GAMEfest and Other Tales

GAMEFEST...

A few weekends back, the NEC in Birmingham hosted the first ever GAMEfest - an exhibition for British, poverty-stricken, saddos who can't afford the cost or effort of going to E3 or Gamescom or TGS or whatever. All the big publishers (Activision, Bethesda, EA, THQ, Ubisoft, Capcom, etc.) along with PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, came along to show off their newest and upcoming games. And at the low low price of £10 per ticket, I couldn't resist...

And to no surprise at all, it was totally worth it. Even though I didn't get to play some of the games I'd gone there for (Batman: Arkham City, F1 2011, Battlefield 3, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, among others), simply because of the massive queues, I still tried out a load of great games. And some not so great games.

The very first thing that happened, against my will, was the involuntary grabbing of free Mountain Dew, which had been hastily thrust at me during the great stampede as the hall opened, followed by a try-out of the new Sonic game, Sonic Generations. Which was fantastic - looks like it should be as entertaining as the original Sonics on Mega Drive (<3). Next was a trip to the Ubi booth for a hands-on with the next Rayman game, Rayman Origins. THIS I have been waiting eagerly for. The original Rayman on PS1 was, and still is, one of my favourite games ever, so a new one, akin to the original instead of the 3D crap they've been churning out heartlessly for a few years, is very welcome. To my joy, it was thoroughly enjoyable, although not as good as the original...

Also, I didn't get to play Rayman Origins straight away because some chumps were hogging the booths, so I had to play The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn - The Game (dumb title) in the interim. NOT A GOOD SUBSTITUTE. The general rule that video games adapted from movies suck, remains true. Playing the game while being watched by the Ubi booth man, and trying not to hurl my opinion at the screen with a flurry of expletives was more of a challenge than the game itself.
BUT YAYAYAUGYUDFSIULFLB RAYMAN.

Other highlights included shift-switching with a friend in the 2-and-a-half hour queue for Mass Effect 3, managing to play SSX, Dark Souls, Journey, and more, win a Batman poster, steal a Skyrim/Rage bag without having to suffer the extensive Bethesda, all while my friend held our spot; A couple guys completely breaking WWE '12 with a Stretch Armstrong-esque glitch (I imagine they were swiftly removed from the booth and never seen again); showing everyone my skillz on the Assassin's Creed Revelations multiplayer and winning a Driver soundtrack vinyl for my troubles; and laughing at some people who'd queued for hours at Bethesda only to find Skyrim wasn't even playable.

Got to play Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Resistance 3, Uncharted 3, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (bugged to fuck, way to ruin one of the best games ever guys), Ace Combat 3DS, Gears of War 3, Street Fighter X Tekken and Lord of the Rings: War in the North as well. Didn't play any Kinect games liked I'd hoped though. Not because I love looking like a knob, but because I've not experienced the fancy tech myself yet.

...AND OTHER TALES

I shall reserve for another post. This has already become a risk of tl;dr.

I should go.