PAX Australia 2015: Tips And Tricks

Well, it looks like we are heading to Melbourne to attend PAX Australia again — making this our third PAX Australia. With the ticket sales for PAX Australia 2015 now live we thought we would provide some handy hints for those of you planning to attend. Regardless of which convention or year you are attending, these tips will be helpful anywhere.

Deodorant

If you are regularly compelled to have a test whiff and are convinced you smell great, odds are you do not. No offense, we just do not want to sniff your scent. Why risk being THAT person everyone walks past then immediately checks their shoe thinking "did I tread in something?" Give yourself a couple of safety sprays. Hell, have another spray just for luck.

Remember that Body Spray is exactly that. What? Yep, spelling is not the only difference between Deodorant and Body Spray.

Toothbrush and Toothpaste

As a combo, they give +10 to Hygiene but by themselves +100 to "what is that stench?"

We should not need to tell anyone about general hygiene, but walking the floor it seems that — sadly — many have yet to be told.

Hand Sanitiser or Antibacterial Wipes

Self-preservation is fundamental to your PAX survival. Evey time you touch anything, wear anything, or shake hands, wipe yourself down. You need to help stop the spread of the sickness; conventions are a cesspool of activity.

Want to avoid shaking hands? Try a fist bump.

Pills Here!

Conventions attract sickness, but also provide lots of food and drink. Had a big night out? Tried something that did not agree with you? Why ruin a perfectly good PAX Australia by feeling meh?

Just in case there is some confusion we mean off the shelf medication. Drugs are bad M'kay?

Toilet Seat Covers

You may be the cleanest person you know, but remember you do not know what the preceding person who parked on that seat is like or what they consumed the previous night.

Paranoid? Maybe. Self-preservation is essential for your PAX survival.

Clothing

Pack accordingly then throw in an additional clean pair of everything. Remember the convention runs for three days. While the Internet is amazing do not believe the hype, you cannot wear things inside out and backward.

Sorry for shattering that dream, it is just not true.

Music for the quiet times

If you are traveling alone staring out of the window gets old quick. Heading down as part of a group? Music helps when someone unleashes a snore when sleeping that can bring the Hotel down.

Oh god, that noise.

Smart Phone and Charger

Essential for keeping up to date with us and the Internet, and it gives you something to do in the queue for a panel. Always handy to have when on the go and a must if you plan on collecting PAX XP.

Laptop or Tablet

You need something for that downtime back at the Hotel. Catch up on all the days events you may have missed, or share your images and comments with us — or the world — via Facebook, Google+, or Twitter.

Wallet, Money, and ID

A wallet is handy for your cards and money for the drinks and food. Looking at buying some games or merchandise? On the floor, most vendors will have a minimum EFT spend with some not even accepting a card.

You will also need your ID to show your age as some booths are age restricted. You will get a wristband if 18+, so you will not need to flash your ID all the time.

PAX Badge

Keep it on you at all times, it is your pass to awesomeness. If you were not able to buy a badge never fear, you can follow Insert Coin 1P for all the PAX Australia you can handle.

Camera

For recording the tomfoolery of the day's events or creating new memories. Relive the action time and time again.

USB Backup Battery Charger

Power is an in demand commodity, never be left wanting, Need to take that once in a lifetime picture or video? Maybe you need to post a quick selfie? Too bad, your phone is dead.

Haters will hate while you are still kicking on and everyone else powers down or looks for that non-existent power socket.

Twitter Account

You need something to communicate with other unknown attendees. PAX Australia also uses it for queue announcements and other information throughout the show.

Make sure you setup your account and follow us. Add Insert Coin 1P, Daniel, Denny and Troy now.

Snacks

You will need a quick energy boost between meals. Much walking, talking, standing and sitting gets done.

Choose wisely but keep it light. Salt dehydrates but is needed to avoid cramps. Greasy is bad if you plan on touching things. Spicy is good for keeping you mentally awake. A hamburger or two is not a snack.

Water Bottle

Hydration is important and ties in with all of the above. Trust us, you do some walking over the course of the weekend. Drinks are for sale at the convention, but constantly buying drinks at the show will deplete your funds for other activities or merchandise.

Red Bull is everywhere and is a drink but is the enemy of hydration.

The Bag

So how do I take all this stuff with me? A bag. It must be small enough not to be a hindrance, but also big enough to carry everything you need — and may acquire — on a daily basis.

You

Last but not least, your best behavior. Why ruin it for everyone else? You are not the only person there, think of  everyone else.

Remember: Don't be a dick.

So there you have it. If this list only gives you one tip, then it has done its job. We will see you at PAX Australia 2015.

Read More >>

Interview: Alienware Graphics Amplifier with Joe Olmsted

Original image Courtesy of Dell Inc.

