PAX SOUTH 2018

[usagi-ayumi]

hello everyone of my lovely readers, i would like to wonderfully welcome back one of our Texa's event support writer and photographer Andres back to the team for his hard work on writing about the upcoming event he when too not very long ago, all credits and hard work goes to him. if anyone is near Texas and is interested on going to this event please feel free to join and due to the fact that my lovely friend Andres was having a cold and sore throat, let's give him the credit for his hard work and hope next year he can write more and take more pictures.

 

Usagi~

 

South Texas PAX 2018 January 12-14.

By Andres Casarez

    Hello, my fellow readers. This was the second time I was given the honor to visit PAX in Texas. While I was exited and thrill I do have to make a small mention to the health problem I had during the event and how it had a small effect on me going all out. The week before the even I got sick and currently still am, not as bad as before but still.  While this did effect me I still try to do my best to get interviews and view the whole event while I was there, and I have to say it was amazing.

    The event started on Friday the 12 and ran to the 14. The event is manly that for video games but also table top and some tournaments notable Smash Bros was the one they had on stage and streaming to twitch. While I didn't get to watch the event unfold I'm more than sure it was amazing and sure they upload the videos for playback which I will check out on my free time. Close to this was the table top area, which was massive area. 

    This area was large as I stated and house a bunch of new and interesting idea's for table top. I did get the chance to play a few with my group of friends and we all had a blast, mainly they taught me how to play DnD. Which was a lot of fun, more so than I had thought it would be. We spent a couple of nights playing this to the early morning of it and I have no regrets of it.  However, this wasn't my main focus it was on the side and slow moments was what I did. Now, lets get talking bout the real reason why I went in the first place. 

I went to this event to see and play the games that be coming out later this year or in the next year. I must say I wasn't disappointing at all by what I saw and play.  I will admit I didn't touch any racing games, just simply couldn't find any to be honest. I could miss them so I' not saying they weren't there but that my review of the event will be missing those type of games.  Anyway I should start with the heavy hitter that comes out later this month, Monster Hunters.

 

 

Monster Hunters World  attacks PAX

    As one will expect the big boy in the room, for me. Was none other than Monster Hunter World. Now I personally done my out most to avoid the game as I'm supper hype for it as a new hunter, I played only two of the games on the ds. Thus I want to be amazed by what I would see in the game when I came out. However I couldn't pass this game up at the event. I spoke lightly to the people on hand, as I come to figure most of the inf they gave me was stuff that I had lightly read over. They didn't give me anything new to really write about sadly, which I can understand the game is close to release date which is the 22 of this very month.  Changing things out or working on them this late could be view as a problem and I didn't see any hint of that at all. 

    The game was on the ps4 and there is another beta coming out for it I believe this week before the game comes out, so you know what ill be doing in a few days playing this amazing game once more. The classes and style of the game matches that of the ds version.  We had a rather fun hunt to do, as I was team up with 3 other people I didn't know. Along side this I was put into a class I hardly ever play in the light gunner, if I remember the role correctly. So as one would expect I was a bit left figuring out how to play this person, which was fun. In the hunt we had another monster join in and aid us in taking down our main target which was amazing and scary as I'm normally use to both monsters teaming up and making the hunt twenty times harder than normal.  However, we won and it felt amazing this is a game I would say any avid Monster Hunter should get and along side this Capcon had a booth right next to it selling a lot of neat things related to Monster hunter which sadly I wasn't able to grab any of it. This was amazing booth and Jan 22 can't come any sooner for me to get my hands on this amazing game. 

 

Dauntless Stomping back into PAX

    Some reader may remember this name from last year South Texas Pax. Also some readers may remember that I was unable to get my hands on it or talk to anyone from the team that was there. This year I didn't make that mistake. The moment I got their email, I made it clear I want to meet up and speak to them.  When I meet up it was when they had another interview on going, I listen and once I was introduce I took time to listen to what was already ask and did follow up questions to the areas I felt had been avoided.  I must say my main fear of the game was that it was simply Monster Hunter World, I'm glad to say without any question this is not the same. While the idea's are close to Monster Hunter and they themselves said they were inspired by the game itself they chose a different path. 

    Main thing I will note it is going to be a Free to Play game, so if you download it you can play it regardless, you will not have to pay anything. The way the game works is you create a hunter, this hunter will be your only one, so unlike other Free to play games that have champs that you buy and such this doesn't have this. If anything this game only buying items would be all cosmic meaning it does give you bonuses or anything like that, so don't worry its not pulling an EA Star wars battle front 2 kind of move or like so many other games. This is a great plus in my view, so many games have try to find a way to squeezes us out of our money without giving us good reason to buy the stuff from the game. However, what sold me was the game play.

