Penny Arcade has released a schedule of activities for this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). If you're planning to go to the event, we recommend checking it out so you can plan out your own schedule in advance.

IDG Entertainment is sending word that instead of August, this year's E for All Expo has been moved to October. This news should serve as a relief for those worried the the event may conflict with PAX's own schedule for 2008.

Details are in the full article. Just click the "read more" link below.

It's never too early to reserve a place in the next Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). It was announced today that the event will be accepting registrations as early as January 2008. The last PAX had 37,000 gamers roaming its floor. Tickets were sold out so early registration may be a good idea.

PAX 2008 will be held on August 29 to 31 and attendance is expected to double again. "Again" because attendance has been doubling ever since the first PAX. The attendance grew so large that the last event was held in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle just to fit everyone in.

Next year's PAX will mark the expo's fifth year and will continue the tradition of game exhibitions, conference programs (about games of course), concerts, tournaments, freeplay gaming and general fun times for everyone and all in the gaming community.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is quickly coming up, so we guess it's about time we got some updates on Flying Lab's Pirates of the Burning Sea. These updates come courtesy of an MMORPG.com interview with game designer Drew Clowery at this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).

The interview focuses on the whole avatar combat system in Pirates of the Burning Sea. While it was originally planned to be released as a later addition after the final game hit retail, community support for the avatar combat system was enough to persuade the game's developers to flesh it out and include it in the game's final build.

Clowery explains a few of the avatar combat system's key points in the interview. One of these is Balance. "Balance is our mechanic that determines how well your attacks will land on your opponents and how well you defend against your opponents' attacks," says Clowery.

Balance is one of the cornerstones of duelling in Pirates of the Burning Sea. It directly affects how well a player can defend against attacks. There are also skills that target an opponent's balance directly as well as skills that let a player recover balance when in a pinch.

According to the interview, the Balance mechanic currently shows up on a player character's status bar. The development team is still adding a few tweaks here and there to further refine the Balance mechanic, and Clowery says that "the only things missing right now are the results - the numbers - that lets users know when balance is lost".

Clowery also talks about the three schools of combat available to players - Dirty Fighting, Fencing and Florentine - as well as the three passive skills - Dodge, Parry and Block - that each of them specialize in. You can learn more about the different aspects of avatar combat by clicking on the Read link below.

A lot of players have been anxiously awaiting Electronic Arts' Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Well, the Warhammer team at the recent Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) gave out a lot of details on the game that should interest further those looking forward to the game.

The developers gave word that a few classes from the Empire and Chaos faction have already been added to the game. They have also been developing a new siege weapon which works much like the famous Orcapult. Yes, they're giving players yet another method to fling themselves at their foes.

The announcement of Public Quests in the game has been all over the Internet recently as well. The devs explained how this feature actually works:

The first chapter of the game, there is one public quest, each chapter after that there are three public quests. So there are over three hundred public quests in the game. That equals quite a few per zone. You will find public quest pretty much everywhere as you go through.

As you get into later stages of the public quests, it requires more and more people, because the encounter becomes more and more difficult and complex. So you will still be able to participate and gain influence in public quests if you are by yourself, even if you can't complete it by yourself.

While that seems like a lot of hard work, it is well worth it. You'll be gaining influence in the game which is used to get item rewards and potions. As expected, the higher your influence, the better stuff you'll be getting.

It appears that the game is on track for its expected February release date next year. A few more details were discussed in the full interview (via the Read link below) as well as a thorough explanation about the above mentioned Public Quests.

During this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), WarCry spoke to Tabula Rasa Community Manager April "Cuppa Jo" Burba about what's new in NCSoft and Richard Garriott's upcoming MMORPG title. Here's a rundown of some of the changes and new stuff mentioned by Cuppa Jo:

• More customization options such as facial hair, eye patches, goggles, clothes and coloring options
• Changes to the XP curve make it easier to level up so that players can go through the content faster. Cuppa Jo noted that this was done in order to stick to the game's "Stable, Fast and Fun" credo.
• Changes have also been made to the tutorial and the chat function. The UI has also been given a new control option. "It was much more like a FPS style, and now it's more of a cross over."
• The "kill 20 of this mob" quest has been discarded.

More info on the remaining tier 4 classes will also be coming soon. It also looks like players may be able to get badges and ranks for completing certain quests and objectives in the game. Cuppa Jo declined to talk further about it, but she did say that it wouldn't surprise her if it gets implemented before the game goes live.

You can read the full interview via the Read link below.

ArenaNet will be celebrating the launch of the Eye of the North expansion for Guild Wars at this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and they're giving a few fans the chance to win a VIP Early Access ticket for their party. Read on to find out how to join.

The Super Fan 2007 contest is open to all Seattleites as well as those willing to cover their own travel and lodging expenses to get to the event. To enter, just tell ArenaNet why you're an exceptional Guild Wars fan. You can do it any way you want: through poetry, prose, song lyrics or simply through an honest and earnest statement of Guild Wars devotion.

You should also send your real name (first/last), street and mailing address, telephone number, email address, Guild Wars user name and date of birth along with your statement to contests@arena.net. For the full contest details as well as the general conditions of entry, click on the Read link below.

Penny Arcade has just announced that the entire floorspace for the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 2007 has sold out, despite the organizers' addition of more floorspace for people to roam and for companies to use.

In fact, this year's PAX has three times the game exhibition space, a fold up from their previously announced doubling.

"We thought that by tripling the available exhibitor space, we'd have enough room for everybody. I guess we were wrong," said Mike Fehlauer, Penny Arcade's director of sales. He thanks the exhibitors and attendees for their responses for the event - something he calls a "kickass party for the gamer community".

And along with this, Penny Arcade has also given a complete list of the companies who've signed up for exhibition. Starting August 24, expect the likes of Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts/Mythic, Harmonix, Foundation 9, Sierra/Vivendi, Wizards of the Coast, NCSoft, Sabertooth Games, D3 Publisher, Telltale Games, Behemoth, Namco-Bandai, Upper Deck, Wizkids, Atari, ArenaNet, Hothead Games, America's Army and Rockstar Games - among others - to tickle your fancy at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, in downtown Seattle, Washington.

Click on Full Article to view the complete list of exhibitors registered for PAX 2007.

Pirates of the Burning Sea has finally found a publisher. This announcement was made in an update on the game's official website, which further stated that the game will be published in partnership with Sony Online Entertainment's (SOE) Platform Publishing.

In the update, Flying Lab Software CEO Russell Williams also explained to the game's loyal fan base the reasoning behind their contract with SOE. Essentially, it boiled down Flying Lab retaining complete ownership of Pirates of the Burning Sea. You can read more about it through the "Via" link below.

Williams also revealed that with the SOE deal, Pirates of the Burning Sea will still be subscription-based as always and it will be on Station Access Pass. Pre-order boxes will also be available this summer. The game will also be on display at E3, the SOE FanFaire, Leipzig and PAX.

Here's a convention-goer advisory: If you're headed to Comic Con in San Diego (July 25-29), to Gen Con in Indianapolis (August 16-19) or to PAX in Seattle (August 24-26), then you're definitely in for a treat: you may just be able to see NCsoft make a formidable appearance right in the thick of things with a prime selection of their online product lineup for everyone to try out! Catch the Tabula Rasa fever that'll make the summer burn ever hotter!

And that's not all NCsoft has in store for the common convention-goer! There's also giveaways and a few unannounced surprises in the pipeline for those blessed enough to see NCsoft in their favorite conventions - so watch out!