PAX Australia is finally upon us, and, same as every year, there’s a heap of great things on the show floor to poke at, ogle and drool over. Here’s some of the cool things that we’ve spotted in our first squizz of the show floor.
PlayStation’s MediEvil booth
Pictured above, PlayStation’s MediEvil booth is absolutely stunning. I’ll admit to being a little bit bias, because as you may know, I’m a huge fan of the franchise — but that foam graveyard looks spooky good, and it’s perfect set dressing for the three level demo playing in the booth.
The first three levels of the game are on show here, and to my eternal happiness, one of them is the Hilltop Mausoleum, which ends in a fight against the Stained Glass Demon. Go check it out if you haven’t! It’s one of PlayStation’s greats.
NEXT Exhibit
This exhibit, developed by the Working Lunch Collective, is not only one of the cutest and most relaxing booths at PAX (located out in the breezy main corridor), it also features some stunning indie games from underrepresented developers. Last year’s NEXT Exhibit was one of the highlights of my PAX, and I’m very glad to see it make its return.
Check out titles Unpacking, Best Friend Forever, Continental Drift and Dollhouse here and rest your tired feet for a moment.
Spot The Sick PC Build
I’m a bit basic when it comes to my PC — it’s in a big black box, and that’s fine by me. Not so at PAX. The showfloor is littered with all kinds of fancy, glowing boxes, including this minimalist beauty that I spotted at the Thermaltake stand.
There’s plenty of them around — if you spot any fantastic ones, feel free to stick them in the comments below!
Luigi’s Mansion 3
Nintendo’s once again brought their A-game to PAX, with generous and fancy booths for Pokémon Sword and Shield and Luigi’s Mansion 3. The lines are long, so I haven’t had a chance to check out the Pokémon booth just yet, but the Luigi’s Mansion 3 booth is great!
It’s set in a spooky dark room with projections playing across the walls, and the demo is fantastic, too. It feels like a great mix of the best parts of Luigi’s Mansion and Luigi’s Mansion 2. Gooigi is god.
PAX Rising
PAX Rising is another great place to discover some fascinating indie adventures. There are some returning faces from last year, as well as some newbies, but there’s plenty of great discoveries to be found on this corner of the show floor.
Speaking Simulator was a favourite of mine last year, and it’s once again being showcased, so check it out if you have a chance.
The Alienware Gaming Booth
If you’ve ever wanted to feel like you’re in a spaceship, check out the Alienware booth — there’s some pretty sick stands around, but Alienware’s nailed it this year with its sleek glowstick stylings. Good stuff.
The Tabletop Zone
Don’t forget to wander away from the main hall and into the second annex — there’s bounties of treasure to be found ahead. All of Melbourne’s best board game stores have come out to play, and the secondary hall is filled with fantastic board games. If you can spot them, my personal favourites which I got from PAX last year are Gloom and Boss Monster.
Bonus from Alex: Biomutant
One of my favourites, Biomutant is hidden at the back of the Warner Bros / Koch Media stand, just next to Nintendo. There’s only a few stations and the controllers are … not ideal, but the gameplay holds up pretty well. I got about 10 minutes in during the media hour and from what I could tell, it’s largely similar to the Gamescom build I played last year.
If you haven’t played it before, the combat, customisation and rolling are pretty fun, and well worth a look. It’s not likely to make a lot of noise at the show compared to things like Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty or the bigger booths, but it’s still definitely worth giving a go if the queues are short.
Are you at PAX? Let us know what treasures you’ve found in the comments! And be sure to check out some of our upcoming panels while you’re here.
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