All Articles: PAX East 2016
Perception Hands-On Preview: Not Just Another Haunted Mansion
When your resume includes critically-acclaimed classics like BioShock and Dead Space, it’s hard for a fledgling studio’s debut title to stand on its own. Unfortunately, those are the high standards The Deep End Games, a studio that counts developers from both Irrational Games and Visceral Games, is being held to. Thankfully, their first offering, Perception, has a unique visual design and an irresistible narrative hook to pull potential players in. (more…)
The PAXpocalypse List: The Best of PAX East 2016
Believe it or not, we’re not living in a post-apocalyptic hellscape (depending on your political affiliation, insert your own Trump/Hillary joke here). But you’d never know it if all you had to go by was the 2016 PAX East show floor, which was overrun by dozens of titles that took place after the collapse of society… and a lot of them were pretty good.
But what if some disaster did befall the world and force PAX East attendees to forever wander the halls of the Boston Convention and Exhibition, feasting on whatever mac and cheese bowls or turkey legs they may find? That’s where Warp Zoned’s PAXpocalypse List comes in, because these are the games we’d keep playing if we could never venture outside again… (more…)
Cuphead Hands-On Preview: A Shoot-Shoot-A-Hoot
There was no Cartoon Network when I was a little kid. Instead, a sugary haze of Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and G.I. Joe filtered into my home via regular broadcast channels on Saturday mornings. And after they turned the day over to programming for adults, I’d turn my attention to nearly six hours of non-stop Looney Tunes on TNT.
I loved the Looney Tunes, but occasionally, TNT programmers would slip in an older 20s or 30s short that didn’t have anything to do with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, or Foghorn Leghorn. I never knew what to make of those earlier attempts at animation, but I always felt like there was something unsettling about them. Brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, of Studio MDHR, saw the same sinister edge in these cartoons, and they tapped directly into it for their upcoming side-scrolling shooter, Cuphead. (more…)
Dear Diary: Saturday and Sunday at PAX East 2016 I Played…
Another PAX East has come to an end, but Mike “Gabe” Krahulik, Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, and game developers from around the world will return to Boston next year for more shenanigans. In the meantime, I’ve got an overflowing notebook and thoughts on more than a dozen titles from the final days of the expo. (more…)
I Am Setsuna will be released for PC, PS4 on July 19
Square Enix released a new teaser trailer for I Am Setsuna over the weekend, and they also announced that the Chrono Trigger-inspired RPG will be released for the PC and PS4 on July 19.
Developed by Tokyo RPG Factory, an internal studio at Sqaure Enix tasked with creating new games in classic styles, I Am Setsuna will also explore traditional RPG storytelling techniques:
I Am Setsuna tells the sorrowful story of Setsuna, a young woman of incredible inner strength, and the sacrifice she must undertake to the save the people of her land. Players will be immersed in an emotional and unforgettable story of true bravery as Setsuna leaves her hometown with her bodyguards on a journey to the farthest land.
Square Enix recently released new artwork and screenshots for I Am Setsuna, and they can all be found at the game’s official website.
Mira will join Killer Instinct Season 3 this week… so here’s a trailer
After adding a skeleton guy, a fire guy, an ice guy, a mummy, and many more to Killer Instinct, Iron Galaxy has finally reached “vampire” on the Great Wheel of Archetypal Characters. But the vampire in question is Mira, and as Maya’s sister, she’s definitely connected to the fighting game’s overarching story.
PAX East 2016 attendees got the chance to try out Mira this weekend at Iron Galaxy’s booth, and the developer was livestreaming new footage of her all weekend long. They also released a brand new trailer for the character, which has been embedded above.
Mira will be available to download sometime this week as part of Killer Instinct’s “Season 3.” Her appearance will be followed by Gargos next month, and two mystery characters in June and July (though one is heavily rumored to be General RAAM from Gears of War.
See Higgins Haven from Friday the 13th Part 3 in the new Friday the 13th game
Developers from Gun Media and Illfonic were in attendance at PAX East on Friday to give congoers (and the rest of the world) their first real look at Friday the 13th: The Game. So snuggle up in your sleeping bag and sit around the fiery glow of your monitor as you watch Jason knock half a dozen times during a “Door Kill.”
During the one-hour panel, Gun Media’s Randy Greenback said that players should expect this kind of brutality from the slasher icon: “Jason will get stronger as the match progresses… We don’t want this game to be fair at all.”
The trailer also revealed a brand new location for the game… Higgins Haven from Friday the 13th Part 3. If you remember, the Higgins Haven barn is where Jason first became a hockey mask aficionado after replacing his tattered (and rather unfashionable) burlap sack. Because blueprints don’t exist for the farmhouse, the developers rewatched the film “hundreds of times” so they could recreate it exactly for the game.
In development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, Friday the 13th: The Game is still on track for an October 2016 release. You can find an extended version of the “Hide and Seek” trailer, which the developers also premiered during the panel, after the break. (more…)
Deathstate is coming to the PS4 and Xbox One
Deathstate, a “single-stick shooter” with a Lovecraftian motif from Workinman Games, is in development for the PS4 and Xbox One. We learned this little bit of news after stopping by the developer’s booth during this weekend’s PAX East expo, and we were also told it should be out by the end of the year.
Originally released last year for the PC, that is literally all we know about Deathstate’s upcoming move to consoles.