The two biggest gaming shows in the southern hemisphere will come together for the ultimate celebration of games and gaming culture in 2018.

For the past five years, PAX Aus has welcomed gamers of all stripes home with three days’ worth of massive console, PC, handheld, VR and tabletop freeplay gaming areas, esports stages, over 120 panels across 6 theatres, live concerts, and more, and all of that is coming back in 2018.

This year, PAX Aus will also play host to EB Expo, including a dedicated area for the largest publishers in the world to showcase their upcoming titles, developer presentations in the EB Expo Live Theatre, and Australia’s biggest pop-up EB Games store.

You want more major publishers? More hands-on gameplay? More panels? Well, you got it.

PAX Aus 2018 will take place from 26th to the 28th of October 2018 and will feature over 180 companies from around the world, thousands of playable games and over 150 hours of on-stage content. Three days can barely contain it. The event will be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, as part of Creative Victoria’s MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL GAMES WEEK.

“PAX Aus grows every year, and in 2018, EB Expo is the red mushroom to our Italian plumber,” said Jono Whyman, Event Manager of PAX Aus. “We’re incredibly excited to partner with EB Games to level up PAX Aus and continue to put on the biggest, best gaming show for our die-hard fans and new members of the PAX family.”

Debra McGrath, EB Games Event Director, echoed Jono’s statement: “When we created the EB Expo in 2011, our aim was to share our love of video games with as many people as possible. Our vision for the future is to create a world-class event that becomes a landmark on the global gaming calendar. After an exhaustive search we have found a kindred spirit in the awesome team at PAX Australia, who share our vision.” Debra continued, “Together, with the full support of the Australian publisher community, the IGEA and Creative Victoria we are committed to creating an event that gives Australians the experience they deserve.”

PAX is a festival for gamers to celebrate gaming culture. First held in Seattle in 2004. PAX connects the world’s leading game publishers with their most avid and influential fans, PAX expanded with a second show in Boston in 2010 and a third in San Antonio in 2015, making it the three largest gaming shows in North America. The first international PAX was held in Melbourne in 2013, and has since become Australia’s largest gaming festival.

The brand also expanded to include a dedicated tabletop expo PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, US, and will launch the new Powered by PAX events in Paris, France this April 2018).

EB Games Australia head office is located in Queensland, with its EB Games and Zing Pop Culture stores operating in every Australian State and Territory. EB Games Australia is part of GameStop Corp. Currently EB Games and Zing Pop Culture have 423 retail stores in Australia. The company sells new and preowned video game software, hardware and accessories for video game systems from Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft.

In addition, the company sells PC entertainment software, related accessories, trading cards, board games and other pop culture merchandise.

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The EB Games Expo comes around every year and with it the we get to glimpse and experience some of the latest games and preview others yet to be released. So what does 2016 have to offer? The end of year line-up is somewhat dismal to be honest, however while limited there are still some titles to get excited over.

The small array of games left over seemed to impact the size of the expo itself. All the big names were there, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and even Bethesda but all of them seemed to simply have less on offer than previous years.

Nintendo did have a lengthy playable demo for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild but these were only available to a select few winners of a completion. I was disappointed there was no Pokémon Sun and Moon sneak peaks as it is due for release in November. While there was none of the new game to play there was certainly a whole dedicated Pokémon store which I certainly found myself emptying my wallet at.

Sony did have its new VR on display but with currently limited game options for the system there were only minor games available to experience. There was dedicated section for Drive Club VR experience but this didn’t really catch my attention.

There were a few games of note however. The biggest and most interesting would be the new IP Horizon: Zero Dawn. Having seen a demo of the sci-fi open world RPG with the developers at E3, it was one title I was very keen to get some hands on time with. Thankfully I did and managed to experience everything the demo had to offer. I have to say the gameplay available in the demo seems solid and I enjoyed what was there. The team did showcase a bit more of the features of game and it all looks stunning from the mechanical dinosaur like creatures to the concepts of the universe that are all definitely intriguing. The various components of combat seemed natural and the crafting system was also simple and intuitive. I really hope the rest of the game lives up to this small snap shot and I look forward to more of it.

