PAX East Archives

There's nothing like dealing with a cult to get the blo0od pumping in the middle of the day! That's the experience we got to have at PAX East as PAranoid Productions brought their latest title The Church in the Darkness to the con last week.

Once in a while, you come across an indie developer that makes your heart smile for days because you know they're making an awesome effort. That's the way I felt after chatting with the husband and wife duo of Robot Loves Kitty as they showed me their latest game, Super Tony Land.

Visiting with the crew at Devolver Digital at PAX East, we were able to sit down and try out one of their new co-op games that kind of put a smile on our face as we tried out The Swords Of Ditto.

Sometimes, when you're a media person covering events like PAX East, your appointments fly by fast and you get some time to check out other cool stuff along the way to getting to other appointments. Such is the case with Dark Devotion, as I briefly tried it out on Friday morning.

Castrol Edge and EA partnered up for a bonkers experiment in sponsored content for Need for Speed Payback. Essentially, both companies tried to answer that age-old question: who is better at driving, pro racing drivers or gamers?

Another title we got to try out at PAX East was Dusk from New Blood Interactive, which had us going back in our minds to the glory days of playing Quake online, with all the intensity and bloodshed you might expect.

Intrepid Studios' Ashes of Creation is a pretty ambitious MMORPG project being developed former AAA developers. Speaking with the team at PAX East, it was obvious that Ashes is a labor of love for everyone involved.

We got a taste of a couple new titles from New Blood Interactive at PAX East this year, and while there is a fondness in our hearts for first-person bloodbath PC titles, something caught our eye about both of their games starting with Amid Evil.

As you've probably heard, Square Enix is releasing Dragon Quest XI in the west. It'll be the first mainline Dragon Quest game to get a western release in well over a decade, meaning the game will be getting some major overhauling before making it overseas.

While we were at PAX East, not all of it was video games, we got in some decent board gaming time as well. One of the appointments we managed to book in the tabletop area landed us some time with a game called Beasts Of Balance. 

RageSquid's Descenders is essentially a game designed for people who like to go downhill very fast on a bike. And do a few jumps and tricks along the way. The game was designed to be easy to pick up, but difficult to master. And it definitely is.

Sometimes when you hit the PAX East floor, you get taken down a very dark path and you're not entirely sure how to respond to it, you just know it will haunt you for days. Such was the case when we tried out Immure from Wither Studios, as we're still not sure if the demons left us.

If you're going to reinvent the jumping maze platformer in your own image, throwing in a new mechanic is a good way to get our attention, like Graffiti Games did at PAX East with one of the games they were showing off in The King's Bird.

If you've ever wanted to play as Indiana Jones to a degree and be in a world that has some magic, then you might want to take a quick look at City of Brass from Uppercut Games as we checked them out at PAX East this weekend.

One of the best games that we got a chance to play on the PAX East floor was a fun little game from publisher Blowfish Studios called Projection: First Light. The game itself is simple in concept but it makes for one of the best experiences we had all weekend.

As much as I enjoy the current landscape of gaming, there's still a part of me that harkens back to the old PC adventure titles from the late '80s and early '90s. When we walked up to the Faeland booth at PAX East and saw what the game had to offer, I was instantly taken back.

I wasn't quite sure what I was in for when I checked in with the Epsilon Games crew at PAX East to try out their latest game, Primus Vita. And to be honest, I'm still not sure what I experienced.

Before you jump into this article thinking you're getting a dose of Star Wars... no! This has nothing to do with the upcoming film. Solo is an introspective puzzle game that focuses on the way you personally deal with relationships while also offering challenges to explore them.

We had previously mentioned that 20XX was in development by Fire Hose Games as a nod and a throwback to the Mega Man-type games we grew up with, but PAX East was the first time we actually got to put our hands on the game.

When you get told that you have a video game demo made by someone who used to work for Disney, the excitement level goes up just a bit. That's what we heard when we got to the Sleep Tight booth at PAX East from developers We Are Fuzzy to check out this awesome twin-stick shooter.

Abyssal Arts came out of the gate swinging at PAX East with their own tactical RPG that caught our attention and made us smile when we were finished called City Of The Shroud.

We got a cool little surprise in the form of an RPG from Ysbryd at PAX East this past weekend that was a complete throwback for me in many ways as we got to try out a demo for YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG.

So one of my biggest problems with Bishop Games' Light Fall is that it seems a bit too similar to some other really popular indie games. However, the actual gameplay experience makes up for a bit of that same-face problem.

Goon Squad's Dustwun is a third-person action-adventure meets survival-exploration hybrid. So it's basically four different game types rolled into one. It sounds great, and the elements do have quite a bit in common, however, there are many moments where Dustwun goes a slight bit wrong.

While wandering into the Ysbryd booth over at PAX East, I was quickly introduced to a game I didn't know I needed in my life until I sat down at the keyboard and found myself serving up cocktails in VA-11 HALL-A.

One of the more pleasant surprises we came across at PAX East was this fun little indie title called Super Daryl Deluxe, which actually just came out this week on Steam and we'll be reviewing in full at a later date.

One of the funnier games that caught our eyes over at PAX East was a title from Another Indie called Yuppie Psycho, which has a very futuristic horror blend in a 16-bit world that made us excited to play the entire demo.

The other fun little indie title we got to check out from EuroVideo at PAX East this year was a construction simulator called Pretz'l Land. The game focuses on bits of German culture in a fun animated way, taking place in the Alps where players can build country villages to their liking.

One of the developers we got to visit with over at PAX East was the crew from EuroVideo, who produce a lot of indie titles that may not be on the top of your lists right now, but they make some really fun and interesting titles, like Fox & Forests.

Hibernian Workshop and The Arcade Crew's Dark Devotion had a playable demo at PAX East this year which showed off the roguelike-RPG with some scenic ambiance in the form of booth attendees dressed like monks.