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There's no doubt one of the fiercest rivalries for attention on the floors of PAX 2008 is between "Guitar Hero: World Tour" and "Rock Band 2." Both Activision and MTV Games have put together elaborate stage setups to draw wanna-be musicians.

While there's only one "Rock Band 2" setup, there's more people around it -- but there are multiple stations for checking out "Guitar Hero: World Tour." Needless to say, neither setup has had any trouble filling their space with people.

As of this writing, we're about halfway through PAX 2008. The first day didn't shut its doors until a ridiculous 3:00 A.M., yet people already back by 10:00 A.M. for day two.

I must admit a little bit of disappointment over the lack of costumes here, though. Maybe Comic-Con spoiled me, but the cosplay is light at PAX. That said, apparently Darth Vader and his stormtrooper group took the "Rock Band 2" stage earlier in the day.

If I had seen that, I might not be complaining.

Our own Patrick Klepek is at PAX. For more from PAX and beyond, come back Tuesday when we return from the Labor Day holiday! But for now, check out the news from this past week:

* "Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner told MTV News that he would love to make a "Guitar Hero" movie and that he came up with the name for "Guitar Hero: World Tour."

* Gearbox president Randy Pitchford told Patrick his thoughts on the departure of Corrinne Yu, director of platform technology to work on the "Halo" franchise. He also confirmed the company is working on a new shooter.

* We got the lowdown from Bungie regarding the hacked XBL accounts, as well as some tips to prevent your own from being compromised.

* I spent my weekend in the beta of "World of Warcraft" expansion "Wrath of the Lich King." See how starting my Death Knight and my level 70 did in the new game.

* Mythic's VP and "Warhammer Online" designer Mark Jacobs told me it wouldn't take a billion dollars to compete with "WoW." Just $100 million.

* MTV News video editor and resident "Warhammer" fanatic Joe DeShano gave us his thoughts on "Warhammer Online"'s preview weekend and how it is and isn't like "World of Warcraft."

* How will EA handle the shocking ending of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"? (Don't worry, there are no spoilers.)

* "Superman Returns," anyone? We looked at 55 issues of Game Informer to see if their covers are cursed or blessed.

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The media had two hours to run around the Penny Arcade Expo hall before the masses.

This gave me a chance to check out a few games -- some I've played, some I haven't. I'll have detailed impressions next week, but some quick thoughts:

"Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe" -- This build had The Joker and Kitana as playable characters. The Joker isn't a character for new comers; his moves aren't easy to decipher, but I couldn't help but laugh at him dancing around, laughing after hitting Batman with a cheap shot to the face. Kitana, however, feels just like she did in "Mortal Kombat II."

"Left 4 Dead" -- Valve was showing the Xbox 360 version for the first time. Other than a resolution difference, there's not much to report. It's still one of my most anticipated games. I also played with the A.I. for the first time; more next week.

"LEGO Batman" -- It's impressive how much better this one actually looks over its "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" counterparts. And whereas "Indiana Jones" was stretching to incorporate enough characters and action events, the Batman universe provides more than enough for Traveller's Tales to play with.

I'll be at PAX all weekend. Check back for more soon!

[Image Credit: Warner Bros.]

The doors of the fifth annual Penny Arcade Expo are open.

The minutes and seconds before the doors were opened were filled with much screaming and chanting before the clock struck 2:00 P.M.

I only noticed one kid trip and fall over himself as the crowd trampled in. He picked himself up and kept moving, though, so I don't think we need to worry about him.

Two hours from now, the doors will open for the three-day, fifth annual Penny Arcade Expo here in Seattle.

It's hard to imagine that more than 50,000 people will cram their way through these doors and onto the various available rooms of PAX this weekend, but that's the plan.

You'll want to keep your eyes on MTV Multiplayer this weekend, too, because we'll be updating from the show floor throughout the weekend. Additionally, keep checking our Twitter for live updates of our encounters and experiences and Flickr for photo ops.

If there's something specific you'd like to see coverage of from PAX, leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I'll put it on my list. For some more pictures of the currently-empty, pre-PAX lobbies, keep reading.

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"Being a part of the 'Too Human' development has been quite an experience. From the mythical tales of 10 or 20 years of production to the passionate personalities and forum rants that have captivated us all –it has been one hell of a ride. It's different being deep within the ocean of the industry, knowing that only the top inch of water, so full of fervor, speculation and passionate personalities, is what the world will ever see. I hope the game does well simply because it was made by many good people who stood as a team, genuine in their intent to offer the world something fun they could be proud of."

