Eurogamer Expo 2011 – Live

34 thoughts on “Eurogamer Expo 2011 – Live”

1. First post! I am sitting at my work desk and dreaming of the expo.

2. And so it begins! Well, sort of, but still…

3. Okay so just in time I find out Terry Cavanagh’s game is a two-player jobby. Last year I rushed to the indie arcade as soon as I entered and found hardly anybody there (except for Kieron Gillen who was Scoregasm’ing away). So I don’t think I should make Terry’s game my first target…

4. You should switch IDs with Kieron (potentially by force, make The Daily Mail proud).

5. Also, make sure to make multiple pictures with Kerry Turner as if you are in high school, meaning serious, silly, and mirror photos. Then add funny mustaches in MSPaint.

6. And lo, he braved the morning screams of children and escaped the horrors of the front door goodbye. He beginneth a journey and almost missed his train.

7. Arrived at site. There are tanks outside. Security is tight this year.

8. okay the queue is way longer than last year and I should have just gone to the queue as soon as I arrived. Jesus its long. Its the length of a lever that could be used to move the earth.

9. Still queuing.

10. In. Feels larger and more spacious and less like a womb full of screaming octuplets.

11. Played really big sky in the indie games arcade. Tricky to get the hang of. Especially as you first realise you have to drill when a planet crashes into your face. Controls felt a bit light.
    But had fun once I got the hang of it.I looked awesome playing.

12. Now in the Id Presentation. Watching video of their history in games.

13. Tim willets would like people to know he is not bashing nintendo. But doom legitimized shareware and also brought the blood and guts into gaming.

    Dear god, tim, what did you do?

14. I should read up on my history. Tim was not in the company when they made doom. The blood in gaming is not his fault. He was the minnesota school mascot.

    Now talking about how important quake was for making true 3D a reality.

15. “Quake popularised gamer nicknmaes” but I don’t think so – this is highly connected to the hacker nicks of the previous decade. It was hacker culture gone large.

16. So we just saw a quick rage demo which was all about multiple ways to kill. Even though I’ve not played many recent shooters I find myself underwhelmed, like things haven’t moved on. It looks beautiful though although I did feel a bit of cloverfield sickness oddly. Got showed secret wolfenstein room which I admit looked great, think of the system shock 2 recreation but with greater contrast. There’s a doom and quake room in there too apparently.

17. Also tried molecat twist which has a lemmings heritage. I don’t think it exhibits well… Got a bit frustrated when my molecats kept having to run the same route again and again because I didn’t get things set up right. May be better with some quiet time alone.

18. Shit we have booth babes. Confirmed. If I mention who uses them does that create bad publicity or simply publicity?

    Indie arcade still a bit small – actually a squeeze, cphgc’s button would fail here – and sat next to incredibly deafening just dance platform.

19. Just had a brief chat with terry vvvvvv cavanagh since alec meer is hogging the game. I hope to chat to him later after playing – its one of those games that you should play and talk to the dev afterwards…

20. This is a fantastic idea HM! Keep ’em coming.

21. Eating. A restaurant? Was this here last year?

22. Was thinking about interviewing again against my better judgement but its simply so loud. I was standing next to terry but could hardly hear him when we chatted. He could have told me the secret of nexus city for all I know. Oh god, he didn’t did he?

    Hi gregg! I see you.

23. Ah, refreshed. Lovely seeing signs like “you now have one hour to wait” in the queues for games like arkham asylum.

    This wriststrap is a pain. I didn’t put it on tightly enough and it locks so I can’t readjust it. Its not too much of an issue unless you are in the toilet and suddenly screaming NO NO DONT SLIP DOWN HERE JESUS NOOOO

    TMI?

24. Retro area awesome. Expect it is much like steve furnells open night. There is a company here that sells bespoke arcade cabinets – they are called Bespoke Cabinets – and their sales guy asked if I was interested in buying one. He asked while I was playing bubble bobble.

    They are newly built but look amazingly old like they fell out of a time warp, if god was really interested in 80s time warps. They play multiple games and can support multiple games simultaneously. If you have a retro fetish these things are the god damn real deal. Been going six/seven years.

    Expect electron dance to revisit this later.

