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#EGX London 2014 || The Event Formerly known as Eurogamer Expo

Z

Zoibie

Member
Overall it was a pretty cool first day. Tried the Oculus for the first time with Alien Isolation and I immediately wanted to go back round for a second go. Forgive the trite impressions but it really did feel like entering another world. It's so effective that it makes the momentary parts where control is taken away from you incredibly jarring, like when entering a cupboard to hide from the alien or when trying to look down for a better view of the motion tracker. It obviously has some way to go in terms of ergonomics and screen tech but it's made me vastly more excited to try crescent bay whenever I get the chance.

I left Lords of the Fallen with mixed impressions. I really enjoyed the gameplay -Dark Souls inspired but with its own kind of pace and feel. Some presentation issues prevented me from falling in love with it though. Like the poster above said, the framerate and controller lag made the combat pretty unweildy at times, especially when circle strafing enemies to get around their defences. But I did want to play more when I finished, and I got a tshirt for getting to the boss which was nice.

Didn't get to much else but I definitely need to go back to the indie area tomorrow. Virginia seemed intriguing but I didn't play too much of it and Envirogolf... well, you should check it out. The elevator pitch is moral, semi-serious, text adventure golf game. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it but it's certainly unique.

Also we tried looking everywhere for Bloodborne but we couldn't find it. Is it where The Order and Until Dawn are being shown?
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Would you people honestly suggest I arrive there tomorrow at 8? If I'm early, wouldn't I have to wait 2 hours standing or sitting down anyway?

Maybe I have to ask myself if I'm that desperate to be early to play Sunset Overdrive, Order, Bloodborne, or Shadow of Mordor; 2/4 I feel lukewarm on already.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
Hope you got your picture with the keyblade guys!

The whole day I felt like it was easy peasy to stand all day and hold DA KEY, but the moment I walked out that door I felt the pain in my legs and shoulders lol.
1904193_10152803795673783_1369534842937691425_n.jpg



I'll be around tomorrow in FFXIV cosplay. If I'm still alive. Wishing you all a good recovery!


P.S.: Hello random person who came to the booth and said Hi .... who are you again? :D
 
S

Seanspeed

Banned
legacyzero said:
No.... No.... I refuse to believe...

This game looks so good tho :(
Click to expand...
I still think it does. A 6 minute demo of an open-world game like this probably isn't a great way to get the best representation of it. Even so, I felt it was promising. Much depends on the rest of the game, mission design, sense of progress, depth in mechanics, etc.

Zoibie said:
Also we tried looking everywhere for Bloodborne but we couldn't find it. Is it where The Order and Until Dawn are being shown?
Click to expand...
Yup.
 
W

wanderingprostheyltite

Member
Zoibie said:
Overall it was a pretty cool first day. Tried the Oculus for the first time with Alien Isolation and I immediately wanted to go back round for a second go. Forgive the trite impressions but it really did feel like entering another world. It's so effective that it makes the momentary parts where control is taken away from you incredibly jarring, like when entering a cupboard to hide from the alien or when trying to look down for a better view of the motion tracker. It obviously has some way to go in terms of ergonomics and screen tech but it's made me vastly more excited to try crescent bay whenever I get the chance.

I left Lords of the Fallen with mixed impressions. I really enjoyed the gameplay -Dark Souls inspired but with its own kind of pace and feel. Some presentation issues prevented me from falling in love with it though. Like the poster above said, the framerate and controller lag made the combat pretty unweildy at times, especially when circle strafing enemies to get around their defences. But I did want to play more when I finished, and I got a tshirt for getting to the boss which was nice.

Didn't get to much else but I definitely need to go back to the indie area tomorrow. Virginia seemed intriguing but I didn't play too much of it and Envirogolf... well, you should check it out. The elevator pitch is moral, semi-serious, text adventure golf game. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it but it's certainly unique.

Also we tried looking everywhere for Bloodborne but we couldn't find it. Is it where The Order and Until Dawn are being shown?
Click to expand...

I take it was the DK2 they were demoing it on?
 