--"Too Human" art director Carman Dix, answering my question about what it's been like to work on the recently released Xbox 360 action RPG.

Related Posts:
Three ‘Too Human’ Developers Discuss Game’s Reputation, Breakthroughs and Criticisms (Denis Dyack Not Included)
‘Too Human’ Developers Share Impressions Of Denis Dyack

Viewers of CBS' Early Show yesterday were treated to a sight arguably more extraordinary than swimmer Michael Phelps' procurement of eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

To win eight gold medals, a man merely has to swim faster than any other man in the world. That's easy compared to what appeared to happen on the Early Show, when the producers appeared to bend the laws of space and time as they presented Phelps a copy of "Call of Duty: World At War" for the PS3 - a game that won't be released for at least another month or two, if not further into the future than that. The CBS host assured Phelps that Activision wanted Phelps to have the game first.

I asked an Activision PR rep yesterday how this happened and found out that there was an asterisk to this extraordinary achievement. All Phelps really got was a "Call of Duty: World At War" box, with an I.O.U.

So if you're ever on the Early Show yourself and the host hands you a game box, do what the people who take trade-in games do at GameStop and open that case up.

"World at War" development studio Treyarch provides a little more information about the Phelps stunt on their blog: Michael Phelps Gets A Special Gift From Treyarch & Activision!

Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

Mythic VP and lead "Warhammer Online" designer Mark Jacobs said it wouldn't take a billion dollars for a competing MMO to take on "World of Warcraft" -- maybe only $100 million.

"When certain people throw out ridiculous numbers, you know they're throwing out ridiculous numbers because they want to scare off competition or they want to make themselves seem invincible and that sort of nonsense," he said, referring to a statement Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick made at an investor meeting earlier this year.

"Realistically, if you're going into this space for the first time, and you want to compete with 'WoW' and you want to compete with us -- because we're going into that same space -- you've got to make sure that you have at least 100 million dollars," he said.

When I sat down with Jacobs last week during a demo of the game, we talked about what makes an MMO successful. Having worked in the industry creating MUDs in the '80s, online games in the '90s, and Mythic's biggest hit "Dark Age of Camelot" in 2001, he had some advice for those wanting to make it in the MMO business.

So why is $100 million the magic number? Read more...

I thought playing the DS version of mid-September's "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" would be a waste of time. When I put the game in my DS yesterday morning, while riding the subway to work, I expected a derivative and crippled experience.

I felt that after playing the first two levels of the Xbox 360 version the night before, I didn't think playing developer N-Space's DS interpretation of those same levels was going to be very interesting. Certainly, if one wants to play a definitive version of the "The Force Unleashed," the DS is not the version to choose over the 360 one. The technology doesn't match. In the first level, for example, Darth Vader rampages upon the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk. On the 360, the Sith Lord's cape billows like real cloth. On the DS, it bends like a bunch of polygons tacked together. The trees don't splinter like real wood on the DS; the use of force powers isn't powered by a physics engine that can send enemies and objects in any direction you select.

But the DS version was worth a look because it showed me a control scheme with which I'd like to play more. Character movement is implemented with either the d-pad or the DS face buttons, depending on whether the player is left-handed or right-handed. Attacks, jumps and most uses of force powers are controlled with a stylus tap of specific, marked regions of the DS touch screen. None of that was that new to me. What was new is that N-Space has demonstrated a clever way to execute combos. Traditionally, combos are triggered by a memorized or accidental pressing and tilting of buttons, d-pads and control sticks. N-Space's way is more inviting and more fun to experiment with. All the player has to do is connect pictures, to draw a stylus stroke from a jump icon on the touch screen to a lightsaber attack one, illuminating both in green to show that a combo has been found, and triggering a special leaping attack. Connecting a Force grab and a Force push icon causes enemies to get heaved to the air and slammed to the ground.

I may have missed a control scheme like this before, but I'm sold on it at first touch.

Bring on more picture-connecting combo attacks in DS games. It makes the act of executing tricky combos a little simpler for those of us with poor reflexes are faltering memories. It lets a person like me -- who can't always memorize that XXBY does this move and YYAB does that one -- experience the pleasure of chaining two good moves into a great one. I'm glad I tried that DS version after all.

Next: "Castle Crashers" and "The Last Guy" may dominate the early part of the holiday weekend. And then there's a big PC game I want to try.