The time of year for PAX West has come and gone, and I’ll probably never stop secretly calling it PAX Prime. That said, we saw a lot of great games at the show this year, so it’s time to dust off the Award Plaques and hand ‘em out to those we deem worthy. Read on!
Best MOBA or Battle GamePaladins
Paladins, getting ever closer to Open Beta, was the battler that really stole our attention at PAX West. It pulls from MOBAs, Card Games, and team-based FPS to make an effective use of fantasy motifs with fantastic fights and a load of interesting characters. Maybe it helps that I was consistently owning people with the Bomb King, but we love the way this one’s coming together with a renewed focus on deck building, smaller maps, and getting into the action quicker. Keep an eye on it, for sure!
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Most InnovativeHero's Song
Sure, Hero’s Song may look retro, but its pixel-based graphics may be one of only a few old-school aspects to Pixelmage’s MMORPG. With procedurally generated worlds hosted on the player’s own PC, thousands of years of simulated history, emergent player-made content and top of the line AI, it seems like Hero’s Song could wind up being one hell of a fun time with a lot of ideas we’ve not seen before in the genre.
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Best Mobile MMO or RPGTunnels and Trolls: Naked Doom (Meta Arcade)
David Reid’s resurrection of Tunnels and Trolls at Meta Arcade is genius. For those who don’t remember T&T, think of it like a one-player Dungeons & Dragons with a style that’s akin to reading a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. Naked Doom is one of the hardest and most addictive games we played at PAX West, and it’s basically just reading text, making decisions, and rolling dice with your chosen (but created) character. It’s simple, well-made, has great sound design, and I cannot wait to see more T&T adventures come to the platform. Oh… and you’ll be able to make your own adventures and sell them on the Meta Arcade shop too. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
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Best Indie MMOOsiris: New Dawn (Fenix Fire)
While we only dabbled for a bit in the solo server bit, it’s clear that this game made by three people is already outshining many made by far more. The right blend of survival, action, mystery, and crafting could make this into one of the best Sci-Fi MMOs out there. Sure the servers will be limited to a hundred or less people (a la Ark), but trust us when we say that’s no reason to count it out. Keep an eye on this one for sure.
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What came away with our Game of the Show and Most Anticipated? Read on!