The other game of interest for me at the Sony booth was Resident Evil VII. Unfortunately, I never got around to getting any time with this title. There were some other minor titles available but none that really otherwise grabbed my interest.

The Microsoft booth definitely held some interest as the next Gears instalment, Gears of War 4, was available to play. Both a small amount of story and the new and improved horde mode. Both, while still maintaining a reasonable amount of the same gears we know and love, also offered enough new and interesting aspects that I found quite enjoyable. I sincerely can’t wait to get my hands on the full game.

Having already obtained an addiction for Forza Horizon 3, I didn’t sit down and play it but I was glad to see it available at the Expo. Dead Rising 4 also made the showcase floor and showed off pretty much more of Dead Rising 3, if you had told me I was playing DLC, I might have believed you. Sadly, one game I would have liked to try, despite a less than positive reception, was ReCore but this was nowhere to be found.

Ubisoft did have a section with the most noticeable game on display, Just Dance 2016. Can’t say I am a big fan if this series, but there seemed enough gamers lined up to give it a go. Ubisoft did provide a playable demo for their up-coming title For Honour, a medieval combat type game that, as an observer, ran smoothly enough but lacked any game defining features.

Bethesda had a single booth set up dedicated to Dishonoured 2, which sadly due lines of 2 hours +, I did not get time to play but I look forward to playing this title on release as I am a big fan of the first entry.

The EB games mega store, in combination with Zing, had quite the array of nerdy merchandise. So there was plenty to lose your money on.

The highlight for me of the EB Games Expo was actually the Xbox Presentation who featured none other than the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer himself. While most the Xbox Presentation wasn’t anything new, a bit more of Gears of War 4 was showcased and Phil Spencer made comment on the direction of Xbox and the new consoles to be released, respectively the Xbox One S and Project Scorpio.

The EB Games Expo is an opportunity to get a sneak peek at the games around and the games to come. While I was certainly glad for the opportunity to play some of these games I feel this year’s EB Games Expo was certainly lacking luster that some of the previous years have provided for the gaming community.

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From October the 2nd to the 4th 2015, Sydney Olympic Park played host to Australasia’s biggest gaming event, The EB Expo 2015.

36,750 gamers attended the show over the three days, an even bigger turn out than last year.

The Exhibition Centre was alive with sights and sounds that wouldn’t have looked out of place at the video-gaming Mecca that is E3 in Los Angles. Some of the booths, notably the huge Xbox booth, looked as if they’d been dragged across the Pacific from the LA show back in June.

For this year’s event the organisers had improved the layout of the venue with the aisle-widths a lot wider than I remember from last year. This meant that traversing the halls was nice and breezy on the less busy Friday and completely crush-free with the Saturday crowds.

As you’d expect, the big three console hardware manufacturers were out in force, with Nintendo hosting big-screen game competitions all weekend. There were dozens of 3DS’s showing off the likes of Skylanders SuperChargers and Wii U demo pods running StarFox Zero and Mario Maker.

Over at Xbox, gamers were greeted by a Forza Motorsport 6 triple-screen set-up. Forza 6 and a host of recently released games were available to play in the main area. Tucked away around the sides of the booth (and at the end of some pretty long lines), the stunning Rise of the Tomb Raider and Halo 5 Guardians multiplayer were playable.

In the theatre fans could watch the Quantum Break presentation.

Whilst, I had played the Halo 5 multiplayer beta earlier in the year, it was good to finally get a go on Rise of the Tomb Raider. As a PC gamer that tends to lean towards PS4 for this generation, I was a bit disappointed with the Xbox One exclusivity when it was first announced. I’ve got to say, having played through one of the tombs (yep, Crystal Dynamics have listened to fans and apparently packed the game with tombs to raid), I’m VERY excited to play this game on my Xbox One when it comes out in November.

The PlayStation booth was all about Star Wars.

