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Out in the Northwest USA this weekend? Check out the Penny Arcade Expo, also known as PAX. PAX Prime 2010 is taking place at the Washington State Convention Center for the fourth time. Confirmed musical guests include Anamanaguchi, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Metroid Metal, The Minibosses, Paul and Storm, Martin O’Donnell, and The Protomen. For the first time since occupying the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, this year’s PAX will include events at offsite locations. Instead of occupying an exposition hall at the Center, the Main Theater, where the keynote speech, large panels, and concerts are held, will be located down the street at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, normally the venue for the Seattle Symphony and other fine performance arts. The newly renovated Pike St. Annex (since renamed to The Convention Center) will again be used (as it was in 2007), as well as registration and one panel room located at the nearby Sheraton. These changes have allowed PAX 2010′s expo hall (where vendors hock new games) to double in size over 2009. The three-day pre-registration passes are $55 while day passes are $35.
Many companies will be showing off upcoming games this weekend. From Ubisoft attendees will be able to check out Kinect titles Your Shape, Fitness Evolved, H.A.W.X. 2, Just Dance 2, and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood fans that pre-order the game onsite at PAX will receive an exclusive Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood T-shirt, and there are also opportunities for consumers who fan the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Facebook page to win Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood posters. Nintendo will be bringing Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and Goldeneye for Wii. Not to be undone, Capcom will be showing off Dead Rising 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the PS Move version of Resident Evil 5, and the much hyped Mega Man Universe.
Attendees can also check out many of the special events and panels that will be featured all weekend at PAX Seattle. Some examples include:
Friday, 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, Raven Theatre
Game Design 101
In an hour we’re going to try to answer all your questions about what a game designer does, how to become a game designer and how to improve your game design skills. Impossible? Yes. Will it be awesome anyway? Absolutely! All levels of experience are welcome, from students to seasoned industry veteran to kick ass DMs who just wants to improve their D&D game. If you want to become a better designer this is the place to be! So join James Portnow, Richard Garfield, Nichole Lazzaro, Nick Fortugno and Jeff Hickman as we discuss how to get your design on.

Friday, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM, Unicorn Theatre
The Myth of the Gamer Girl: True Demographic or Anthropological Hooha?
Whether it’s just a single gal at home or an entire crew like the Frag Dolls & PMS clan, there are definitely hardcore gamers out there of the female variety. That said, is there something unique about women who play games? This panel will explore the myth of the gamer girl to settle the question once and for all: are there attributes that game designers and publishers need to consider to appeal to the women, or is it all just a bunch of hogwash that the marketing team is selling? Come listen to an expert panel of women who are confirmed passionate gamers of both the video and table topvariety. We will be providing cards at the beginning of the panel on which the audience can submit questions or discussion topics to ensure no stone is unturned in our quest for truth!
Panelists include: Karen Clark [Co-Founder GameMentorOnline at Women in Games International , EA & Bioware], Farah Houston [Sr. PM Xbox, Microsoft], Cassie Wallender [Product Manager, MySpace], Beth Goza [Sr. Community Manager, Microsoft], Alexis Hebert [Community Relations Manager, Terminal Reality]

Friday, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM, Wolfman Theatre
Testers vs. The Game, the Life of a Tester
Have you ever wondered, “What does a QA Tester really do?”. We’ve got a panel of grizzled QA vets, filled to the brim with experience. Looking to get in the industry? We’ll dole out pearls of wisdom about life as a Tester, and you can decide if it’s the life for you! We’ll explore some of the horrific and awesome experience that our QA vets have been thru, as well as a demonstration about the different types of testers. When we’re done with our soapbox-rantings, we’ll open our panelists to your questions, No-Holds-Barred.
Panelists include: Michael Jorgensen [QA Lead, Zombie Studios], Ryan Sharpe [Founder, Get Well Gamers], James Costello [QA Lead, Sandlot Games], Chris Chamberlain [Lead SDET, and Co-Host of “Platform Biased”, MGS Rare], Kevin Darby [GTO Lead SDET - Halo Waypoint, MGS]
Friday, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM, Unicorn Theatre
Movin’ on Up: How to Make It (Or Not) in Videogames Journalism
Do you run a videogame website and not getting enough PR love? Do you write about videogames and looking to go pro? Are you looking to get into videogame journalism? We’ll drop knowledge on how to get your site or writing noticed by the right people, how to run into the “right” people, and how to just get started in the first place — all straight from PR folks, veteran, and panelists who have gone virtual unknowns to writing for some of the biggest sites or publications out there. We’ll also dedicate a good amount of time to answer to your questions, so come prepared!
Panelists include: Arne Meyer [Community Strategist, Naughty Dog], John Drake [Manager, Communications and Special Projects, Harmonix Music Systems], Chris Kohler [Game|Life Editor, Wired.com], John Ricciardi [8-4]

