Announced: Games for PAX East consumer expo

Aliens: Colonial Marines, Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2 and Far Cry 3 are among the games that will be on hand at Boston's PAX East games expo, April 6-8.

Aliens: Colonial Marines, Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2 and Far Cry 3 are among the games that will be on hand at Boston's PAX East games expo, April 6-8.

2K Games is bringing a playable version of June's Heart of Darkness inspired Spec Ops: The Line, while September release Borderlands 2 will be present in some form -- whether that'll be the latest behind-closed-doors press demo isn't yet known.

A recent interview with studio boss Randy Pitchford on the Vox Games website indicates that the multiplayer mode for Aliens: Colonial Marines will also make a splash, while the team that made PS3 and 360 download Shoot Many Robots will be tweaking their game based on PAX East fan feedback.

PC strategy specialist Paradox steps into the action genre with War of the Roses, a medieval civil war multiplayer hack 'em up, and The Showdown Effect, next project from the team behind Magika.

Ubisoft had already laid out its show line-up, including new footage for Assassin's Creed III plus playable versions of the upcoming Far Cry 3 and Ghost Recon Future Soldier, while the music maestros of Harmonix (Dance Central, Rock Band series) will reveal one of their secret projects.

PAX East started as a 2010 off-shoot of the Penny Arcade Expo, set up in 2006 by the authors of a popular webcomic, and 2011's Boston gathering attracted 70,000 attendees.

It's set two months ahead of the game industry's important Electronic Entertainment Expo, at which Nintendo is to detail its new Wii U console.