The release date for Final Fantasy VII Remake is ever looming as fans wait for the highly anticipated title from Square Enix. But now there’s something to make the wait a bit more bearable — a set of brand new figurines in the style of the original polygon graphics from the PlayStation One release of
PAX
Out of all the new titles I played throughout my time at PAX East, Disc Room was far and away my favorite. From the creators of Minit, players have to survive as long as they can in a room that is filled with *wait for it*…discs. After the discovery of a strange disc planet, a
Sludge Life was definitely the weirdest title I played at PAX East a few weeks ago, but it was also the most charming. Even though you’re exploring an ooze-filled city, you are also presented with a blurry, pixelated art style that fits into its strange world. In Sludge Life, you are a tagger who is
If there is one thing that I look forward to the least in life, it’s definitely moving. While games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and The Sims have been able to take the mundanities of life and turn them into something engaging, I couldn’t say that I have that same sort of enthusiasm for a game
In the past few years, the “battle royale” genre has exploded in popularity with no small thanks to games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. Though the genre has now traditionally been associated with shooters, a few games have managed to play with the idea of being the last player standing in interesting ways, like Tetris
The last several weeks have been an exciting time for developer PlatinumGames, with the studio setting its sights on expanding in major ways. As part of its “Platinum 4” reveals, so far that has included the Kickstarter campaign for The Wonderful 101 Remastered and the announcement that PlatinumGames will open a new office in Tokyo,
While PAX East 2020 had some notable last minute absences from the show floor such as PlayStation, what the convention didn’t lack was a breadth of indie games to choose from. PAX has always held its reputation of being a treasure trove of incredible indie gaming experiences, and PAX East this year was certainly no
In the past few weeks, developer and publisher PlatinumGames has shared a ton of new details of what is currently lined up for the company’s future. So far that has been shown through the “Platinum 4” website, which revealed new projects that the company has in development such as The Wonderful 101 Remastered and a
The past few years have seen PlatinumGames grow exponentially, coming off several acclaimed and commercially-successful titles like NieR: Automata and Astral Chain, along with a recent investment from Tencent for future development. Specifically, the company has its eyes on increasing its self-publishing efforts, with the “Platinum 4” initiative highlighting some of the biggest plans that the
While the current landscape of shooters today is dominated by major successes like Apex Legends and Fortnite, several studios are still finding their way by delivering more traditional experiences that harken back to older experiences. The upcoming shooter Disintegration from developer V1 Interactive especially is one that comes to mind from one of the co-creators of the Halo series,
With its reveal at The Game Awards a few years ago, the horror co-op shooter GTFO gained a lot of attention for its intriguing mix of tactical shooting and collaboration in a horrifying setting. Of course, the game gained a lot of attention for its unusual title, which the developer felt perfectly suited the experience that
The roguelike genre in the past generation has seen an explosion in popularity from the success of games like The Binding of Isaac, Rogue Legacy, Dead Cells, and many others. With so many new titles incorporating roguelike elements into their gameplay, this has also had the effect of making the roguelike genre a competitive one, increasing the need
Coming off the success of Shovel Knight, the path ahead for developer Yacht Club Games seems especially full of possibility. As one of the most successful games to come out of crowdfunding through Kickstarter, the success of Shovel Knight has led to several spin-offs and new projects set in the game’s world, alongside multiple expansions of
The past week was a big one for developer and publisher Yacht Club Games, most well-known for Shovel Knight, as the company earlier this week shared details on a number of new projects that it has in the works. Among those was the announcement of its upcoming puzzle game Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon that brings its titular
Of all the games that are releasing in 2020, few come with the kind of emotional weight and baggage that Final Fantasy VII Remake has. While there are plenty of anticipated games, new installments of beloved franchises, and a few other high-profile remakes on the way, Final Fantasy VII Remake is attempting to deliver a
PlatinumGames is heading to PAX East, and it’s bringing The Wonderful 101 with it. The developer, in an update made via its Kickstarter on Wednesday, announced it will have a booth at the Boston-based convention, set up with playable Nintendo Switch versions of The Wonderful 101: Remastered. Additionally, studio head Atsushi Inaba and The Wonderful
Shadow of the Tomb Raider may have ended the three-game arc of Lara Croft’s journey to becoming the Tomb Raider we all know and love when it released last fall, but each month since then, Crystal Dynamics has continued to deliver a variety of new adventures for Lara (and the player) to traverse through with
Love and relationships have long been a topic explored in video games, but in the last few years indie games in particular have really seemed to be able to explore the topic in more experimental and emotional ways. As indie games have often focused on building narrative experiences or unique ways of storytelling rather than
When it comes to the depiction of war in media (and with games specifically), World War II in particular is a period in history that has been pretty well-trodden in a variety of different genres. From several Call of Duty titles and even to last year’s Battlefield V, the events and conflicts that have shaped World
In the time I spent playing Heave Ho on the show floor at PAX East, I probably failed through the first couple puzzles at least a good two dozen or so times. Normally in that type of scenario when you’re trying to complete a particularly-challenging puzzle it can lead to frustration, but in the case of Heave
When it comes to recent trends in games as of late, one of the absolute best trends has been the resurgence of ninja-themed games. Last year, The Messenger blended the old-school gameplay of Ninja Gaiden with challenging Metroidvania gameplay, while more recently titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice took fast-paced combat to new (and more difficult) levels. That
Building up energy is the key to the Nindies-featured Creature in the Well, a new dungeon crawler hack-and-slash game from Flight School Studio. With pinball-like combat mechanics, Creature in the Well adds a unique spin to the genre, though the PAX East demo that I played left me questioning how much further the final game will
As much as I love action-RPGs as a whole, few have ever quite stood out to me in the way that Biomutant has. I was already pretty much sold on the idea of playing as a mutated raccoon-like creature with a sword back when the game was first announced, but after having played a little bit
Since its debut back at E3 2016, Days Gone is a game that I have been optimistically looking forward to, despite some of the trepidations that others (and myself) have had about some of its qualities. A post-apocalyptic world where players have to fight for survival against waves of the undead is far from a new
PAX East 2019 is officially heading to Boston from March 28-31, 2019 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Badges are on sale now so grab them before they inevitably sell out. Single-day badgets are $57 each. This PAX East 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of the event and the second year that the show
I saw a bunch of cool games at PAX East, but most of them didn’t match up regarding both quality and intrigue when compared to what I saw from publisher Annapurna Interactive. Since being established in 2016, Annapurna has quickly built itself a phenomenal portfolio of games that include gems such as What Remains of Edith
Co-op games and experiences where players could band together and take on hordes of enemies became one of the defining multiplayer experiences of the past generation, and at the top of that list would have been Valve’s Left 4 Dead series. While those games are now ten years removed from their original release and co-op games have
Indie games that have interesting takes on puzzle-solving have been far from uncommon in the past decade. Thanks to the likes of games like Portal, Braid, The Talos Principle, The Witness, and more, the ways that we engage with solving puzzles in games have taken on increasingly complex and fascinating forms. With the upcoming The Gardens Between, the charming indie
During this year’s PAX East 2018 several indie games were on display, and while many have caught my eye, We Are Fuzzy’s twin-stick shooter Sleep Tight is one of a small handful that has earned my undivided attention. Sleep Tight‘s premise has players controlling a kid as they defend themselves from hordes of creepy monsters that prey upon them
In the span of about 15-20 minutes in Frostpunk, I went from deciding where to send out scouts to harvest supplies and create heat from the freezing cold, to enacting laws of whether or not to impose child labor laws and what to do with the bodies of those that are dead. Even though that’s just