At PAX Australia, we had a quick interview with Joe Olmsted — Alienware’s Director of Product Planning — about the new Alienware Graphics Amplifier. This device is not the first of its kind as ASUS released the ASUS XG Station in 2008. The ASUS XG Station connected to a notebook via an ExpressCard slot, required external power, and provided a PCIe 2.0 connection — PCIe 1.0 x16 in reality due to bandwidth limits. While it was able to work with any brand, in theory almost all installations on non-ASUS branded hardware were filled with issues, real world results were somewhat mixed.

ASUS only provided a very select lineup of notebooks that supported the ASUS XG Station. While the idea was similar the ASUS XG Station barely even hit the market — selling only in Australia. The ASUS XG Station shortcomings were bandwidth limitations, a small choice of upgrade options and GPU power. Between its Consumer Electronics Show unveiling in January 2007 and its limited release in May 2008 notebook GPU power almost doubled completely for both the AMD and Nvidia camps. With the retail VGA configuration being the desktop-class Nvidia 8600GT, the ASUS XG Station was nearly 5% slower than the soon to be released notebook-class Nvidia 9800M.

Right product, wrong time.

Alienware — through design or having the appropriate technology this time — seems to have gotten the concept mostly right. The Alienware Graphics Amplifier appears to have resolved the bandwidth issues by using a newer connection bus, which in turn allows greater GPU selection due to the I/O bus bottleneck being removed. Now you can upgrade with the GPU power you want, rather than the GPU power a company offered.

For the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, they started by looking at the power draw from a single VGA card. The final power ceiling they ended up with was 460 watts. "Put any card in there you want. There aren't too many cards going over 460 Watts. Even a Titan Black is not 400 Watts." The PSU contained inside the device — avoiding the need to have a separate power brick — supports either AMD or Nvidia full length, dual-height graphics cards up to 375 Watts.

Unlike the ASUS XG Station, which required a complete shutdown in order to install or remove the device, the Alienware Graphics Amplifier supposedly does not. "The Magic in this is in Software. So the biggest difference is if you pull the plug while it's running your system does not crash. It may seem like a simple thing; however it is a big thing." This is contradictory to what other websites are reporting with claims it also requires a complete shutdown. A real world hands on will allow us to confirm this.

The cable that connects the Alienware Graphics Amplifier to the Alienware 13 has a proprietary Alienware/Dell connector which carries the PCIe interface and also USB from the host machine rather than using a standalone USB controller. This allows the Alienware Graphics Amplifier to provide via a single cable four powered USB 3.0 ports. With monitors attached the VGA output is routed externally to those panels, with nothing connected the notebook display gets the output instead. Currently, the only machine that the Alienware Graphics Adaptor connects to is the new Alienware 13 with both shipping in November 2014.

Pricing for the Alienware 13 starts at US $1599 with the Alienware Graphics Amplifier selling for US $299.99. There is currently no Australian pricing for the Alienware Graphics Amplifier listed on the Alienware website.

Read More >>

Writing Throwback: Halo Wars Preview

I was going through some old documents, and I came across my first written text about video games. It is a preview of Halo Wars on the Xbox 360 which I played at an event being held by Xbox Australia at their Sydney office.

I had the opportunity to play Halo Wars for three hours, and was asked for feedback that Xbox Australia recorded with intentions of using it for promotional material. I have never seen that footage used anywhere, so maybe that "feedback" was intended to be "who has the best soundbite?" Seems no-one did. On to the preview.

Halo Wars Preview

Thursday, February 12 2009

As a console gamer, I never had a chance to play the Real Time Strategy (RTS) genre before and was a bit apprehensive on how Halo Wars would work on a console. This style of gameplay is traditionally only on the PC, so how would it work? Well, very well.

Traditional PC gamers will have to play it for themselves, with most probably not liking this chopped down version of that type of gameplay. For console gamers, this would be an opportunity to dip your toe into the style of gameplay we never really get to sample. Or get done well.

As for the game itself Ensemble Studios have done a great job with the character actions and personalities. They have made it tremendously easy to play on a controller, the thing I was most dreading, and made it with surprisingly engaging gameplay.

The controls are primarily the A and X buttons with each character set possessing a secondary ability activated with the Y button. The campaign features fifteen levels, which I got to play from one to four on heroic difficulty. The first three levels I found were quite easy to complete, but hit a major hurdle on mission four. After only having a short time to sample Halo Wars, it felt like the Artifical Intelligence was actively learning my play style, of which there is none, and was countering it. I acknowledge that this is most likely not the case, but to still get that feeling requires the game to have had a lot of polish.