S

Seanspeed

Banned
wanderingprostheyltite said:
I take it was the DK2 they were demoing it on?
Click to expand...
Yea. There were three booths with Rift setups(Oculus, Elite:Dangerous and Nvidia), all of them with DK2. So no DK1's thankfully but no Crescent Bay's, either.

Koriandrr said:
Were any of you guys at the Witcher presentation?

It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Poster's okay... I still want a t-shirt, but I'm even more hyped about this game now. If that's possible. Loved the music!
Click to expand...
Damn, I'm jealous.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
Were any of you guys at the Witcher presentation?

It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Poster's okay... I still want a t-shirt, but I'm even more hyped about this game now. If that's possible. Loved the music!
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Koriandrr said:
Were any of you guys at the Witcher presentation?

It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Poster's okay... I still want a t-shirt, but I'm even more hyped about this game now. If that's possible. Loved the music!
Click to expand...

Pics of the poster? I don't mind free posters. I have Destiny (meh) and Alien Isolation (great) ones from past EGXs.

Going to see that Quantum Break presentation.
 
OsirisBlack

OsirisBlack

Banned
Loving all of the impressions from the show seems to vary greatly from the general consensus on twitter though. Been tracking the games at this show pretty closely.
 
legacyzero

legacyzero

Banned
Koriandrr said:
Hope you got your picture with the keyblade guys!

The whole day I felt like it was easy peasy to stand all day and hold DA KEY, but the moment I walked out that door I felt the pain in my legs and shoulders lol.
1904193_10152803795673783_1369534842937691425_n.jpg



I'll be around tomorrow in FFXIV cosplay. If I'm still alive. Wishing you all a good recovery!


P.S.: Hello random person who came to the booth and said Hi .... who are you again? :D
Click to expand...

i8aqW7cdjejbF.gif
 
J

Jofamo

Member
I went along to the Thursday, as a last minute kind of thing as the day passes were still available. I'm almost entirely a Nintendo only gamer these days, as nothing has really grabbed my attention on the next generation systems so far, so most of my time was spent at the Nintendo booth.

I heard prior to the event that Nintendo we're hosting Smash Bros tournaments all day, with limited edition 3DS XLs as prizes. So after a few days of brushing up on my game with the demo, the first thing I did when I got in at 10am was head over to their booth to find out how to enter. You had to line up to play Smash Bros 3DS in groups of four, at specific times of the day, as "Qualifiers" for he tournaments which were held live on stage at half past every hour.

I unfortunately lost my first qualifier match to a guy who played Zero Suit Samus. He went on to win his semi final, and then the 11:30am final itself, so I can't feel too bad, he deserved it.

With renewed determination, I went for the next round of qualifiers. Amazingly I won this match, and so I was sent up on stage with seven other winners for the semis at 12:30. With a bit of help from an X-bomb and a Assist Trophy, I was thrilled to win my semifinal, playing as Link.

So then the final encounter, myself and the other winner from the other semifinal match. We both picked Link. Tensions were high. I was holding on alright, but he obviously was more experienced in competitive Smash Bros than I. I got a final smash in though, which raised alot of cheers. Unfortunately, a mistimed down airial sent my falling to my own doom, leaving me one point behind with seconds on the clock. With 10 seconds on the clock, a home run bat spawned. I grabbed it, charged the smash and was literally 2 seconds away from hitting him out the park for a draw. Just as the bat neared Link's face, the dreaded TIME rang and I lost.

It was a great experience, and although I ended up disappointed I had a lot of fun.

I tried a handful of other games. Splatoon was up for play, with 4v4 teams, and I have to say it was my game of the show. It was really solid fun, great mechanics.

Captain Toad and Kirbys Rainbow Curse were as charming as they look. Sonic Boom, both 3DS and Wii U were pretty awful, sadly. I seen a lot of kids getting frustrating at the latter versions loose controls and camera.

I had a shot of Alien Isolation at the PS4 both, it being one of the only games I'm really interested in for next gen. I left impressed. It was brutally difficult, and really tense.

Also in that area was The Evil Within. I didn't care for this one much to be honest. The frame rate was all over the place, really bad at times. It played almost exactly like Resident Evil 4, which was a positive, but ammo was so scarce that I couldn't even get past the first two enemies without dying a lot.

