You know how this goes. PAX West badges go up for sale, PAX West badges sell out very quickly. Quit reading and hit this link if you want a chance at buying them. Come back when you're in the queue. All queued up? Good. Here are the other d...   read

The PAX empire is growing. The sixth show in the PAX canon, PAX Unplugged is debuting this year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unplugged is all about board, card, and other tabletop games. Sure, the original gangster PAX shows have always h...   read

Murder is messy. Think about it; dropping even a single body means a pool of blood, evidence, and potential witnesses. To get away with murder, you have to either think quick or know someone willing to get their hands dirty. In Serial Clean...   read

When I first saw GNOG at IndieCade a few years back, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. The game reminded me of those Fidget Cubes people seem to like so much -- more of an oddity to poke at than a traditional "game." And that's f...   read

Songbringer exists at the intersection of nostalgia and innovation. Within the game's pixels are millions of unique worlds. It's The Legend of Zelda by way of Hyper Light Drifter, with one important distinction. Every player must input a si...   read

There's a lyric on Beach Slang's second album that sounds like it could be Dusk's mantra. "Play it loud, play it fast. Play me something that will always last," howls singer James Alex. Though the request is simple, it's a loaded gun. ...   read

I'm standing on the PAX East convention center floor with a controller in my hand. On the screen in front of me is a pissed-off bear wearing nothing but a backward, purple hat. He seems poised and ready for me to guide him through a room fu...   read

Nidhogg 2 makes a funny first impression. The game's new look is a bit brutish compared the sleek minimalism of its predecessor, and the expanded arsenal -- which includes a dagger, bow, and broadsword -- steers away from the elegance of ra...   read

When I say that Ape Out is a fun little game, I'm not being insulting. The first couple months of 2017 have smothered players with boundless open world games like Nier: Automata, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or Ghost Recon ...   read

Probably the most cheerful game I played all PAX (maybe of all time?) is Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles -- a bright, happy Harvest Moon meets Windwaker style game that goes beyond traditional farming simulatio...   read

PAX East is an event of extremes. Either you're in the midst of an overstimulating herd on the show floor, in a special, one-of-a-kind event room, or lying on a beanbag chair half dead on the floor. This year, Christine Love, creator of Lad...   read

It took me a few minutes to wrap my head around Snake Pass. The 3D platformer seems to have all the trappings of a golden era Rare joint. From enchanting environments, right down to a duo of goofy-looking animal heroes, almost every part of...   read

There’s something unsettling about not being able to fully grasp your surroundings, especially when you’re playing a survival horror game. Perception is a game that throws the player into shaky visual ground, mixes in ...   read

[Spoilers for the end of the 2004 television series Battlestar Galactica, I guess.] Cliff Bleszinski is one of the strongest arguments for the "game developer" to "rock star" comparison. He's one of the minds behind Jazz Jackrabbit, Un...   read

Over the PAX East 2017 weekend, I sat down to play through a slice of Final Fantasy XV’s upcoming Episode Gladiolus DLC. Though I can’t talk about story-specific details – both at the request of Square Enix and because I a...   read

While I didn't sit down to actually try out Sine Mora EX, I did get a chance to chat with one of the developers at the THQ Nordic booth today. Since I am a big fan of the original, I was curious what changes were being made to designate thi...   read

Before my time with Sundered, I knew little to nothing about the company, Thunder Lotus Games, or its newest title. It had previously released Jotun on Steam and this new game is looking to tackle the well-worn metroidvania style of action ...   read

With a fresh coat of white stuff on the ground, and a bevy of new games on display, the feeling is just right in jolly old New England for the annual Penny Arcade Expo East. This year, we have our young, talented writers running around the ...   read

Bethesda will have a pretty big presence at PAX East this weekend. The Maryland-based publisher is going to Boston with Prey, Quake Champions, The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind, and The Elder Scrolls: Legends. Only one of those titles wi...   read

For me, there's an important distinction between "budget-friendly" and "a budget game." The former may be a little sanded down or rough around the edges, but is an otherwise solid experience that can be had for a low price (or no price at a...   read

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is a "spiritual successor" to the Wonder Boy franchise. It's a cute platformer where you can switch between animal transformations as the situation demands. You can butt-stomp enemies. It's set f...   read

Rime takes place in a quiet, mysterious world (that just might have a hint of danger!), contains no spoken dialogue, stars a young boy and his mystical animal companion, and has an ambiguous story that will be left up to interpret...   read

The first major disagreement I ever remember having with my first girlfriend wasn't about jealousy, it wasn't about a missed anniversary, it wasn't even about sex. Instead, it was about a person's natural ability to draw. She was an artist ...   read

Minit is like Majora's Mask; Minit is like Groundhog Day; Minit is like Westworld from the robots' perspective; Minit is like that one episode of Supernatural, that one episode of Doctor Who, that one ...   read

I'm a huge fan of racing games. I'm terrible at them, but I've always loved driving around at high speeds with my friends. Throw hovercraft into the mix and I'm sold from day one. Games like F-Zero, Diddy Kong Racing (I know they were water...   read