    While I spoke to Andy Burt he was so kind to get me and the other interview who has a YouTube channel called StopDropRetro, you guys should give him a view. We both played with 2 other people who were all kind and amazing to play. The hunt we took on was a four legged rock lizard, sadly name escapes me at the moment. The hunt while was hard, we did fail to kill it, it was amazing and fun. We were all talking and trying to aid each other just like any team of hunters should. Sadly the monster prove to be stronger than us. Which was fine in its own sense as we did a good number on him and he did manage to take out all but me at the end, I was the last man standing. 

    It did feel fair and balance as signs were given of his attack and movements to avoid them. Thus making the hunt all the more when we were giving call signs to his movements.  After the game was done I ask a few more follow up question, they do plan to support the game with free content and that they had a total of I believe at the time 18 to 20 monsters ready, if I remember correctly.  More would come as clearly they want to support the game and hope that they get a large fan following. Which I can see them easily doing, I mean its a very simple in its approach but is addicting to play, I found myself wanting to hope right back into another hunt. It remains me of of PUBG, just want to keep going and going.  At the end they gave me close beta key which I give them to my friend at Monolith BookShadow on YouTube, another youtuber you should check out and will have a link of his game play of the game below this.

 Dauntless Hunt

 

 

Phantom Doctrine a silent assassin of PAX

    First thing must be said about this game, it has me hype for it. Many of you may not know this but I a a huge fan of RTS (Real Time Strategy ). If you are too I would advise you keep an eye out on this game. I wasn't even aware of this game until I got to the main area of PAX. How amazing the booth was set. It was close by a chain link fence with fake barbwire and about six computers set up for the game, I can be wrong could be eight but I'm unsure of it. Anyway you want to know what the game is about. Its a top down view almost like Xcom games, and they did say they were inspire in the way Xcom had done the RTS. It is set in the 1983 during the cold war, you will chose a faction both well known, CIA or the KGB. 

    Choosing your faction does effect you so right off the bat this game gives you replay value. On top of this its allows you to create your own agents and train them. You are task with doing seceret missions to gather information and many other task. You can go in load or stealthily, on top of this you can capture other agents and turn them again their own forces. Caution is need because even your own agents can have the same thing happen to them. So if an agent goes missing and just happen to appear do you trust them? Do you kill them? Do you try to turn him back to your side but if he wasn't turn against you he may now turn because you are torturing him? There ways to find out and this goes into a cool and unique skill set in the game.

    Information is key and when you get intel, unlike in other games which consider a throw away resource,  you can put it up on a board and read it and search for clues. You can find code words and try to figure out what is going on, some of the intel you gather may tell you of a an agent that is double agent in your own base and you can than take the right course of actions.  Do note you don't have to do this if you don't want to you can train another agent and have them do this, its a way to unlock also side missions and bonus missions. Now you wonder about the combat of the game, as I spoke of Xcom early it almost use the same but is a bit nicer.

    What I mean by nicer is that it lessen the RNG a bit more than Xcom, one of the things that Xcom is known for is unspeakable high chance missing saying like 92% of hitting the target that's right in front of you and you still miss. The game is going to base more around the training of your agents and less the RNG that has hamper other games that has use the style that Xcom has made. This is really nice in my view as sometimes I would lose people in Xcom because of these really high chance shots missing.  Thus its nice to see a game address the problem and offer its own version of fixing it, which makes me really happy to have found this game at this year at PAX. This game is coming out later this year and is plan to hit PC, PS4 and Xbox One. I did speak to them in regard to the Switch which they said they consider but it be major overhaul in the system to make it work on the less powerful system. I do hope you all consider keeping an eye on this game and possible pick it up. 

 

Mixer a Darwin Project at PAX

    Mixer a streaming services appeared at PAX this year unlike last year which had Twitch.  Which Mixer does the same as Twitch but is trying to be more interactive in a game. Which is a very odd and somewhat cool thing. I cant lie they were playing a game called Darwin project, I have to give the announcer they had for the game some credit he sold me the game. I was able to stand there and watch the first game at PAX be played, and my god I have to say if Mixer is able to do the same things that the game they were playing on the streaming sight this will be somewhat of a game changer. It does still fall on the game developers to make use of this. Which I personally don't know if they will bite on it or not.

