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With PAX East now behind us, a lot of attendees are probably reflecting on what a great experience this past weekend was. You’ve heard our thoughts and initial impressions on our three daily podcasts we recorded while in Boston and you have likely read a write up or two on a game that we covered while we were there. But let me tell you about some of the finer points on the PAX East experience that might not be covered on many media sites. These are the unexpected heroes of a PAX experience that truly make it an unforgettable weekend. Read More

Ready for a glimpse at some retro insanity? Get ready, because a dozen new screenshots for Retro City Rampage dropped on Twitter late last week.

Developed by VBlank Entertainment, Retro City Rampage is a love-letter to 8-bit gaming, right down to the simplified graphics. It has a few things in common with the original Grand Theft Auto titles, including a top-down perspective and an open world for the player to explore, terrorize and complete missions in. Retro City Rampage will also pay homage to such classic as Super Mario Bros., Mega Man and The Legend of Zelda.

Retro City Rampage is scheduled to hit XLBA and other online marketplaces next month. Read More

While previous videos gave a glimpse of the gameplay in The Walking Dead, we can now see a whole chunk of the game in action. The video shows off …
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Bit.Trip.Runner was one of the best games on WiiWare and it only made sense to make a sequel. However, instead of taking the pixel-art approach, Gaijin decided to change the style, but that’s within the story. Now Commander.Video has arm-bands and sneakers and is ready to keep running in Runner 2.

Gaijin didn’t give too many details on the story at PAX East but showed off Levels 1-1 to 1-19 and it already looked amazing. The look of the game is much more whimsical, almost like a breathing cartoon. But his trademark moves remain the same from running and jumping to springing and kicking. You’ll have to combine moves in order to get through the new levels.
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Trials HD community member “FatShady” shared the many details behind a collection of Easter Eggs hidden in the title as part of a complex riddle left behind by developer RedLynx’ Creative Director, Antti Ilvessuo. By properly identifying and dissecting each and every puzzle piece, it was said that both a question and an answer could be ascertained. Both were revealed today in the video above featuring none other than FatShady, bringing several years of intense searching and debating by the game’s community to a head. The final revelation may not be in line with what gamers were hoping for, but the video’s still worth watching for anyone who has spent time trying to unlock the game’s mysteries these past years.

Antti Ilvessuo had this to say about the riddle’s origins and players’ undaunted pursuit of the truth of it all: “You could say I created the riddle,” said Ilvessuo, “but what I really did was set the rules out. The game was played by the players, the riddle was discovered by them. I just started it. That was one [sic] really the key here.”

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More price drops hit XBLA!
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Super Mario Trials
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John is once again joined by Andrew Crews, Nick DePetris and Nick Santangelo to round out our trio of PAX podcasts. In this episode the guys cover pretty much every game they saw at the show, inlcluding Dust: An Elysian Tail, Awesomenauts, Mark of the Ninja and far too many more to list. Needless to say if you want to know about the XBLA games shown at PAX this is the podcast for you. If you have any additional questions hit us up on twitter or you can contact the guys on their personal accounts (linked below).

If you missed our other PAX specials check them out, from Day 1 and Day 2 of the show.

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes. We appreciate it! Check us out on Twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site, BlurredEdge, and why not follow him on Twitter (@BlurredEdge) too?

[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastPAXWrapup.mp3[/podcast]

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It all started at a Toronto Game Jam then turned into a Friday project. But it got much bigger than that with an IGF nomination turned XBLA prize winner at the IGF this year. That game was Super T.I.M.E. Force and it was one of the best games at PAX East this year.

Nathan Vella, co-founder and president of Capybara Games walked me through a demo of the game where you’re part of a force that goes back in time to solve the biggest mistakes like destroying the first boy band and other famous monsters in history.

The gameplay has been something that hasn’t been talked about much but has a concept that’s brilliant. You start by choosing a character and go throughout the level but when you die, you rewind back to the start and you’re accompanied by…yourself.
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Having been in development for over five years, Fez is a indie/special/something game that has embodied many of the personal challenges its creators have faced, not making the endless development of it seem any shorter. The attendees of the yearly Independent Game Festival Awards at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco were witness to the emotional release of Fez creator Phil Fish and his colleagues when they accepted the Seamus McNally Grand Prize and $30.000 dollars in prize money last month. Fish, a personal indie hero of mine, is currently starring in the renowned and Sundance award winning documentary Indie Game: The Movie, where he is followed through-out trials and tribulations of finishing Fez. His team’s journey up until receiving this award, touched me in a very personal way.
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