EB Expo 2014 Report

EB Expo 2014 has really exceeded all of my expectations, sure a couple of games I was looking forward to seeing or even trying appear to have been absent, but on the whole the event was simply an incredible experience. The organisation. The spirit & enthusiasm of those involved. The variety. And of course the games. Simply incredible!

Our attendance at the Expo was made possible due to EB simply being switched on when it comes to knowing how to promote & run a good show. I was really quite taken at numerous times during the event, coming across many who had been invited or given media access due to running gaming sites, gaming blogs or youtube channels. Some of them quite young kids running about with cameras, reporting & conducting interviews throughout the 2 days we were there. Not only is it smart of EB to do this as it will have & will continue to fill the internet with news of the Expo, but it's also excellent seeing EB essentially supporting these little freelancers (including us here at GGANZ) at a grass roots level.

Attending the event we had 2 days & 2 passes to attempt to experience all the big titles at the event, but also get amongst the side attractions & indie developers at the show. It sounds like a long time, but in reality there's simply so much on offer you really could stay for the entire 3 days & still miss a lot.

Games. Well this is what the entire event was for me, seeing & playing the latest games. So here's a list of what I was able to get amongst & my personal thoughts ...

Studio: Bethesda

Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 3

I rocked up to this booth wearing my Nuka Cola shirt & right away started chatting with one of the devs. Unfortunately all I could talk to him about was the Fallout series as my eyes just glazed over & I thought how much better it would be if I was about to start playing Fallout 4 lol.

Without mucking about this game is a must own for me. That simple.

I spent about 7 minutes playing Chapter 9 in a demo of the game. In that time I only managed 1 kill & died once. I also disarmed an explosive & solved a puzzle.

The game is a real game play mix between the early Resident Evil titles & Alan Wake, but with a real grit & terror of Silent Hill (one of the characters reminds me a ton of Pyramid Head). If you like any of those games then I really can't see you being disappointed with The Evil Within.

Developer: Creative Assembly

Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 3

It wasn't until Saturday that we were able to sit down & take a look at Isolation. I'm not sure if the guys were simply getting tired but their presentation simply didn't have the enthusiasm we'd experienced at other presentations.

We viewed a narrated play through from one level of the game, where you play Ripley's daughter who is seeking answers about her missing mother. The level we watched is located on a VERY authentically recreated space station that could easily have been in the original 'Alien' movie.

The game is a survival horror where you're continually under threat of detection from the Alien, but also from surviving crew members & synthetic humans who will react unpredictably to your presence (be it helpful or hostile). Pretty much everything revolves around stealth, but every situation appears to have many possible ways of getting through it. Be it hiding under a bed or inside of a cupboard (complete with holding your breath), or choosing to fire your weapon which will in turn attract the Alien (that can't be killed from best I could tell).

Unfortunately for me there was little beyond how authentic & true everything remained to the movie for me to get excited about, so Alien: Isolation doesn't appear on my list of gaming must haves.

Studio: DICE / EA

Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 3

I own many of the Battlefield games, but I'm admittedly not an avid fan of the series (I actually detest how the Medal of Honor series was butchered into a Battlefield clone), but I really didn't mind Battlefield 3 & had a lot of interest when I heard a little spin off from 4 was coming by the way of Hardline.

The Hardline booth had a great amount of effort & creativity placed into it, with part of getting to play the game was moving along a line to have a mug shot & be 'processed' as if you were going to prison.

After a bit of a wait, we were able to play one of the multiplayer game modes which was very similar to traditional 'Conquest', but involved capturing marked cars & driving them to burn up your oppositions tickets. The mode is a great twist on an old classic, having the objective points not only moving about the map but also capable of being destroyed, but I found the biggest issue was a lack of anything going on. I'm unsure how many people we had in our game, but we could've probably used twice as many as often when driving a captured car, or trying to hunt an enemy captured car, the map was simply too large & everyone too spread out for anything cohesive or deliberate to be happening.

As with the other BF titles, Hardline had great gun on gun play with perfect hit registration, but in this iteration driving is now very important but unfortunately the cars & their physics are borderline terrible, making driving them more a chore than pleasure.

The version I played was on the PlayStation 4 which ran perfectly smooth, but the detail in the environment, vehicles & weapons was quite lackluster & all appeared quite dated.

Studio: CI Games / Deck 13 Interactive

Platform: PC, Xbox One & PlayStation 4

This is Dark Souls for next gen, which was the very intent of the creators.

After playing a few different game titles it was becoming fairly clear that a lot of places weren't keen on things like 'new ideas' or 'creative thinking', more than 'that was great in that game so lets do the same' type of thinking. Lords of the Fallen is one of these, but since I love Dark Souls I found myself playing this game for ages & more than once.

