Displaying items by tag: paxaus

It’s PAXAUS time again.  The Penny Arcade Expo travels to the Southern Hemisphere once a year –  Melbourne loves this celebration of geekdom.

At PaxAus 2015 we had a chance to begin a Tie Fighter versus X-Wing dog fight in a game of ten versus ten Star Wars: Battlefront fun with Fighter Squadron.

The yet to be released Unravel from independent game studio Coldwood from the north of Sweden is one of those intriguing artistic games that seem to successfully combine the craft of video game construction with the emotional heart of characterisation.  Seemingly so does Coldwood’s Creative Director Martin Sahlin.

Wandering through the EXPO hall just prior to the extra-keen hoards is a privilege. The team behind the Penny Arcade eXpo continue to refine formula for this people-orientated geek-fest of goodness.

The cultural spread of the indigenous people of the arctic region, specifically in the US state known as Alaska are as many and varied as those found in Australia.  And the issues of modernisation, youth migration attracted to cities and the loss of ancient cultural links are also very similar.

For those there to check out the electronic gaming side at PAXAus 2014 there are plenty of high profile wares to see.  And amongst the glitz of multi-million dollar projects there are plenty of independent or smaller team developed games to experience.

Chris Charla heads up Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program first announced at Gamescom in Germany back in 2013.  For Charla curating the fresh (and in some cases not so fresh) faces of independent development teams, and getting their product out to the masses is a dream job.

PAXAUS has just opened in Melbourne Australia with a seething mass of gamerdom pushing forward into the new venue.

In exactly 24 hours, and despite a bigger venue, the complete compliment of 3 day badges for the Penny Arcade eXpo Australia (PAXAus) have already sold out.

The first Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) show outside of US soil took place over the weekend.  PAXAus in Melbourne was seen as an overwhelming success.  Will it be back?

MOGA, the makers of devices that turn your Android phone or tablet into a fully-fledged hand-held gaming device, are coming to Australia. Iin fact, the MOGA Pocket is on sale at PAXAus as I write.  However, there has been some modification for the planned rollout in Aus.

Normally at a show/convention/festival such as PAXAus the big video game companies bring a couple of semi-trailer’s worth of gear.  Well the semi-trailers are here, but they are not laden with the brand names most in the mainstream would expect.

Still no word from the Australian Classification Board, however the lines are long to play Saints Row IV at PAXAus today.

Much of the show floor at this year’s PAXAus festival has been given over to independent developers of video games.  Here we can see the talent and ideas behind future directions in gaming.  With nary a sequel number in sight, some of these games will be in our living rooms in the not too distant future and PAXAus is doing its best to put these games in our face.

For the first time ever the geek-fest PAX has made its way out of North America and ventured about as far as it could go, to Melbourne Australia.  Here are some early impressions before the gates have even opened at PAXAus.

The recent addition of a R18+ rating for video games in Australia was widely celebrated by proponents of the rights of adults to consume all forms of entertainment aimed at them.  And then two games were refused classification, State of Decay and Saints Row IV.  Well State of Decay has been slightly altered and will be released, and all indications are that Saints Row IV will now make its way to Australian retail shelves.

After spending some nine months abroad, finally the MOGA pair of Android supporting game controllers are migrating to Australia.