    Think of the game almost like PUBG but a bit more simple from what is saw you have a melee weapon and a bow, you can get upgrades things call technology which give you special skills and such but you have to find them or earn them.  So as you can view it as a battle royal where you also have to focus on battling the elements. So you do need to find renounces to keep yourself alive while also fighting off other enemies.  This is a nice change to the Battle royal and it was fun to watch as the people fought to live. 

    Mixer gave us the viewers chances to inter act with the match by aiding or hindering players. Which is a nice change but my god if you really do something the fans don't like next time an option become open to vote you may not like what they chose to do to you. However this makes it all the more thrilling to watch as it happening to try shape the outcome to what you would want to see. So in a way I find this all amazing. Its a nice idea and the game itself makes good use of it. I really cant wait to see how this does if more games chose to go this route and the future of this streaming services as well. 

    

 

 

Fantasy Strike simple but yet complex game at PAX

    Created by David Sirlin, Fantasy Strike is a 2D fighting game. Which has a simple control layout and simple easy to grasp fighting style. Which is shocking nice to see, to many fighting games have a lotof hidden things that can turn off people who are not hard core into the game. No one and i really do mean no one has fun playing against people that understand the game to the point that the fight is so one side that the other person goes easy on you on proupse. We love to compete its in our nature as humans, and this game i feel like makes it fair for all. 

    It only has to form of movements such as left and right and buttont to jump, which you can map it to the up on the control if you wish. Other than that they layout of the buttons are simple and easy to remember. I do hate how some people in fighting community will look down at this game, or will do so. Sirlin is actully someone that knwos what he's talking about and is trying to change the norma of fighting games. Which i agree with his views on this matter. The community is very uneasy to get into and can be somewhat hostile to people who casule play their type of games. Main reason i been turn off by fighting games of the past. 

    However, this game does something that many fail to do in the pasat and has me really hype for it. Its such a simpel stylish looking game that i had a blast playing with my friend even though i lost 2 out of the 3 matches we played.  It has a nice selection of fighters as it covers everything one's expect to range fighers to rushers and the rest of cast, 10 fighters as of right now.  Keeping to the simple theme the team under Sirlin has almost made a reather easy to understand Health system. Instead of a big block of Health bar, its broken up into smaller bar's and you lose one every time you get hit so you know just how close you are to getting K.O.  Making thisng get more tense as you and your foe trade blows and try to bring the other to zero. 

    The game is already out for early access on Steam and is playble on both MAC and PC along side this is plan to come out on PS4. I did speak to them about SWITCH and the Xbox one which Sirlin himself told me that they would like to release on to those system but that since they are a small company that they would need time and need the income of the game itself to help them achive this in the future. Which I do understand the reason of their move, games are not cheap and thus it's wise to do what is best to gain money and not risk harming you the game you are working on.  I would adivse all those that may consider the game to check out the website itself and Sirlin own page as he's a great read and gives very thougthful views on the gaming world.

Fantasy Strike Fighting Game

Sirlin Page

 

Wraping it all up South Texas PAX 2018

    This year I took a bit more less interviews to help me due to my health, which i do regreat a bit of it but I do have to take care of myself. I did chose some of the best games at the expo i would say. I did my out most to focus on the games that seem to have some really unique things to them. Moster Hunter world, finally comeing to the west on cosnoles, Dauntless a free to play chracter branching hunter, Phantom Doctrine the cold war can possible mean the end for all, and Fantay Striker fun easy to enter fighting game that is stated for all types of fighers the casule to the torument focus ones. Each and every game i review and played all had great amazing people behind it, and i'm sure the ones i miss had the same. 

    The expo was amazing this year and I felt that I got to see mroe of it this year with my approce of going slower. I got to play more of the Table Top games such as DnD one in which i have never even touch in my life. Got to watch some amazing Smash live in front of me. Most of all got to meet and hang out with friends from around the country. If there one thing i can say about South Texas Pax is that it's an amazing event that is made for gamers. 

    I can wait to see these games and the ones i miss this come out this year or in the following years. I hope all to be able to make and grow into amazing titles that all of us gamers can enjoy to the end of times. Simply because we all should find joy in these amazing works of art. I do hope you all have enjoy reading this as I have of writing it. I cant wait to see what the future of the gaming world has instore for all of us, I'm sure that next year will have as many great games as this year if possible even more.  With that said have a great day or night and be safe.

 

 Pictures of the event