What it's like being at PAX

 

 

  As soon as you approach the Melbourne Convention Center these days, you will see the above sign. It welcomes you "home". "Home", as in a place where you belong. And truer words have never been spoken. Gaming is something that nowadays connects 65+ year-old's to 14 year-old's, whether that game is called Pokemon Go!, Fortnite or Candy Crush. The community has spread out so wide that you would need to have your head stuck persistently in the past to not be able to see this, as some communities still do unfortunately.

   So here I was at PAX Australia, finally. And even though I had been to such a big gaming event in the past (check out my post about Paris Games Week a few years back), I knew that this was going to be something to remember. After all, there are only a few conventions worldwide that go under the name "PAX" and most of them are in the States, plus this year they were partnering with EB Expo to make the event even bigger.

   I wasn't wrong either. As soon as I stepped into the expo hall, there were big booths with all the greatest soon-to-come or fresh-out-of-the-oven hits by PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox and PC. Of course there were independent developers as well (commonly known as "indies" within the industry) and a lot of them were from Australian Universities. There was a special area dedicated specifically to them titled "PAX Rising", which from what I know happened for the first year ever.

   An area that caught my attention was the "Classic Gaming" space, where you could see where it all began. You had your Atari's and your Commodore's all on display and you could also try out some of the first games. I saw someone playing Alex Kidd on the Mega Drive and my mind traveled back quite a few years to Sydney where me, my cousin and the son of my mum's friend who was around the same age as us would sit around the TV and play that game. Also there were a few Super Nintendo's there but by now I'm used to seeing those.

   Another great space that I noticed wasn't as loud as the game hall was the Tabletop lounge, where people played card games (not on motorcycles). I noticed the Final Fantasy game is getting quite some traction, something that I am personally not okay with as I consider it an exploitation of the series, but that's a discussion better saved for another time. I was really pleasantly surprised to see just how many people are still in touch with these more traditional forms of entertainment. I didn't stick around for any of them due to my lack of time, but I would never dismiss them. Besides, I still play the Pokemon TCG every now and again.

   And speaking of Pokemon, I think it's time I get to the nitty-gritty of this piece: what games were there? Which games were absent? Which ones did I play and what was my opinion of them? Okay, here goes.

   As soon as I got into the hall, the first thing I noticed in front of me was a Smash Bros Ultimate wall of characters and above that, a screen advertising the game. It was fully playable and there was even a tournament going on. I didn't get to try it out unfortunately but people were going berserk over it. I did spy on some Cloud Strife wins though (attaboy spikey!)

   Around the corner from that though, there was another huge line of people (seems to be a common theme at these events) waiting to try out Pokemon Let's Go! Eevee and Pikachu. Thankfully I was smart enough to wait until the closing hours of the show and seeing I wasn't in a group, they let me try it out for a bit. However, what I have to say about it may not excite Pokemon fans. The game is extremely underwhelming. Imagine taking the essence of Pokemon Go! (which is going outside to look for the creatures) and simply putting it on the screen. That's all it is. Alright, the animations in the battles look gorgeous, I'm willing to give it that much, but they could've done much more than keep it tied down to the Kanto region. That really holds back an already limited title. This looks like 90's mechanics in 2018's visuals. Not good I'm afraid. I hope what Game Freak have under wraps for their next Pokemon console title is a lot better cause I got bored after 10 minutes.

   Next to the whole Nintendo booth was a line waiting for one hour to play (what else?) Kingdom Hearts 3. I'm gonna do a separate piece with my opinion regarding this title, however the love so many people have for it got me excited enough on its own. If there's gonna be a launch event somewhere downtown, you can bet your goofy boots I'm gonna be there to "share the magic". It was a long wait to try it out but as I said to someone who asked me about it "I waited 10 years for it, another hour or so won't bother me."

   Right across from Kingdom Hearts 3 (and Jump Force, they kinda had a shared booth being under the Bandai Namco umbrella. I got to try it out again and I really like Jump Force) was the Playstation booth. PS pulled a bit of a BS move in my opinion as they kept both Days Gone and the Resident Evil 2 Remake in hidden rooms. So unless you were willing to wait in line, standing for over an hour for RE2, or even worse download an app and book your time to try out Days Gone (clear exploitation and a way to get their name on people's phones), there was simply no way you could see those two titles. Completely unacceptable marketing strategies and especially towards the people that made them who they are today. It's like they're afraid of showing the titles to too many people cause they had no faith in them. I'm scared to think of what would happen should they had brought The Last Of Us II to this event.

