HocusPocus
Member
Yep time to back out of both. Graphics just aren't there for 400 plus consoles. Backing out too. Going to need to change my avatar.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Eurogamer Expo 2013 is this month! - September 26th-29th
- Thread starter Spookie
- Start date
Like many here I'm considering cancelling my PS4 pre-order now. I feel like I might want to wait 4-5 months for the catalogue to fill out more as the showings at Eurogamer were rather disappointing.
However on the plus side: Dual Shock 4 felt amazing. Despite having tiny hands I've never got on with the Dual Shock 3 even with add-on convex stick covers and trigger covers.
My favourite things at the show were Vita games: Velocity 2X and Tearaway. They held my interest far more than the next gen showings. A+ Vita devs!
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate was better than I expected but felt a bit limiting in the demo version. There was a lot of running and pressing right trigger to grapple up.
Witcher 3 dev talk was pointless as it gave out no real new information. I hope there's the odd thing out in the world between these quest zones otherwise it could get a bit WoW Cataclysm-esque and make you feel like there's no exploration. Just a quest hub, then another quest hub, and so on.
Watch_Dogs had a little presentation which was disappointing. The graphics weren't particularly fantastic (particularly in comparison to the reveal demo) and the gameplay soon dissolved into crouching behind waist height crates and shooting at people.
However on the plus side: Dual Shock 4 felt amazing. Despite having tiny hands I've never got on with the Dual Shock 3 even with add-on convex stick covers and trigger covers.
My favourite things at the show were Vita games: Velocity 2X and Tearaway. They held my interest far more than the next gen showings. A+ Vita devs!
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate was better than I expected but felt a bit limiting in the demo version. There was a lot of running and pressing right trigger to grapple up.
Witcher 3 dev talk was pointless as it gave out no real new information. I hope there's the odd thing out in the world between these quest zones otherwise it could get a bit WoW Cataclysm-esque and make you feel like there's no exploration. Just a quest hub, then another quest hub, and so on.
Watch_Dogs had a little presentation which was disappointing. The graphics weren't particularly fantastic (particularly in comparison to the reveal demo) and the gameplay soon dissolved into crouching behind waist height crates and shooting at people.
AgentLampshade
Member
To the girl cosplaying as Vergil: I love you.
Guys there tomorrow. Go to the Vita Indie bit near TearAway. Play Olli Olli and Super Exploding Zoo. Olli Olli is a fantastic side scrolling skateboard game (string tricks for high scores) and i've heard so much good stuff about SEZ.
Also, I know everyone here thinks I am a huge FuturLab fanboy but you should seriously check out Velocity 2x. Game is gorgeous and a ton of fun.
Also, I know everyone here thinks I am a huge FuturLab fanboy but you should seriously check out Velocity 2x. Game is gorgeous and a ton of fun.
Man-is-Obsolete
Member
I guess that is the problem in demoing some of these launch titles for next gen at these trade shows is that most likely the builds are old as the team's are laser focused on getting their games ready for launch instead. So inevitably a bad taste is left for many games.
Hopefully things improve a lot by launch. I believe they will.
Hopefully things improve a lot by launch. I believe they will.
Acheteedo
Member
Just finished for the day.
My impressions, in order of viewing:
Saw Kinect Sports Rivals from a distance while waiting in the Ryse queue. It seemed pretty responsive, the response lag was definitely there though. The graphics were stunning, really stunning, but this could have been deceptive because I was ~20 feet away, I'll return to this point further down.
Xbox One Controller, it felt great, the little sticks felt fine, the shape melts in your hands, I had no issue with the bumper buttons like some do. Entirely positive experience.
Ryse, glad I tried this, now I know not to buy it. It was co-op mode so may look better in single player but those were some super disappointing graphics, the jaggies obliterated the image quality. The gameplay was not very fun and the animations felt rough and disjointed.
Oculus Rift, I had extremely high hopes for this, and it was pretty incredible in a lot of ways, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed. I didn't think it would feel like a large screen in front you but it does, and while the vertical viewing distance is great, the horizontal doesn't stretch wide enough, making you aware that it's a square shaped viewing window. Other than that the resolution was kinda low as expected but it's totally acceptable given the plus sides of the experience. I played a dogfighting game, can't remember the name, the motion response was tight and felt like you were indeed looking around from within a cockpit, the sensation of doing a barrel roll was just a nauseating as I'd hoped, you could really feel it. I almost fell off the seat at one point. So it's not perfect, but it's definitely exciting stuff.
