Today, three geeks desecended upon Leeds for a day of awesome gaming. This is their story.
We convened at the bright and early time of 9.30 to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the Royal Armories for the 11am opening. It was a nasty drizzly day today but that didn’t dampen our spirits, we had the day off and there were games to be played!
My wingmen for the day, Mr Clifford Eve Esq and Sir Benjamin of Brady
We arrived a little early and had to queue for a bit in the drizzle, was worth it though to be close to the front!
And here it is, it’s not a booth layout so don’t be expecting E3 🙂 initially we found it a little underwhelming as the hall was quite small, but there was absolutely tons to play and even more in a second room nearby. No loot sadly but I guess that’s a given seeing as again no developers are present.
First up a bit of Bayonetta, great fun and although similar to Devil May Cry it feels alot more fun and frenetic to play. Can’t wait for the demo on XBL
Heavy Rain, from the creators of Fahrenheit. They’ve certainly been busy, amazing graphics with truly intricate branching storylines – not just your binary choice of good or bad. We spent some time watching people play the demo and each of their outcomes was different – take the store robbery sequence for instance, one person got shot and killed, another just injured, and another overpower the thief and knocked him out. Only bummer for me is it’s a PS3 exclusive.
Dantes Inferno, a God of War clone in almost every sense, orbs, qtes, camera angles, crazy violence, you name it. Not necessarily a bad thing though as it plays great and the source material will make for some interesting levels and bosses.
As one of the 4 people who actually enjoyed the first Red Steel, I was excited as hell the second game was playable at Eurogamer, and I wasn’t disappointed. It looks really tidy for a Wii game(I still think it’s a shame that sentance even has to exist) and the new game mechanics work really well. Sword fighting is still somewhat gesture based but feels natural and responsive.
Strolling around we came across this awesome Forza 3 setup, multi screen goodness!
Time for a bit of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Ben totally destroyed me on this, and there was me thinking my combination of Zero and Frank West would be unstoppable! I love how damage is measured in billions.
Cliff trying out Heavy Rain, the machines kept crashing though!
We were getting pretty peckish by now, so before lunch we decided to head across to see what the other hall had to offer.
Star Trek Online, must never let an MMO destroy my life like World of Warcraft did. The mix of on foot and ship to ship gameplay should make for a pretty damn cool game. Recreate the battle from Wrath of Khan anyone?
NVIDIA were showing off some pretty funky 3D technology, I tried it with Batman Arkham Asylum and it looked great. Things did feel 3d but still looked a little flat, funky glasses though, kudos for not making them look completely ridiculous!
Borderlands, can’t wait to get this and enjoy some 4 player co-op!
We lost Ben to this for some time, can’t remember the name.. God of.. something? 🙂 Absolutely epic as you would expect, and looked pretty much done too so goodness knows why we have to wait till march!
Lunchtime now! There’s an Aagrah nearby so we went there and the lunchtime menu was an absolute steal at £4.50 for a Chicken Platter. So yummy.
EA had a little trailer outside the armories with possibly the biggest screen i’ve ever seen in the flesh running Beatles Rock Band. This picture does it no justice the thing must’ve been at least 60inch!
Moseying back into the main hall we made out way to Super Mario Bros Wii and enjoyed some 4 player co-op with some random dude. This game is fun, but it’s going to destroy alot of friendships as it’s far more fun to gank each other than actually cooperate!
Need for Speed Nitro, think they’ve made a good move going for a cel shaded approach to make the best of the Wii, but waggling to activate nitro is bloody tiring, then again I may just be old!
Cliff headed off after that, so Ben and I decided to have a walk around and see if there was anything we missed or wanted to play again.
Alien vs Predator multiplayer tournament, didn’t even attempt to play. Looks pretty great though and if it’s anything like the original PC game, I’ll be buying.
Both Ben and I got in a little more Dantes Inferno next, and boy did I suck this big nasty boss kept making light work of me! Aftwerwards we watched a little Assasins Creed 2 and got a bit of time hands on with Dark Void(closest i’ll ever come to being the Rocketeer!). We also gave Split Second a go, so fun, the destruction of the levels is grand and chaotic – just when you thought Burnout had made racers as crazy as they could be!
Ben playing MAG. Look at the joy.
As much as I loved playing Uncharted 2, me and Playstation pads don’t get on as the sticks are way too floaty, and what the hell have you done to L2/R2 Sony?!
And there ended our day of geekiness. It’s well worth the admission and i’ll certainly go again next year!