This year’s PAX Aus was one of the biggest yet. Heavy hitters Square-Enix, Nintendo, and Blizzard all brought something to the table.

Callum Berry.

PAX has been ‘back’ for a couple of years now in the sense that every post-covid PAX has been better than the last but this year was the first that felt like it had the electricity of pre-covid PAX running through it. The aura of this year’s show was insane.

There’s always so much to see and do at PAX and the selection of both physical games and digital games was better than any of the previous years (at least to my memory). It was almost overwhelming, considering you only have three days. Three days sounds like a lot, but when you break down everything to see, it’s not a lot of time. Constant competition with other convention-goers to access games and stalls hindered our ability to take everything in. However, it is a good problem to have.

I saw a lot of games, and we’ve covered almost everything we saw on the YouTube channel and our live show but I’ll go over some of my favourites:

Rain98: Rain98, developed by C#4R4CT3R, is an atmospheric and narrative driven interactive novel-esque experience about a time-traveller. The less I say about it the better! Inspired by classic anime such as lain, this rain-drenched mysterious story is just cool.

PITCHFORK: PITCHFORK, by MANIAC GAMES, is a great indie co-op RPG that’s driven by procedural generation to give a group of players a dynamic fresh experience every time. A group of players take on various roles to navigate a castle and hopefully destroy a vampire deep within.

Bin Chicken the Card Game: Bin Chicken is a great simple card game where the group play as individual bin chickens who are trying to collect the most food. Whoever has the most food (by score) at the end of the game wins! The game features an innovative marriage system. Players can marry to combine their scores, or break up and redistribute assets.

PAX also had World of Warcraft (and ex-EverQuest alum) Producer Holly Longdale to open the convention, though I wasn’t there for it, this was a wonderful ‘get’ for the convention, though I suppose I am biased.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing what next year’s PAX brings.