#paxaus2019

[tiffanydmuacosplay]

Throwback to @paxaus last year! Photo by OneSnapMan of my Kassandra cosplay from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey :D This is the Spartan Renegade set 😊 @ubisoft @ubisoftanz #assassinscreedcosplay #assassinscreedcosplayer #assassinscreedodyssey #assassinscreedvalhalla #kassandracosplay #acodyssey #assassinscreedodysseykassandra #assassinscreedodysseycosplay #onesnapman #onesnapcos #spartanrenegade #alexioscosplay #ubisoftgames #paxaus #paxaus2019 (at PAX AU) https://www.instagram.com/p/CI26-X_jELS/?igshid=1kdv4qmm9g4x9

#assassinscreedcosplay #assassinscreedcosplayer #assassinscreedodyssey #assassinscreedvalhalla #kassandracosplay #acodyssey #assassinscreedodysseykassandra #assassinscreedodysseycosplay #onesnapman #onesnapcos #spartanrenegade #alexioscosplay #ubisoftgames #paxaus #paxaus2019

[kinsie]

Retro Gaming Stuff from PAX Aus 2019

The Classic Gaming area is one of my favourite parts of PAX every year, with all sorts of weird and interesting stuff to check out. Here are some things that jumped out at me this year, in no specific order.

Vintage pinball machines from 1932-1970! Screwy predates flippers, and relies entirely on skill shots with the plunger to get the ball in the holes worth the most points. Goodluck is odd in that the cabinet was made entirely out of metal instead of wood. Baseball is a good-old fashioned electro-mechanical whack-around.

Some good old-fashioned Windows 95 machines set up for the original DOS releases of Doom 2 and Duke Nukem 3D. The one on the right even had a SC-55 hooked up! ...and a zip drive, for some reason.

I started playing a credit of Die Hard Arcade, and a random stranger came up and asked to join in. Together we were able to credit-feed our way to victory!

Here’s an oddity: The Video Game Brain, a third-party cartridge switcher to have up to eight cartridges ready to run on your 2600 at once. I’ve never seen one of these before!

I got to give the new Black Knight table a quick kick around. It’s not bad. Some of the modes seem a little confusing, and the CG animations aren’t as embarrassing as they usually are for this kind of modern-era table. Hopefully I’ll see it in the wild in the future and be able to give it greater scrutiny.

And finally, without further ado...

THE SHELVES OF TAT.

#gaming #retrogaming #paxaus2019

[joshdachu]

Luigi and The Darksiders! 💀⚔⛓🔮👈👈 - I tried out playing Darksiders Genesis demo at PAXAUS 2019. It was ok. I can't beat that too hard level demo. Gameplay is action top-down hack slash. Similar Diablo III. Full game is coming on February 2020. - Also glad I owned Darksiders III PS4 game for free via Playstation Plus. - #PAXAus #paxaus2019 #paxaustralia #darksiders #darksidersgenesis https://www.instagram.com/p/B5QsRFVjtHR/?igshid=35uymqo1vu2h

#paxaus #paxaus2019 #paxaustralia #darksiders #darksidersgenesis

[starkindustries91]

A breathtaking shot of my Johnny Silverhand cosplay by @o.g_nerd Make up and wig by: @julmua_aus #paxaus2019 #cyberpunk2077 #johnnysilverhand #johnnysilverhandcosplay #paxaus #V #harleydavidson #cybernetics #cyberpunkcosplay #boots #leatherpants #cdprojectred #cdpred #xboxanz #ognerd #nerdlife #vikingarmygg #keanureeves #cyberpunk2077cosplay #yourebreathtaking #gaming #convention #rockerboy #samurai #music #keeptheirheadsringin #drdre #summer #2020 #melbourne (at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8PfpvoDc7u/?igshid=1m65y48glnrz8

#paxaus2019 #cyberpunk2077 #johnnysilverhand #johnnysilverhandcosplay #paxaus #v #harleydavidson #cybernetics #cyberpunkcosplay #boots #leatherpants #cdprojectred #cdpred #xboxanz #ognerd #nerdlife #vikingarmygg #keanureeves #cyberpunk2077cosplay #yourebreathtaking #gaming #convention #rockerboy #samurai #music #keeptheirheadsringin #drdre #summer #2020 #melbourne

