Eurogamer – The New Guy
By Connor Ainsworth (not Jack Hatcher, as portrayed by folklore and my t-shirt on the day)
With a huge list of over 45 playable new games, several new exciting highly interactive games, countless indie games, hundreds of free Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit t-shirts, and two arcade style Marvel vs. Capcom machines this 2010’s Expo was certain to make even the most hardcore gamers a little hot under the collar, but for one of the newest newcomers to the business, I was feeling more than a trifling trouser movement. Mega stars like Medal of Honour, Gears of War, Fable, Assassin’s Creed, Castlevania, FIFA 2011, and PES 2011 among others, all studded the all star appearance list.
Not knowing what to expect, I arrived early enough on Friday to be able to use my guest pass to the best of its abilities; which means cutting queues and telling everyone that I’m press. In reality, it makes people who say “that guy looks like a noob” and means that I got in a bit before everyone else because the trains are slow. During that time, I managed to get in a couple of games, but I intend the leave the real reviewing to my esteemed colleagues at www.push-start.co.uk.
After the rigmarole of getting past security, no surprising as we are ascending to the crown jewels of modern gaming, proceeding up the Golden Escalator, mesmerised and tantalised by the exciting posters of Dues Ex, and upon reaching the top we have to present our passes again. Suddenly confronted by an hanger sized room, full of all the new games, I ran around like an excited child trying to decide what to play first, whilst my veteran colleague Mr. Harvey jumped on the first thing that confronted him, Fable 3, and by my return, having played nothing, whilst more press were let in, I was to become cameraman for the moment.
Later on, after getting in a good few games, I did what every self respecting person was doing at the time, and got an overpriced hotdog. Brilliant. After doing that, I got in a couple of more games, and what really impressed me on my first day are as follows: Motorstorm Apocalypse, especially in 3D, which really added another dimension to the game! PES 2011 also impressed, though it had a slight lack of well known teams and a rather complicated “command list” in game menu, had brilliant design, gameplay and physics. Playstation Move was an highly anticipated new potential rival for the Nintendo Wii, but when I tested it, I found it to be similarly clumsy, though the graphics were a step up from any other movement based games we have seen. The style of gameplay in The Fight: Lights Out is similar to fighting within a dream. Interviewees said that they believed that the Move would be a true competitor for the Wii but from what I saw, this was not to be. The real star of the highly interactive format was the Xbox Kinect, with its controller-less style of gameplay; this was a true step up in the world. Whilst most found it simple to configure, there were reports of some “body syncing” difficulty. Other games that impressed on the day were FIFA 2011, Gears 3, Medal of Honour, F1 2010, Vanquish and many more.
All in all, my first experience at Eurogamer 2010 was a great one, and it is an experience I will be looking to repeat.