To catch up on what happened on Friday, check out the first post here!
Below is our TYF @ PAX Experience video, in which you can see a glimpse of the interview and demo content we had over the course of the weekend, so please check it out! It also features music by my friends Tommy Rodricks and Marcus Seletsky, as well as a track from The Protomen‘s live concert.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7tkuN7IzO8?rel=0]
SATURDAY
HoloGrid: Monster Battle – HappyGiant & Tippett Studio
I got to talk with developer Michael Levine about the project that has been conjoined with animation veteran Phil Tippett, to bring creative monster to life using Augmented Reality Game cards, not unlike those seen packaged in a Nintendo 3DS or other products that, as Levine calls them, “parlor tricks.” Acting as a real card game first and a video game second, the development team has been hard at work on making sure that “HoloGrid: Monster Battle” is able to be supported by most smartphone and tablet devices, utilizing a front facing camera to depict the cards coming to life on the table in front of them. The eventual hope for this card game is to see multiplatform release once VR tech has become standardized and less rough around the edges, which, after seeing Oculus and PS VR hardware firsthand during PAX, could very well be sooner than later. To check out the game for yourself, see our interview below, and more details on the game at HoloGridMonsterBattle.com and look out for their big announcement on May 4th.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONB4okcRL8w?rel=0]
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Furi – The Game Bakers (PS4, PC)
This game is absolutely stunning. It is immersive to play, and equally immersive to watch, and if you’re a fan of hyperactive rhythmic dueling, or even just boss rush modes in action games, this is right up your alley. “Furi” is on the tail end of a two year development, and will release this summer. I already can’t wait to get my hands on it again. I have never seen something so clearly influenced by Japanese style, yet so original to itself. The Game Bakers have something special on their hands, and if this is a solid indication of what a small team is capable of, I strongly anticipate what they plan to do next if “Furi” becomes the runaway success I see it could be. See more at FuriGame.com, and strongly consider checking it out on PS4 and PC when it launches.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtDIxG_UWFo?rel=0]
Thumper – Drool (PS4, PSVR, PC)
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This game looked cool when I saw the trailer prior to PAX. However, experiencing both it and PlayStation VR for the first time together makes me a believer that Sony knows what they’re doing with the hardware. The gameplay feels like a Dualshock controller equal to “Guitar Hero,” as hitting the X button, or strafing side to side is contingent on the rhythm of the game, and if you hit the wall a couple of times, you’re starting the stage over again and it will loop infinitely if you don’t get on the offense and hit the specific beats to kill the boss locking the gateway in front of you. “Thumper” is slick, upbeat, explosive, rhythmic and I have never felt the pressure to get good at a game like this since “Super Hexagon,” which I mean in a positive way. “Super Hexagon” is probably my most played game in my Steam Library if I’m going to be honest.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0pNGvfF_8?rel=0]
SUNDAY
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Hitman GO VR – Square Enix (PC)
I wish I got to have more time with this Oculus Rift exclusive by Square Enix, because I walked into the demo already a huge supporter of both the “Hitman GO” and “Lara Croft GO” mobile games. Their visual style is clean and vibrant, the puzzles are rewarding and mind boggling, and turn decisions of a quickly paced action scene into a slow moving brain teaser. “Hitman GO VR” expands on this, and almost makes me wish the software came bundled with real, physical maps, as you move your Hitman pawn around a board, avoiding guards like a very streamlined, stealthy game of chess. The developers intended this feeling, as each guard you knock out (either from the back or the side of him) gets placed on the ground on the side of the board. The opening chapters may feel familiar to gamers who have played that Hyrule Castle section in the opening of “Ocarina of Time,” and “Hitman GO VR” does evoke this peacefulness as it teaches you the gameplay. However, once players hit chapter two, the sun goes down and the gameplay quickly evolves, introducing stones to throw as a distraction, keys to collect that are required to open doors and special two-way trap doors, all of which are contained within both chess board and doll house styled maps that can be rotated and viewed by the player wearing the Oculus Rift any way they wish, primarily with their head on the gyroscope, but also with the right stick and the left and right triggers. It’s a fun, immersive way to strategize, and the focus on the board didn’t nauseate me outside of the points that the game was forced to lag, therefore causing the frame rate to skip a few beats, but these connectivity issues will be worked out over time.
Super Senso – Turbo Studios (iOS, Android)
A mobile game that provides players with a tactical Real Time Strategy playstyle across multiple maps with a massive variety pop culture themed tanks and mechs (your Senso) to power your campaign, or in Player v. Player. The existing game series that this is most comparable to is the Advances Wars, where not just your placement of your army is important, but the timing, and abilities that you use are equally a factor as you score points to achieve destructive powers the likes of an orbital strike on your enemy’s army. The game will launch for Android and iOS, and the beta can be signed up for at www.supersenso.com
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGohb2vi3uw?rel=0]
Let It Die – Suda51, Grasshopper Manufacture. GungHo (PS4)
All of the die hards are going to hate that I played this before them, because it was my first time ever playing a game by Suda51. I’ve been meaning to play “No More Heroes, Killer Is Dead,” etc. for years and just never got around to it. Well damn, now that I truly understand just how bonkers Goichi Suda is, that backlog list just might have to change, because this man is enjoyably MAD. Knowing nothing about the game other than a fabulous grim reaper, and a girl dressed up as though Pokemon had an insurance agency, lurking outside of the booth, I get the controller in my hand and discover I’m playing a game that looks like if The Joker was the lead director of “Dark Souls”. I begin as a man sitting in his underwear in a deserted carnival, and I wander and punch until I discover the path to the demo’s respective boss battle. All the while collecting equipment and items along the way. The game and its User Interface are clearly is still in development, as a lot of players had yet to figure out the inventory and items management, thusly not thinking “hm, is this guy supposed to be wearing any pants?” However, once I got the hang of equipping items both from the ground and from the menu, the quick select of up to THREE items PER HAND, and some quite satisfying RAGE attacks achieved with the triangle button, I felt pretty well equipped to take on the boss. Except I wasn’t. Because I’m bad at video games. Especially “Dark Souls”-type games. Despite this, I had a whole lot of fun with my brief moments playing “Let It Die.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVsqIalIoXs?rel=0]
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