[experiment282]

Cosplay Spotlight: Best reason to play Pokemon Shield #zamazenta #pokemonshield #pokemon #paxaus #paxaus2019 #pax (at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3jQXhAFhCf/?igshid=sxappau129zw

#zamazenta #pokemonshield #pokemon #paxaus #paxaus2019 #pax

[tigeressamazing]

One of my favourite photos from PAX Aus 2019! The cosplayer is @stopitsemmatime and I recommend u follow her as she made my day!!! This was day one (Friday) and I went as Grell Sutcliff from Black Butler and she was Camilla from Fire emblem: Fates. I was amazing to see so may characters from FE (I saw around 12 other characters) and all of them made my day! Also follow @terrible_two_cosplay as I also saw them do an amazing cosplay! - 📷 by My mother ෆ╹ .̮ ╹ෆ - - - - @paxaus #paxaus2019 #paxaus #paxaustralia #cosplay #blackbutler #anime #camilla #camillacosplay #fireemblem #fireemblemfates #fireemblemcamilla #fireemblemcosplay #grellsutcliff #grellcosplay #photo (at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3uFEmejTcu/?igshid=4vu9uhomvmdh

#paxaus2019 #paxaus #paxaustralia #cosplay #blackbutler #anime #camilla #camillacosplay #fireemblem #fireemblemfates #fireemblemcamilla #fireemblemcosplay #grellsutcliff #grellcosplay #photo

[afictitiousfox]

PAXAus with my favourite human beans. A sensory overload of a weekend, but spending time, money and making fun with these people are the best. #paxaus #pax #paxaus2019 #gaming #gamers #convention #mcec #videogames #boardgames #geeks (at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3lBxLbguv0/?igshid=gwjtcejpuydj

#paxaus #pax #paxaus2019 #gaming #gamers #convention #mcec #videogames #boardgames #geeks

[theboxghost]

What a ripper Saturday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #face #pax #paxaus #paxaus2019 #videogames #games #gaming #mine #phoro #ootd #waluigi #nintendo #mine #photo (at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3iNttRlIYm/?igshid=wf8bcwq9wbc0

#face #pax #paxaus #paxaus2019 #videogames #games #gaming #mine #phoro #ootd #waluigi #nintendo #photo

[woohootattooo]

It’s PAX time! ✨☮️🌸 #PAXAUS #paxaus2019 ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ——————⠀ #alexplaysthesims #woohootattoo #thegirlwiththewoohootattoo #Games #gamer#twitchadelaide #twitch #youtube #mine #girlgamer #gamersofaus #filthycasual #varietystreamer #girlwiththewoohootattoo (at PAX AU) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3f0w18FQCr/?igshid=kc9a4i6iz0h3

#paxaus #paxaus2019 #alexplaysthesims #woohootattoo #thegirlwiththewoohootattoo #games #gamer #twitchadelaide #twitch #youtube #mine #girlgamer #gamersofaus #filthycasual #varietystreamer #girlwiththewoohootattoo

[k-ili-stration]

Oooh

It's official, 

booked my tickets & I'll be attending another year of #PAXAUS 

I'm a keen bean to see all the content and meet up with people. If you see me, Feel free to say Hi!  

I'll be in cosplay also :)

Shall be a fantastic weekend!

#paxaus #paxaus2019 #pax2019 #artist update #i'll try liveblog the event but i'll likely get sidetracked being involved with activities and social

[urukyra]

Melbourne in the silvery peaceful morning... Off to #Unity Developers day! Excited. Having a great time at #migw19 #paxaus2019 #GCAP19 it's a #gamedev #indiedev dream! Thanks to #nzgda for the scholarship y'all know who you are and y'all rock

[tiffanydmuacosplay]

Amazing photo by @houngt of my Kassandra cosplay from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey :D Taken at @paxaus #houngtcostography #kassandracosplay #spartanrenegade #assassinscreedodyssey #acodyssey #assassinscreedcosplay #paxaus #paxaus2019 (at PAX AU) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5PfU78DKFH/?igshid=vru3jjykllrp

#houngtcostography #kassandracosplay #spartanrenegade #assassinscreedodyssey #acodyssey #assassinscreedcosplay #paxaus #paxaus2019

[kinsie]

Game Impressions from PAX Aus 2019

Wake the fuck up, samurai. We've got a city to burn.

