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PAX Prime 2014 Wrap-Up!

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So another PAX Prime has come and gone, so I thought I would share my impressions of this year’s show!

The Year Of The Off-Site Party: This year there were a lot of off-site events.  I went to two of these events, Bioware’s Shadow Realms party, and Epic’s Fortnite event.  At these events the developers wined and dined attendees, and also let the attendees play their games, which was very nice of them.

The Expo Hall Has Became More Pointless: The Expo Hall is a main selling point for PAX, and it is worth walking through, but it has lost a lot relevance.  All the games, including some lower tier games, have long lines, and they are showing less and less.  Your time is better spent playing board games, chatting with indie developers, going to talks and panels, or checking out the aforementioned outside events.

PAX Needs More Space: The show is more spread out than ever.  To go see something at the main theater, you had to walk six blocks.  What to play board games? Three blocks.  Go get something signed? Off you go to the Paramount Theater.  I love that PAX Prime is in Seattle, but they need to find a bigger venue.

Oculus Rift Is Everywhere, But Still Not Compelling: There were a lot of games featuring the Oculus Rift, but they were mostly small indies, and the games themselves were not that interesting.  It was fun to get the gear on this year, but if Facebook wants to sell a lot of these things they are going to need to find a must have game to move units.

Board/Card Game Of The Year: I didn’t play a lot of board games this year, but of the few I did play, I am going with Hot Tin Roof.  It is a game were you play as cats trying to navigate city roof tops, but other cats will build cat walks and shelters and make you pay to pass through.  It is like they mixed Monopoly and Ticket To Ride and made both simpler and more streamlined.  It will be a great new game for the family.

Table-Top RPG Of The Year: This one took me by surprise, but Valiant by Catalyst took the title this year.  It takes place in the little known Valiant comic book universe, which you have probably never heard of outside of maybe X-O Manowar.  It is a simple system with fun rules, and fast gameplay.  The little known universe works in its favor since you can bend the NPC superheroes to fit your needs, and no-one cares that much.  This would be a great starter RPG for anyone wanting to dip their toe in to the Table-Top world.

Video Game Of The Year: Fortnite.  You might argue that they bribed me by giving me free food and drinks, but I don’t care!  I have no journalistic integrality to uphold.  This Minecraft/Shooter hybrid is a lot of fun, and from what the devs told us there are a lot of new modes coming.  It is in closed Alpha right now, but you can sign up and try to get in, and you should, so you can help me build forts and try to stem the zombie tide!  Here is the link.

That was a brief review of my PAX Prime.  I had a lot of fun.  I may go more in depth with the games I played in the days to come, but we will see.  Thanks for reading, and maybe I will see you at next year’s PAX.

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Off To PAX 2014!

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I am off to PAX 2014!  This should be a good year.  If there is anything you would like me to check out please let me know!

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An Epic Angry Birds!

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It makes sense that Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds, would try and expand the popularity of their hit mobile game, so them creating a turn based RPG out of the upset fowl is no surprise.  What is a surprise is how fun Angry Birds Epic is.  The birds’ unique powers lend themselves well to the format.

The game is simple, you drag the bird you want to have attack to the pig you want it to hit.  Or you tap on the bird to have it cast its protection spell.  Different birds have different attacks and protection moves, so picking what birds and moves to do gives the game its strategy.  As the game progresses you gain different weapons that tweak the moves, and items to help you get out of a tight spot.  You also level up so your birds get more powerful.

The game looks good.  It retains that charm of the Angry Birds franchise, but still looks unique.  The animations are smooth, and the characters all have fun expressions.  If you like the Angry Birds you will like the look of this game.

The “Free-To-Play” stuff kind of gets in the way by always asking you to buy the items and weapons, but it is still fun even if you ignore it all.  This game is not super deep, but it is a good way to kill a few minutes, and that is what any good cell phone game should be.

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Shmee Can’t Wait To Read The Book Of Life!

It is not often that a movie is able to have a unique look, and still be something that I want to watch, but The Book of Life by Fox Family is just that.  It is being produced by Guillermo del Toro, so I would probably want to watch it anyway, but even without him it looks like a lot of fun.  I hope you enjoy the trailer as much as I did.

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Checking Out Grim Dawn!

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Waaay back in April of 2012 I back a project by Crate Entertainment called Grim Dawn.  Later they released the game on Steam Early Access, and they gave everyone who backed it a copy, which was very nice of them.  They still are not done with the game (it is only seven guys so I will cut them some slack), but since I had to stop myself from buying Diablo III for Xbox One, I figured I would give it a try.

The guys that started Crate Entertainment are the some of the guys that worked on Titian Quest, so they took their ARPG (Action Role Playing Game) know how and applied it to Grim Dawn.  Grim Dawn is now on what is called Build 19.

Like I said before this is an ARPG, and if you don’t know what that is, just think clicking on monsters until they die.  You level up and get more stuff so you can click on the monsters better.  You keep doing this until you win.  These games are simple yet fun, and after you get a few different skills, you can start to using more strategy.

Grim Dawn includes two Acts and a ton of items as well as four playable classes.  The classes are: Soldier (Fighter), Demolitionist (Ranged), Occultist (Mage), and Nightblade (Assassin).  What is cool is that at level ten you can pick a second class, so you can mix and match what skills you want to fit your desired play style.  Plus in effect it brings up the number of classes from four to sixteen.

The game takes place in an alternate Victorian era, where humans are almost extinct due to a magical war, and of course only you can destroy the evil beings and save humanity!  It is a fun setting, and I like that it allows for guns (not that I use them, I like to hit stuff on the head very hard) and slightly different loot then the average RPG.

This game is all about the loot.  There may even be too much.  Luckily they include an auto-sort button, so I am not always playing Tetris with my items.  I like that I am always finding something new though.  It keeps it interesting, and really drives the need to search out every corner of the map.

The graphics look good, especially the shadowing.  ARPGs never really push computers very hard, but this game runs well.  The animations are all top notch.  I like the over the top doom and gloom.  It really works.  It is like Diablo’s gory cousin.  Limbs and body parts explode all over the place.  It is pretty great.

Considering this game is a ways away from being finished it is amazing how fun it is already.  The two current Acts have at least ten hours of play time.  Build 20 is right around the corner with multiplayer and Act 3, so it is getting even better.  I can’t wait to have even more Grim Dawn to play.  If you want to check it out it is $25 on Steam Early Access.