Last week during PAX 2008, we sat down with Hothead COO and Penny Arcade Adventures Producer Joel DeYoung as he guided us through Episode 2 and improvements to the engine. The gist of it is: if you liked Episode 1, you'll like Episode 2 that much more. Here's the rundown from our talks:

• Highlighting points of interest has been made easier! "If you have your proximity putting you close enough to 2 or 3 things, you can slide through that with bumpers," said DeYoung.
  
• There are now difficulty levels, including an Insane Mode (unlockable only after beating the game). Special collectibles and pickups are only available if you play Insane Mode. Comparatively, Episode 1's difficulty is "a little easier" than medium.
• All the weapons have been replaced. Tycho gets a shotgun, Gabe has new fist upgrades and your player now possesses -- wait for it -- a hoe! Also changed are the special attack minigames.
  
• You now have, among other new items, a revive potion. Healing won't be enough to bring your troops back to life. "Just adds a little bit of depth to it," said DeYoung.
• The real-time reaction for defense has been made more obvious (e.g. "Block!" now appears when you need to push block), but nothing analogous for attacking has been added.

More after the break.

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.

The Day you thought would never come has finally arrived, leaping over the horizon and declaring, "I am alive, but not to be confused with I Am Alive, the similarly themed disaster survival game from Ubisoft!" It seems Nintendo has finally gotten around to announcing the official UK release date for Disaster: Day of Crisis, thus dragging the Monolith Soft-developed Wii game from the murky realms of vaporware and into the fluorescent aisles of your local video game retailer.

October 24th has been chosen as the day which game protagonist Raymond Bryce is sure to describe as the worst of his life, what with it attempting to kill him constantly in earthquakes, fires, floods and tenuously connected terrorist attacks. There are also bears. See the peril for yourself in the gallery below.

We certainly hope the game's been worth the wait, if only to spare us from a parade of self-congratulatory reviewers cleverly dubbing it a "disaster."

As we've all come to learn, the industry's use of the word "exclusive" is about as persistent as a piece of cotton candy in your mouth. For all we know (which, admittedly, isn't a lot), the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Mirror's Edge could be receiving their own "exclusive" downloadable bits. Probably some designer gloves and elbow pads for our squirrely protagonist.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Is your craving for Fallout 3 currently and properly satiated? If so, hold onto this link for a fix later, but otherwise check out Xbox360Achievement's listing of the game's, well, Achievements. Aside from the usual (30 quest-based, 9 level and karma-based), our favorite new achievement is going to be Psychotic Prankster, which essentially involves adding to your "Exploding Pants" statistic by "placing a grenade or mine while pickpocketing." Of course, the highlights of these little Gamerscore supplements are the associated Vault Boy icons, which would make a great collage for our desktop background.

[Thanks, Dan]

With PAX 2008 bringing out oodles of Penny Arcade love, why not use this opportunity to pimp the upcoming PA Adventures Episode 2? In addition to chatting with COO Joel DeYoung (that aftermath of which will be published early this week), Hothead Games sent us more than a dozen new screenshots, including a few that are just for us (we feel touched by that, although on that note we wonder if some of them are creepy subliminal messages to us). PAA:OTRSPoD Episode 2 is due out later this year.

Are there any plans to bring any of TellTale's properties on to XBLA or PSN?

Mark:Start with the hard questions! I don't really have too many answers to that. I know that we're looking to get on as many platforms as we can. We're talking to people about opportunities but no solid plans right now.

Emily: I would add to that that when we announced that we coming out with a WiiWare game and it was already in production and that it would be coming out a few months later, everybody was very surprised. We do things and don't talk about them.

How has your experience been with Nintendo's platform versus the PC?

Mark: Working with Nintendo's been pretty good. Actually our production process is kind of streamlined and our TellTale Tool is created to work well with multiple systems. So for us there's really no bottleneck, it's the same as working on the PC environment. All the help that Nintendo's been giving us and allowing us the opportunity to be on WiiWare has been great for our company and great for getting titles like SBCG4AP out there to a new audience who maybe isn't used to Adventure games. It's been a great partnership with Nintendo so far.

Now ... now we're afraid. EA announced today that its sci-fi survival-horror game Dead Space is hitting retail a week before its originally scheduled Halloween release in Europe. Doesn't EA understand what it's doing?! The natural order of this industry is being torn apart by such shifts in the timeline. Games are meant to be delayed, not ... um, what's the word for "undelayed"? See, we don't even know because we never use it!

The game will release in Europe on Oct. 24 for PS3 and Xbox 360, while the PC will still receive it on Halloween (Oct. 31). We're still waiting on an official release from EA in North America The game will release in North America on Oct. 21.

Update: Looks like the NA date change was announced during a trailer last month.

Castle Crashers has invaded Xbox Live Arcade and, unless you're having connectivity issues, chances are you've discovered the charm in this homage revolution modern iteration of the beat 'em up genre. The game seems to be receiving positive reviews for its ambition as an XBLA title, but those pesky connection issues are causing reviewers to shave points off "Castle Crashes'" overall score.

