Walk the show floor at PAX Australia, or listen to any of the touring developers, and you'll hear a lot of chatter about games that are "good for PAX". It's basically shorthand for the kind of game that plays well on the show floor, but doesn't necessarily do well commercially. Couch co-op games often fall into this category: they're fun at a show, but that's it.

Unpacking is the opposite. It's singleplayer only. It's slow paced. It's not good for cycling a lot of players through a packed booth, and it doesn't compete for attention with loud visuals, sounds or mechanics. And yet, out of all the indies I saw at PAX Australia, it's easily got a better chance than most of being commercially successful.

Everyone still remembers Icy Tower then, the Swedish freeware classic from 2001. There's a ton of good games from that era, particularly all the Playgrounds-esque Flash games, that would make for great scribbles.

But that's not the game we have today. This one's ... got a little bit more of an identity. Can you guess what it is?

In a world where mobile gaming is ubiquitous, publishers are streaming console games to your phone, most people play games on multiple platforms and the power of thin-and-light laptops is improving, someone's building a new netcafe and esports arena. It's ambitious and seems hugely risky, so I sat down with one of the creators of Fortress Melbourne at PAX Australia to ask: why?

The Outer Worlds is out on Friday October 25 and is shaping up to tide Fallout and Mass Effect fans over until the next installation. To help you get your eager hands on a copy, here's a list of Australia's stockists to get you a sweet deal.

Laptop manufacturers love refreshing their stuff every year, and every year it's more or less the same story. Marginal percentage increases in performance here and there, 10 or 15 percent better performance in games there, maybe an extra half hour of battery life. Occasionally some great quality-of-life changes get implemented, but most of the companies in the laptop game are facing the same problem: good screens just take up too much juice.

And that's kind of the kicker with the latest Dell 2-in-1. It's a nice bit of design, and a lot of the moment-to-moment usage is really good. But if you were hoping for that dream of a true thin-and-light laptop that's competent enough for some Overwatch or low gaming on the side? Well, the future isn't quite here yet.

Finished a game on the weekend? Starting a new job? Having trouble with some work or trying to find a new series to watch? You can ask all those questions and more in Talk Amongst Yourselves, the unofficial forum for the Kotaku Australia community. Whatever takes your fancy, you'll find a friend here.

Some of Microsoft's new Surface range is available for Australians from today if you're in the market for a sleek, little companion.

Cluedo's mansion hasn't changed its layout since it was first released in 1949 but for its 70th birthday, it's getting a pretty drastic renovation.

The Galaxy Fold might be playing to the FOMO crowd first and foremost, but at a briefing before the phone's launch on October 30, Samsung were also touting the foldable's gaming credentials. After a quick hands-on, it's certainly an interesting device to game on - but I'm not so sure the gaming world is exactly ready for it.

The Rise of Skywalker will be the end of the new Star Wars era. What happens to the Jedi, the Sith, the future of the Rebels and the Empire?

Yesterday's game was absolutely a pinball machine, specifically Fish Tales. Good job Luke, who spotted it within 15 minutes. But how will you go with today's game?

If the past few years of mass political protest have taught us anything it’s that, if you really want to stick it to the man, you’d better have a good placard. This weekend, as an estimated one million people took to the streets of London to campaign for a People’s Vote on Brexit, they were joined by the unlikely ally of a horrible goose.

Despite being banned for sale in Australia during 2018, Song of Memories is still available on Steam for Australian players. But it won't be for long.

Now that we're done with Melbourne International Games Week, PAX and I'm finally back from break, let's get some scribbles going again.

Given the absence of Diablo 4 at the show last year, and the shadow of how fans will respond this year, not to mention all the recent controversy, anticipation is high for Blizzcon 2019. So naturally, word about Diablo 4 and an Overwatch sequel is starting to do the rounds.

The last thing you want heading into four days of leave is three days straight of PAX pox-induced rest, and yet that's exactly the fate that befell me last week. But a great tonic for a ravaged throat and immune system -- besides bed, lemon and honey -- is video games. Especially when they're the kind you genuinely never expected you'd be able to play from bed, and certainly not well.

We can't really go back to a time where Symmetra's beam was literally an aimbot, nobody knew how to play Genji, or that the double shield meta didn't exist. But when you play Overwatch on the Switch, it does feel like going back in time a little.

I get a lot of emails. Too many. But out of all the emails I do receive, none of them were about Disco Elysium, which is a crying shame given it's easily one of the three most interesting games I've played this year.

Swords, shotguns, assault rifles, flying elbows. If you like dropping someone online, then you'll find plenty of company this week.