PAX Australia always has weird timing when it comes to AAA games — most of the big ones are either already out (two were released today, in fact) or not coming until sometime next year. You never know what the big companies are going to bring down to the Aussie expo, and in what form. Here’s what you’ll find on the show floor this year.
Playstation
A decent chunk of the PlayStation booth is dedicated to the PS4 Pro, and a handful of demos showing off the console’s specs. The two big games Sony has brought this year are Detroit: Become Human and Dad Of War (I mean… God Of War 4). The Detroit demo is pretty meaty — you get to play through the ‘hostage’ scene featured prominently in the game’s marketing so far.
While I didn’t line up for God Of War 4, it also looked to be a playable demo. Last year I attempted to guess how long queues would be over the weekend but let’s face it — it’s PAX. They’re going to be very long.
Sony also has a small bank of consoles running a 15-minute demo of Monster Hunter World, as well as a row of PSVR headsets loaded up with Skyrim in VR.
Xbox
Microsoft’s main booth is fairly conservative this year — there’s a bunch of consoles lined up with various demos, though not many big names. Interestingly Microsoft had a little table running games of Age of Empires Definitive Edition, which is already out but may be worth checking out if you’re on the fence about it.
Microsoft’s big game this year is Sea Of Thieves — which is playable, but not on the con floor. You’ll actually have to go out to the Polly Woodside (you know, the big ship outside the convention centre) to get your hands on a half-hour demo of Sea Of Thieves.
Nintendo
Nintendo’s big game at the moment is Super Mario Odyssey — which released today, so you might be better off just bringing your own Switch and stopping by a game store on the way. The other big game at Nintendo’s booth this year is Skyrim on the Switch. Yes that’s right — Skyrim, a 6 year old game, is playable in two new and different forms at PAX this year. Yay?
Interestingly Nintendo also has a good handful of indies and third party games to check out on the Switch this year!
Ubisoft
Ubisoft’s main game on display this year is Far Cry 5, which is coming out in February. They’ve got a few rows of playable demos set up in their booth.
You can also check out The Crew 2, and Assassin’s Creed: Origins, which also released today. If you haven’t got around to playing it yet, there’s also The Fractured But Whole on show again.
Lenovo
Lenovo has brought the VR Star Wars Jedi Challenges down to PAX this year — a series of Star Wars based mini games using Lenovo’s smartphone-augmented VR system and a custom lightsaber controller.
Square Enix
Square Enix has a booth that appears to be mostly dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood. I’m not a Final Fantasy person so I can’t say if there’s anything particularly new or exciting here!
Everything Else
There’s a lot of Destiny 2 on the floor this year thanks to various hardware manufacturers, as well as a couple of various VR experiences.
As always the indie pavilion is expansive — and this year’s showing is particularly strong. The whole row is definitely worth a wander. Check out the Indie Showcase winners for 2017 here.
This guide isn’t exhaustive, but captures most of the big games on show this year. Played something cool at PAX? Tell us about it in the comments!
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