game. 3D Realms, the original developer, shut down development last year when they ran out of money. More details about how Gearbox got involved and revived a game we all thought was dead can be found in this great article on Kotaku here. Seeing as DNF has been in production since 1997, I thought I’d list a couple of things in gaming and tech history that have happened…

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Fan Expo 2010 – Jamie Toghill Interview

There was no mistaking the big push that Disney was making this year for Tron Legacy, the long awaited sequel to the classic sci-fi film.  The Tron Legacy booth was the largest on the show floor, complete with a 20 foot tall Interceptor.  Beside the usually merchandise that goes along with modern sci-fi movie, the video game Tron Evolution was on the floor and playable on multiple consoles. Also on hand was Jamie Toghill, lead designer for the Wii version (Tron Evolution Battle Grids) from Propaganda Games.  We had a…

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Fan Expo 2010 – Pressure valve

As we briefly touched on in our initial Fan Expo write up, the convention was overcrowded this year, with attendance up by about 10,000 people.  It didn’t help that Expo was moved from the larger south building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, to the north, which has approximately 20% LESS square footage. The intention of Hobbystar all along was to keep it in the south building.  After all, Fan Expo moved from the north to the south a few years back precisely because of increasing attendance.  This year, however,…

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New Xbox 360 controller to fix the mushy D-pad

Microsoft has announced an updated wireless controller for the Xbox 360, which should fix the problems with the original controller’s D-pad.  Although it functions just fine, the design of the original left a lot to be desired, as it can be somewhat mushy and imprecise in regular usage.  I got accustomed to it fairly quick, but it has nothing on either Sony or Nintendo’s D-pads.  Of course, I’d argue that the PS3 controller is an anachronism from controller days gone by, and is only barely more ergonomic than a Colecovision…

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