PAX Prime Day 2: Four Awesome Games We Saw

Day 2 of our PAX Prime coverage reveals our thoughts on Skyrim, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, The Darkness II, and Borderlands 2. All glorious, salivating-inducing games that you need to be brought up to speed on.

Borderlands 2

When Borderlands was first shown off at PAX 2009, it was an unknown IP that no one had heard of before. It turned out to be the sleeper hit of the show, and one of Gearbox’s best-selling titles. After becoming such a fan-favorite, the announcement of Borderlands 2 was an expected but welcome one.

While there were no opportunities for hands-on time with the game, a demo was given by Mikey Neumann from Gearbox Software that covered all of the main additions in Borderlands 2. One of the first things that jumped out was that there were other textures besides sand or dirt. The demo opened in a snowy land populated with giant creatures that don’t like their home being messed with. Plenty of work has gone into the weapons, too. Each of the weapon manufacturers in the game has unique characteristics that set it apart from the others. For example, one brand makes ultra-cheap weapons, so instead of reloading, the character just throws the weapon away and a new one appears. This has a gameplay benefit though as well, because when the used weapon is thrown, it will explode on impact, with the size of the explosion varying based on the amount of ammunition in the weapon. The other brands each have their own twists, too.

Significant improvements have also been made to the AI in Borderlands 2, making the encounters feel a bit more real. Enemies can now walk up and down stairs, or climb up ledges and vault obstacles to get to you faster. The enemies can be wounded now, as well. Shoot a robot’s legs off and it will continue to crawl towards you even though it's crippled. While they weren’t talking specifics about all of the characters, both Salvador the Gunzerker and Maya the Siren were shown off, and both look to be a bit more unique than the characters in the first Borderlands. However, fans of the originals will be happy to know that the first crew of characters will all make appearances in Borderlands 2 as NPCs.

Borderlands 2 continues with the laughs and overall vibe of the first game while managing to improve it in ways that we didn’t even know we wanted improved. Those who enjoyed the first game can look forward to even more content in Borderlands 2 than there was in the original, so check back for more on Borderlands 2 as it’s 2012 launch approaches.

The Darkness II

Despite playing tons of games, it's rare to come across a story that feels genuine. However, the Darkness did it for us, and even to this day has one of the most emotional stories in gaming. From what we’ve seen of The Darkness II, keeping that feeling has been a priority -- or, at least, that's what we're told. It's hard to get a good sense of a story’s true nature during a brief demo on a convention floor.

The demo was actually a few different parts of the game cut up into short segments, which we assume was to avoid story-heavy sections of the game. At the beginning, the player awakes screaming in pain as giant nails are hammered into their hands in a crucifixion. A mixture of blue and black smoke is coming out of the player and being absorbed into a lantern-looking object. The person doing the hammering seems to know about the player’s special ability to harness the Darkness and wants him to surrender it.

From here, the scene changes to a first-person view of the player walking through a very formal restaurant. Everyone seems to know him and he acts as if he owns the place. He probably does. At that point, a van crashes in through the side of the building and the player is injured. They must then shoot ambushing enemies while a friend carries them to safety. The player eventually unleashes the Darkness and takes down entire groups of enemies while using car doors as shields and light posts as javelins. The demo closes with the player being returned to the crucifix. Based on the imagery we saw, it seems clear that the developers aren't going to shy away from graphic content.

We're told that The Darkness II is meant to be a deeper game, with an actual story that features elements that are often disregarded. We hope that it's true, and every time that we sit down with The Darkness II, we do feel as though the story is shaping up to be something different and refreshing. We will have to wait and see to be sure though, so look for The Darkness II coming in 2012.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

After debuting as a Half-Life mod 12 years ago, Counter-Strike has grown to be a franchise of its own, often claiming the “most played” spot on PC gaming sites. While Valve has released updated versions of the original game such as Counter-Strike Source, nothing’s really been done to the series in recent years -- until Global Offensive, that is. This new content includes new maps, updates to the originals, new game modes, and updated graphics.

The build that was being shown at PAX was running on an Xbox 360 and looked great, especially compared to the original. The gameplay is the same as that of its PC predecessor, but when brought to a gamepad, can feel a bit slow. That said, the controls are solid otherwise and don’t feel like a haphazard remap of the mouse and keyboard controls. The classic terrorist/counter-terrorist mode was on display and feels just as fun as it did on PC despite the maps being slightly different. The team sizes were dropped down to six per side to make the gameplay flow faster, and the rounds were notably shorter due to this.

There are many nice touches in addition to the new content. For example, at the top of the screen, images of the player’s gamertag or Steam profile are displayed for an easy readout of how many teammates are still alive. In addition, the amount of detail that has been added to the remakes of original maps make them seem like entirely new levels without taking the feel of the original away.

Valve and Hidden Path’s combined track record gives us the feeling that our positive thoughts on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will continue as we begin to see more of the game. It did feel a bit odd to have the game demoed on an Xbox 360, but it was good to see the console versions looking strong.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Let this particular writer preface this by saying that Fantasy isn’t really my genre and that I haven’t played more than a few hours of the other Elder Scrolls games, but Skyrim will change all that. After spending time with the demo at PAX, I know I’m going to spend way too much time exploring its world. Back at E3, Todd Howard gave us a look at what Skyrim was all about, but the brilliance of the game cannot be conveyed properly without actually playing it. The main selling point is that the world is “living” and is constantly changing depending on what the player is doing.

At the start of the demo, the player must trek through mountains while taking numerous, different paths to get to the village below. I found myself climbing the mountainside, and the open exploration on display was a foreign concept to me. I finally made my way to the town and once there, I took a look around at the city. I cut some logs using the working sawmill, killed chickens scattered around town, and attempted to steal from the blacksmith… which, it turns out, isn’t the best idea. After respawning from my death at the smith’s hand, I decided to take a different approach. Instead of entering the town through the front gate, I snuck down the mountainside, equipped a magical flame ability to both hands, and started to burn the straw roofs on top of the buildings. This produced a completely different result and made me really think about how my actions would play out.

The time I’ve just described is only a small section of the huge land of Skyrim. My time with it went by all too quickly, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it when it releases on November 11th.