Features
PAX East 2020: Iron Harvest Hands On Preview
At the dawn of a new era comes an alteration to the style of modern combat and warfare. World War I introduced the world to mobile and mechanized warfare, with the innovation of tanks and airplanes. Science, engineering, and the need for war combined with each other to create fearsome machines that made the hardiest of soldiers tremble with fear. Following The Great War, science and technology hav...[Read More]
SpongeBob & Destroy All Humans PAX East Preview
At E3 2019 THQ Nordic revealed that two beloved franchises would be returning to the modern era of consoles; these two franchises are SpongeBob SquarePants and Destroy All Humans. At PAX East 2020, we met with the THQ Nordic team to preview the newest Destroy All Humans and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated.
Stack-Up! Supporting Veterans Through Gaming
Spend a significant amount of time at any PAX event, and you will eventually encounter some folks wearing red shirts with the words “Stack-Up” emblazoned on the front. The ‘U’, stylized like a flashbang is an unmistakable logo. This year, I had the chance to chat with Stack-Up.org’s founder, Captain Stephen Machuga, US Army (ret) about the story of Stack-Up, their founding, and their mission going...[Read More]
Sail Forth on a Freshly Frosted Adventure
When it comes to the world of gaming, the games that people recognize are typically AAA titles. Often, their indie counterparts fall into the shadow of these billion-dollar franchises and often deemed inferior. Most view the Indie gaming genre as cute pet projects rather than works or creative expressions of art. What the gaming community does not realize is the amount of passion and dedication it...[Read More]
Unless It Moves The Human Heart – The Last of Us
According to author and professor Roger Rosenblatt, writing is not worth much “unless it moves the human heart.” As far as I am concerned, that standard should apply to all forms of art, and video games, my friends, are an art form. In my experience, few games have illustrated the ability to inspire emotion more profoundly than The Last of Us. While weaving a soul tearing narrative and...[Read More]
Persona 5 Royal (PS4) Impressions
A few years ago, P-Studio and Atlus stunned the world with the release of Persona 5, a JRPG revolving around high school drama laced with superhero tropes, mature themes, supernatural beings in strange parallel worlds, and addictive systems that provided hundreds of hours of play. Committing to Persona 5 is a journey, one that’s more like a televised series than most RPGs, as each section could be...[Read More]
Ambition: A Minuet in Power Hands-On Preview
We’ve previously covered upcoming indie romance roguelike Ambition: A Minuet in Power. After a successful debut showing at PAX East this year, it’s clear that the team at Joy Manufacturing Co. is making solid progress on this unique title. I recently had a chance to sit down with the PAX demo of the game for an extended session, and feel confident that this game is going to turn some heads when it...[Read More]
Infernax Expands Castlevania 2 and Zelda 2 Designs with Bloody Brutality
I played a ton of games at PAX West back in September. In fact, I had an appointment almost every hour and they were often spread throughout the area. Somehow, I made it every single meeting and while I wasn’t able to share about every single session, there are several that stand out that I still think about. One of those games is Infernax, a violent display of retro-inspired, heavy metal brutalit...[Read More]
DOOM Eternal Hands-On Preview – One Hell of a Ride!
During PAX East 2020, Jonathan White, Matt Kowalski, and I went to the Bethesda Game Days event that happened over two days next door to PAX. The one game all three of us were most excited to play was the upcoming DOOM Eternal. While there, I did also play the new content in Fallout 76, but I will talk about that in a later post. We each got hands-on time with Doom Eternal, leaving all three of us...[Read More]
Rustler (Grand Theft Horse) Hands-On Preview
1997 was quite the year for gaming; Square’s Final Fantasy VII improved the modern RPG. Rare’s GoldenEye 007 revolutionized first-person shooters. Rockstar North, then known as DMA Design, molded the open-world genre with their release of Grand Theft Auto, the free-roaming top-down action game that proved to be one of the most significant franchises in gaming. Hearkening back to those humble begin...[Read More]
Disaster Report 4 Summer Memories PAX East Preview
Almost a week has passed since PAX East has come to a close. This year’s event was surrounded by controversy due to the fear of the spread of the Coronavirus. Just a week prior to the event, Sony announced that they were pulling out to avoid any contamination; after previous announcements, Square Enix and Capcom announced that they would not be sending their international development teams t...[Read More]
Temtem (Pokemon-like MMORPG) First Impressions
There are few things that frustrate me more in gaming than the reluctance to change that’s found in the core RPG Pokemon games. Ever since Ruby and Sapphire, there has been a laundry list of either removed features like an additional region or seemingly obvious improvements like a fast-forward mechanic. I’ve played just about every core Pokemon game multiple times through on top of many rom hacks ...[Read More]