Dual Shock 4, the controller is, as I'd hoped, a massive step up from the DS3. I loved everything about it apart from the symmetrical stick placement. Because of this the XB1 controller wins this contest, but both controllers are truly excellent.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag I played on PS4. Looking from the queue, ~20 feet away from the screen, the game looked truly stunning, more than I had expected. When you finally get to play they sit you 2 feet from the 40-inch screen and suddenly everything looks hideous, I sat as far away as I could (maybe 4 feet) but it remained an eyesore, what a terribly designed booth. Sadly I didn't get a good look from a decent playable distance, which I guess would have been 10 feet. So I honestly don't know if this game looks good.
Dying Light. This was great fun, as a fan of Dead Island (in spite of itself) I'm clearly going to enjoy this game. The parkour works great and there's a bunch of nice graphical touches, but it was on PC so I don't know how good it will look on console.
Other than that I played a bunch of cool indy titles, sadly I can't remember their names! I watched Octodad being played and that's definitely on my radar, I had queued up to play it but the station broke before I got to the front, the game looks like tremendous fun, everyone watching it had a big grin on their face.
Overall the expo was excellently put together, so all credit to Eurogamer there, but I must admit my next-gen excitement is tempered. I had hoped that the jaggie problem of current gen would be improved, alas I saw no evidence of this. I'll just have to get used to it I guess... that said I'm certainly going to be eyeing up the Steam Machines with great interest.
My impressions, in order of viewing:
Saw Kinect Sports Rivals from a distance while waiting in the Ryse queue. It seemed pretty responsive, the response lag was definitely there though. The graphics were stunning, really stunning, but this could have been deceptive because I was ~20 feet away, I'll return to this point further down.
Xbox One Controller, it felt great, the little sticks felt fine, the shape melts in your hands, I had no issue with the bumper buttons like some do. Entirely positive experience.
Ryse, glad I tried this, now I know not to buy it. It was co-op mode so may look better in single player but those were some super disappointing graphics, the jaggies obliterated the image quality. The gameplay was not very fun and the animations felt rough and disjointed.
Oculus Rift, I had extremely high hopes for this, and it was pretty incredible in a lot of ways, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed. I didn't think it would feel like a large screen in front you but it does, and while the vertical viewing distance is great, the horizontal doesn't stretch wide enough, making you aware that it's a square shaped viewing window. Other than that the resolution was kinda low as expected but it's totally acceptable given the plus sides of the experience. I played a dogfighting game, can't remember the name, the motion response was tight and felt like you were indeed looking around from within a cockpit, the sensation of doing a barrel roll was just a nauseating as I'd hoped, you could really feel it. I almost fell off the seat at one point. So it's not perfect, but it's definitely exciting stuff.
Dual Shock 4, the controller is, as I'd hoped, a massive step up from the DS3. I loved everything about it apart from the symmetrical stick placement. Because of this the XB1 controller wins this contest, but both controllers are truly excellent.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag I played on PS4. Looking from the queue, ~20 feet away from the screen, the game looked truly stunning, more than I had expected. When you finally get to play they sit you 2 feet from the 40-inch screen and suddenly everything looks hideous, I sat as far away as I could (maybe 4 feet) but it remained an eyesore, what a terribly designed booth. Sadly I didn't get a good look from a decent playable distance, which I guess would have been 10 feet. So I honestly don't know if this game looks good.
Dying Light. This was great fun, as a fan of Dead Island (in spite of itself) I'm clearly going to enjoy this game. The parkour works great and there's a bunch of nice graphical touches, but it was on PC so I don't know how good it will look on console.
Other than that I played a bunch of cool indy titles, sadly I can't remember their names! I watched Octodad being played and that's definitely on my radar, I had queued up to play it but the station broke before I got to the front, the game looks like tremendous fun, everyone watching it had a big grin on their face.
Overall the expo was excellently put together, so all credit to Eurogamer there, but I must admit my next-gen excitement is tempered. I had hoped that the jaggie problem of current gen would be improved, alas I saw no evidence of this. I'll just have to get used to it I guess... that said I'm certainly going to be eyeing up the Steam Machines with great interest.
I'll have to write up my thoughts later but a HUGE thank you to all the folks willing to come to the meet up on Friday. All the amazing peeps I've met over the last couple of days.
