30th September 2012, my first time at Eurogamer. So my friends told me about this gaming event wherein you get the chance to play games, weeks; even months before their release. They invited me along to said event and for only £12 I thought, minus the fact I have little knowldge on the event, this could be a great day out and an excellent learning curve for me. My attitude on this was, for the amount of money, it's no real loss to me if it turns out to be less than satisfactory. I am not entirely willing to part with my money so effortlessly, though; so before buying the ticket I looked up what games would be available to play, and low and behold... Ni No Kuni! Realising that in just a few weeks time I would be playing the game that I have been lusting after for so long, I immediately went into an uncontrollable state of excitement. I was unsure, though, whether I would get a chance to play Ni No Kuni as roughly 50,000 people attend the 3 day event each year. It would all depend on how popular the game is across a mainstream audience and how many screens were set up for the game.
How I expected the event to be: I fully expected the place to be absoloutely rammed out, heaving with the combined body odour of thousands of nerdy pubecent teens crammed in like battery hens, thriving for air; screaming in anguish as they clung onto that last breath before being swallowed up into the abyss... But this was not the case!
So I was pleasantly surprised at what I found when I got there!
Layout
Everything was very well organised (for the most part)! There were 5 different gaming zones, the 18+ zone being the most popular, as you can imagine. Oh yeah, one thing I failed to mention previously, Eurogamer is an event very much aimed at late teens/adults, so you get a fairly mature atmosphere (not so many kids running around). In the image below, each game has a number, correlating to the zone where it can be found. Stupidly, some games which are age appropriate for all, featured in the 18+ zone aswell as being screened elsewhere, which is a total waste of floor space in the 18's section.
Each game would have an X amount of screens depending on how popular it was. Some games would have only 1 or 2 rows with 4 screens in each, whilst others would have maybe double or triple that.
Hitman
Hitman, being one of the games that I qued for, had a pretty big que, but it cleared quick enough because there were plenty of screens. Now, bearing in mind I waited about 20 minutes for Hitman, Halo 4 had a que that was around 5 times longer, which was way more than I was prepared to wait! So seemingly, Hitman wasn't even half as popular as Halo 4, which worked well in my favour!
As it has taken me a while to find the time to write this extensive review on the Eurogamer event, some of the games that I saw/have played have already been released. Hitman is soon to be released here in England (November the 20th, just two days after my Birthday)!
My Hitman Review: As I gazed at the screen with high hopes and anticipation, eyes a wondering, I heard the ever familiar sound of Eva Maria ringing in my ears. Only then was it that I came to life. A part of my brain clicked on like a light switch, activating neuron pathways in my brain that I hadn't used for years. I felt reborn. I rampaged through the level, blending into crowds, stealth killing as I went, I felt unstoppable. Until, that was, I woke up to the harsh reality that I was actually getting my ass whooped.
I didn't play Hitman for all too long but I knew instantly what it would be like. It plays very much like it's prequals with the added bonus of new story lines, better graphics and all new features. The last Hitman was on the previous generation Playstation so we are now seeing Hitman in a whole new world. High definition baby!
For those of you who have naver played Hitman before, the object of the game is to infiltrate enemy territories for one reason or another, disguised as one of the enemy. You pick up a disguise by sneaking up on an enemy whilst out of sight and knocking them uncunscious/killing them and stealing their uniform. The stealth kill aspect is very neat, your character normally pulls out a wire which he uses to strangulate the victim until they can no longer breathe.
From the new game I expect a range of different moves, stealth and otherwise. What also made me happy is that the menu theme is still Eva Maria. What a brilliant song!I expect added features, far better graphics as the previous games was on the last generation of consoles. and a new story line, which is awesome. I am very excited for the release of this so that I get a chance to play and review it properly.
The concept ceases to change; it remains the same but will continue to be unique, as there is no other game like it in the industry. Like with any good series, Hitman is long lived and with minor changes. Some see it as scraping the bottom of the barrel, I see it as continuing a legacy.
I was very lucky however that all of the games I wanted to play had relatively short ques. For the most part though, I was more content in watching other people play.
Ni No Kuni
Now, back to Ni No Kuni! There were only four screens, and the demo length was 10 minutes, and most, unlike me, would play to the end of the demo which I thought to be both indecent and very inefficient at that. I mean they were already lacking in screens, what with an excessive length of playtime in addition to that, and the sheer cheek of those thinking they could play right til the end. could potentially create a backlog of angry gamers all waiting to have a sniff at the most desireable and quality rich JRPG of all time! Now, it seems that all of the calculations that I made prior to the event were wrong as I missed out one very important factor... I did not account for the number of weak minded people who would be drawn by the "shiny shiny" effect to more popular games i.e. Call of Duty. So it turned out that Ni No Kuni was not as rammed packed as I initially thought it would be.
Modern RPG's are being slated for being unlike traditional RPG's. Some think that RPG's are taking a turn for the worst, but I totally disgree. We are living in an aging world, one that is constantly changing around us; any step is a step forward, in the long run. Personally, I feel that game developers have done a grand job in re-creating that traditional RPG feel through non-conventional methods. A lot of RPG's these days have such rich graphics, Ni No Kuni is proof of this. The quality of the environment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89hHkJFD-u8&feature=plcp
The only thing that really disappointed me about this event... Is that there were barely any cosplayers! And I love cosplayers!
No comments:
Post a Comment