Never before has 9 hours of gaming actually managed to exhaust me, yet the Eurogamer Expo 2011 successfully managed to fulfil every piece of gaming intrigue that’s been built over the year before finally making me succumb to 40 winks on the train ride home. A showcase of soon to be AAA titles and big games that have been making noise for months arrived at Earl’s Court and acted as sweet gaming nectar for the masses, and I was lucky enough to be one of those gamers buzzing about the awesome releases just on the horizon. A multitude of hits which are no surprise to anyone, unexpected wonders and gorgeous adventures graced the floor, and here’s an account of everything I attempted to get my hands on before the doors shut on me.
Thankfully jumping in on an early start, I practically launched towards The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim, and gazed as some slightly psychopathic gamers who did nothing but kill foxes or talk to women from behind before slashing their throats. Having played Oblivion to the point where I reigned supreme over every guild and became something of The Flash on steroids, I was so glad to jump into a whole new world with a massive sense of adventure to it. Dual wielding weapons and magic allowed for interesting way to destroy enemies and surely opens up new possibilities for your character the more time you spend training with them. No matter what awesome arsenal I had, however, I got to relive that horrible feeling when you trundle into a cave, take a slash at a monster, and realise you’ve done practically nothing to drain its health before it caves your skull in with a single blow. Just from 15 minutes of playing, you can tell Bethesda have truly indebted themselves to create a world that’s beautiful and fulfilling to explore. The wildlife grazing the land amongst every beaten path, the communities in villages conversing with one another allowing you to interrupt with your own information, the plethora of horrid man-made traps that plague travels upon the land, the sheer scale of the mountains afar which you can scale upon. Just this snippet of play time clearly showed that Skyrim’s going to be one hell of an awesome place to quest in.
A quarter of an hour in Skyrim only whetted my appetite for adventure, and so I hopped straight into a golden booth showcasing The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword. A prequel to Ocarina Of Time (thankfully confirming a place in the ever confusing time-line), it beautifully merges the graphically spruce and mature Link from Twilight Princess with the lush cartoonish design and excitable sound effects from The Wind Waker. Jumping straight into a dungeon, the demo on offer showed traditional Zelda puzzle elements of lateral thinking, exploration and gadget experimentation. Mucking about with my traditional bow and arrow/Wii remote combo was fun, but then I was introduced to a mechanical beetle gadget, a flying contraption I had to steer with the Wii remote and nestle into hard to reach places in order to progress. Guiding it around with the Wii Motion Plus was incredibly smooth and controls were equally responsive during sword combat. Enemies toy with the idea that where you strike matters by blocking in different directions keeping you on your toes. It’s clear to see that Nintendo have placed a lot of focus into the Wii system, and the new fluid control scheme bundled with traditional Zelda gameplay is a luscious treat to behold.
A quick hop over to the Batman: Arkham City booth only confirmed what 100% of the gaming community knew; it’s going to be rather good indeed. Loads of cinematics showed off the sassiness of Catwoman and the demented nature of Two-Face, and certainly reinforces that this game will do the huge supporting cast justice. Otherwise, there were no major surprises. Massive group battles still run incredibly fluidly, the game still looks fantastic in all its gritty glory and a new gadget suggests more mini-games on the horizon. C’mon, you already know this game is going to be good!
Having tackled such big headliners at the show, I delved into a corner of obscurity…partly because a Pizza Express was in the same area. Anarchy Reigns, a new title from Bayonetta developers ‘Platinum Games’ simply screams the bizarre policies the developers previous titles are known for. Sitting alone, I cycled through the cast of odd characters to choose from including some massive Transformers rip-off and Jack from Wii massacre-’em-up Madworld, I was quickly picked up by a Sega rep stating it was probably better to join them on the busier side to truly see what the fuss was all about. Good job too. The game chucks you into an arena to battle it out with the eclectic cast a-la beat ’em up to convene in a cloud of punches, kicks, and sometimes a hidden chainsaw. It looks quite choppy from the outset, however once seated and battling it out with other players, the frenzied fun was immediate. Smashing buttons seemed to get me somewhere and racked up an intense amount of messy kills, but there didn’t seem to be many tactics involved overall. The guys on the stand had clearly been playing for a while and I still managed to come in second. In a sense, that Smash Bros. policy of ‘Even beginners can win’ works well, but I certainly hope that some more hands-on time gives it opportunity to shine as a deeper fighter than it does at first glance. I can totally see myself sitting in the living room with a group of pals smashing each other to bits playing this, but whether that frantic banter will translate well in online matches will have to be seen.