• IGN (90/100): "Castle Crashers takes the best elements of traditional side-scrolling beat-em-ups and adds lots of flair. There's some great humor here and some nice surprises that will please most. ... The bulk of Castle Crashers is an enjoyable ride and one every 360 owner should experience."
• GameSpot (85/100): "Even at a price of 1,200 Microsoft points, Castle Crashers provides great value. The main storyline offers hours of bad-guy beating and princess-rescuing fun that it is sure to please. The ability to play with friends should make the experience richer, even if it is limited to a more local experience. As a testament to its entertainment, feature losses and some disappointing online play hardly slow this juggernaut of amusement down. This is an absurdly hilarious romp you won't soon forget."
• VGT (60/100): "Castle Crashers is an entertaining brawler, but the replay value is chopped into little frustrating bits by a horrifically painful online experience. I'm left wondering why I spent $15 (1200 MS points) on a five-hour single player game. Multiple playthroughs will unlock new characters, but the repetitive nature is a bit tiresome. Avoid purchasing Castle Crashers until the developer sorts the major online problems out."

X3F in Brief and GameTrailer's video reviews can be found after the break.

Continuing with their week-long series, nos amis at X3F talked with Silicon Knights President Denis Dyack over some of Too Human's biggest perceived faults. Part 1 of today's video interview is embedded above. Some highlights:

• On the community's early judgment: "People are trying to understand a game that's inherently interactive [by watching a video] ... All I can say is try the demo."
• On clipping and texture issues: "There's glitches in all games. It's really interesting to me because, as an example, there's gonna be things you can always improve. To me, framerate's not really that essential in cutscenes and it never has been for us ... I don't think Too Human's inconsistent from any of our previous games ... So there's clipping. Oh noes. Bottom line is, does it affect gameplay and by how much? Are there ways to improve Too Human? For sure, but the overall big picture? Happy, extremely happy."
• On the Valkyrie death scene: Dyack estimated it was a 15 and a 1/2 second scene. "If it's a sign that people love the game so much that they just want to get back in and play, could we make it skippable? Sure, it's an easy change. Is it something we ever would have anticipated since we thought it was faster than going to get your body or losing experience [which does not happen in Too Human] ... is that a change we can make in the future? Sure."
• On comparisons to Diablo: "There's this tactical element. People think, 'oh, this is like Diablo with a bit of action. In Diablo I can just go up to an enemy and pound him away [until it dies] and move on to the next one, if you had the better loot, you usually win. In Too Human, if you don't use your tactics, it is a new kind of genre-bender, you're gonna die. And we're looking at some of the feedback and a lot of people are dying. [laughs]"
• On future downloadable content: "I think that's gonna be unique to people who pre-order it, that's a one-time thing. But we've got tons of ideas that will far exceed the pre-order bonus."

Check out part two of the interview after the break.

Our compatriots over at X3F visited Too Human developer Silicon Knights last week and were welcomed with a big, friendly bear hug from president Denis Dyack, who proceeded to drink from a bottomless coffee mug as he gave them a tour of the Ontario-based studio. Check out video of the guided tour (after the break) as well a pic-tour-ial gallery. X3F has an entire week of Silicon Knights coverage planned. Tomorrow: Part 1 of their 1-on-1 interview Dyack.

How nice of you to join us. Do you have any idea what time it is? We were expecting you weeks ago! Well, no matter, go and take your seat with the rest of the Virtual Console class so we can begin.

• Samurai Shodown 2 (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points): SNK's 1994 follow up to Samurai Shodown finally slices and dices its way onto the Virtual Console this week, bringing back most of the original's weapon-wielding cast, as well as several newcomers vying for the opportunity to skewer anything that moves with a pointy blade and sharp Engrish wit.
• Ys Book I & II (TurboGrafx 16 CD-ROM, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Nihon Falcom's enhanced remakes of the first two titles in the Ys saga finally levels up for the US Virtual Console. Offering roguelike-style combat and music we still find ourselves humming at the dinner table, this is a download not to be missed by role-playing fans with eyes for the classics.
  

Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack wants to set the record straight: Too Human was not in development for 10 years. Speaking to X3F during their tour of the studios last week, Dyack said, "I cannot dispel that rumor enough ... that is a bad way to talk about Too Human because that is factually incorrect." He cites the E3 1999 reveal -- at that point planned as a 4-disc PS One title -- but explains that production didn't actually begin until after Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes was completed. Given that title's March 2004 release, we're going to carbon date Too Human at 5 years, born in 7 A.D., or Anno Duke (Nukem Forever).

It should be noted that there are screenshots from E3 1999, but both those and the descriptions appear devoid of any Norse mythology that now has become a major aspect of the game. Stay tuned for video and images from X3F's Silicon Knights tour later today.

If you're still downtrodden at hearing that Activision won't be publishing the classic Sierra adventures of yesteryear, we have great, great news: The saints at AGD Interactive have just released the (free) VGA remake of Quest for Glory II: Trial By Fire, a labor of love in development off and on for nearly seven years.

Finally you'll get to meet Rakeesh, Uhura and Ad Avis in their 256-color glory, as well as get the chance to navigate a much simplified alleyway system. If that last bit didn't make you breathe a sigh of relief, you should click here immediately and get educated. If it did ... well, we assume we've already lost you to the "Source" link.