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Passers-by couldn't help but stop and look. Disc Room, on the other hand, drew eyes for slightly different reasons. It's brain-bendingly simple premise —you are stuck in a room with a bunch of f lying saw-blade - discs that will kill you—is instantly attractive. It's something you want to pick up and tr y for yourself immediately. It's like a bullet hell, but somehow more accessible (at least, that's what it looks like, until you play it). The biggest crowd at Devlolver, though, was there for Fall Guys. The developers at Mediatonic have created what can only be described as an homage to It's A Knock Out, Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC!) and Wipe Out all wrapped into one. Perhaps it was inevitable in the era of bat tle royale shooters, but Fall Guys takes a much more charming, silly, and calamitous approach to the genre, dropping 100 awkward, bouncy...things into a series of dwindling competitions to determine a winner. The 30+ game types in Fall Guys can be both free -for-all or collaborative, team-based competitions. Everyone has a chance at winning, and even newcomers will quickly pick up the game and controls in time to possibly save themselves in later rounds. It's a giggly way to approach battle royale, and something that I hope finds its way into as many living rooms as possible when it launches later this year. Population Zero www.pzonline.com International developers are becoming a larger and larger par t of both the video game industry and therefore PA X East. It's great to see people from all over the world converge in Boston to show of f their games (in fact, almost all of the games that made this list are from international developers). One of those games that caught our eye was Population Zero from Moscow developers Enplex Games. The title literally caught our eye because it is one of the more striking art designs we saw on the floor, especially from a game built in Unit y! It's seriously one of the most graphically impressive Unit y games that I've played. Population Zero is an exploration and survival game with a real-time 7- day cycle. Find your hibernation pod or die. Either way you star t over ever y week. Of course, that sounds torturous, but account experience is permanent and unlocks new features, like building and crafting, that will enable you to expand your search in this sci-f i adventure. Exploration and discovery are really the focus here, with seven distinct biomes and a huge technology tree to uncover. Enplex Games lists Arthur Clarke, Clifford Simak and Robert Heinlein as part of their inspiration, and if you're a gamer, the style looks like a cross between Destiny and Horizon: Zero Dawn with less combat and more discovery. I'm excited to get in a full cycle on this one when it releases. All In! Games – Red Wings & Metamorphosis www.allingames.com All In! Games is a great example of the evolution of the video game industry. Founded in 2018 in Poland, the publisher had half a dozen different titles on the floor at PA X East and was giving tons of Polish developers the opportunity to have their games experienced and played around the world. My favorite of the bunch was Metamorphosis, a 3D puzzler inspired very literally—and literarily—by Franz Kafka's book of the same title. As an insect, you are tasked with exploring the Kafka-esque world of life -sized humans with a little bit of whimsy. As I was playing, I wanted to compare it to some other insect- driven title, but I was shocked to realize that there are not many games that have you piloting a tiny insect in a 3D rendered, life - size world. The puzzles that I experienced had a fair bit of mind bending and required a good bit of back and forth to figure out what I, as a little bug, needed to do to manipulate the large world around me. There were of ten multiple solutions to the platforming sections, given the freedom of the 3D design, and the world itself was just fun to explore from an extremely small perspective. Given the amount of fun I had with the demo, I'm eager to see what the rest of Metamorphosis has to offer, and where else it draws on Kafka for inspiration. On the other end of the gaming spectrum from All In! Games was Red Wings. This arcade-style flying fighter has you piloting a WW1-era bi-plane, taking on airborne enemies to wrack-up points and unlock new skins, planes, and pilots. Red Wings is very easy to sit down and start playing, and its split screen coop is perfect for a living room experience with your friends - newbies and veterans alike. When Red Wings comes out later this year, it should be at an arcade friendly price and a perfect reason to pick it up and jump right in.

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