And a huge thank you to everyone for putting up with my moaning about my feet and back. I'm finally sitting down ;p
And a huge thank you to everyone for putting up with my moaning about my feet and back. I'm finally sitting down ;p
Assuming you're still considering buying a next gen console - just perhaps not at launch - what about third party games? I'd feel it'd be odd playing games on PS360 when I know I could have been playing them at least a bit better on an Xbox one/PS4. And I doubt the price will drop over the next 6/9 months, so why not jump in?n
grounded_dreams
Member
Velocity 2X was my favourite game I played at the Expo when I went on Thursday. Here is a link for FuturLabs developer session at the Expo.
Other games I played:
DriveClub - was OK but needed more time to learn the controls, will still likely get the full version with the PS4
Tearaway - loved the game and the best stand of the Expo with all the paper creatures etc
Hohokum - bonkers but lovely
Octodad Dadliest Catch - brilliant game, had a smile on my face the whole time playing it
Rain - cant wait to buy this when it comes out next week.
Beyond Two Souls - didn't play the game but was given a code to download the demo, which I'm getting now.
Resogun looked incredible
Gutted I missed Fez on the Vita, completely forgot to check it out til afterwards, did anyone play it? How was the frame rate in the version shown?
Other games I played:
DriveClub - was OK but needed more time to learn the controls, will still likely get the full version with the PS4
Tearaway - loved the game and the best stand of the Expo with all the paper creatures etc
Hohokum - bonkers but lovely
Octodad Dadliest Catch - brilliant game, had a smile on my face the whole time playing it
Rain - cant wait to buy this when it comes out next week.
Beyond Two Souls - didn't play the game but was given a code to download the demo, which I'm getting now.
Resogun looked incredible
Gutted I missed Fez on the Vita, completely forgot to check it out til afterwards, did anyone play it? How was the frame rate in the version shown?
Phoenix Fang
Banned
Was that at the Sony booth? Because the ones that were close to the Dark Soul 2 area were actually the PC version using PS4 pads.
I have a mid-range PC (2500K @ 4.2 with GTX 670) so I'll carry on using that for third party titles.
BRUTALBOWN
Banned
Ah man, no way! No wonder it looked so bloody nice, and 60fps! Gutted
Thoughts on the Expo, apologises if some of it doesn't make sense. I'm exhausted, suffering from post Expo blues as I return to real life and on my phone:
Frustrating. Fun but frustrating.
I think that is the best way I can describe this year. I've been going to EGX for three years now and the last two have been year upon year improvements. This year I felt has been marred by poor planning. Not to fault the guys they just had to deal with a console pre launch the likes no one has seen before. I can't remember anyone putting so much effort in to marketing and image the way Microsoft and Sony have. No longer is it a battle for the best console it's a battle for the living room. So maybe that is why we had to endure so many queues. I'll go more in to that in my next post about the games and consoles.
That being said: what the titty fuck was going on with the super passes? Last year you queued up at the enterence and got in first. This year we are told security will come gather you and take you in then last moment plans are changed. Not only did that fill me full of anxiety worrying that I wouldn't be able to see all the main attractions but it meant that I could be missing out on the absolute corkers hidden in the rezzed area which I tend to spend my Saturday exploring. Thankfully my worries didn't come true and thanks to some world class sprinting that Usain Bolt would be impressed by I manged to see everything.
Though EA did do their best to stop me. Now while the Occulus Rift had the excuse of not having enough units to show all the games on which led to some two hour queues. Why the hell were there only 32 Titanfall booths? They were running on PCs and on the source engine so you could run it on a toaster. Why not, knowing it's popularity, grab more rigs? Were they competing for the worlds longest unnecessary queue? I'm not sure if they were attempting to manufacture hype- why, when we were first there on Thursday, subject to watching PR folk play the game for 15 minutes. Before ushering us in to a video telling us how to play the game only then eventually letting us loose? You've been to Gamescom and Tokyo you know exactly how big things are. Frustrating!
Now I know one of the folks mentioned that after talking to Tom Champion that publishers still insist on treating EGX in a bubble only giving it a small portion of the cash reserved for marketing a game even though year on year there is growth and popularity. But come on with the games that are already out! Let's use that space for 505 Games or Paradox. If not use that space to expand upon titles which will be huge. You want bigger crowds so turning people away because they don't want to wait three hours for a title.
Developer conferences were getting shorter again this year what use to be great insites in to game design are now 15 or 20 minutes long with some hit and miss Q&A. Annoying but maybe we can have panels about other things like PAX does?