   From the games that I did get to see from Sony, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice surprised me with how wonderfully vibrant it looks. It's definitely not a NiOh copy because I remember trying that game and it was way too grim. In Sekiro you can see the cherry blossom trees and what separates Feudal Japan from other places and times. I am definitely more invested in this title. There was also a small lounge-like area in which one of the people from Media Molecule, developers of Dreams explained how the title works. I wanted to see it but unfortunately didn't have the time as it clashed with some other things I wanted to attend. 

   Of course every other major title that has already been released was there: Spider-Man, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the only one I didn't see was Red Dead Redemption II but we all know that Rockstar play by their own rules and never join these parties. At some stage I noticed a huge video wall with Vegeta kicking the crap out of Kakarot (pure joy) and it got me thinking how much DragonBall FighterZ has stuck with audiences. It has been everywhere, I even saw an event in Greece before I left.

   Ori and the Wild Forest was the one thing that really grabbed me from the Xbox booth as everything else is already pretty much available on other consoles. The lack of demand is evident from the fact that Kingdom Hearts 3 was available to try out in the Xbox area as well, yet not even a quarter of the people were gathered there as they were in the actual KH3 booth. Maybe they didn't notice or maybe most of them just grew up playing the franchise on their PlayStations, I don't know...

   Speaking of PlayStation, one really nice touch by the Japanese giants was a form of "museum" they had in their own booth in which you could see each of their consoles, the year it came out and a bit of a story behind it. It's unbelievable that we're already 21 years from the first ever PS console. There were also some great consoles on display, such as the Switch Pokemon Let's Go! edition or the Xbox One X Fallout 76 edition. Bethesda had their very own dedicated space at the expo as did GameSpot but sorry folks, I couldn't find them. VR also had a strong presence throughout the halls of the event. Apart, from PlayStation's own separate PSVR titles, there was a separate area in which people could try out hovering, driving, playing cricket, and all other forms of virtual reality activities. Even though I have my opinions about how I don't like the way this is being forcefully marketed upon the public, I have to admit some of it seems fun.

   It wasn't all just games though. There were a lot of interesting panels as well. I attended three of them. Although I'm not too sure about the first one, as they had game developers trying to answer questions while eating spicier levels of chicken wings, to the point of someone getting the hiccups and the whole thing just deteriorating into a mess (as was the point from the beginning I'm assuming). The second panel was a lot more informative but also a bit cleansing, as people gathered and shared their stories regarding how gaming impacted their lives. It was challenging to get up in front of a room of tens of people, with a camera on my face and talk about my life's story and how I've been living for the past 20 years in a society that thinks that if you're a gamer, you're just a waste of time, but I did it anyway. Finally, the third panel was regarding video game reviews that was truly interesting and fun at the same time, yet I feel left me with more questions than answers: if a gaming site or a reviewer is promoting a specific game title, can they truly be trusted as subjective and not bias? How do you conduct a proper review? Do you emphasize more on your personal experiences on your titles or do you mainly point out what the game mechanics are? Do you honestly pay attention to comments when you have hundreds of them coming in?

   Anyway, those were my impressions from my very first (yet definitely not last) PAX event. I really enjoyed the show and next year I'll be there for the whole three days and not just the one. These types of events bring the whole community together and I was pleasantly surprised to find people who are hard working, smart, and have now found their own place in Australia's society (some of them work for ABC). One image that stuck to me as I was leaving though were these two older women (must've been in their late 50's-early 60's) trying to take a picture with a huge Poke-ball and Pokemon Let's Go! sign that was near the entrance, with one of them saying "get me closer to Pikachu!" Then it hit me... we really are a huge community.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey Review

 

  With the way things have been going in my life for the past few months, video games had to take a back seat until I had settled in Australia. Naturally, when I was able to afford a PlayStation 4, I had a back log as big as the library down the road. And we're just talking about triple-A titles, nothing minor. So far I've had the chance to play Detroit Become Human, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, God Of War and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. All great titles and we've also got Red Dead Redemption 2 coming out in a few days.
   But if I had to choose one out of all these titles to crown it as "the best", it would be Assassin's Creed Odyssey (ACO). Ubisoft pleasantly surprised me with the way it encapsulated every single element into this game, without trying too hard on one or leaving another unpolished. ACO is without a doubt complete, it demands great effort from the player to get through, yet offers so much in return.
   The initial choice between Alexios or Kassandra might seem insignificant, however without going into too many spoilers, it is very heavy. And I personally believe that Kassandra was the correct choice in what she is meant to be for "Deimos", rather than the other way around. It is difficult to speak about this without getting into spoiler territory, however those that have *that* in their lives would completely understand and near the end of the story, even though I was playing as Kassandra, I found myself becoming a lot more invested and attached to Alexios.

