Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Null Newsletter! September is around the corner, kids are back in school, the weather is calming down, and everyone’s gearing up for another lively holiday season of gaming. Before the leaves start falling, though, let’s look at what August had in store for Null.
Come Join Us At PAX West
It’s been another busy month here at Null as we’ve been preparing for our second visit to a PAX this year. This time we’re at PAX West in Seattle, showing off Demon Spore, Streetdog BMX, Athena Crisis, and ChainStaff to the tens of thousands of people who are strolling through the Seattle Convention Center even as we speak. If you’re in the area, please swing by the Null booth to play some games and pick up some swag!
I personally have not been to PAX West since 2019 or so, but I’ve always had a great time whenever I visit Seattle. It’s a lovely city for walking when it’s not pouring rain, so I’m planning to break out my walking shoes and see some of the sights while I’m in town. Obviously I’ll also be at the Null booth for most of the four days of the event, so please come by and say hello!
Athena Crisis Releases September 23rd
As mentioned in the previous newsletter, Null is about to shepherd our first game into the wider world as Athena Crisis will see its 1.0 launch later in September. We’ve been priming the pump for a while now with this as we’ve been issuing monthly development updates, have begun highlighting Community Maps of the Week, creating reviewer’s guides, engaging influencers to play and stream the game, and have been cranking away on a fairly authoritative wiki for Athena Crisis, which will debut sometime very soon.
You can play the Athena Crisis campaign in its beta form if you join Athena Crisis in Early Access right now! If you do, please swing by the official Discord to give its developer feedback on the difficulty level or any roadblocks you come across. I’m still working my way through the campaign myself and having a heck of a time with some of the more challenging maps, but the fun part of Athena Crisis is overcoming a difficult map after rethinking your strategies and tactics. You can purchase the game on Steam right now if you want to give it a whirl, and if you do, please leave us a review!
ETCETERA
I’ve been digging into Star Wars: Outlaws this week as it hit in Early Access just before we all headed to PAX. I am generally a fan of the Ubisoft formula for games (also really looking forward to Assassin’s Creed: Shadows later this year), and more specifically I am still playing way too much Division 2, also by Massive Entertainment. Division 2 is still one of the best-looking games on my PC, despite being over five years old at this point, and it’s no shocker that Outlaws is similarly pretty stunning on my 4080. (I should really get around to that Avatar game they made as well.) So far it’s pretty neat, even if it features a bit more sneaking and less shooting than I would like, but I’ll take it. While I have my gaming laptop here at PAX, I think I’ll wait to get back home to my 21:9 monitor before playing much more.
Honestly, I’m cycling between a lot of games right now, with Outlaws, Division 2, Diablo IV, Tactical Breach Wizards, Tetrachroma, To The Stars, and, of course, Athena Crisis all taking some turns in the rotation on my computer. It’s good to have a lot of games to choose from, and there are plenty more games coming out over the next few months to look forward to as well. It’s an embarrassment of riches; too bad there are only so many hours in a day.
Your Pup of the Month is Apollo! True to his namesake, he rides his chariot all over the place! Don’t fly too close to the sun, Apollo!