But now I've spent three hours moaning let's talk about the good things.
Good guy Sony. Again I'll talk about this more when I get to the games but they were amazing allowing so many publishers to use the PS4 for every different type of games from amazing indies to big titles like Assassins Creed. Humble Sony is clearly the best Sony and long may it continue.
Speaking of Ubisoft, mixed bag from these guys. Let's get the bad out the way: No playable Watch Dogs. It was demoed behind closed doors and they pre empted the video with disclaimers about how it wasn't finished the game needs work and the like. But on the other hand 40 PS4 demo stations for AC4 with none less than FOUR demos for it. You glorious bastards Ubisoft. The queue was only 10 minutes with a reasonable 7 minute demo. Warner Brothers and Bethesda also brought along a ridiculous amount of demo stations and should be given a mention. It made my day much easier.
Shops were expanded upon this year offering a much larger display of items and things to choose from with very reasonable prices and Dota 2 tees I can buy on the cheap and make a fortune on later. Speaking of things expanding the Rezzed zone got bigger this year giving you more games and more excited indie developers willing to spend a hour talking about their game.
New this year was Board games. I honestly had no interest in playing them but the folks organising things were so approachable and engaged you it was great. I also met Matt Lees (abridged Playstation 4 reveal guy) while sitting on the floor playing Dobble with press folks and one of the girls who was working for the board game retailer (someone get me her number
). Weirdest experience all weekend but possibly the most memorable.
But that feels very much like the theme of this year. Very much expanded upon but not quite prepared for the exceptional growth. Fingers crossed it's all teething problems as the guys at Eurogamer find their feet. Hopefully we'll see next year a further expanse to the first floor and with the console launch being over more games spread about the floor instead of crammed in to a tiny green box.
Frustrating. Fun but frustrating.
I think that is the best way I can describe this year. I've been going to EGX for three years now and the last two have been year upon year improvements. This year I felt has been marred by poor planning. Not to fault the guys they just had to deal with a console pre launch the likes no one has seen before. I can't remember anyone putting so much effort in to marketing and image the way Microsoft and Sony have. No longer is it a battle for the best console it's a battle for the living room. So maybe that is why we had to endure so many queues. I'll go more in to that in my next post about the games and consoles.
That being said: what the titty fuck was going on with the super passes? Last year you queued up at the enterence and got in first. This year we are told security will come gather you and take you in then last moment plans are changed. Not only did that fill me full of anxiety worrying that I wouldn't be able to see all the main attractions but it meant that I could be missing out on the absolute corkers hidden in the rezzed area which I tend to spend my Saturday exploring. Thankfully my worries didn't come true and thanks to some world class sprinting that Usain Bolt would be impressed by I manged to see everything.
Though EA did do their best to stop me. Now while the Occulus Rift had the excuse of not having enough units to show all the games on which led to some two hour queues. Why the hell were there only 32 Titanfall booths? They were running on PCs and on the source engine so you could run it on a toaster. Why not, knowing it's popularity, grab more rigs? Were they competing for the worlds longest unnecessary queue? I'm not sure if they were attempting to manufacture hype- why, when we were first there on Thursday, subject to watching PR folk play the game for 15 minutes. Before ushering us in to a video telling us how to play the game only then eventually letting us loose? You've been to Gamescom and Tokyo you know exactly how big things are. Frustrating!
Now I know one of the folks mentioned that after talking to Tom Champion that publishers still insist on treating EGX in a bubble only giving it a small portion of the cash reserved for marketing a game even though year on year there is growth and popularity. But come on with the games that are already out! Let's use that space for 505 Games or Paradox. If not use that space to expand upon titles which will be huge. You want bigger crowds so turning people away because they don't want to wait three hours for a title.
Developer conferences were getting shorter again this year what use to be great insites in to game design are now 15 or 20 minutes long with some hit and miss Q&A. Annoying but maybe we can have panels about other things like PAX does?
But now I've spent three hours moaning let's talk about the good things.
Good guy Sony. Again I'll talk about this more when I get to the games but they were amazing allowing so many publishers to use the PS4 for every different type of games from amazing indies to big titles like Assassins Creed. Humble Sony is clearly the best Sony and long may it continue.