Also tried some Destiny multiplayer, Infamous First Light and more that I forget now. Didn't try anything at the Xbox booth, as the lines were crazy and all I cared for was the Master Chief Collection and Sunset Overdrive, both of which has about 30min+ lines each time I passed by.
 
M

MmmSkyscraper

Unconfirmed Member
I forgot to throw in a massive fuck you to the Turtle Beach stand with their ear splitting noise. The muppet on the MS stand shouting about FIFA too.
 
B

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
Decided to attend in Free! cosplay. Hopefully turning up in just a pair of pants is allowed.
 
S

Savantcore

Unconfirmed Member
Messofanego said:
Would you people honestly suggest I arrive there tomorrow at 8? If I'm early, wouldn't I have to wait 2 hours standing or sitting down anyway?

Maybe I have to ask myself if I'm that desperate to be early to play Sunset Overdrive, Order, Bloodborne, or Shadow of Mordor; 2/4 I feel lukewarm on already.
Click to expand...

This is mainly the reason I've never been. The hours of standing around, sweating out in a busy expo just doesn't seem worth playing a ten minute pre-alpha demo. All the cool swag people get, though...
 
B

bequietdrive

Member
Working the COD stall, I have a few queue skip passes so if you see a ginger guy running the game and say gaf to me I'll try and sort you out.
 
K

King_Moc

Banned
Just played Alien, was ok, but I was essentially just dying over and over again. 2hr queue at Evolve the guy, so I'm waiting for The Evil Within instead.
 
R

Ricky_R

Member
Seanspeed said:
Yea, I guess so! Just realized you guys were having one with this thread.

Really shouldn't spend too much more money, but fuck it.


Nope, which was a big disappointment for me.

Ok, here's my full day run-down:

- First off, I had an 11AM ticket and got there a little after 10. The line outside was already huge and it *at least* doubled before they started processing people. Not letting people in, but just processing you, so you get your wristband and everything. They had it so about half of us actually were actually able to get in just after 11. So I wouldn't worry too much about being 2 hours early or anything(maybe its different for the 10AM, tickets, I dunno). So all that was better than expected.

- My very first stop, before even looking around, was the Oculus booth. Wait time was about 40 minutes(this was early, remember, the lines got much longer later on). They had Lucky's Tale, Alien Isolation and Eve Valkyrie but you didn't get a choice. I ended up with Lucky's Tale, which was alright with me. This is a cartoon-ish 3D platformer ala Ratchet or Mario 64. The game itself was very simple, not terribly exciting. But what was absolutely *amazing* about the experience was how it puts any fear to rest about non-first person games not being viable in VR. If Nintendo or some other quality developer gave it a shot, it would be staggering. No joke, it was a revelation how good it worked. Was also my first experience with the DK2, which I thought was brilliant. Looked decent(a lot better than DK1), could obviously see where there's room for improvement, but positional tracking rocks. ZERO discomfort in terms of motion sickness.

- Project Cars(XB1) - I'm a sim racing fan and it was my first hands-on with this game. Was excited. Wait time was about 5 minutes. Looked ok from farther away, but on the XB1, it was a little rough looking up close, with noticeable aliasing issues. I suppose cuts had to be made to hit 60fps, which it at least seemed to succeed in. Playability wise, I didn't have a good time and I wasn't sure how much to blame that on the game. There was no option to adjust steering sensitivity and I felt it was way too high for me, and I literally struggled to keep the car going in a straight line. The somewhat lighter sticks of the XB1 were not helping. Otherwise, I did feel that my car was appropriately losing control though, which was a good sign that there was something working properly underneath. More on Project Cars later, though.

- Elite: Dangerous(PC) - This actually had a nice little setup fairly close to the entrance, which probably gained it some good attention. Wait time was about 30 minutes. They had both 4k monitor *and* Oculus Rift setups. I waited a little extra for the VR experience. It was damn cool. I was rubbish at it, but had a blast simply by exploring the cockpit and staring at space and asteroids and whatnot. The demo'er kept trying to help me out to kill my target and I seriously just wanted to fly around for a bit. Did eventually take out my target. Once again, VR was awesome.

