We’ll be wrapping up our PAX coverage with preview impressions of the Assassin’s Creed 2 demo from Ubisoft. Creative director Patrice Desilets took on the role Ezio to kill his way through the streets of Venice so we could see some of the game’s upcoming features in action. Read on for some of the interesting new tweaks you’ll be able to expect from next month’s sequel.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is changing, and it’s taking the stealth genre with it. The new direction speeds pacing in a way that looks promising, but it may alienate traditional genre fans. Max Biland, the project’s creative director, gave a thirty-minute presentation on some of the new features in the PAX auditorium. Read on for the run down on the Mark and Execute system, Last Known Position, and a cute tweak to storytelling.

Cooperative FPS games are the darlings of the genre right now, but they’re popping up so fast that it’s getting hard to tell them apart. However, in a subgenre mostly defined by players reviving each other after tactical mishaps, Left 4 Dead is still the only game where you’ll drop your comrade mid-revival so you can shoot through him. You know, because of all the zombies.

Valve’s upcoming sequel to that game was present on the PAX show floor, and Ricardo Ariza was kindly fielding questions instead of just hitting zombies with guitars. He’s one of the two character sculptors working on the sequel’s 35 man team and was just chock full of information.

Most people come home from the Penny Arcade Expo with a bag of swag, but we thought we’d bring you a vicarious piece of the expo hall instead. Over the next five weeks, we’ll be posting previews, PAX 10 interviews, and maybe even a nod or two to some of the cooler marketing that popped up at the show. We’ll be sticking with our late MWF post schedule, with previews on Mondays, and interviews on Wednesdays and Fridays. Check the full post for a detailed posting schedule.

The E3 God of War III demo was available on the PAX floor, and it looks like it covers about 75% of the game’s first level (and five times your RDA of brutal gore). For those just tuning in, current God of War and deific whipping-boy Kratos has allied himself with Titans to storm Olympus for revenge. The demo picks up in the thick of battle where Kratos must avoid the Titans’ indiscriminate destruction and the Gods’ more precisely focused resistance. Along the way, the conflict showcases God of War III‘s features, old and new.