Eurogamer Expo Part 2

Back again, and what do we have for you first? That's right, another shooter!

Army of Two split opinion on release, being both slated and praised for its high camp action and blinged out weaponry. The sequel, Army Of Two - 40th Day promises to...carry on this tradition but with even more over the top shootouts and even MORE bling. We couldn't resist asking a nearby developer just how much more we could do in terms of jewels and gold, and the answer was 'diamond encrusted grenades'.

Absolutely brilliant.

The actual action looks to be much more refined as well, with an improved aggro meter and a camera feed in the corner of your screen to reflect what your co-op buddy sees. Oh, and the demo level consisted of a Zoo shootout, with enemies hiding behind the bullet-riddled corpses of hippos. Army Of Two - 40th Day is either going to be very, very good or very, very bad, depending on your outlook.

Right, enough shooters, let's move onto something else for a bit. Bayonetta recently received a perfect score of 40/40 in Japanese tastemaker magazine Famitsu (something that only a handful of games have achieved), and having played through the demo it's easy to see why. The game looks beautiful, with a visual style that smacks of Devil May Cry in places. Combat also apes the aforementioned game but is both expanded upon and tightened up, so what the player is left with is a fighting system that can be as complicated as they require it. There is a huge list of possible combos, and a large selection of weapons to choose from and the actual hack and smack of it all is fast-paced, yet it doesn't force you into a button mashing frenzy. There is a genuine sense of achievement to be gained from beating giant bosses with skill rather than luck, and the game rewards you via a medal system dependent on how well you performed. The fact that the main character is a sassy female who sports an outfit made from her own hair, and the additional fact that her finishing moves (a 'climax' technique) also require her hair to perform will lead to many moments of gratuitous nudity that we are sure sure will be appreciated by the male audience as a whole. Bayonetta comes delivered with tongue firmly planted in cheek, and purchasers of this title can look forward to more smut than a 'carry on...' video box-set.

A bit hot under the collar from the previous game, Square-Go then decided to descend into the basement to hide in the relative cover of darkness. Depressingly, a large area was converted into a stage with a Rock Band setup placed on it like a real equipment setup. A large queue of people were eagerly waiting for their chance to get up and pretend to be the Beatles in the self titled Rock Band spinoff. A long sigh was emitted, and the game was ignored.

Another game quickly ignored was Mass Effect 2. The first Mass Effect was excellent, mainly for its depth and grand scale. This could obviously not be reflected in a 10 minute demo, so what we were treated to was a boring on-rails shooting section, with a small plot break (which didn't have audio OR subtitles) to split up the pew pew pew action. We gave up halfway, having spent the previous few hours blasting away at various people, animals and objects and strolled off to find something less dull.

Across the floor was Monster Hunter Tri (MHT) for the Nintendo Wii. Surprisingly, for a game of equal depth and scale as Mass Effect 2, MHT proved to be much more captivating a playthrough, with four machines rigged up to co-operative mode in order to bring down one of three monsters. Our party chose a chuffing huge dragon to slay. A good choice for beginners as we're sure you'll agree.

For the uninitiated, Monster Hunter is a VERY hard series to jump into, with a learning curve steeper than the mountain we had to climb to get to the aforementioned dragon. There are a plethora of weapons, each suited more to dealing with one type of monster than another. We chose a massive axe in order to overcompensate for our lack of skill, and quickly found out that most enemies move faster than we could swing the bloody thing! Still, after slaying a few minor monsters, we encountered the Dragon. However, rather than flapping around in the sky, our foe was swimming in a deep lake. A new feature in the Monster Hunter series, water combat works much like normal combat only you now have two additional buttons for up and down. There is an oxygen bar, but this takes forever to run out. Our clash against the dragon lasted for around 10 minutes, a slow scrap to a bloody finish...well, an ASSUMED bloody finish as our character unfortunately got on the wrong end of an angry charging dragon and copped it after the 5 minute mark, leaving the rest of the party to kill the damned thing. Still, we felt suitably satisfied to have dealt a fair bit of damage and toddled off, swinging an invisible axe at passers by.

The penultimate game covered, and the first of two surprises was Saw: The Videogame. From a personal standpoint, I consider the first to be the pinnacle of the series, being an intellectual and sometimes brutal thriller, as opposed to the sequels which were brutal and sometimes intellectual. Thankfully, this title apes the first film more than the poor cash-ins that followed. Constantly haunted by a tv-bound Jigsaw, the demo saw you playing as Detective Sing in his attempts to free innocents and escape from his own personal demons. The violence is handled with tact and a horrible sense of reality, so beating up thugs with random weapons and fishing through toilets filled with needles for keys becomes a mildly harrowing experience. From playing the videogame, it does make more sense for the Saw series to take a step into the interactive world, as it is one of the only video games that we have played to introduce a genuine sense of dread and desperation into the players psyche instead of a constant reward mechanism for maintained violence towards others.

This led us to our final game of the day, and the second big surprise. Heavy Rain, a game currently flying low under our radar took the opportunity to hit home it's blend of quicktime events and point and click questing. And boy, did it do it well!

There were two scenarios on offer, a shop hold-up and a scrapyard interrogation. The former has you playing a detective investigating a missing persons case and inadvertently preventing a thug from robbing a corner shop. We chose the scrapyard scenario, and found ourselves stepping into the shoes of a John Cusack-esque FBI agent as he explores the territory of one Jackson 'Madjack' Neville. Our agent, Norman Jayden is equipped with a set of special sunglasses and a glove which allows him to detect clues in a much more efficient fashion than normal eyes ever could. How he missed the skull in the carwash pool is unbeknown to us however. Avoiding this slip-up, the game mechanic is solid and involving, and that's before the action scenes kick in.

Recently, quicktime events have come under fire for being the last resort of the unimaginative developer, but here they are perfectly placed to enhance the fights and stand-offs that happen throughout Heavy Rain. Failing a quicktime event doesn't fail the level though (although too many fails does lead to a gritty death), instead opening up a different route in which to finish the fight. From watching previous playthroughs, Square-Go saw at least 5 different ways to progress through the interrogation and fighting of Madjack, some more successful than others. Thankfully, we managed to last the length of the encounter, having escaped Jackson's attempts to first bludgeon us with a lead pipe, and then put Norman's car (with Norman in it, of course) through his car crusher. Heavy Rain easily earns the 'best use of QTE' accolade and is genuinely a gripping title. Our fingers are well and truly crossed that the rest of the game is as good as the demo. Oh, and the graphics are incredible too. Visit their site and see for yourself!

On our way back to the press area, the days job done, we wandered through the bustling careers fair. Many major publishers and developers were there offering help, with big hitters like RARE and SEGA hand in hand with smaller companies like Starbreeze and corporations with BAFTA partnerships running seminars on a variety of topics. Having prepared a few random questions to ask, we found all the speakers to be very well informed and polite, even after being crammed against a wall by hundreds of prospective game industry types for hours on end. A tip to anyone planning to get into the industry, you could do much worse than heading for this event next year. As a lot of the industry is based as much on who you know as what you know, Eurogamer is a great opportunity to discuss creative ideas and pitch plans to people who know what they're talking about, and can offer genuinely useful advice on how to go about forging a successful career in the videogames world.

As the 8pm closing time loomed ever closer, Square-Go finished off the last of the free soft drinks and packed up, ready to go. The 2009 Eurogamer Expo was a great example of how to create an event that caters to many people that are passionate about games all at once. If you're looking for a comprehensive experience, then the Eurogamer Expo is for you. We had a lot of fun there, and on our way out managed to nab a Left 4 Dead 2 t-shirt.

Score!