Silent Hill: Downpour suitably occupied the darkest corner of Earl’s Court on Saturday, and was a booth I approached with awkward trepidation. Silent Hill 2 still remains one of my favourite games of all time, but since its transition to Western shores and the news that musical genius Akira Yamaoka has been replaced by…Korn…in this instalment, my goosebumps were rising due more to development fears than in-game chills. As it stood, the newest instalment was something of a hit and miss. Throwing me into an abandoned mine, the place was littered with shiny objects that could be used as weapons, and plodding along with nothing but a pocket lighter to guide the way made for an atmospheric hike through a normal looking yet eerily desolate environment. Gameplay isn’t halted by constant cycling through menus thanks to the ability to quickly switch items in your inventory with the click of a button, so the atmosphere remains constantly tense. However, the monsters on offer weren’t exactly stepping up to the mark. Scares were incredibly predictable, never really varying from the old ‘Jump around the corner’ clichés and the monsters….weren’t monstrous. I was only constantly plagued by senile women covered in what seemed to be tar, and the big final baddie looked like a deflated ‘Stay Puft Marshmallow Man’, who did nothing to stop me hacking him to pieces with an axe. It’s looking to be another average trip to the quiet town, and not one which is going to hugely please the fanbase.
It seemed logical to make my way to the 3DS booth to see how Silent Hill’s rival Resident Evil: Revelations fared and to take advantage of playing some titles in brain boggling 3D before my eyes strained so much from screen-time that they’d revert into my brain. Capcom have been playing the ‘Lost’ obscurity card on the press, dangling tantalising myste
ries in front of those intrigued, and this demo was no exception. Supposedly set on a nightmarish ship in the middle of the ocean, my trial trapped Jill Valentine…in a mansion. The references to the first Resi didn’t end there, with the modern nightmares of ‘Las Plagas’ being replaced by slightly more conventional cannon fodder who take a battalion of bullets to kill no matter where you aim. A similar combat system and the sheer horror of being surrounded by such monstrosities is akin to more modern Resi’s, yet the tight surroundings and hard to kill buggers merges it with more classic forms of survival horror, and is certainly worth a place on any horror fans radar.
Next up was one highly anticipated Kid Icarus: Uprising. A franchise that’s barely seen the light of day since the early 90’s, Pit’s return seems long overdue, and having gotten my fill of Starfox 64 3D on my way over to the show, it was great to grab hold of another fast paced aerial shooter. Although action took part entirely on the top screen, tapping on the touch screen corresponds to where you shoot…on the top screen. It sounds like an unnecessarily complicated system, yet thanks to just a faithful cursor, it’s very simple and fun. Annoyingly, when combat takes to the ground, the controls aren’t quite as smooth. Shifting around on one plain is simple when it’s just drifting around, yet when you have to move forwards and control the camera with the stylus, it becomes a ridiculous pain, especially in boss fights. Alas, the control scheme doesn’t feel broken, and hopefully it takes just a matter of getting used to.
How do you improve possibly the most addictive karting game of all time? Mario Kart 7’s answer is ‘Add hang-gliding!’. The driving hit returns once again, now on the 3DS with lush locales, fun gameplay and everything else the series is renowned for. The additions of a morphing kart which spews jets when underwater and a hang glider when you drive off a cliff are purely superficial additions, but it’s difficult to improve on such a greatly addictive formula and there’s truly nothing to complain about here. Unfortunately the motion sensor controls were not available for the trial here, however the promise of such has made me hopeful that they’ll be just as smooth as the control scheme of Mario Kart Wii.
In recent months, I’ve been taking advantage of the array of HD remakes being released, revelling in marvellous nostalgia and uncovering classics I missed out on. Some benefit more than others from the high definition brush, but I couldn’t help but gaze in absolute awe when I passed the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection booth. Such an epic classic is a must-buy (not that I need to tell those in wait), especially when it looks so beautiful it has you accidentally talking in capital letters across the show floor. Dare I say it was hard to find a more gorgeous game than that, and with it promising stereoscopic 3D, I’m looking up 3D television packages as we speak.
