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Eurogamer Expo 2013 is this month! - September 26th-29th

Baleoce

Member
Day 3:Went to the Witcher 3 planel, was interesting. They basically kept taking pot shots at Skyrim the whole time, and it's obvious they are aware of the challenge of building an open world but trying to produce a great story at the same time.

I'll be honest, I was really disappointed in the Witcher 3 talk. He wasted a lot of time. Threw around buzzwords like "open, dynamic, immersive". I think I'm completely desensitized to those words now. Took pot shots at things like WoW, Skyrim. And then for most of the Q+A he was just saying "damn, I wish I had a developer here who could answer that". And it was over before I could blink. Learned very little about the game itself. I was expecting a CD Projekt RED talk to be much more insightful than that.
 

RetroDLC

Foundations of Burden
Last time I went to Excel was for an anime convention. How much bigger is it?

I've been to almost every MCM Expo at ExCel since 2009, the place is massive. If you can manage the full walk down the central hallway you'll notice how many halls they have and the amount of other shows that are going on at the same time. Here's some random pics I found on Google to show the scale of events the venue can hold.

20120526-Show_JCrawford-04.jpeg


boatshow.jpg

MCM Expo usually takes up the upper left quarter of this map for the main floor and the queuing.

 
I'll be honest, I was really disappointed in the Witcher 3 talk. He wasted a lot of time. Threw around buzzwords like "open, dynamic, immersive". I think I'm completely desensitized to those words now. Took pot shots at things like WoW, Skyrim. And then for most of the Q+A he was just saying "damn, I wish I had a developer here who could answer that". And it was over before I could blink. Learned very little about the game itself. I was expecting a CD Projekt RED talk to be much more insightful than that.

Saying there won't be any fetch quests for an open world game is a huge deal for me.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
Saying there won't be any fetch quests for an open world game is a huge deal for me.

That's what I took from it too. I felt they showed that they showed their realisation of the challenges of creating an open world rpg of such a huge scale and the problems of creating a complex story alongside that.
 

homez99

Member
There used to be two pure gaming events at the Excel back in the old days: EGN (the press show) and Game Stars Live (the consumer show). They were basically one overall event as they ran at the same time, with the press show in one hall and the consumer show in another hall. I went as press and it was quite good. Back then, there wasn't as many games to get massively hyped about so the consumer hall was really spread out and had nonsensical things like a half-pipe as well as a double-decker bus.

I definitely think Eurogamer should go there in the future. With the sheer numbers they can pull in, they should be able to fund it. There's no way I can go to it these days at Earl's Court, the queues are insane.
 

Raitaro

Member
I was going to comment saying I was there when you won, but then that other guy had to swing in saying he was the frickin' commentator. Oh well, congrats on the win, looked like a sick race.

Sorry for the late reaction, but I was present as well when he won the cup. Wow, we had quite a Gaf gathering going on there. Maybe we should start wearing Gaf shirts to these kind of events so we can recognize each other (though that wouldn't really fit with the underground "we are everywhere but you can't see us" vibe that this place sometimes gives off).

As for the expo itself: as with most of these busy events, I start to feel a bit miserable as soon as see crowds of people seemingly having more fun than myself. I was there on Friday with the misses (a selective gamer at best - meaning she only plays select franchises such as Mario Kart, Fire Emblem and Harvest Moon), and found the whole experience a bit unpleasant. While there were plenty of games to try, I always catch myself thinking why I should bother myself with standing in hour long queues when I just as well can wait until a game is released (and go home to play GTA 5).

So please enlighten me Gaf: why are people generally that strongly invested in being able to play games early that they brave long queues and busy floors where others are breathing down their neck while they play?

I did manage to play Super Mario 3d World (good old fashioned fun, though a bit hectic due to the multiplayer), Mario Kart 8 (nice, but very predictable depite the nice looking courses and vehicle transformations), Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (plays great, but even on the small screen it simply misses a well defined art style or atmosphere; everything is just a bit too plastic looking imo), but that was pretty much it. I did stroll around the floor multiple times and watched pretty much all games get played extensively (the absolute highlight for me being Dark Souls II, though admittedly Titanfall looked cool as well).

The biggest disappointment was that I somehow managed to not get a Xbox One or PS4 controller in my hands due to the queues and my general disinterest while there. I was hoping to at least see Killer Instinct in real life as well but some idiot decided to put that game beind closed curtains together with most Xbone games so that was a no go (and standing in line for a game I can't play well at all seemed wrong somehow).

Overall, a mixed bag for me in other words and probably the last expo I will visit for a while, at least without gaming buddies (which I don't have). The fault must lay with me and my lack of will to play things early (or in front of others, which I don't like particularly either) / psychological issues regarding self confidence and worrying, but in general the queues seemed a bit too much as well.

Glad some of you here did enjoy it though.
 

Mikeside

Member
Sorry for the late reaction, but I was present as well when he won the cup. Wow, we had quite a Gaf gathering going on there. Maybe we should start wearing Gaf shirts to these kind of events so we can recognize each other (though that wouldn't really fit with the underground "we are everywhere but you can't see us" vibe that this place sometimes gives off).

As for the expo itself: as with most of these busy events, I start to feel a bit miserable as soon as see crowds of people seemingly having more fun than myself. I was there on Friday with the misses (a selective gamer at best - meaning she only plays select franchises such as Mario Kart, Fire Emblem and Harvest Moon), and found the whole experience a bit unpleasant. While there were plenty of games to try, I always catch myself thinking why I should bother myself with standing in hour long queues when I just as well can wait until a game is released (and go home to play GTA 5).

So please enlighten me Gaf: why are people generally that strongly invested in being able to play games early that they brave long queues and busy floors where others are breathing down their neck while they play?

I did manage to play Super Mario 3d World (good old fashioned fun, though a bit hectic due to the multiplayer), Mario Kart 8 (nice, but very predictable depite the nice looking courses and vehicle transformations), Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (plays great, but even on the small screen it simply misses a well defined art style or atmosphere; everything is just a bit too plastic looking imo), but that was pretty much it. I did stroll around the floor multiple times and watched pretty much all games get played extensively (the absolute highlight for me being Dark Souls II, though admittedly Titanfall looked cool as well).

The biggest disappointment was that I somehow managed to not get a Xbox One or PS4 controller in my hands due to the queues and my general disinterest while there. I was hoping to at least see Killer Instinct in real life as well but some idiot decided to put that game beind closed curtains together with most Xbone games so that was a no go (and standing in line for a game I can't play well at all seemed wrong somehow).

Overall, a mixed bag for me in other words and probably the last expo I will visit for a while, at least without gaming buddies (which I don't have). The fault must lay with me and my lack of will to play things early (or in front of others, which I don't like particularly either) / psychological issues regarding self confidence and worrying, but in general the queues seemed a bit too much as well.

Glad some of you here did enjoy it though.

For me it's worth it because I meet other gamers (mostly gaffers) and we have fun chatting in queues then get to play upcoming games, talk to developers etc. So I guess it's more of a social thing IMO.
 

Mr. Sam

Member
I thought Wolfenstein was appallingly bad - dull corridor shooter with nothing unique to it and a sack of rough edges. Not worth the playtime.

Titanfall, on the other hand, was almost worth the two hour wait.
 
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