Every year I go to PAX Aus with some close friends to check out the Incredible Future of Games that everyone else already checked out six months ago, along with some cool weird indie shit and some awesome retro stuff. And every year, I write a little diary of what I saw to share my impressions with my friends. This is that diary.

Doom Eternal

Okay, let's get this out of the way. I played Doom Eternal pretty much as soon as I got on the show floor. It may shock you to know that it is, in fact, good.

No pictures of the demo units, sorry, so have this big logo.

The demo started with a little grey-box tutorial map just to teach you what you need to know for the demo level, since it was taken from the middle of the game. It looked very Snapmap-y and had some Doom 2 MIDI music playing. After that we were given about 25 minutes to acquaint ourselves with the lengthy "Mars Core" mission they've been showing since E3. I was at the start of the first arena of the hell bit when I ran out of time. :(

Here are some scattered thoughts from playing:

Your standard running around and double jumping feels much the same as in Doom 2016. The dashing feels great, although I think it might reduce your air control a little afterwards as I had some trouble overshooting a platform in the floating debris bit.

Climbing walls felt a bit weird to me. You have to press E on the wall manually to grab onto it, which feels a bit unintuitive when you're plummeting past it. Also feels a bit odd considering mantling up walls is automatic. You can auto-grab onto walls if you dash into it, but I think it's only for the first bit of the dash? Maybe I'm just bad at videogames.

I think the Combat and Super Shotguns now use different ammo types? I could have swore there were situations where I could select the Combat Shotgun but not the SSG.

The Chainsaw now no longer has even the slightest pretence of being a "real" weapon. It's now just a swing animation when you press the button, like a melee attack, before bringing your weapon back up.

When you have the SSG's Meat Hook attachment, a little meathook icon appears below the crosshair. When you're close enough to an enemy to grapple onto them, the icon floats over them, indicating that it has some kind of auto-aim mechanic to reduce frustration.

There was a monster with swords on its arms that acted an awful lot like the Baron of Hell (might have been the Hell Knight, looking at the Quakecon footage of the same fight) but it looked quite different. Looked fuckin' cool, whatever it was.

The platforming but in the debris section with the giant floating red barrels was actually kind of frustrating. It wasn't always clear where you needed to go, and the climbable bits tended to blend in with the rest of the world. Then again, keep in mind I have a frankly abysmal sense of direction. Thankfully falling into the void just whacks you for a paltry five health and teleports you back onto safe ground.

The locational damage stuff is really fun. Breaking a monster's guns has a satisfying metal "PING" sound to it to inform you that the dude got fucked up and is weaker now, and that you should keep doing it.

When I picked up one of those "?" secrets, the pop-up box told me that they unlocked "collectable dolls" and "cheat codes". The former is vague, but I suspect they'll be like the mini-Doomguys but of more characters. I'd imagine the latter will be like in Rage 2.

Oh, and it looks a million bucks, too. Though you probably didn't need me to tell you that.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I saw and it's even more of a pity it's not coming out next month.

Not Indie Games, But Also Not Doom Eternal

The Vive Cosmos felt really comfy - the lack of cabling and the decent display resolution made it feel a lot more natural than the Gen 1 Vives I've previously used. The game they were using to demo (Audica), however, was pretty lame. A rhythm-target shooter that didn't really take advantage of the medium at all.

Bleeding Edge was not inspiring. It was basically the control point mode from TF2 or Overwatch, except every character was a third-person brawler with little emphasis on projectile weapons beyond the occasional special. It felt like someone making a claim at TF2 or Overwatch's throne several years late while bolting a weak character action game on, which is fairly odd considering how innovative and critically acclaimed Ninja Theory's previous game was.

