Co-Writer: Mike Moss

So we’ve just pulled through Eurogamer and though it was almost impossible to get to London, it was worth it. After climbing through the masses of the underground, we arrived at Earls court to be greeted by a massive Fallout Vegas poster, the team all felt a cool whisk of excitement as we stood in awe, and we weren’t even in yet!

So the next day we walk up from a local hotel, as press we were allowed in an hour early, but already it was swamped with people playing games, laughing and socializing. We had a little look around and met some great people! Everyone from Crytek to Playfish could be found, setting up ready to tell fans how to get a job in their industry. We had a little chat with some and they all welcomed the idea of getting in contact with us, there was some truly inspiring characters around.

We eventually sat down and played a game after getting the word out to some of the top developers in the industry. The first game we tried was Gran Turismo 5, with the sleek and supreme graphics this game welcomed both the player and the spectator, all the controls ran together smoothly without hassle, giving the game a splendid all around enjoyable race. We then went to try out inFAMOUS 2, by giving a metal heavy rod to Cole the game gives the player a stronger sense of the powers, it just makes you feel more powerful and stronger. We also saw improvement on his abilities all around, from sliding along cables to gliding for longer, it is truly a strong improvement over the original. There’s also some kick-arse slow motion on there making each battle truly epic. We were also told in a developer session that Cole will be effected by his surroundings, there’s apparently a bit set in a swamp which strongly effects him.

We tried Killzone 3 as well, sadly my 3D glasses were clonked out, but Mike assures me the graphics were awesome. With things popping out of the screen and truly surrounding the player in the game like few others. Then we had a whirl at Motorstorm in 3D and it was spectacular, nothing can amaze a player like driving under a building that is being hurled out of the screen.

Then we nabbed a go on Fallout Vegas, it’s a lot like three but I must say that we obviously didn’t get very far and the main improvements will, or should be in the story, not in the already perfected gameplay. We moved to Crysis 2, I tried my hand at a multiplayer match, it ran really well even on the Xbox 360! Though sadly, this could not be said for the campaign, which constantly lagged and left literally everyone who asked about it, a “little” less than impressed. Here’s a quote “I was excited to see this game hit Xbox 360, but while playing it I began to quickly worry that the xbox would catch fire from the lag!” But other than that the game was really fun and really detailed, just get it on the PC to save yourself the pain, unless they sort out this issue before the release.

We then got a little play on Gears of War 3, yes. The “Epic trilogy” Sadly, again. This was not impressive. The campaign missed some vital things, such as working AI. Now, I know that Gears of War isn’t known for having great AI, but when it doesn’t do so much as help you kill one enemy it becomes a bit of a failure, and then we noticed, we had been stabbing one locust for over 10 minutes, we recorded a bit of it.

But we did try beast mode, that kind of locust horde mode, and that ran really well and smoothly and added some great and long needed extra fun to the series.

And then we tried another couple of games, Hunted: Demons Forge for one. And I must say, the developers session did no justice, showing off poor voice acting and glitching floating arrows. But the actual game was impressively fun! By mixing bonus areas with riddles you’ll find this D&D style game great fun, though I was more than annoyed at again, the lack of split screen. That’s right, this Co-Op game will have NO split screen, an increasingly neglected function in a game. Especially one of this style. The developers were apparently D&D fans, so surely they would sit around a table and know that people do LIKE to have friends over? However, I’m sure some of you will be happy to hear that the roles in this game break the chain a little. While most games have the ranger, usually a female as the tactician, sitting back and plotting out each move. In this game the ranger is female and nimble and is the blood thirsty rush in and shoot up enemies, and the hunky man is the tactician. The game plays somewhat well and is all around quite fun, with an impressive background. However you can switch characters by clicking on a small stone…Thing. But it took me and my friend a good two minutes to get the bloody thing to respond to us. So I gave the melee character a try, and he just didn’t seem to work to well with the enemies dying before I finish my combo and he ended up waving his weapons around like a fool until he finished the combo. There was also only one way to kill a downed enemy, that was execute them. Which I couldn’t do because my partner downed it; so I had to wait for my partner to return to me so I could progress, this is a bargain buy game, so far.

The developer sessions were pretty terrific, on a whole. Media Molecule did one on little big planet 2, little did we know that they would perform something unlike any other. In what could be called pure genius or supreme stupidity, someone somewhere made the best, and quite probably most risky suggestion ever. Live level making. Yes, that’s right. They literally stood there, and got the audience to shout out things such as themes, game types and settings for a level they made right there in front of us! So by the end of it we had a tank that fired apples, a giant zombie panda that was on fire and it was set in Tesco! They pushed boundaries and made us almost collapse with laughter and the obscure game that we all helped with.

One thing a lot of fans have been itching to hear about is Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. The newly added multi player was some what risky. But it was executed really well, by mixing abilities and special weapons we found the game to have made the right choice, under constant threat of being assassinated you have to find your victim, who has a few look-a-likes. And, well assassinate him, or her. All while escaping someone who is trying to assassinate you. And surprisingly, this was really easy to get going once you figured out what you were doing!

What would this be without a mention of our exclusive interview, Paul Wedgwood CEO of splash damage, in the comfort of the VIP lounge we get a nine minute interview with one of the greatest men behind BRINK. He was a great guy, and all of his colleagues seemed really nice and happy. Check it out!

I was questioned by Xbox Live’s MrPointyHead, he seemed really nice! We also met Pete Closs who recognized our website, it looks like we’re getting popular, so thank you our ever vigilante members! This wouldn’t be possible without you.

Finally, we feel we really owe a massive thank you to:
Nicholas Morey for the warm VIP welcome and securing the interview with Paul Wedgwood.
And of course we’d like to thank Paul Wedgwood for his time, as well as Pete Closs for his kind confidence boost and help.

Thanks for reading, we hope to see you next year for what can only be described as the greatest event in the UK.

Games: Eurogamer Expo 2010, Platforms: Xbox 360, Genres: Action, Publishers: Bethseda, Crytek, EA, HMV, Jagex, Konami, Playfish, Ubisoft, Developers: Bethseda, Crytek, EA, Jagex, Konami, Playfish, Ubisoft