    Heading into prey 2 session. I loved prey and this has sounded like a true sequel not a reworking of itd precursor.

25. I don’t like doing previews and I certainly don’t like to comment on games from selective demonstrations or trailers. Watching prey 2 was exciting, freeform and engaging. The audience laughed en masse when we kicked some innocent off a bridge just to be a bad guy.

    The fluidity of the game really looks something, a bit mirrors edge and fear. It is a totally different experience to the original – more GTA actually.

    The session was almost entirely gameplay and very little talk.

    No one complained. And when we left, we discovered our mouthes were still open.

26. Just been talking to rob hale who has been developing waves, an arena shooter, that was given a publicity boost some months back on rps with a free beta. At first I thought it was just another shooter but I kept going back to its brutality and developed an affinity for the game.

    I played it again today and the near-release version is really good. Still edge-of-seat but a little more forgiving.

    Rob got fed up of working on action adventure – his last title was enslaved – and has been working full-time indie for about six months. The game is scheduled to come out late october.

    The only problem as rob admits is that it goes up against charlie knight’s scoregasm which is launching soon, another arena shooter. But they are so very different games and I love both of them.

    Good luck, rob.

27. I have now sneaked into the over 18 area. No one has stopped me because of my youthful good looks yet.

28. Last year I took footage of brink from the show floor; zenimax locked the video and I received one strike against my youtube account which is permanent until I die. I don’t remember obvious signs.

    I was just told not to take footage of saints row 3 but I don’t see any signs telling me not to. I asked if it was just this game or the whole 18 area. I was told “the games” by the guard. The expo rule is everything is fair game unless explicitly mentioned. This ambiguity annoys me.

29. Why are people queuing for an hour to play a game that came out over a year ago?

    Or did you mean Arkham City?

30. Just speaking with Chris England of Xenonauts. Impressed with the polish on the game and – speaking as someone who never had X-Com in his past – it really feels like a modern version of x-com. From what I understand there have been few alterations to the original design.

    Chris is an accountant by day but is going to try giving the project a fulltime commitment for 6 months. I’m impressed with the determination some indies have. X-com is not the easiest remake. But it sounds like XCOM the fps has driven a lot of fans towards xenonauts.

    BC, yes you’re right. It’s arkham city. Sorry for confusion.

31. I am running out of time, which is quite strange as last year I left after just a few hours. I’ve focussed more on having fun and just talking rather than trying to prepare formal words for the site.

    I’ve just spent time on three indie titles.

    First is pinapple smash crew, an easy title to pick up which is a retro shooter with a good heart. I didn’t feel compelled to buy it however its the kind of title you end up losing 30 mins to without realising.

    Then I played Blocks That Matter an odd fusion of boulder dash, tetris and minecraft. It is not a simple game to pick up in terms of controls but it poses a very different sort of puzzle mindset. You dig and retain blocks but can only place them in tetris shapes. And not all blocks have the same properties so I can see the difficulty ramping up as the game goes along.

    And then Fotonica. I’d played an early version of this months ago and thought it was kind of okay but didn’t see any life in it. Then I played the updated version today and… it is special.

    The game is canabalt-simple. Its a first-person runner and you hold down space to run and release to jump. There are chasms to leap but if you miss the jump the run is over.

    But the game is not about difficulty – it is about the beauty of the run, the rhythm of the spacebar. It is a strangely absorbing, hypnotic experience even in the hideous cacophony of the expo.

    I spoke to Nicolo one of the devs and the game is currently out as pay-what-you-want on their site. They are not making much money right now which is a shame. Fotonica is a lovely, lovely thing.

32. Everyone is leaving. I managed to have a stab at a puzzle game involving cogs called “These Robotic Hearts of Mine”. Its nice but didn’t really set my own heart on fire. Very simple mechanics, so a doddle to pick up, and I found myself dying to find the minimum solution in each level and… Failing.

    Well I guess that’s it for the show. I did play one console game called inversion and was absolute shit at the controls. Where’s my mouse???

    Rps drinks next…

33. Free beer. Goodbye.

34. Yes! Fotonica! I was very impressed by it and also spoke to Nicolo after he unsuspectingly lynched me while I was watching him play.

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