At PAX East, I was given an opportunity to meet with the team at Seismic Squirrel to preview their debut title Aether & Iron ahead of launch and talk to the studio leads about what went into the making of their narrative-driven tactical RPG.

I was able to get about half an hour with Fractured Blooms, and came away quite impressed. I’m not typically the biggest farming sim gamer, but I am SmashPad’s resident horror guy, and the spooky vibes here were immaculate. From what I’ve played, the farming sim mechanics are as crucial to the game’s overall loop as the esoteric, psychological horror themes, and the blend of genres works well in a way I wasn’t expecting.

While it was also available to play on the show floor, the only offsite demo appointment I had during PAX East this year was to play Rain98, and it was more than deserving of it. It was a good thing I had time to chat with the game’s director, because boy, did I have questions! Luckily, the director of C#4R4CT3R, the indie studio responsible for developing the game, was there on-hand to chat after I completed the demo.

Good Story Guild returned to PAX East with a new demo for Cat Secretary, a game I’ve been highly anticipating since I first tried it last year. Cat Secretary is a cozy 3D job sim that has you working for a massive corporation, and it’s your duty to uncover the secrets work wouldn’t want the world to know while keeping everyone happy… but as a cat, of course.

During PAX East, I was given the opportunity to sit down and play through a demo of Grave Seasons and talk with Emmett Nahil, the game’s Narrative Director. While the demo was a bit shorter than I would have liked, I absolutely came away with positive impressions of this title ahead of its August release. Grave Seasons takes the tried and true relationship building and farming elements of the genre and adds a new layer of narrative-driven complexity to keep players invested in the world around them.

At its core, High Times is a visual novel where all you really have to do is make donuts for your customers. It definitely has vibes similar to Coffee Talk, but the main difference is Coffee Talk is really all about you playing your role as a café barista while listening to everything your clientele has to tell you. In High Times, your customers expect you to make them feel better with the donuts you serve them.

While I would stop short of saying you should go out and buy the $80 physical release for the Switch 2 right now if you don’t already own the game, there’s enough here to recommend paying $20 to get the DLC. While I would stop short of saying you should go out and buy the $80 physical release for the Switch 2 right now if you don’t already own the game, there’s enough here to recommend paying $20 to get the DLC.

PAX East never ceases to impress me with the sheer amount of indie titles on the show floor, and one of those that caught my attention was a dinosaur-themed Metroidvania called GNAW from Redstart Interactive. I was fortunate enough to play the demo for a half hour and talk with the developers about what compelled them to create this prehistoric adventure, and in the process, I was quickly taught how rusty I am with the genre.

Backyard Baseball was easily one of the standouts at the PAX East 2026 convention floor.

Fishbowl is a story about grief during a big life transition, and it just so happens to take place at a time when almost everybody was hoping things would go back to the way they were.

Homura Hime is a great detour as we wait for bigger and better character action games to release. It’s refreshing to play an action title that isn’t a Soulslike yet still offers stunning, visually impressive boss battles. While the lack of English voice acting is disappointing, the characters are likeable despite a weird storyline that goes too crazy for its own good.

I’ve been playing the MLB The Show series for nearly 20 years at this point–since they rebranded their MLB series to MLB The Show on the PS2. It’s been impressive to watch the series evolve into a top-tier licensed sports…