Dreams is fairly fascinating in its potential. The creation tools weren't available in the demo build so I can’t really judge them, instead there was a choice of eight developer-made experiences ranging from Mario-inspired obstacle courses to videogames as art.

I didn't get the chance to actually play MediEvil, but I watched some folks play it and it basically just looks like the PS1 game with more triangles, with all the slightly wonky 32-bit gameplay that entails.

The demo unit for Monkey King: Hero Is Back had some utterly bizarre graphics settings for some reason that made it look like I was playing a JPEG file, with big whopping compression artifacts surrounding each character. Weird!

Not happenin’.

Indie Games

Grabimals is a brilliant local co-op puzzler where players roll around as shapes and link together to solve puzzles like catching a falling water droplet, crossing a gap or casting a shadow that matches an example image. Supposedly it's still a ways off from release, but it's already impressively polished (disregarding one hilarious crash bug we found by accident!)

Hamster Scramble is a really fun take on Puzzle Bobble, with platforming elements, team play and the ability to jump over to your opponent's screen and fuck their plans up directly. It's an absolute blast and didn't feel like it was almost a year away from release.

Fork Knights is a platform fighter with an emphasis on one-hit kills. The character designs are cute, but I can't really say the gameplay itself struck me, to be honest.

Baron is an eight-player single-screen local multiplayer dogfighter. Fairly simple mechanically, but pretty fun all things considered.

Broken Roads had some lovely hand-painted art assets and some interesting ideas like a literal moral compass, but the demo build showcased was waaaaay too early to be shown off to the public. Of the eight or so areas present in the demo, only two had any characters, interactivity or really anything other than wandering around set up, and the combat side of things was extremely rough and sequestered off to a side area as a "well, if you insist..." kind of deal.

Misadventure In Little Lon is a true-crime adventure game for mobile with a unique mechanic - each "scene" is integrated into the real world via AR, with characters (that resemble Poser models more than a little bit) speaking to you directly. Not sure if it holds up over an entire game, but it's attention-garnering at least.

Speaking of true crime, The Black Window tasks players with using an Oujia board to question Australia's first female serial killer, with responses taken from court records and letters from the time. The well-acted performances of the actual individual in question's words lends it an impressive atmosphere, which the booth added to with a big wooden oujia board type thing you could "type" on. Sort of.

ACID KNIFE is real, real early, but the aesthetic is awesome and the pixel art is great. Hopefully it grows and expands into something special.

The Vigilante Proclivities of the Longspur is an oldschool Lucasarts-inspired point-and-click adventure with a custom demo scene set at an oddly-familiar videogame convention. Pretty promising so far, but could do with a good bit of polish - I'm pretty sure there was only one sound effect in the entire demo, and dialogue was often lacking in punctuation.

I didn't get to play Hot Brass but I watched over shoulders and talked with the developers, and it looked pretty cool. It's basically a take on SWAT 4's rarely-imitated brand of tactical copwork, but with a Hotline Miami-style top-down perspective, but with all the characters abstracted down to simple board game like tokens - a circle with a coloured outline denoting attitude towards the player, with a weapon icon if armed.

Blood Metal... Blood Metal is not good. It is extensively not good. Development seems to have only started in July, so one can still hope that the bad AI, unsatisfying gunplay, buggy collision detection and complete lack of damage feedback (outside of some ridiculous, sight-obscuring gouts of blood) get fixed over time. The 80s action movie aesthetic and low-poly artstyle forces it to be compared to Maximum Action, which is at least a fun kind of jank...

This Starry Void is a real-time, tile-based 3D dungeon crawler set in an abandoned spacecraft. It seems pretty cool so far, but it could probably use some UI/UX tweaks. The attempts at a "graphic novel inspired" visual style for the environments could probably benefit from looking at how Void Bastards did things, as well.

Lethal Lawns and Beam Team are fucking arcade games with massive cabinets. In 2019. Granted, they're also on computers and coming to consoles and stuff as well, but still! They're both pretty simple games, and therefore best played in cabinet form.