Speaking of Ubisoft, mixed bag from these guys. Let's get the bad out the way: No playable Watch Dogs. It was demoed behind closed doors and they pre empted the video with disclaimers about how it wasn't finished the game needs work and the like. But on the other hand 40 PS4 demo stations for AC4 with none less than FOUR demos for it. You glorious bastards Ubisoft. The queue was only 10 minutes with a reasonable 7 minute demo. Warner Brothers and Bethesda also brought along a ridiculous amount of demo stations and should be given a mention. It made my day much easier.
Shops were expanded upon this year offering a much larger display of items and things to choose from with very reasonable prices and Dota 2 tees I can buy on the cheap and make a fortune on later. Speaking of things expanding the Rezzed zone got bigger this year giving you more games and more excited indie developers willing to spend a hour talking about their game.
New this year was Board games. I honestly had no interest in playing them but the folks organising things were so approachable and engaged you it was great. I also met Matt Lees (abridged Playstation 4 reveal guy) while sitting on the floor playing Dobble with press folks and one of the girls who was working for the board game retailer (someone get me her number
). Weirdest experience all weekend but possibly the most memorable.But that feels very much like the theme of this year. Very much expanded upon but not quite prepared for the exceptional growth. Fingers crossed it's all teething problems as the guys at Eurogamer find their feet. Hopefully we'll see next year a further expanse to the first floor and with the console launch being over more games spread about the floor instead of crammed in to a tiny green box.
Woffls
Member
NFS wasn't at the Sony booth, so that must have been the PC version running with PS4 pads. It was quite obvious because the end of the demo always went to Windows 7 desktop an they had to click a batch file to run it again. I imagine they were targetting PS4 specs, and it will probably look that good to be fair. Can't remember what the framerate was like.
AHA-Lambda
Member
I MET MATT LEES! BEST LAST HOUR EVER! Not sure who was the girl at Esdevium Games but I need to thank her for helping me pass my last hour quickly!
EGX REDEEMED. Excuse me while I go pass out.
Ah! So jealous!!
Phoenix Fang
Banned
I only asked if it was the Sony booth because I didn't remember seeing it there. But you are correct that at the end of the demo it went back to Windows 7 desktop and they had to click a batch file to run it again. As for the framerate, the game seem to run really smooth with no stutter.
I'm seeing a lot of this.
Phoenix Fang
Banned
Good luck with that. The only one you'll probably get to play without waiting is Yaiba, only because the game is so shitty. The game is worst than vanilla Ninja Gaiden 3 and DmC.
Baleoce
Member
Just got back, had a great weekend with mates at the expo
The expo on the whole was fun. But I have to admit, it was a bit *too* full this time, and the planning was not the best it's ever been, some queues were just unreasonably long.
I was in line for Titanfall for (literally) between 2 and a half, and 3 hours. But the bit that took the piss the most was when they sat us down mid-way through the queueing to watch an "introduction to titanfall" video. They made us sit at the front for it, and then people who were behind us in the queue sat at the back. So when the video finished, all the people at the back were able to rejoin the queue before us.. making us lose another 30 minutes. And I could have put up with all of that, if it wasn't for the fact that Titanfall wasn't really my cup of tea in the end anyway. It's basically CoD with mechs and parcour. Was expecting something a bit more ambitious from EA, but it just seems to be a direct competitor to Activision. The only other game that I was underwhelmed with was probably Super Mario 3D World. It didn't help that I was made to play it on a wiimote, but it just didn't really grab me in any way like a 3D Mario game should.
Everything else I had a great time with. Dark Souls 2 (incidentally, that cosplayer was fantastic..), Mario Kart 8 was fun. Battlefield 4 was very nice indeed, Wolfenstein also. Tenya Wanya Teens is still bloody awesome. You all need to play that, it's hilarious xD
Got to play the PS4 this morning. Loving the controller, and had a great time playing driveclub. Every issue I had with the dualshock has been addressed. Triggers, analogues, even the D-pad is much nicer now, and it wasn't bad before. Fits much, much nicer in the hand now too. I played resogun as my indie game. Tough as balls, but every bit as fun. One thing I noticed in general, Sony brought it big this year. Not just PS4, but everything.
Killer Instinct surprised me. I dislike the business model, but I can't help but say that I had a fair bit of fun with it. If anything it's a tad *too* forgiving on inputs, but other than that it's looking decent.
Also, dat Bayonetta cosplayer from today.
The expo on the whole was fun. But I have to admit, it was a bit *too* full this time, and the planning was not the best it's ever been, some queues were just unreasonably long.
