Day 1 is over and it’s now time to move onto day 2. The floor is busier and the only thought on the mind is that at least it’s not the hell that will be Saturday. I got to play some really neat things today, but mostly spent the day exploring the showfloor and talking to people which is always the best thing to do at PAX.
Gloomwood
Gloomwood is a thief inspired horror game by Dillon Rogers and the latest addition to the New Blood’s catalog. Taking some heavy inspirations from the classic Thief series, Gloomwood places you in a mysterious town plagued by a curse that’s affecting its denizens and generally giving everything a hella creepy vibe. Armed with a lantern, a cane, and a gun with very limited ammo you venture out into the town to figure what’s happening. Thedemo had me exploring a small section of the first district in the game, creeping along alleyways to avoid the menacing guards patrolling the streets and eventually making my way down to the sewers where even creepier denizens of the city awaited me. What stood out to me immediately is how well Gloomwood nails the tone it’s going for; it’s perfectly creepy with some slight touches of the occult in its imagery and the sound design was totally on point. In the demo I had to find two runes to open up a path and I was surprised to see that while the location I was in wasn’t totally open, it was sprawling enough to make me feel like I wasn’t just going down linear hallways and I was told later districts open the game up more. After finishing the demo with only a few deaths I came away pretty impressed. As someone who was heavily disappointed by the most recent attempt to bring back Thief I’ve been hungry for someone to recapture the the tone and gameplay of that series and Gloomwood just might be that game. As with every New Blood release, the game is set with an appropriate “SOON” release date, but it’ll drop on PC in early access when it eventually does.
Fall Guys
Made by Mediatonic, Fall Guys is a hectic Wipeout (obstacle course game show) styled party game where you play as a lumpy contestant who’s in it to win it. The game is split up into various rounds where players will be slowly eliminated after each until you get to the final round. While my demo only showcased four of the minigame types, the full game is said to have up to 40 to play. The first round had all 60 players running into segmented stone walls, where some were solid and others would fall apart when hit. Players quickly learned the trick was to wait for another player to test the authenticity of a door for you so you don’t waste any time, but that also meant if they guessed right then they were already getting ahead of you.
The second round tasked me with running from players who were trying to steal a tail my character had while also dodging obstacles. The spinning hammers that littered this arena led to some pretty humorous moments as my character got caught in the spin of a trap, which would have normally spelled doom for me if the aggressors chasing me hadn’t also been trapped. The third round had us divided into four teams to collect eggs into a goal area to earn points. This caused some immediate hilarity when teams were duking it out in a pit trying to vye for golden eggs, worth extra points. The fourth and final round was an uphill obstacle climb as boulders rolled down. Being the absolute expert I am, I clutched victory and was praised by a group of strangers for being good at the video-game. Upon finishing, my immediate impressions were good but with slight concern at the variety of minigames and how often the game will repeat them. There’s a lot of promise in Fall Guys as a great party game if they nail the features right, especially if they offer the ability to turn off minigames you don’t like in local play, but we’ll have to wait and see for that.
Astro.ID Program
Astro Gaming had us visit their booth to check out their new AstroID program that allows players to customize practically every part of a headset to make something that’s truly uniquely their own. Built on their Astro A40 TR headset, I was able to choose the color of the frame, ear cushions, microphone, top band, faceplate, faceplate pattern, and the wire itself. What stood out immediately was their nontraditional color choices, with bright neon colors instead of the usual desaturated matte looks most headsets go for nowadays which immediately makes these stand apart from the competition. Astro also commented that a part of their strategy was to really push the uniqueness of building your own headset, with colors being replaced every “season” so that the parts you get now are uniquely yours, giving each headset an almost “limited edition” status.
Astro boasts an impressive 45,000 different color combinations and knowing that the colors I picked will be the only chance to get them definitely helps scratch that itch of wanting to secure the headset I would want before it’s too late. In terms of the build itself, you can easily pull the pieces apart since they’re attached with small magnets that create a strong hold. Adding to the customization is the ability to mix and match your current headset with any future ones you buy when a new season comes in, further increasing your customization options. The headset frame has a nice sturdy feel to it and the cushions feel comfortable around the ear; as someone who always struggles to find headsets that don’t strain my ears, it was nice to be surprised by the Astro A40 TR. I tested a few different genres of music with the headset and was pretty impressed overall. High notes came in rich and clear with heavier sounds and bass having a good thump to them. Coming in at $200 they’re definitely on the pricier side of things, but considering the almost shoe culture vibe of the limited nature of the colors, the price is slightly justified.
Windjammers 2
Listen, I spoke at length on how great Windjammers 2 was last year and I wasn’t really expecting any sort of changes when I came in to play it again; I just wanted to play more Windjammers. To my surprise Dotemu actually added some pretty significant changes to the gameplay. First and foremost was the ability to jump which immediately changed the flow of matches as you now had the options to jump and spike the frisbee. There’s still no release date for the game unfortunately besides a hopeful, but vague, “before 2020 ends”.