Unpacking is a "zen puzzle game" by the developers of Assault Android Cactus about the second-worst part of moving house, unloading an unseen character's packing and getting a glimpse into their lives as a result. I wasn’t able to play it due to an unexpectedly-crowded booth, but the pixel art is quite lovely.

Feather is a chill game about being a bird and flying around an island trying to find its secrets. I tried the Switch port, which played alright but obviously (and understandably) toted a lower framerate than the demo PC.

Topple Pop is a cute puzzle game that blends together elements of Tetris, Puyo Puyo and that one joke game that was Tetris but with a proper physics engine. Looks cute, with a fun gimmick!

Shooty Skies Overdrive is an VR spinoff of the popular mobile shmup, and basically similar to that one shmup minigame in Valve's The Lab. Weave your plane, which is attached to one of your hands, through incoming bullets and enemies like a toy! The 3D effect on the incoming projectiles looks great, but they can tend to get in the way of the action sometimes.

Dead Static Drive has been at like the last three PAXes and it looks better every time I see it. I hope it comes out this decade.

Snow Mercy is a third-person shooter/strategy thing where you hunt down icecubes to spend on an army of snowmen to crush your opponent's base before they crush yours. Not a common genre combo, reminds me of C&C Renegade a bit.

The Adventure Pals has graphics straight out of mid-2000s Newgrounds and level design out of pretty much any european platformer, but it didn't seem too bad from my brief prodding at it. The player character is perhaps a bit too small for my elderly eyes in Switch portable mode, but that's about as far as my gripes go.

#gaming #paxaus2019

[joshdachu]

I'm super honored to announce Luigi playable is in DOOM Eternal!! 💥🔫👹😈👽🤡👻👨‍🚀🧠 - 2020 is beginning. January & February are looking so quiet months. Nothing much conventions all summer at Australia... 🏜 - This March gonna be ABSOLUTELY MADNESS month; Final Fantasy VII Remake, Supanova Expo, Persona 5 Royal (I should really start playing P5 soon!), Animal Crossing New Horizons, DOOM Eternal (if not delayed again), & many more anime games! 💴💵💶💷💸💳💰 - #doom #doometernal #PAXAus #paxaus2019 #paxaustralia #doomgame #cosplay #cosplayer #cosplaying #Nintendo #NintendoCosplay https://www.instagram.com/p/B61KDuqj7aF/?igshid=19423p25brm5y

#doom #doometernal #paxaus #paxaus2019 #paxaustralia #doomgame #cosplay #cosplayer #cosplaying #nintendo #nintendocosplay

[starkindustries91]

“Wake the fuck up samurai we have a city to burn.” Todays the god damn day ladies and gents cyberpunk is finally available!!Photography by @o.g_nerd Make up and wig by: @julmua_aus #paxaus2019 #cyberpunk2077 #johnnysilverhand #johnnysilverhandcosplay #paxaus #V #harleydavidson #cybernetics #cyberpunkcosplay#aviators #boots #leatherpants #cdprojectred #cdpred #ognerd #nerdlife #neverfadeaway #keanureeves #cyberpunk2077cosplay #playstationau #yourebreathtaking #gaming #convention #rockerboy #samurai #music #chippinin #summer #2020 #melbourne (at Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIl1iCWjv2V/?igshid=1w3oojl095g4f

#paxaus2019 #cyberpunk2077 #johnnysilverhand #johnnysilverhandcosplay #paxaus #v #harleydavidson #cybernetics #cyberpunkcosplay #aviators #boots #leatherpants #cdprojectred #cdpred #ognerd #nerdlife #neverfadeaway #keanureeves #cyberpunk2077cosplay #playstationau #yourebreathtaking #gaming #convention #rockerboy #samurai #music #chippinin #summer #2020 #melbourne

[experiment282]

Cosplay Spotlight: met up with my good poke friend @thevegabus and his like a Sirfetched cosplay #sirfetchd #pokemon #paxaus #paxaus2019 #pax (at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC)) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3jRRAulYBq/?igshid=xbhuath0v2wg

#sirfetchd #pokemon #paxaus #paxaus2019 #pax