I was in line for Titanfall for (literally) between 2 and a half, and 3 hours. But the bit that took the piss the most was when they sat us down mid-way through the queueing to watch an "introduction to titanfall" video. They made us sit at the front for it, and then people who were behind us in the queue sat at the back. So when the video finished, all the people at the back were able to rejoin the queue before us.. making us lose another 30 minutes. And I could have put up with all of that, if it wasn't for the fact that Titanfall wasn't really my cup of tea in the end anyway. It's basically CoD with mechs and parcour. Was expecting something a bit more ambitious from EA, but it just seems to be a direct competitor to Activision. The only other game that I was underwhelmed with was probably Super Mario 3D World. It didn't help that I was made to play it on a wiimote, but it just didn't really grab me in any way like a 3D Mario game should.
Everything else I had a great time with. Dark Souls 2 (incidentally, that cosplayer was fantastic..), Mario Kart 8 was fun. Battlefield 4 was very nice indeed, Wolfenstein also. Tenya Wanya Teens is still bloody awesome. You all need to play that, it's hilarious xD
Got to play the PS4 this morning. Loving the controller, and had a great time playing driveclub. Every issue I had with the dualshock has been addressed. Triggers, analogues, even the D-pad is much nicer now, and it wasn't bad before. Fits much, much nicer in the hand now too. I played resogun as my indie game. Tough as balls, but every bit as fun. One thing I noticed in general, Sony brought it big this year. Not just PS4, but everything.
Killer Instinct surprised me. I dislike the business model, but I can't help but say that I had a fair bit of fun with it. If anything it's a tad *too* forgiving on inputs, but other than that it's looking decent.
Also, dat Bayonetta cosplayer from today.
Man-is-Obsolete
Member
Because they are playing unfinished games on 40" screens while standing 24" away. And we are talking about launch titles on top of that. It wounldn't surprise me if some of the builds at this event are from E3, which was 3 months ago. Lot can and will change from now to launch. People really need to check their expectations at the door when playing games at these events, because they are far from finished being played in far from ideal scenarios.
TurboDonkey
Banned
Killer Instinct surprised me too, I'm not even into fighting games much and only queued up for it as it was small when I walked past.
But had a lot of fun on it despite going down 2-1 to my random opponent! It felt really good, looked great (720p or not, it was lovely and hectic)
Will post my full 2 day experience tomorrow, bit tired after my long journey home!
But had a lot of fun on it despite going down 2-1 to my random opponent! It felt really good, looked great (720p or not, it was lovely and hectic)
Will post my full 2 day experience tomorrow, bit tired after my long journey home!
I got to experience the Oculus Rift there today and i'm actually pretty disappointed with it. The latency on the head tracking is absolutely fine and that aspect of it works spectacularly well, but the IQ is utter garbage. I played the dog fighting game and it just looked a complete mess. In it's current form, i'd rather just play the games normally. Any extra sense of immersion you gain from the 3d, peripheral vision and head tracking is completely thrown out the window by the clearly visible grids of pixels and jaggies everywhere.
MemoryHumanity
Member
FAO guys slating Oculus: resolution is only low in devkits. Final version should be much higher.
Another day done with, just one left. If any GAFers see the NintendoLife StreetPass Zone, come and say hi to me! I'm the tall guy and will most likely be on the microphone.
Did anyone see the Wonder Red cosplay? Just absolutely fantastic.
Another day done with, just one left. If any GAFers see the NintendoLife StreetPass Zone, come and say hi to me! I'm the tall guy and will most likely be on the microphone.
Did anyone see the Wonder Red cosplay? Just absolutely fantastic.
Acheteedo
Member
The kits at the expo were the 1080p sets. So the screen door effect was greatly reduced but it's still like smooshing your head into a TV, the resolution was never going to impress. Final version will be the same, need to wait for Oculus 4k or something before it looks good.
Screen door is bad, and objects in the middle distance and further are just a mess. But close up it is fantastic and hints at what could be. In minecraft the blocks up close are amazingly solid. And there is a tech demo with a 3D scan of a woman, and when you stand up close it is scarily real
Here are my photos from this year. You can all play guess the GAFfers.
A legit ticket? Nil.
Got in to the first Titanfall session. Didn't expect to enjoy a multiplayer game that much, but the game is the real deal. Not buying an Xbox One for it, but I'm buying that game. There's a magnificent fluidity to the movement that's hard to put in to words. Had a smile on my face for the whole session. The game's greatest strength? Making you feel like what you do matters. I'm usually crap at these games, but in my match I was in the middle of my team' skilll range. Also I took out a Titan with a rocket launcher. Booyah.