The detail in this game is absolutely brilliant. Everything is sharp, clear & beautifully created to present the player with hideous beasts & an overwhelming sense of 'I can't possibly beat this guy but one more try can't hurt', which is what I found myself doing during the demo ... when whatever Windows PC I was playing the game on didn't crash & burn (2 different boxes died for me just for the record).

There were 3, maybe 4 systems setup for people to try Lords of the Fallen, people would go over, play for a couple of minutes & simply give up. The game is that challenging & unforgiving. Even after many many tries at different times on both days I still didn't end up beating the boss (he had maybe 5% of his health bar when the last PC died on me). Since it was so unforgiving people just weren't playing it. At most points during the Expo all 3 systems were just sitting there unused (one had over-scan set wrong & you couldn't see anything, another was frozen due to Windows update or something & another had no sound). It was a massive shame as the game, once you figure it out a bit, is extremely good.

As per Dark Souls if you die you lose more than just your temper, but also your experience points. As per Dark Souls patience, timing & relentlessly dying & trying again are the keys to winning. But most importantly the game's mechanics are pretty much identical to Dark Souls with rolling, attacking & spell use being pretty much a carbon copy. What differs though is the ability to change classes complete with weapon load outs at any point. I'm not sure how this was working entirely, but I could flick between a mage type class & warrior type class as often as I liked & there were 4 to pick from. It may be that you have classes premade as per Call Of Duty etc that you can call up, or that you can level up 4 classes independently. I really don't know but I'm keen to find out when I own the game (or if you can't wait hit up Google).

Studio: Slighty Mad Studios

Platform: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 & Wii U

There was a ton of racing games at the Expo, but Project Cars was truly in a league of its own.

Sitting out on the floor with no fancy booth, just 4 screens hanging on the wall hooked to hidden super PCs, it wouldn't have been hard to walk past Project Cars & simply miss out on easily the best racing game at the Expo. We played only using an Xbox 360 controller but the physics simply felt right. Time & time again we see a game promise that it'll be a true racing sim, only to find it's sold out to the arcade racing crowd & totally compromised its realism in the process.

The handling of the cars in this game is amazing & we found ourselves playing time & time again, in fact it was the most played game for us in our time at the Expo. Visually the game is incredible also. Sure there were some issues as the cars became damaged but it was still only a demo, but as far as detail on the track & cars, weather effects, lighting & the incredible engine sounds you'll struggle to find anything else that simply pulls it altogether with the right physics to give an authentic racing experience as Project Cars did for us.

For me, the best way to sum up this game is the handling & physics of Gran Turismo, with the grit, damage & effects of Shift 2. Project Cars really should be a winner (please let it be the racing game we need !!!) & GGANZ may even be receiving a media copy or 2 so lets cross our fingers & toes for that !

Studio: CD Projekt RED

Platform: PC, Xbox One & PlayStation 4

The one liner for this game; best looking & probably best game at the Expo !

We had a presentation from CD Projekt RED & we really could see the genuine love & enthusiasm they have for this game.

Everyone in the room sat, listened & watched attentively as they played through a Griffin hunt, a side quest & a ride through on horseback of a township that was absolutely gorgeous. I can't be sure, but I'm fairly positive the screen we were viewing was about 55" and 4K resolution & the game made use of every pixel to its full potential.

To say this game looked sensational or amazing would be an understatement. The world is enormous but everything is heavily detailed, not only visually but apparently every character in the world has a unique script or storyline, so it's not simply big to be big, it's big as it needs to be.

The game is also extremely gory as well, which really makes battles & cut scenes that much better & near on that of watching a movie over playing a game. In fact, I could happily watch someone else play this game for a couple of hours it is that beautiful & the story & characters that engaging.

Yet another must own title.

Studio: Ready at Dawn

Platform: PlayStation 4

Sitting down having lunch at the Expo I was watching some game footage on a big screen, no idea what game it was, only that it looked incredible. That game was The Order 1886. While finishing our meal we located the booth on the map & made our way over to the line of people waiting to play.

After a short wait (thanks to being allowed to use the Express Gamer lane), we found ourselves playing a 5 or so minute demo of the game, all presented in a really great looking Victorian era meeting hall or dining room (except it had 8 Sony big screen televisions coupled to PlayStation 4 consoles).

Throughout the Expo we'd played games on very big screens at very close distances & one thing I noticed was how bad many games/screens looked when played so near. The Sony screens used for The Order 1886 though had no sign of any dot pitch or any detectable blocky-ness. I'd love to know what model they were as I'm due for a new screen & would jump at one of these.

