Dungeon crawler role playing games. The genre name can evoke many feelings: tedium from the endless grind, fear of the mandatory giant spiders, excitement while wondering what’s right around the bend. The name on most people’s lips right now is Diablo III; and in the frantic rush of its opening week many might have overlooked Torchlight II beta, which closed on May 24th. I had the opportunity to play through the open areas of the game and hit the cap before it closed, so I'll be breaking down my experience, piece by piece, to show you how Torchlight stands up against its stiff competition – read on for more!

Dungeon destruction fever is sweeping over the world again. Players across the globe are prepping their computers for an onslaught of high-caliber games that put the mouse and keyboard to work as players destroy skeletons, kill minions, and basically waylay their opponents with a variety of magical and lethal implements. The developers at Runic Games are paving the way, leading the pack with their (relatively) recently released Torchlight and it's upcoming sequel, Torchlight II.

During my time at PAX, I was able to get my hands on the the recently unveiled Embermage, an element-controlling death dealer that waylaid the enemies around him. The class is a pretty strong dichotomy to the other classes that had already been unveiled; the Embermage is much more of a ranged “glass cannon” type of character than any of the others, and if you paired him with the Engineer or anything that is even semi-tough, they'll be able to defend themselves from hordes of enemies.

Runic Games made a pair of major Torchlight II announcements at PAX Prime today. The main news to come out of the convention is that Torchlight II will retail for $19.99, the same price as the original Torchlight. In addition, the magic-wielding Embermage has been revealed as the game's fourth and final playable class.

Do you want to get your hands on some Torchlight II bags and keychains? Then be sure to participate in our huge PAX Swag Giveaway by following @ZAMOfficial and @CodyBye on Twitter!

UPDATE, 9/1: We've already given out a bunch of swag, but we still have more! We'll be giving out more prizes next week after Labor Day Weekend. Be sure to check your Twitter messages! While we have only a limited amount of physical things we can ship, we have tons of codes to give away, so keep your eyes peeled.

Gamescom may have come to an end, but the summer convention season isn't over just yet! PAX Prime will be held in downtown Seattle from August 26-28 and we'll have members of the ZAM team on the floor, including Director of Content Cody "Micajah" Bye. He'd love to give out PAX swag to some lucky readers, and all he wants in return is more followers on Twitter!

We'll be giving away PAX gear to people who follow @ZAMOfficial and @CodyBye on Twitter. The more followers the pages get before PAX, the more chances you'll have to win prizes. Check out the constantly updated prize list after the jump to see what you could get simply by clicking the "follow" button!