- Lords of the Fallen(PS4) - No wait time. The difficulty is definitely there. If it does anything right in comparison to the Souls games, I think they have probably got this part down. I probably would have needed quite a few tries to get through the demo. The game looked quite nice(I don't mind the art style), but it definitely had performance issues. Guessing it was running low-mid 20's, which would be unplayable for me if the final release was like that. Hopefully its not.

- Lunch. Hot dog lady. Wait time, about 2 minutes. Ordered a chili dog. Apparently that means something different in the UK cuz all I got was a hot dog with kebab shop-style chili sauce on it. Would not recommend.

- Dying Light(XB1) - Wait time about 20 minutes. It was a fairly closed demo, but I think its highly promising. I know zombies have been done to death and open-world zombie games almost just as much, but I thought it looked quite good, the traversal mechanics worked well and it was fun bashing the zombies or evading them. There wasn't any night-time, so I didn't get to see the zombies get all crazy and aggressive, so that was a shame, but otherwise, I think I'm actually looking forward to this one now. At least keeping a closer eye on it.

- Far Cry 4(PS4) - Wait time about 20 minutes. I'm still looking forward to the game, but the demo was pretty shit. All you could do was attack this little outpost with a machine gun and a shotgun at your disposal(and an elephant). Was fun for a couple minutes, but eh. I enjoy Far Cry for its open-world aspects and this showed off *none* of that. So anyways, once you 'win' the outpost, you get the option to replay it but either with a sneak-orientated loadout or with the little flying device plus a grenade launcher. I couldn't figure out the flying controls very well and the novelty of the flying wore off since you were essentially still doing the same thing as before - attacking the same outpost. This demo ran a very good length of time and was the only one where I honestly wished it would have ended sooner.

- The Evil Within(PS4) - Wait time was a little over an hour. They do you in big batches, so often feel like you're just standing there forever, but you do at least get to play the game for a good length of time. I *highly* recommend people go check this out regardless of the long wait. I'd seen a little bit of this game before, but this is the first time I've really believed the hype about it being good, old-school survival horror. It looked pretty good, had a really great atmosphere and the little bits of combat I got into were tense. Ammo was properly scarce and it seems like sneaking will play a bit part in this, which makes a ton of sense and I'm surprised it hasn't been used more in survival horror games. Really think this could be a surprise hit if the full game holds up.

- Bloodborne(PS4) - Wait time was about 30 minutes, surprisingly. The same queue also had The Order and Until Dawn, which could be played much quicker as the attendants were moving people forward for those games(a good 80% were there to play Bloodborne). For the game, I thought it was pretty much expectations met for me. Plays like a Souls game without a shield and a little bit faster. Art style is great, but the graphics aren't necessarily super exciting compared to other games coming out. Framerate wasn't too hot, either. Again, hoping that gets ironed out. Has your typical Souls-like level design, with being able to open shortcuts and different route choices and whatnot to explore. I liked it. Like with many demos, I'm sure its not doing the full game justice whatsoever.

- DriveClub(PS4) - Wait time about 5 minutes. I mean, it looks good. Really good. But the surprise for me was how it felt. It has good weight to it, its responsive, and while extremely forgiving by my sim racing standards, will still provide a good challenge for most people, I think. The courses are really long as we've seen, and there's good variety as you drive through them, giving you a good sense of 'going somewhere'. Only complaint was absolutely laughable rubberband AI. I totally ripped through the AI and was miles faster than them, but once in the lead, the 2nd place guy suddenly stuck on my tail and then just zoomed by me before the finish in a straight line like it suddenly had an extra 300hp or something. Totally not exaggerating that, either. I honestly laughed out loud when it happened. Still, this game will be great.

- Project Cars(PC) - Wait time was zero. This was at Nvidia's booth. This time I played the game, it was with the Shield controller and on a 4k monitor. It looked stupendous. Super clarity. Couldn't find even a *hint* of aliasing. But the game felt completely different than on the XB1. I was driving a different car this time, but honestly, the sensitivity felt just right and I could actually drive with some confidence. I really liked the Shield controller. A perfectly good rip of the Xbox design and there's no shame in that.

- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel(PC) - Wait time zero. Also at Nvidia's booth. They gave you an overleveled character to play with and it was fun. I like Borderlands and playing around with the laser weapons and low gravity and whatnot, I definitely feel this is a worthy game and not just a thoughtless cash-in. The main deal here though was what I played it on. As good as the 4k monitor looked with Project Cars, I think I fell in love with Asus' ROG Swift. It is 1440p/144hz with Gsync. I have never felt anything so god damn buttery smooth in my life. WOW. I need it. I absolutely need it.

- Eve Valkyrie(PC) - Wait time about 15 minutes. Again at Nvidia's booth. Using Oculus Rift. *Star of the Show* for me, hands down. It was a 1 vs 1 dogfight with the person next to you. I couldn't have cared less about that. The VR experience was just awe-inspiring. It looked magnificent and I don't think I, for one second, ever thought about anything like resolution or framerate or anything of the sort - it all just worked and you could focus on the amazing experience. The controls(using the Shield controller again) were super easy to work with and I felt like a pro flying it pretty quickly, doing close maneuvers with asteroids and the space station, all which looked brilliant. I did a slow circle of an asteroid and just couldn't believe how good it looked. I did eventually start getting shot at and I finally relented and got on with the job at hand, and it was a fun little rivalry between the two of us, both of us having periods of being the pursuer and getting in some good damage. But just overall, man, the VR. It was mind-blowing.

- Splatoon(Wii U) - Wait time about 10 minutes, although this was about 30 minutes before the end of the show, so that might not be representative. Its a really fun game. Looks great, plays great, genuinely competitive feeling, I can see this being a hit when it comes out.

So that was pretty much it. I did get a good *look* at quite a few other games like Sunset Overdrive(looks like a ton of fun), Shadows of Mordor(the same), Dragon Age(looks good, but don't know much about the game), and more, but I'm happy with the amount I covered. Overall, I must say, I came away with an even more reaffirmed belief that VR is the most exciting thing happening in gaming. And if you *really* aren't into VR, then at least there's a wealth of other great games coming out. I'm totally hyped about The Evil Within now, for example.

It was a long day of standing in line after line after line. I'm not even sure its right to say I had a great time. I'm glad I went, but I really did spend like 90%+ of my time just queuing and I'm not built for that. It felt more like a really informative experience more than a fun day. So anyways, hope this was interesting for somebody to read!

TL;DR - I went to a game expo.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed impressions seanspeed. Was The Order there? If so, were you able to play it?
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Emouse said:
Ah nice thanks, I was considering printing that one out for quick reference
Click to expand...

honestly its pretty small. Playstation, Nintendo and MS in a line down the middle, other guys off to the sides, indies upstairs.

Get the big stuff out of the way as early as possible before queues form (and then check back at the end of the day just in case they're quieting down), and then use the indies as filler (sorry indies, but it is way less busy upstairs)
 
I

IAmRandom31

Banned
There is a serious lack of Galak-Z impressions in here.

Also assault android cactus. I must know! I am purposefully acting as if the PC version doesn't exist.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
IAmRandom31 said:
There is a serious lack of Galak-Z impressions in here.

Also assault android cactus. I must know! I am purposefully acting as if the PC version doesn't exist.
Click to expand...

The former is ok but the build on show was a bit janky and it is only one one station a bit hidden away.

Assault Android Cactus was a lot of fun. They have it out in the open on the Sony stand with beanbags to sit at. You can play one or two players (looks like two players would be really crowded though unless it zooms out a lot). Difficult to get a proper feel for a twin stick shooter in a short time but it controlled fine, and looked great with some nice lighting effects on some levels.
 
F

Fergie

Banned
Alien isolation is quite amazing. Just preordered as well. Immersion and graphics is just brilliant.

AC: Rogue, definitely pass material. Same old.

Enjoyed Driveclub more than Project Cars, but it was a small tease nothing concrete.
Far Cry 4 is ok. Enjoyable.
 
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