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PAX this year was a little strange for me. I was brought on to Destructoid just as the deadline to apply for media badges expired, so I went to the show as a regular attendee, and didn't take appointments like Brett and Jordan did. I still ...   read

Most modern puzzle games feature one unique mechanic, introducing it plainly at first but building on it over time. Braid had its time manipulation. Portal had its... portals. Death Squared is a little bit different. If there's one idea tyi...   read

The Silver Case feels like a recovered piece of gaming history. Not only had I never played the game due to its Japan-only 1999 release for PlayStation, I hadn't even heard of it until recently, despite the fact that it was Grasshopper Manu...   read

While Grasshopper Manufacture was at PAX West to show off Let it Die and The Silver Case, during an interview with creator Goichi Suda regarding the latter game, I had to ask about the future. What's next for him? For the studio? More often...   read

I'm always really disappointed when folks cite Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods as an influence. For me, the best part of that movie was its meta-narrative; it played with structure and convention of a specific genre to ultimately tel...   read

Every year, PAX draws thousands of game enthusiasts to Seattle, and lots of them decide that the best way to express their affection for a given game is to dress up like one of the characters. Cosplay has really taken off at PAX since it st...   read

While snowboarding games have had a slight resurgence on Steam, the big publishers -- including EA, which sadly doesn't seem interested in doing anything with SSX -- have been sleeping on the genre. As such, Ubisoft's Steep was one of the b...   read

The best part of my State of Mind demo was talking to Martin Ganteföhr, the game's director. He single-handedly convinced me that State of Mind needed to exist -- not because the game was any good (it isn't). Rather, Gan...   read

It's no secret that I've been happy about Relic's revival of the Dawn of War series amid the countless other Warhammer 40,000 video game adaptations materializing on a now-yearly basis. There's so gosh darn many of 'em! And, aside from a dr...   read

For a lot of youngsters (including myself!), Flash-based game sites like Newgrounds or Miniclip were a gateway to the world of video games. These sites were easily accessible from library/Boys & Girls Club desktops or your parents' work...   read

The Nosulus Rift is real. Much to my chagrin, the Nosulus Rift is real. Ubisoft hoodwinked me into signing a waiver and strapping this abomination to my face. The things I do for this job. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be games jo...   read

I fancy myself a decent typer-person. I have to do it all day for my job, and even though hunting and pecking would probably technically cut it, I'd die of embarrassment from being silently judged in press rooms. I'm just good enough t...   read

I can't say I expected to turn up at my PAX West appointment for Hot Lava and chat with Klei Entertainment about Counter-Strike mods, but the conversation kept returning to that point. While most of us viewed the upcoming game as a cool, so...   read

In recent months, I've lost track of Chasm. I was on-board with the action-platform game when it was first coming through Kickstarter but, wow, that was actually back in 2013. Making games, even simple ones, takes lots of time. Making metro...   read

Typically, games at PAX fall into one of three categories: some aren't special enough to warrant more than a mention, some take a standard mechanic and execute it exceptionally well, and some invent a new way to think about or interact with...   read

At PAX West, Jordan and I spent maybe five minutes with Sonic Mania. Appropriate, really, given that the blue hedgehog's whole existence is framed around the concept of speed. In and out, super quick. That's all we needed to know that the g...   read

The food looks amazing but the trees are flat. Cindy's breasts are immaculate but her hair is clumpy. The car's doors open from the wrong direction. Prompto and Noctis enthusiastically high-fived after a very short and routine drive. Noctis...   read

If there's one game that'll push me into buying a PlayStation VR this October, it is Rez Infinite. Tetsuya Mizuguchi's musical on-rails shooter holds that much power over me. It's incomparable. While I haven't yet seen first hand how Rez ha...   read

Sometimes we joke about genre blending, as if some games are designed by shuffling a deck of cards with mechanics written on them and then choosing two at random. At first glance, Battle Chef Brigade looks like it could have been a result o...   read

I'll be honest, I didn't expect to ever hear news of The Fall Part 2: Unbound, let alone play a demo on the PAX West show floor. Not just because the first installment ended on a perfect thematic conclusion, although I could understand...   read

My previous experience with the Duke Nukem franchise has thus far been relegated to Duke Nukem Forever, an overwhelmingly unpleasant experience that I cannot recommend to anyone with a pulse. As a result, when I wandered into Gearbox S...   read

I had an hour to check out four games Square Enix was showing at PAX West this year. One was Dragon Quest Builders, which Chris just looked at recently. Two others were old games being brought up to current visual standards, Final Fantasy X...   read

I respect We Are Chicago. It's a game that applies the Telltale choice-based model to low-income families living on the South Side of Chicago. The script was penned by a high school guidance counselor who spent his life in neighborhoods jus...   read

I recently swung (swang?) by the Devolver Digital booth at PAX West 2016 to take a good hard look at STRAFE, a hardcore-old-school-ultra-stylized-FPS-roguelike-simulated-gorefest. I've been side-eying STRAFE since its ridiculous Kickstarter...   read

The term "roguelike" has been bastardized a bit and can cause some confusion at times, but I think most people can think of a few traits that always persist. Permadeath, randomized level design and possibly powerups, and tough difficulty ar...   read