It’s 4:30am on a Wednesday morning and I have three more hours to go before my alarm goes off and to start getting ready for work. At this rate, I don’t think I’ll be able to go. To give you a brief context, I picked a bad cough which turned into a throat infection a week ago. Last Saturday, I lost my voice completely and have been struggling to get it back. For the past three consecutive nights, I’ve been having sleepless nights due to a persistent and stubborn dry cough. Heck, I’ve had to buy a triple-action cough suppressant syrup and even that’s not helping in addition to the honey and lemon combo remedy and the countless throat lozenges I’ve had to help me last through the day. So, that’s that. Enough of me. It’s time to start recounting all the exciting things I got to see at my second PAX Australia event.
Three days of non-stop immersion, curiosity, and cyberpunk realness - as well as a heck load of walking. My smartphone picked up at least 25,000 steps within the 4-5 hours of walking I did at the event. This is what PAX was and is about. Spread over three glorious days, is a series of gaming culture festivals that started in Seattle, Washington. When I studied and lived in Seattle back in 2011, little did I know this emerald city was already home to an already well-established and growing hub of gaming companies and studios. PAX was born in Seattle. Another thing to add to my list of things I should have done when I used to be there.
Last year, I bought a Saturday and Sunday pass, which I felt was sufficient enough for my first time. This time, I ended up getting a three-pass, which got me in on all three days. The first day was all trying all the games we could get our hands on, and scope out the entire area, which was spread across three sections. PAX Rising was the first section one would entire, and this where all the up-and-coming and local video games are on show for consumers to try out. I particularly liked how I saw a couple of games that were also at last year’s PAX, along with the new ones.
The second section was the area where all big names in gaming were situated – all decked out with the latest tech, interactive areas, lights displays, competitions, and – of course – the merchandise. Cyberpunk 2077 had its own dedicated section where people could line up and watch all the trailers and game plays on a humungous 8k-resolution Samsung tv with blasting speakers in your face that made my ears ring after it was done. My partner and I were lucky enough to line for only five minutes before we got in to a session and scored free posters for it. One can’t deny that warm and fuzzy feeling when you’ve laid your hands on a prized possession for a while now – in this case, it was a Cypberpunk 2077 poster. Aside from the big brands, Nintendo and Square Enix were the next highlights for me. Nintendo had a a massive section where they displayed the new Switch Lite among the many switches available for people to play. There was also the line to play the demo for Luigi’s Mansion 3 – however, I did find it pointless to line up given the game was going to be released in about three weeks at that time. Square Enix had a competitive line up of PCs for people to play the online MMORPG of Final Fantasy.
The third section of PAX Australia was the tabletop and board game area, with plenty of seats for people to play games like Dungeons & Dragons, paint figurines, or build waffle towers. A highlight for me was the retro area, where pinball machines, old consoles and games from the 1980s and 1990s were on display. As a fan of nostalgic items – such as cameras – this was really a fun and enjoyable area for me. I did manage to play a Back to the Future-themed pinball machine, which was absolutely gorgeous to play on, but it wasn’t long at all before my turn was already up. I’m really bad at pinball. The virtual reality and LAN section were at the last area, but we didn’t bother to line up for these.
PAX Australia was also were I would be giving cosplay a go for the very first time. Despite all the nervousness and anxiety, I plucked up the courage and bought my cosplay outfit. This was the best time I could live in the shoes of a character, have fun with it, and build confidence. It took me up to an hour just to get the make up right as well as having to face with the fact that my skirt was a tad bit shorter than expected. It was an absolute blast of a day! I had people walk up to me and ask me to take a phot with them or take a photo of me. I got plenty of kind nods and comments my way. I truly felt so popular and it certainly was a great feeling! My partner took lots of amazing photos. I’m still thinking if I should post them in my ‘Games section’ or just create a blog entry for it. Either way, this content will be coming up shortly!
The third and final day was all about making sure we checked out every single section, nook and cranny, corners, hidden easter eggs (just kidding), and grabbing as much freebies and merchandise as we wanted. This was the same day we scored those Cyberpunk 2077 posters, as well as lanyards, enamel pins (paid for them), a hand-drawn Avengers poster by an Australian artist, and some pretty cool Playstation game CD coasters – these were really cool and definitely took me in a short rollercoaster ride to the days I used to play these Playstation games at my grandparents place. This was also the day that I took the most photos. I knew the low lighting was going to be the tricky aspect, despite the massive second section full of flashing lights. I decided to focus on capturing anything neon and Cyberpunk-inspired. I couldn’t find a lot of these themes, so it wasn’t as successful a theme to go for.
PAX Australia, once again, was incredible. I learned more things about my camera than before, and this does nothing but make me a better film photographer. Now, the wait for next year’s PAX begins again.