The Eurogamer Expo at London was the first time I’d actually been to the
festival since its establishment. I was very surprised by the amount of stuff
on display there, and the atmosphere was amazing. The hall was abuzz with so
much activity and it was hard to imagine anyone not finding at least one thing
to interest them.
Personally, I was looking forward to seeing previews of Final Fantasy XIII-2
and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, as those two were the only ones I was aware of
actually being there. Walking around the place revealed a lot more than I
thought. There were also previews of two HD Classics collections for the
PlayStation 3 console, both of which I was interested in buying: Metal Gear
Solid HD Collection, as well as Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection.
Seeing them play on the right screen revealed them to be astonishingly
beautiful, despite being from a console that was now obsolete in today’s
market.
It only solidified that desire to get the games
upon release. It also brought to my attention the demand for HD collections of
PlayStation 2 games for the PlayStation 3 market, since the original DVDs are
incompatible with the new system. I’m also aware of more HD Collections
upcoming, and it seems they are going to sell well. Even though it’s impossible
to play the originals on the system, Sony are clearly reaching out to the large
proportion of fans who want their earlier favourites to stay alive in the midst
of the competition of today’s games. Myself, I’m one of those people, and these
HD collections prove that these games are still beautiful and relevant today
despite the higher specs of modern games.
The
demand for Skyrim was so high, that the queue was quite possibly the longest
there. It would’ve been almost impossible to play Skyrim AND get around the
rest of the Expo. The other game that was almost as popular was Battlefield 3.
I’m not a fan of shooters though, despite their popularity today.
I
managed to find Final Fantasy XIII-2 and play on it! As with most Square Enix
titles nowadays, certain aspects of the gameplay were unfamiliar, others
completely alien to me. To that end, I was playing but not completely
understanding what I was doing. Although the game seemed a lot smoother than its
predecessor and seemed a whole bunch more fun, some of the gameplay elements
were confusing, especially as when I was playing, someone else had come off of
it and I was in the middle of someone else’s game. Despite that minor
disappointment, Square Enix’s new game certainly looks like it has been
tailored to please the fans of the Final Fantasy series, unlike its predecessor
which was a little too linear.
Another game which caught my attention was Rayman: Origins. The Rayman series
had begun to die slightly, until the ‘Rabbids’ characters were added. The
transition to 3D didn’t help the series, as the original game was in 2D. This
new instalment is clearly harkening to the fans of the original as it is now in
retro 2D style, rendered in HD graphics. The game does look quite entertaining,
especially as I loved the original a lot and the developers built a highly
intuitive engine to run the game in, which apparently eases pressure on
developers of games as they can take an artistic approach to designing graphics
rather than a programming standpoint.
I was
surprised when I noticed Silent Hill: Downpour at the Expo, as I was unaware it
would be there. Naturally, I had to play it simply as survival horror is one of
my favourite genres alongside RPGs, and for the fact that I have every
instalment of the Silent Hill series. I was waiting for the release of this for
a long time since it was announced, and playing it was quite an experience. The
graphics were very good and the theme of rain and water in the game was
suitably creepy as it seemed the entire environment and even the monsters were
slicked with rainwater. Playing it with other people around though detracted
from the impact of course, as Silent Hill games are kind of meant to be experienced
alone.
Another horror game I found there, but I didn’t try out, was Rise of
Nightmares. It was first-person survival horror specifically designed for the
Xbox 360’s Kinect system. The person playing it literally had to punch and stab
enemies using their hands. Although to me, the game didn’t seem to be that
scary, it was a little disturbing to think people would have to punch and stab
with their hands to play the game, especially if a child were to play it
(despite the age rating, children can get hold of it via their parents).
I
attended one of the talks about the recent re-release of ‘The Witcher 2’. It
was interesting as the developers were a relatively new company, fresh from the
indie stage basically. They announced their decision to release the game on the
Xbox 360 console with special features, as well as updating their PC version
with the new updates. I felt a little down as I’d seen a friend play the game
and the graphics, gameplay and story seemed absolutely flawless to me, but my
laptop was not powerful enough to run the game. I felt it was unfair that they
were releasing it for Xbox 360, yet not for the PlayStation 3. Another audience
member felt the same and asked the developers why they had chosen to ignore the
PlayStation 3 console in favour of the Xbox, who replied that because they were
a relatively small company, they wanted to branch out slowly and they felt that
releasing the game on too many consoles would be risky. It was nice to hear a
valid excuse for the decision, rather than come away with the impression that
the ‘Xbox vs PS3’ argument would be stoked even further.
All
in all, the trip was a great experience and a good chance to see how game
companies advertise and think about their products. It was also my first-time
experience of a fully-fledged gaming event, and to be in that atmosphere with
such like-minded people was quite breath-taking as I'd felt it was something I
only enjoyed by myself. It made me realise just how diverse and communal the
whole game world is, and it was a very important lesson for me.
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