Cheers
Last year they were selling tickets on the doors after lunch each day, no worries
Hot Coldman
Banned
jam_sponge please come to the Oculus booth, I'm the unshaven super hung over guy waiting in line
edit: This might be too much detail XD but it's really my whole experience from start to finish >_>
Got back yesterday from London.
Had a great time though the situation with being ushered into the basement (?) by Earl's Court staff at the start of the day was odd. Though I appreciated being able to sit down on the Friday inside (we didn't get a chance to on Thursday because we kept getting moved back down the wall every few minutes and then eventually moved forward when the show was about to open).
Overall, I had a fantastic time, met up with some folks from last year (Audioboxer and his girl) and met some new folks such as Spookie. The meet-up at Wagamamas on Friday was pretty fun as well
I didn't play as many games as I wanted to, there is not enough time in two days with how busy the lines were.
Oculus Rift was pretty awesome. Went straight there on the Friday and had to wait half an hour (which is better than if I waited til after 11am).
FFXHD looks gorgeous though it must be an old build (or if it's a new one, hopefully the issues get sorted before it's release). Some framerate issues and the occasional quick-freeze happened when I played it. That said the demo was around the first 20 - 30 minutes of the game roughly.
LRFFXIII was pretty fun. Battle system seems like loads of fun so I am very much looking forward to it.
Tried Octodad but couldn't understand how to move the character on-screen. The most I got was his leg to go up XD.
In the PS4 area, I planed Resogun and Knack. Resogun looks great, I recommend anyone who is getting the PS4 to get it (PS+ get it for free at launch I think?). Knack was pretty fun and I didn't notice the framerate issues others did... at least until they were pointed out to me that is >_> Still Knack seems like an alright game and I plan on getting it at launch as well.
I went to 3 dev sessions over the course of the two days I was there.
The Guild Wars 2 dev session was informative, I have been pretty ill for the last month so I haven't kept up to date with the GW2 updates but the GW2 dev session got me wanting to check out the update that comes tomorrow. Mike Z also took some questions at the end of it. (some dev sessions had questions/answers, others didn't because they ran out of time...)
The Beyond Two Souls dev session was pretty interesting as well though I am wondering how 2 player will work in Beyond. This was also one of dev sessions that didn't have time for any questions since they needed to get ready for the next session. Ah well.
Last one I went to was the Shahid one which was pretty good and informative. The "Shut up and take my money" bit was great. Also shoutout to Audioboxer who said to Shahid at the session that GAF would gif that... which indeed they did not long afterwards XD.
I also met some nice folks such as Tom from Eurogamer and I got to see Hollie for the second year in a row (met her last year when she worked at Namco Bandai), she is very nice and approachable if you have any questions or need help from a Sony employee.
I was going to meet a Namco employee I know from twitter but the Dark Souls 2 area was so big that it was hard trying to find him. Ah well, there is always next year. (fun fact: he tweeted me asking where was I 2 minutes after I left the building for the day on Friday XD).
Some other nice folks I met at EG but don't know their names so shout out to the Sony guy who gave us some freebies and the (I think?) media molecule guy who put the tearaway hat on my head from behind me. You gave me a fright but I appreciate the hat. Also the Sony employee who talked to me while I was waiting on playing Knack for the first time was awesome as well.
Only met one guy I didn't like from Sony funnily enough and he was the social media guy who was on his laptop. He seemed to take offense when I mistakenly sat down on the chair next to him to give my feet a break. (he said it was reserved for his colleague). He also didn't say much even when I said "Sorry, I didn't know". It was just a weird contrast compared to the other Sony folks who are all so nice and approachable.
All in all, the Expo was great both for playing games and meeting people, not as many games I cared about 'compared to last year' at least but as a whole, the experience was better than the last few years though I'd have felt annoyed if I was a super pass holder since they got jerked around with the whole line/waiting business.
Got back yesterday from London.
Had a great time though the situation with being ushered into the basement (?) by Earl's Court staff at the start of the day was odd. Though I appreciated being able to sit down on the Friday inside (we didn't get a chance to on Thursday because we kept getting moved back down the wall every few minutes and then eventually moved forward when the show was about to open).
