I’m sitting outside the Eurogamer Expo 2009.
To be honest, I wasn’t particularly impressed. The whole thing is a series of large TVs with consoles attached, each group of five or six with a different game on it. In a few cases there was something to stop people sitting camped, but not very many. As a result, I didn’t see a great deal more than I would have done watching gameplay videos on the website. (I could have queued for a while and got to play a game when someone got bored, but there was more to look at).
Stuff I did see was God of War III, which looked pretty much the same as GoW I and II did, only with More Epic and More Blood (I watched someone rip out the eyeball of a cyclops, which was quite cool). I’d like to play it, but not enough to drop a few hundred quid on a PS3.
I got to play Star Trek Online too, in the form of a “Ground Mission”. Actually, I picked up the controller after someone who had completed the ground mission failed to be able to find the exit and walked away. After pacing the level for a dozen minutes (it was a small level) I did the same as him. Graphics look shiny, interface looks Star Trek, it does feel “right”. It was interesting seeing the similarities between it and Champions Online, which is on the same engine. I’d like to have been able to play it, but since I have a CO 6 month subscription, I’ll get a beta key at some point.
Finally, as I was wandering around the lower level watching people playing God of War III, I saw an entirely unattended, unlabelled XBox 360 setup with some kind of fantasy game on it. After wandering around for a bit, talking to some NPCs and getting a quest, I recognised the skills system from the PC Dragon Age Character Builder. This was Dragon Age for 360, which apparently still exists. I’d not have recognised it. I’ve been watching the DA PC development quite carefully, but for the 360 it’s almost a new game. The interface is far more console orientated (The PC version looks like BG2, the 360 more like KOTOR). There are a few issues with graphical glitches and camera views (I want to be able to see the thing that just dropped behind me and attacked), but it’s interesting how the interface has been entirely redone and yet remained the same game.
So, in conclusion, of the three games I saw in depth, one’s for a platform I’ve no intention of owning, one I have on preorder, and one I’ll see later.
I think I’m going home now.
Regarding DA:O: I watched the Wardens’ Quest the other day (24-hour of DA playing for a prize of $50k) and for the challenges when teams were knocked out they used the Xbox-system. It looked really nice, but not being a console person I can’t really say much about it other than that 🙂
The interviews with people seemed to indicate that the controls were very intuitive and easy to learn though, which is always nice.