   Speaking of choices, the game offers so many of them. There's never any hand-holding apart from the initial stages at Kephallonia. After that, you're pretty much free as a bird and anything you do is up to you. However, dialogue choices are where this game truly shows its diversity, giving players a whole series of different decisions that are in complete harmony with how things used to happen in that day and age, but also let the user's own character shine through, rather than just being an observer of cut scenes as is most time the case. There are even times when ACO shows you that no matter how different the age, some dilemmas will always remain just as troubling. For example, I remember an argument Kassandra was having with Hippokrates (yes, the Hipokkrates) about a sick patient who wasn't going to get better and just asked for a quick death. The doctor wanted to keep him alive in order to learn from his illness, yet I (as Kassandra) chose to set him free and gave him a mercy killing, leading to a heated debate with Hippokrates. I could've chosen to keep him alive. And there are hundreds of different dialogue choices that shape the story, making each playthrough truly unique.
   Speaking of unique, having lived in Greece myself for over 20 years and traveled around many parts of it, I can honestly say that Ubisoft have given a very faithful representation of what it feels like to travel around the country either by land or by sea and why it is that people flock there every year for their vacations. I was shocked to see the salt pans that I remember from my holiday island of Kimolos (right across from Milos, in the game I found them at Lokris) and riding on Phovos I got to reminiscing about how we used to get in the car and go out into the country with the family. I also remembered how much I hated being on the boat, going out to the islands (more of a city person here). All of those emotions and memories came rushing back just by playing a game.

   However, the harshness of the time is portrayed through the story perfectly as well. People taking the law into their own hands all too often, way too bloody battles, carnage, but also the first form of politics, of medicine, of theater, everything is shown off here. It really paints a clear image of why many people died young in those days. I wasn't a fan of the portrayal of Aristophanes and his "happy" attitude, but that's something that I'll touch upon later.
   The game progresses via quests and even though they're usually your typical "go there-kill him" or "get that" kinda quests, the story that's behind them or what you have to go on afterwards makes them intriguing enough to maintain interest. Plus there's some variety in the form of forts, conquest battles and naval battles. Forts require a player to literally take down a fort of a meager 6-7 to an entire platoon of 30+ soldiers and demand a bit of strategy (this is where the "assassination" part really comes in handy), lest they summon reinforcements and you're left to deal with an uncontrollable situation. Conquest battles on the other hand are just a battlefield of carnage where you need to stay alive. The first time players are put on there will seem like an unbelievable challenge, yet it gets easier the more abilities they rank up. Finally, there's naval battles. The "Adrestia", as is the name of your ship, goes up against others of the Spartan, Athenian or pirate fleet. The thing to keep in mind with these battles is that most of the time you'll only need to target one, but there's be three or more ganging up on you when you do. Just strike once, leave, heal, rinse, repeat.

   Then there's the annoying (yet interesting as an idea) mercenaries. If you don't keep in line or if you commit something that is against the law (murder, theft, break into a nation leader's house), then someone puts a bounty on your head and some strong soldiers called "mercenaries" come after you. They offer good rewards for beating them but they're extremely difficult to take down, even if they're on the same or even lower level, so having one of these coming for you while you're trying to invade a fort is a bad combination. The more crimes you commit, the more the bounty goes up and even more and stronger mercenaries come after you. If you hit level five, you have all of Greece looking for you. Getting rid of them is fairly easy though. You either kill the one who put the bounty on you, pay the bounty itself or just hide somewhere until they stop looking for you.
   Battle mechanics are solid as well. While the idea of a second wheel is useless when you're in battle (when I have four people coming at me, I can't as well press L1+down and then again L1+O just to use a single technique, I need to have them all handy), the four you can use are enough on their own and once you level them up, they become pretty beastly. I never used any arrow or assassination techniques, but maybe that's just my play style. I focused on the warrior skills. The weapons and armor system is ingenious and greatly rewarding for hoarders like myself. While you may not use your old equipment, you never get rid of it or just sell it off cause you can dismantle it into material that you find other uses for. For example, I used the material from my old armor to upgrade my ship or when I was up against a real *ahem* bull of an opponent and I had no way out, so I desperately needed to craft more arrows.

