PAX Prime 2012: Ser Flash's Indie-3 - PAX Edition

We got our game on with a ton of indie games this year in the Indie Mega Booth at PAX Prime 2012. If you haven't read it yet, make your way on over to George and Sean's Indie Megabooth article. All of those games deserve the coverage they got.

But me, I do things a bit differently. Many readers and many more viewers know of my past Indie-3 videos in Bullet Heaven. But now, get ready for Indie-3: PAX Edition! Here are three indiegames in totally different genres that resonated with me in a big, big way.

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PAX Prime 2012: Dishonored Preview

Even though PAX is one of the best outlets for indie games to find a home on an expo show floor, the show can, from time to time, boast an impressive line-up of the most anticipated games revealed within the respective year. One of those said top tier games was Dishonored.

Developed by the fellas at Arkane Studios, whose rap sheet lists work on games like Dark Messiah: Might and Magic and Bioshock 2, Dishonored takes the first-person action approach to a whole different level of depth with the promises galore. Some of these touted features range from multiple circumstantial tactics that adapt based completely on your actions and decisions to limitless freedom with a user-supported magic ability palate that will push your imagination with every combination you create. With Bethesda hosting a playable build of the game, I jumped at the chance to see the title first-hand, and the result I came away with was, well…fulfillment followed by unbridled excitement, to say the least.

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QCF: ClanDun X2

Have you ever been sitting around your house and thought to yourself “Man, I miss games like Secret of Mana and Alundra”?

Well you're in luck, my fellow gaming enthusiast, because ClanDun X2 attempts to hit all of those marks and more. NIS America is a company who likes to tickle our RPG nostalgia bone on a regular basis, and this entry throws a little DIY ingenuity into the mix as well. I didn’t know what to expect when I started, as I hadn’t played the firstClanDun and I’d have to say that for the most part I was pleasantly surprised.

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Pax Prime 2012: Cards Against Humanity Review

There’s a good chance you’ve heard friends speak wonders about party card games like Apples to
Apples, and they eventually sat you down to play some rounds. Funny game, right? I mean, seriously –
what’s more hilarious than someone playing the “my life” card with a descriptor card like “disaster”?

Well forget everything you know, because the creators of Cards Against Humanity have ensured that
being utterly disgusted at yourself and everyone around you is much more entertaining. Sure, tame
scenarios like describing “Hooligans” as “Unscrupulous” are satisfying (maybe), but why play it safe
when you can say old people smell like “half-assed foreplay” instead?

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PAX Prime 2012: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance hands-on preview

It’s been several years since players have been able to control the angsty field operative code named Raiden, but with him coming out of his shell (quite literally so to speak) into the role of private cyborg ninja for hire, we’ll be able to finally play as the hardened super killer, courtesy of Platinum Games and Kojima Productions. Aside from all of the hype and fanboy love affairs, I was able to get a hands-on take with the preview build and find out just how grounded my expectations really were.

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PAX Prime 2012: The best of the best at the Indie Mega Booth

This is it, our favorite part of coverage for any PAX; new indie games! PAX Prime 2012 was home to the Indie Mega Booth with over thirty games featured. Never before have we had access to so many different indie titles at once which posed the difficult question as to how to tackle all of these games at once. After much intense nerdy deliberation, we decided to choose twelve of our favorites and the honor of our title for the King of Indie Mega Booth! So without further ado, let’s jump into thick of these modest productions.

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PPR at PAX Prime 2012: The Climax

T’was a Saturday night all through out Seattle while PPR was afoot, and there was a ton of peeps and noise to boot! We’ve recorded our experiences so far from PAX 2012 and we’re still so woefully behind checking out all of the games on the floor! We talk a bit about some of the triple A titles we’re given access to like The Last of Us and God of War: Acsension while talking about all of the indie titles we got hands-on with at the Indie Mega Booth!

We finally nail the right sound setup for our make-shift recording session, but we all sound like dog shit in this episode due to our exaustion. If you’ve listened to any of our other Trade show podcasts then then you’ll already be privy to the right kind of expectations to keep in mind. We’re here till tonight, see if you can still catch us and say hello!

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PAX Prime 2012: Nights--Hands-on interview with Jeff Beckham

I once read an article in an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly that compiled and listed the top 100 (domestic) video games of all time. While the list contained many of the games I was apparently savvy enough to pick up before they were considered all-time greats, there were a great many from a system I never had until long after its demise: the Sega Saturn.

One such game was NiGHTS Into Dreams, a game that debuted the Saturn 3D Analog Controller and came pretty close to being un-classifiable. Was it a platformer? Flight-sim-lite? A racing game?

One thing was certain: it was very popular, and very scarce in my neck of the woods, but I managed to track both it and a Saturn down to see what all the fuss was about which, all told, was a very long endeavour. And worth it. But now, there's a better way for people to be able to experience this goodness; recently, NiGHTS Into Dreams was announced as a downloadable title on the PSN and XBLA Marketplace making this fairly highly sought-after title much easier to obtain and experience on platforms that much better accommodate NiGHTS' ambitious features.

And while I could go into the finer points of what makes NiGHTS great, it's a 16-year-old game and this isn't a review. But chances are, if you're reading this, you already know NiGHTS is awesome.

I caught up with Jeff Beckham at the Sega booth for a bit of Q&Q about the upcoming PSN and Xbox 360 HD downloadable version of NiGHTS Into Dreams!

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