Make sure to check out all the info at Paxsite.com

TooManyGames is Pennsylvania’s longest continually running gaming event. This fall will be the 10th TooManyGames convention! It takes place on Sunday, September 19th, 2010, from 10AM-6PM at the Crowne Plaza Reading Hotel in Wyomissing, PA. You can find a lot to buy at the TMG Marketplace. TooManyGames’ market continues to be the show’s focal point! Dozens of vendors from all over the east coast are ready to help you with your most bizzarre and rare gaming requests! Vectrexes, Adventurevisions, NeoGeos, Sharp Famicom Twins, rare imports, RPGs, and more are waiting for you at TooManyGames. Also, This year TooManyGames is going to have a separate room just for playing games. Consoles from today and yesteryear will be setup for you to check out and play. Favorites like Atari, NES, NeoGeo, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Wii, and more will be ready for your enjoyment. As always, TooManyGames’ tournaments will run the gamut of genres and generations of video games! Classic tournaments will be played along-side modern day events like Halo 3 , Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Guitar Hero 5. You’ll also get to enjoy the musical sounds of Chipocrite, Cryptorchid Chipmunk, Animal Style, JJ Demon, Ro-Bear, and X-Hunters .
Sounds cool right? Well here’s more. Brandon DiCamillo will be at the show meeting those in attendance from 10am until 3pm. At his booth he’ll be selling his brand new DVD release, Cattle Bag. The first 1000 copies of this DVD are a Limited Edition version containing all kinds of goodies.
Too find out more about this event, check out TooManyGames.com

Regional tournaments could net you some cash

GameStop, the world’s largest video game and entertainment software retailer, today announced that it will host district Madden NFL 11 video game tournaments at 327 of its U.S. locations on Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010.
Many of the participating GameStop locations will begin their tournaments at 11 a.m. local time; however, customers are encouraged to contact their local store to confirm the exact start time. All contestants must check-in at least 30 minutes prior to the start of play, and you must be at least 13 years old to participate in the event. Participants under 18 must have a parent or guardian sign their registration form.
The top players from each participating location will advance to the online ladder rounds powered by GGL. Online game play will begin on September 12 and will occur exclusively through Xbox Live. The top eight players will advance to the finals event held at a NFL game in November.
For additional tournament details and to obtain a list of official rules, visit a local GameStop retail location or http://www.gamestop.com/madden.

ScrewQuizzo, a collaborative effort between the musical group Agent Moosehead and Plug and Play Events combines the excitement of in-person video game competitions (featuring Nintendo, Atari, Wii, and more), with the entertainment of a live musical event – in the form of a ‘themed’ set of video game music provided by Agent Moosehead.

These events are advertised as a refreshing alternative to typical bar events like “Quizzo” (screw it!) and can be provided at a variety of venues, locations, parties, etc.

The group is hyping their upcoming ‘video game’ themed events!  the first official event will be on Thursday, July 8, 2010 at The Note in West Chester, Pennsylvania and will feature games from Nintendo (including: Super Mario 3, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, and more). Attendees can win some prizes and listen to some Japanese music – re-arranged and performed by Agent Moosehead.  Tickets are three dollars in advance, five at the door.

More info can be found at www.screwquizzo.com ; www.myspace.com/screwquizzo ;
www.facebook.com/pages/ScrewQuizzo/120274694678782?ref=ts

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is just around the corner. Things unofficially kick off June 13 with an evening event from Microsoft, where Project Natal games will be unveiled. Then Monday’s press conferences kick off, beginning with Microsoft’s at 10 a.m. PST and continuing on to pressers from Ubisoft and EA. Tuesday, June 15, is the official first day of the show and it launches with Nintendo’s early morning conference, followed by Sony’s at 11:30 a.m. PST. After that, the show floor opens and we start seeing a ton of games. Things go crazy all the way until Thursday, June 17, when E3 2010 closes its doors at 5 p.m. PST.

Wondering what games will be featured? Here’s what you can expect so far:

2K Games
Mafia II (PC, PS3, X360)
Sid Meier’s Civilization V (PC)
Spec Ops: The Line (PC, PS3, X360)

505 Games
Grease (DS, Wii)
Naughty Bear (PS3, X360)

Anaconda
Gray Matter (PC)

D3 Publisher
Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction (DS, PSP, X360)
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (Wii)

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From classicarcadegaming.com forums:

Thanks to Richie Knucklez, Classic Arcade Gaming (dot com) continues a series of historical precedents, with the latest being the highest purse ever offered for a set of bounties at a cag event ! Happening for one day only – Saturday, September 26th – there’s over $3,500 in cash bounties, on more than 15 game titles, topped off by a ‘grand’ bounty prize of $1,000 ! As always, there might be an issue with one or two titles being included in the event, due to sale, or breakdown (heaven forbid !), but, Richie will of course do his best to make them all available. Now, here’s the list, and the bounties for each:

$100 bounties: Dig Dug, Donkey Kong Junior, Frogger (TG settings), Journey, Moon Patrol, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Phoenix, Road Runner (if available)

$250 bounties: Crossbow, Donkey Kong, Elevator Action, Marble Madness (if available), Pole Position (TG settings), Sinistar, Track & Field

$1,000 ‘grand’ bounty: Crystal Castles more »