These trips down memory lane led me to an old favourite of mine being revitalised for this console generation. SSX (which has now thankfully dropped its brooding ‘Deadly Descents’ tagline) returns early next year to revitalise the snowboarding genre with its hip style and addictive gameplay. It felt brilliant tackling the slopes again, flipping tricks with a smooth control scheme and launching off of landmarks encased in snow. The gameplay is just as addictive as it was in the original trilogy, and the returning cast of eclectic characters is a testament to that. However, it doesn’t sport the flair or indeed wackiness of said group of games. It has certainly matured, ridding the superficial visual splendours whilst casting the slopes in a more natural light and donning the cast in gear of the players choosing in order to increase the chances of reaching the bottom of the mountain. Hopefully this won’t be overwhelming and complicate gameplay, but from what I played, the worst case scenario is that this deters a few fans and still makes a big impact for the genre as a whole. I am certainly excited for its return.
I sort of strolled off at this point and found myself at the booth for The Adventures Of Tintin:The Game. Not entirely by accident, I am looking forward to the animated epic of a film this winter, but it doesn’t seem the game will live up to its standards. Visually, it’s charming enough and certainly captures the lovely animated style, yet fails to excite in any other department. With predominantly 2D platforming segments and basic combat, its level design and simplicity is reminiscent of a old PS1 platformer. It certainly not terrible, but maybe a title which will only appeal to the kids.
And now for an ‘It’s totally what you were expecting’ combo! Ghost Recon: Future Soldier basically replicates each Ghost Recon game that came before it, which is by no means a bad thing. I was just hoping for some of that glorious looking Kinect gameplay showcased at E3 to be on trial. Still, fans of the third person shooter series are not likey to be disappointed. The Ninja Gaiden 3 demo threw me rather suitably in a cordoned off London street to show off some of Ryu Hayabusa’s new moves, and although it seems dismembering people to pieces has been removed, some damn painful looking takedowns were on offer to show Ryu hadn’t lost that gory sadistic edge. His right arm now appears to be cursed (or horribly infected) which allows him to blitz opponents in ferocious finishing moves, which could add to some horrific combos and maybe even tip the incredibly difficult battles into the players favour. Final Fantasy XIII-2 also pulled out all the stops not to surprise. Love it or loathe it, the ‘Paradigm’ combat system still remains, a little compass indicates where battles will take place and what position will give you an advantage and the location on offer felt a lot less linear than simply glorified hallways, but if you didn’t like the predecessor, you certainly won’t get along with this.
Last, and by no means least came an Uncharted 3 bundle of joy. A playable trial of the online multi-player was playable on the floor and is just as enjoyable as its predecessors. Considering UC2 has dedicated players who still join games on a regular basis, it’s no surprise that ‘Naughty Dog’ know exactly what they’re doing this time around. Clamouring around a construction site with enemies penetrating the walls next to me was exciting and getting away from enemies with parkour prowess was just as exciting as scoring a headshot. The floor was void of a single-player demo, however the voice/body/doppelgänger of Nathan Drake, Nolan North headed the Uncharted 3 conference. In it, he discussed that the third chapter of the series will focus on the maturity of Drake himself, and showed us a never before seen level set in the midst of the desert. Stumbling upon a fragmenting fortress, it’s only a matter of time until he, as always, stumbles into bandits. The demo lacked any massive action sequences like the epic E3 demo did (we don’t want those spoiled!), but did show that combat has been tightened up and Drake has some fantastic (if theatrically brilliant) melee takedowns. The action is still fast and frantic, the stunts are still guaranteed to be full-on and the plot is going to be more emotionally charged than ever.
…Nolan also told us a funny anecdote about riding a fake horse…
For those who I’ve failed by not delivering any news on obvious head-liners such as Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, it’s because the queues fo each were daunting and one game was positioned close to a bar, the other near an enticing panini café so I became very easily distracted. Never fret though, Sam managed to attend this year’s GAMEfest and braved the crowds I was too much of a wuss for to deliver opinions on the biggest games I missed out on. Head on over to see what he thought on some of this years biggest titles here: www.yetanotherreviewsite.co.uk/articles-yars-at-gamefest-2011-news~4337.htm
All in all, despite the headache caused from hogging so many massive screens filled with epic and overwhelming games, Eurogamer Expo 2011 was an immense success, giving a great look into some of the games tantalising us for the past few months and confirming the epicness of some of this years biggest titles. Let’s hope next year presents even more Blockbuster titles to salivate over…and the possibility of another late year schedule that threatens to bankrupt us all!