Sure they had an Uncharted 4 theatre and were previewing PlayStation VR to a select few, but the Force was obviously strong with PlayStation. PlayStation shared a lot of their real estate with EA who were demoing the long-awaited Star Wars Battlefront and Disney Interactive who were showing off the Star Wars themed sets from Disney Infinity 3.0.

The queues for Star Wars Battlefront were huge, with gamers happy to wait over an hour for a go on a game that wouldbe available in beta in week or so. Luckily,I was able to dodge the crowds at a special media-only event on the Thursday night before the show opened.

The Battlefront demo was the Hoth-based Walker Assault map with Imperials descending on the Rebel base. Whilst it felt like the Battlefront of old, the action this time was epic, with AT-ATs, AT-STs, X-wings, Tie-fighters, Y-Wings and Snowspeeders adding to the carnage on the ground.

All this was set to a back-drop that had huge Star Destroyers hanging in the sky.

As well as Star Wars Battlefront, EA were also demoing the new Need for Speed, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 and FIFA 16, with Mirror’s Edge Catalyst on show in the theatre. The new Need for Speed looked particularly stunning with its near photoreal visuals.

EA Games were only one of a number of triple-AAA publishers showing off their upcoming blockbusters.

Activision’s Black Ops III demo area was bolted to the side of the PlayStation booth, showing just how invested in third-party games Sony is at the moment. Activision were also showing off Guitar Hero Live and Skylanders Superchargers at their own booth. Fans that played the Skylanders demo were treated to a free Skylander toy as they exited.

Seeing both Activision’s Guitar Hero Live and Mad Catz’s Rock Band 4 playable at the show made me very excited about the second coming of the rhythm music game. Both games had stages where fans could show off their guitar skills. Guitar Hero Live also had a backstage area with a dozen or so demo pods for gamers to try the game.

As usual, Ubisoft’s booth was dominated by their Just Dance stage. Rainbow Six Siege, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and even The Division were all playable.

Bethesda were showing off their upcoming games, Fallout 4 and Doom in a theatre presentation. Outside the booth was a Vault-Boy statue and salvaged car from the wastelands providing an awesome backdrop for selfies.

At the Bandai Namco booth the big hitters were playable demos of Dark Souls 3 and Just Cause 3. Whilst Dark Souls isn’t my cup of tea, it looked really good and fans were having a lot of fun with it. Just Cause 3 was an absolute delight, with the developers having taken everything that was right about the last one and turning it up to eleven.

2K Games had demo pods for the recently release NBA2K2016 as well as the upcoming WWE2K16. The star of the 2K booth was the Battleborn demo, which was very popular all weekend.

Whilst a glimpse of upcoming tent-pole games is the big draw to for the show, there was plenty of other things going on.

In the main arena publishers like Microsoft, Namco and Ubisoft all put on lavish presentations featuring live demos and guest developers. In Microsoft’s case they even had an appearance by Lara Croft.

Cosplay is a big part of the Expo experience for many attendees. As well as dressing up as their favourite characters for the hell of it, there was also the Just Cos’ cosplay competition. Dotted around the show floor there were a number of vendors selling costumes and props.

With retro games and the latest games in the freeplay area, as well as laser skirmish, this year’s show was a gamer’s paradise.

The EB Games store at the EB Expo, the biggest in the southern hemisphere, was a must-visit shop for hardcore gamers and casual fans, alike.

As well as t-shirts and their usual fayre, EB Games put out some long-unavailable collectors editions for sale at knock-down prices. Last year I picked up the awesome Titanfall Collector’s Edition with the huge Titan scale-model. This year I picked up the scarce Dragon Age Inquisition Inquisitor’s Edition, including the much sought-after tarot deck. There were also The Witcher 3 Collectors Editions, Mortal Kombat X Collectors Editions and some Gears of War 3 rifles for the knock-down price of AU$99.

Every year the EB Expo seems to go from strength to strength, giving Australasian gamers the sort of gaming extravaganza that you’d expect in the States or Europe. With hundreds of titles on show, most of which are yet to be released, it’s an essential part of the gaming calendar.

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