2019 Paxsouth
We are off to a kickoff with Paxsouth 2019 being the most positive filled gaming convention that gamers and folks from all over the US and world came to gather for the weekend. Again, held at the Henry B Gonzalez center.
Darthyday and I (Sir Nick Justice) got to tour the con and find out if this year would leave an impression or leave us unimpressed. Last years convention had us leaving less than momentous as nothing truly stuck out Arena wise. The biggest display was Monster Hunter and even then, I wasn’t still talking about the game afterwards.
Talk about an upgrade – this year with Resident Evil 2 remake being weeks away from release (which is now out), they had a huge front entrance display with a bloodied post-apocalyptic car, memory foam flooring, and shirts for all that demoed. There was even a huge Playstation booth to promote the upcoming game Days Gone which had fake boulders, skinned hanging bodies, beat up looking bear with bike, and a life-size statue of the main character. We even walked out with 2 signatures from the Dev team that worked on it and chatted with!
The rest of the convention brought brand new booths, tons of fun new games to try out for almost every system. New merchandise stores for your sleek new gamer look. Even a hut that was filled with…. Pugs!?.
Security was one of the first things you noticed at the convention as it had about 10+ lanes of metal detectors we had to go through (don’t arrive in full big cosplays just yet). The line was wrapped around the side of the building and if you came the opposite way, you found yourself being in an even longer line and walk just to hop in. Luckily the lines went by quickly as it wasn’t frustrating to get in.
Cosplay was less than forecasted as it appears the culture is switching to more casual cosplays or just overall merch from our favorite series. I too found there was not too many jaw dropping cosplays that could hardly move in the convention. It does seem like overall cosplay is dying or dwindling to a minor scene of attendance. From some topics it also was noted that some cosplayers showed up at the front with or without badge purchase just to show off in the front entrance. There are tons of out of state or city photographers, videographers, and more that are always there to take great footage or photos for cosplay – so the front entrance will be the place to hang.
Overall it felt like the best year since its original debut that left us having Pax blues on Monday as we had a huge haul of freebies that most booths had to offer. We can only hope that it continues to grow, get big game names again for next year, hopefully can start bringing back Nintendo, Blizzard, or even Riot games for a bigger Pax experience like its other shows.