A few disappointments to note were the fact that the Spartans were not controllable by mission four, but they are playable in later levels. Also, the Achievement Points seemed to be regularly awarded for completing objectives meaning those who play for achievements can unlock a lot quickly, but overall they don't seem to extend the campaigns longevity. That could lead to players playing the single player campaign once and never touching it again, which I feel will be the case.

The group played a few quick multiplayer matches in the 1v1 and 3v3 game modes, with a 2v2 mode being available as well. There are a lot of playable characters for both the UNSC and Covenant, with hints of the Flood making an appearance in the campaign but no confirmation for multiplayer. The maps looked small, but it never felt constricted when playing. A neat gameplay element for multiplayer is the ability to pool resources amongst teammates, which can help players spawned near the enemy which tends to lead to long drawn out skirmishes that limit resource gathering.

Ensemble Studios have created a very slick game designed from the ground up only for the Xbox 360. With my genre of choice primarily being First Person Shooters on both PC and console, I was moved out of my comfort zone. But they did it; they made my transition extremely easy and from what I played made it worthwhile. When I asked if Microsoft was aiming to switch PC players with Halo Wars, I was given a firm "No."

"We are showing players like you what we can create and what a console can do, and to build a variation on the Halo franchise."

The Limited Collectors Edition of Halo Wars will launch with the Mythic Map Pack, but there is no release date for this Downloadable Content for everyone else. When questioned about future DLC packs and the longevity of the game I was told "more DLC will be available soon and expect Halo Wars to be around for years."

Read More >>

PAX Australia 2014 - Feature

On the 31st of October, 2014 we attended the Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX Australia as it's called, in Melbourne. This is the second PAX Australia we have attended and we approached it the same as the first, we flew into Melbourne from Sydney the night before.

As we didn't have Media Badges people are reluctant to talk to you, which is ok as this is the first event we have filmed anyway. We learned quite a lot and think we can do an even better job next year.

Until then enjoy this mini featurette of the floor during PAX Australia 2014.

Music: "The Great" from "Slam Funk" by "Broke For Free" (CC BY 3.0)

Music: "Make It Drums" from "Bonus Beat Blast 2011" by "Daedelus" (CC BY 3.0)

Music: "Biznezz" from "Sketches" by "Jahzzar" (CC BY-SA 3.0)
No Changes Were Made To "Biznezz" by "Jahzzar"

Music: "Calabash" from "Bonus Beat Blast 2011" by "Co.fee" (CC BY 3.0)

Music: "A002" from "Generic Product" by "Monroeville Music Center" (CC BY 3.0)

Music: "The Perfect Planet" from "Choose Your Own Adventure" by "Monroeville Music Center" (CC BY 3.0)

Music: "Simple Hop" from "Slam Funk" by "Broke For Free" (CC BY 3.0)

Read More >>

Kerbal Space Program - Let's Play - Update: 0.24

Update: 0.24

In this video Daniel gives you a quick taste of of the new Update 0.24 for Kerbal Space Program.

This video is not affiliated with Squad or Kerbal Space Program in anyway.

Kerbal Space Program: http://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Copyright © 2013 Squad. All Rights Reserved.

Squad: http://www.squad.com.mx/

Title Music: "Night Owl" from "Directionless EP" by "Broke For Free" (CC BY 3.0)

End Music: "Simple Hop" from "Slam Funk" by "Broke For Free" (CC BY 3.0)

Read More >>

Disney Infinity - Feature - Web Code Redemption

How To Disney Infinity, is a short guide by Denny showing you how to redeem the Webcode in Disney Infinity developed by Avalanche Software and Heavy Iron Studios for Disney Interactive Studios.

This video is not affiliated with Disney or Disney Infinity in anyway.

Disney Infinity: https://infinity.disney.com/

Copyright © 2014 Disney.

Disney: http://www.disney.com/
Disney Interactive: http://www.disneyinteractive.com/
Avalanche Software: http://avalanchesoftware.go.com/
Heavy Iron Studios: http://www.heavy-iron.com/

Title Music: "Night Owl" from "Directionless EP" by "Broke For Free" (CC BY 3.0)

End Music: "Simple Hop" from "Slam Funk" by "Broke For Free" (CC BY 3.0)

Read More >>

About Those Weekly Videos

Testing, testing, 1 2, 1 2. Is this thing on? Yeah, about those weekly videos.

More videos are coming, all three of us are now recording and have gotten the editing process down. Actually, I meant better, we use the tools and stuff betterer.
The best.

Mang.

Expect to see more videos, more consistency and at a better quality. We have almost zero subscribers, but we are getting a bit of inbound traffic so thought it would be good to just add a note to let people know we are still here.

See.

Image: "Goats" by Chase Elliott Clark is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Resized from original.

Read More >>