   ACO doesn't tell players much. In fact, it tells them barely what they need to know. Because of that, I missed out on the fact that you needed to synchronize almost every location (see that eagle icon on your map? don't miss it!) which meant I couldn't go back to key areas such as the house of the Olympians unless I was willing to spend the time riding there on horseback. Also, there were a few glitches here and there (the game bugged out on me twice in over 50 hours of playing), however considering all they had put in it, I'm not surprised. Greece's depiction was faithful regarding some things, yet almost comedic when it comes to others. I understand that this is a work of fiction, but to have Sokratis the great philosopher goofing around like a jester is a bit insulting and sends the wrong message. Or Periklis who had a whole century named after him (the 5th century BC is known as "the golden age of Periklis), to show him as depressed and ready to commit suicide. Just no.
   Anyway, considering all it does right, these things feel like picking needles in a hay stack. And literally, ACO is so huge, players need close to 50 hours just to get through the main story, although the way this game is made, it's hard to tell where the main story and the side quests lie. At its core, ACO is entirely player driven and whether it turns out as yet another Greek tragedy or a great story of family in a war torn world, that's up to the choices made by the users. It reminds us what separates video games from other forms of entertainment and is truly a shining achievement. Kudos, Ubisoft!

In defense of Hiro Mashima's work

 

 
   A few days ago, the final season of the Fairy Tail anime began to air. It will involve the final battle between the magic guilds of Ishgar and the nation of Alvarez, which Zeref rules over. However, the manga of Fairy Tail itself is being continued with a new addition, "The 100 Year Quest". To add to that, mangaka Hiro Mashima is continuing his own work with the creation of an entirely new story called Eden's Zero.
   Many have criticized Mashima's work. It is often dismissed as "too cheerful", "corny", "too obvious", "not realistic enough" (this coming from an industry that considers the notion of ninjas walking on water and shooting fire out of their mouths acceptable) and even extremely sexist, as the depiction of naked teenage girls has become a common theme within his chapters.
   Yes, if you're reading a Mashima-manga, you can expect that no one is gonna die. That everyone is gonna make it out unscathed on the other side, even if they're dealing with extremely unfavorable odds. If you turn to the final chapter, you're more than likely gonna see the same main characters from the very first one, all sitting there, smiling, like it's another day at the beach.
   It was the same with his first attempt at a manga, Rave Master, that had a much smaller cast than Fairy Tail but the same premise. Main hero, main heroine, small creature, some other guy also joins in along the way, they fight, they learn secrets about their identity, blah blah blah. And after just 14-15 chapters in, Eden's Zero is starting to feel like a lot of the same as well. In fact, it feels much more like Rave Master than it does Fairy Tail, but that's an entirely different story.
   So yeah, unrealistic, even within the realm of manga, and extremely suggestive. Those are two words that someone could use to describe Hiro Mashima's work with. And yet, for some reason, it seems like he is the only mangaka that has the ability to pull on the heartstrings in such a unique way.
   Watching Naruto for close to a decade, I only cried once: when Naruto met his mother, Kushina, whom he had never seen before in his life. It was a touching and emotional scene that was very well done and showed how much the young hero had been through and how much we had been through with him.

   However, Fairy Tail manages to do this in almost every single episode. The messages it conveys about friendship, solidarity, a sense of belonging, bonds, having a place that feels like home and people around you that are willing to help you are so strongly emphasized that it's hard to hold back the tears. I'm not ashamed to say, I don't remember how many times I've cried, even while watching re-runs of the show.
   The battle with Phantom Lord when Lucy realized she found a new place to call home, when Wendy found out her guild was just a lie, the death of Simon at the Tower of Heaven, the times in Edolas when Happy found out the truth about why he and Carla were sent to Earthland, when Ultear decided to face the truth about her mother, Acnologia's attack on Tenrou, the return of the team after seven long years in stasis and the tears in the eyes of young Romeo, Natsu's proclamation during the grand magic games' chariot event, Fairy Tail's return to number one (which is something that predictable, but still emotional in the way that it happened), Grey's battle with his dad and the return of the dragons that had raised Natsu, Wendy and Gajeel and especially Igneel's death, all these were moments that struck at the heart.
  Fairy Tail even managed to bring tears to my eyes through its manga, since there was a point early on in its final season that hasn't been animated yet. Lucy and a few others return to Magnolia where the guild used to be. They go there in the hopes of meeting everyone after it disbanded over one year ago but she desperately attempts to keep her expectations low, seeing as all she did was sent out a few letters and it's not as if everyone would gather back just because of that. And yet, there they all are, waiting to see her again. And, in her own words, it brought so much joy to her, it even hurt her.

   The thing is, this is a work of fiction. And even though it might not be as philosophically heavy as Naruto or main characters might seem to have immunity to death or you might even see ridiculous things happening like Erza smashing a meteor with her two legs broken, it's still nice to have that sort of escape, and to see a group of friends that go through troubled times only to come out stronger on the other end because they have each other. It makes you feel a little bit better about life.
   Mashima knows how to do this well. He's good at creating pick-me-up stories with happy endings, no matter how difficult things may seem and he always tries to push forward the message that "we're always stronger if we're together". In my personal opinion, as sappy as his work may seem, that's an optimistic outlook on life to maintain.