Xbox 360
A gaming expo run by a magazine? For gamers AND press? If this all sounds slightly suspect do not fear as this year Eurogamer, vast all-seeing eye of the gaming press, repeated and expanded on last year's successful event to bring the Eurogamer Expo to both London and Leeds. Featuring just as many already released titles as there were hot future prospects, the Eurogamer Expo catered to everyone regardless of their involvement in the videogame industry. There was also a careers fair, featuring many well-known publishers and developers (more on that later) as part of a dual effort between Eurogamer and GamesIndustry. It seems Eurogamer Expo has everything for everyone, but what really matters are the titles so after nicking some free drinks we took a wander down the stairs onto the main floor.
For the first game we decided to travel to where the biggest buzz was, and Left For Dead (L4D) 2 was by far the most popular of all the titles displayed, amongst punters and press alike. EA and Valve capitalized on its adrenaline rush based gameplay and gave us an 8 machine multiplayer scenario to blast through. In a dingy motel setting the survivors had to pour gasoline into a machine to get it working, while the infected...well...they just had to kill the survivors. Zombies shouldn't have to think too much about objectives when their main aim is brains after all! The new types of special infected were playable, with the Spitters firing globs of nasty goo everywhere, and the Jockeys literally riding the survivors into an early grave. Note to all future human players: do NOT let one of these get close, as you are in serious schtuck if you do! Thankfully, the survivors weapons seem to be a bit more powerful in this second iteration, with close combat weapons and pistols dealing more damage than before. In general, everything has a more solid and stylized feel to it, rather than in L4D where you sometimes got the feeling it was just an overblown source mod. No doubt this game will be massive, regardless of any controversy previously caused with its premature release. Oh, and the addition of free L4D2 shirts given out on the expo floor couldn't hurt either!
Conversely, Battle for the most boring multiplayer demo was a straight tie between MAG and Lost Planet 2. Sharing a similar visual style, both games were quite clunky and unresponsive to play through, and the maps didn't really allow much of a chance to get used to the various specialisations as death was so quick and painful. As much as these games may be fun in a long-term sense, these quick on-off showcases did little to highlight the respective strengths of both titles. And in all honesty, how many of these shooters do we really need? There should be a yearly cap on this genre, so over-saturated it has recently become.
The polar opposite of MAG and Lost Planet 2 was Aliens Versus Predator (AvP to the acronym freaks). Here was a game that, frankly, looked a bit pants but played like a demon. Admittedly the game is apparently in an early phase of testing, but there was a general sheen of murk across the level demonstrated that made it rather hard to see anything, far beyond anything that could be passed off as 'atmospheric'. The gameplay, however, was spot on with each of the three races (Marine, Alien and Predator surprisingly) each possessing wildly different playstyles. The predator was lethal at long or close range, the alien was a wall climbing leapy vicious git, and the poor marine seemed to be mainly good at being cannon fodder for the other two combatants! With this in mind we gave the marine a go, in an attempt to show the rest of these amateur gamers how it could be done, and promptly got our soldier decapitated and eviscerated more times than we could keep count of! We were assured that there is a certain way to play the marine correctly, but the constant threat of alien assault meant we were spending less time watching our radar and more time lobbing grenades at plants and walls in a pathetic attempt to pre-empt an assault. Regardless, AvP has a great gaming pedigree and this latest version easily does enough to distinguish it from all the MAG's and Lost Planet's of this world.
After all this however, we were a wee bit tired of shooting things in the face, so we headed for a game that could make us feel a bit happier about the world, rather than psychotically tainted. And our saviour was the sublime New Super Mario Bros (NSMB) on the Wii. The successor to the similarly titled DS game, NSMB shares the traditionalism and focus on quality and also throws a host of new items and 4 player functionality into the mix. Traversing the level on a single screen (which actually encourages co-operative play rather than annoyance at slowbies) Mario, Luigi and two colourful toads have to work together to solve puzzles, avoid enemies and ride Yoshi's to the finish flag. This is a game that will re-inforce or reinvigorate your love for Nintendo, even after its flagship consoles slow spiral into casual gaming hell. It's a slice of old-school gaming heaven, and for all its new additions does still retain the spark of genius that has made a fat plumber into a household name.
Speaking of household names, Cryptic took this opportunity to show off its new MMO, Star Trek Online (STO). A franchise such as Star Trek requires a deep and complex game to please the fans alone, and thankfully Cryptic have taken this chance to create a title that looks the part, even if it does play like many other MMO titles before it. There are things that set it apart from other massively multiplayer timesinks than just an obsessive attention to detail and lore however, with combat being fought in space, on planets and even ship-to-ship. These changes in scenario mean that people will be able to find something to divert them if they ever get bored of grinding through one particular game mode. Graphically STO does the job enough to look flashy, but not enough to destroy a low-end PC. So for all of you people who had an overwhelming urge to punch Spock (the smug git), this could be your best chance to whack a vulcan or two, and have a fair bit of fun doing it.
Coming in part two (tomorrow): Many, many more games. Many. Lots. Seriously, loads [I think he's going to talk about more games - Ed]. Trust us on this one!