Eurogamer Expo 2010 Round-Up

So with Eurogamer Expo 2010 firmly in the past now it’s time to look back at the show. This is the second year I’ve been to the Expo and it was nice to see the pretty significant expansion over the relatively small affair last year. Of course last year wasn’t exactly small, but this year just seemed significantly larger with a lot more gamers in attendance this year. Along with the growth of gamers there seemed to be a lot more stations available for every game, something that was a real issue for me last year. In fact the number of stations available for some games, like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhoood, was pretty ridiculous.

Of course extra station’s weren’t the solution for every game. Some titles like Brink and Medal of Honor had absolutely stagerring queues despite having a very high number of screens available, but the new Zelda took the biscuit for longest wait, although it did only have two stations available.

Unforunately there were a few games I only got a few minutes with, or weren’t playable but only shown in a presentation. These don’t quite warrant a full hands on write up, but they do still certainly deserve a mention. So here goes, kicking off with the very slick Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3

This title was only available to play in the challenge zone on a sit down arcade machine, although they said it was running the PS3 build of the game. Sadly the small card listing a few combos was actually for Street Fighter IV so it was a little hard to pick up the game, but they’ve added a few small tweaks to make it more accessible. Chief amongst these is a ‘simple’ mode, which makes combos easier to hit and lets things flow better if you’re not quite as experienced with Capcom’s fighting titles.

Visually the game looks brilliant, and the double team system which allows you to have two characters on screen at once really adds to gameplay, and will certainly bring about some brilliant new combos. For a game that’s a reasonable way out from release everything feels very solid and exceedingly fast paced. Overall the title is just fantastic and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Dead Space 2

I must first admit that my impressions of this game were hampered by not playing the first Dead Space. There didn’t seem to be any signposting at all in the demo, and with nothing to show you the controls  or explain how you need to use weapons things got a little bit tough. In fact I had to quit before the end of the demo because I simply couldn’t complete the demo.

However, with that said the game looks simply stunning. The in environment menu system of the first game is still in place and looks incredible, and the general effects and lighting are simply brilliant. Having watched a few others try out the demo it’s clear that this is really going to appeal to fans of the first game, it certainly appealed to me a lot.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

There is one word to describe Hot Pursuit – fast. It’s clear from the get go that Criterion have been given complete control over the title, everything from the car design up seems to scream Burnout. The demo I played was multiplayer, with players being able to chose whether they wanted to be a cop or a racer. Cops have to take out the racers and have four tools on their side to help; EMP, helicopter, spike strips and blockade. Racers have it a little tougher having to dodge the cops as well as trying to win the race, but they’ve got power-ups of their own; boost, EMP, spike strips and jammer.

This was one of my favourites at the show, and seems to have been the boost that the Need for Speed franchise needed. The little I got to play (just one race) felt fresh, original, and very, very fast.

inFamous 2

inFamous 2 had a demo on the show floor, but was also shown in a developer session. In both states the game looked fantastic, although the show floor demo did have a few performance issues if you wreaked too much mayhem in the world. The two things that really shone were the vastly improved melee system and the effort that’s gone into making traversing the world a better experience.

Melee is now pretty fleshed out, feeling pretty similar to Batman: Arkham Asylum. Cole has what seems to be a giant cattle prod as a weapon, and he certainly knows how to use it. Sucker Punch have clearly put a lot of effort into making the camera show off melee in a cinematic style, and each enemy you take out is accompanied by a very satisfying camera angle as you make your finishing move.

Traversal is brilliant, with the network of electric cables being vastly expanded as well as your static thrusters. Sucker Punch noted that it’s now possible to almost cross entire sections of the city without touching the ground, something that many will surely love.

Performance issues aside inFamous 2 was a lot of fun to play, and hearing Sucker Punch talk about the title really piqued my interest. They really seem to have taken criticisms of the first game on board when designing the sequel, and it shows.

RAGE

With RAGE being almost a year away from release it wasn’t actually playable at the show, but the talk given by id was certainly enlightening. This was the very last thing I saw at the show and it left pretty much everything else in the dust. The id Tech 5 engine that underpins RAGE looks amazing, and the level of detail in the game is a little mind blowing. id explained this is a result of the mega-texture technology the game utilises, allowing for more detail in textures and less repetition across the world.

Graphics aside the variety of weaponry available in world looks very interesting, and id have made a commitment to show you some new weapon or item in every area you enter. If they hold themselves to that promise and build on what they had to show RAGE will be a wealth of fun environmental weaponry and brilliant items. Certainly one to keep an eye on.

Crysis 2

Finally Crysis 2, my one let down of the show. I played the game on both PC and 360, and whilst the PC version looked a lot better it was hardly breath taking in the same way that the first CryTek games were. In particular the 360 multiplayer looked completely sub-par and far below what was on offer with the 360’s implementation of the single player.

Gameplay wise it just feels so completely and utterly bland. There’s nothing that stands out as particularly special or unique, and nothing to hang your hat on as being a stand out feature. For a game that I had high hopes for I was sorely disappointed. CryTek have a lot of ground to make up if they want to impress.

So there you have it, another year gone and another Expo done. Everyone at Eurogamer did a stellar job putting the show on, and hopefully they’ll continue to grow next year whilst maintaining the consumer focus that makes the show feel special.