Overall, I had a fantastic time, met up with some folks from last year (Audioboxer and his girl) and met some new folks such as Spookie. The meet-up at Wagamamas on Friday was pretty fun as well
I didn't play as many games as I wanted to, there is not enough time in two days with how busy the lines were.
Oculus Rift was pretty awesome. Went straight there on the Friday and had to wait half an hour (which is better than if I waited til after 11am).
FFXHD looks gorgeous though it must be an old build (or if it's a new one, hopefully the issues get sorted before it's release). Some framerate issues and the occasional quick-freeze happened when I played it. That said the demo was around the first 20 - 30 minutes of the game roughly.
LRFFXIII was pretty fun. Battle system seems like loads of fun so I am very much looking forward to it.
Tried Octodad but couldn't understand how to move the character on-screen. The most I got was his leg to go up XD.
In the PS4 area, I planed Resogun and Knack. Resogun looks great, I recommend anyone who is getting the PS4 to get it (PS+ get it for free at launch I think?). Knack was pretty fun and I didn't notice the framerate issues others did... at least until they were pointed out to me that is >_> Still Knack seems like an alright game and I plan on getting it at launch as well.
I went to 3 dev sessions over the course of the two days I was there.
The Guild Wars 2 dev session was informative, I have been pretty ill for the last month so I haven't kept up to date with the GW2 updates but the GW2 dev session got me wanting to check out the update that comes tomorrow. Mike Z also took some questions at the end of it. (some dev sessions had questions/answers, others didn't because they ran out of time...)
The Beyond Two Souls dev session was pretty interesting as well though I am wondering how 2 player will work in Beyond. This was also one of dev sessions that didn't have time for any questions since they needed to get ready for the next session. Ah well.
Last one I went to was the Shahid one which was pretty good and informative. The "Shut up and take my money" bit was great. Also shoutout to Audioboxer who said to Shahid at the session that GAF would gif that... which indeed they did not long afterwards XD.
I also met some nice folks such as Tom from Eurogamer and I got to see Hollie for the second year in a row (met her last year when she worked at Namco Bandai), she is very nice and approachable if you have any questions or need help from a Sony employee.
I was going to meet a Namco employee I know from twitter but the Dark Souls 2 area was so big that it was hard trying to find him. Ah well, there is always next year. (fun fact: he tweeted me asking where was I 2 minutes after I left the building for the day on Friday XD).
Some other nice folks I met at EG but don't know their names so shout out to the Sony guy who gave us some freebies and the (I think?) media molecule guy who put the tearaway hat on my head from behind me. You gave me a fright but I appreciate the hat
. Also the Sony employee who talked to me while I was waiting on playing Knack for the first time was awesome as well.Only met one guy I didn't like from Sony funnily enough and he was the social media guy who was on his laptop. He seemed to take offense when I mistakenly sat down on the chair next to him to give my feet a break. (he said it was reserved for his colleague). He also didn't say much even when I said "Sorry, I didn't know". It was just a weird contrast compared to the other Sony folks who are all so nice and approachable.
All in all, the Expo was great both for playing games and meeting people, not as many games I cared about 'compared to last year' at least but as a whole, the experience was better than the last few years though I'd have felt annoyed if I was a super pass holder since they got jerked around with the whole line/waiting business.
Daffy Duck
Member
Anyone got any views on Ghosts??
Of all the people who went I don't think any one of us queued for it. The consensus was that no one wanted to wait 3 hours to play a copy of a game that was out last year.
Baleoce
Member
Yup, same here. With the queues being that big, I just couldn't justify any of the time I had on CoD.
I remember going last year and just feeling horrible after half a day there. The lines were massive for anything decent and I could not stand in any lines anymore after a while because it truly hurt my back.
It made me feel really old and it hit me pretty hard that these events were totally not for me anymore.
Also, the food was terrible, really terrible. Not expecting great high quality food but jeez, fast food should at least be "ok", it was not.
It made me feel really old and it hit me pretty hard that these events were totally not for me anymore.
Also, the food was terrible, really terrible. Not expecting great high quality food but jeez, fast food should at least be "ok", it was not.
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
Yeah. Im too impatient for these events. You can tell Im not british born because I hate queues.
digoutyoursoul
Member
How good is the DS4, seriously, in my opinion a huge improvement over their last offering. It just feels right like the Xb1 controller. Can't decide which one I like more.
Many ?!
How many ?!
No, don't cancel your preorder just to wait only 4/5 months.
Ps Thanks to all for the reports!