The Order 1886 presents itself as being in a similar state to games such as Bioshock, where an alternative reality exists with old world technology coming together with more modern equipment leading to a very intriguing & interesting setting.

Playing as someone who would look at home on Captain James Cook's ship, but carrying a machine gun that looks like a WWI Lewis machine gun, our demo took us past a distillery (which we destroyed) & through an area of hostiles all trying to kill us.

The detail in the characters is in the league of Last Of Us & everything is beautifully created & detailed. The game itself is great fun, but still essentially a shooting game set on rails, where you move from place to place killing everyone.

The Order 1886 is not a must own in my eyes, but it'd still be a great pick up if you're after a really good looking & polished action game.

Studio: Ubisoft

Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 3

Far Cry has become one of my most played titles, with Blood Dragon being my last & probably favorite of the series. Far Cry 4 will most definitely find it's way into my games library, more so now after having played & enjoyed it at the Expo.

The area I played was at an enemy held outpost, which was fully walled off & had large closed doors. I was able to ram the doors open while riding on an elephant no less, which made for quite a dramatic if not practical way to storm an enemy stronghold. I replayed it several times, quite liking the movement & gun play, which for better or worse is now strongly mirroring that of the Call of Duty franchise (as most FPS games are these days). The A.I. of the enemies was a little so-so, they were definitely stronger than I'd experienced in past iterations of the game, but they still stood out in the middle of nowhere with guns blazing, not using any particular strategy.

As you would expect the game is far more detailed & glamorous than previous versions, but playing on a PlayStation 4 console meant incredibly long load times between deaths etc (it was a demo so this may not be the case in the final product).

Yet another title I'm looking forward to, but with so many games coming out in the last quarter of this year I'm thinking I'll pick this up early next year.

Studio: Techland

Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 3

Yet another zombie game & yet another zombie game I've been looking forward to

Dying Light brings the promise of being a big budget, open world zombie survival horror game, which is probably having most zombie game fans drooling, but in playing I found it to be a little mediocre. Sure the graphics are great, sure the mechanics in bludgeoning zombies to death are great & sure it's great to be able to & need to avoid many mobs of zombies by using roof tops & mantling over pretty much anything you can find. But I just felt it lacking in a single player type way, it just needed something else which the demo didn't provide.

Thing is though I found Dead Island to be pretty mediocre when playing on my own as well, but it was when in a game with friends that the game truly blossomed & I'm sure the same will be true of Dying Light.

I'm on the wait & see list as far as Dying Light is concerned right now. I'll be waiting to see the final reviews & also who on my friends list is hammering it before making any commitment to buy.

Studio: Sledghammer

Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 3

Argh, Call Of Duty, for me it's like a really really hot, but really psycho ex-girlfriend that comes to visit each year. I can't look away, I know I shouldn't play, but I just end up giving in & fighting with it.

The best way for me to describe Advanced Warfare is to take Modern Warfare 2 & somehow meld it with Titanfall ... not exactly something that many will find positive in anyway, sounds awful actually.

I stood & played Advanced Warfare on the Xbox One & visually the graphics are so so similar to Modern Warfare 2 it's not funny. Sure it's a 'little' cleaner & nicer, but hardly any, which is a real shame given we're talking a next-gen title being compared to a vintage one. One of the positives with it looking like Modern Warfare 2 though is that the maps are back to being a bit nicer & a bit cleaner than we've experienced in more recent years (mind you I only played on 2 maps so there may be some messy ones about).

I only played 2 games modes, Team Death Match (I haven't played in almost a year so only managed 19-6) & a new game mode (I think it was called 'Uplink') that's very eSports geared, where teams need to pick up a ball of sorts & move it to the objective.

New gadgets, along with double jumps etc are present, I didn't get a great deal of time with the game & customising classes but there also appeared to be an auto aim gun or sight (sounds terrible doesn't it) that pretty much aims for you. I guess it's in keeping with the easy of playability Call Of Duty is renowned for.

Not sure how to recommend the game, if you're a fan of the franchise you could really either hate this version or love it. If you're a fan of Titanfall & Call Of Duty you will likely love it. Personally, it really just wasn't for me even with dominating the games we played after having not played a CoD or a console in almost a year.

I played & watched a ton of other titles while at the Expo, these included Halo, Forza Horizon 2, Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor, Lego Lord Of The Rings, Evolve, Dead Island 2, Mortal Kombat X along with a ton of games already mainstream like League of Legends & Skylanders.

I haven't included them in the above summary, either because I don't have any strong feelings about them or simply because I'm not into those games enough to give any type of opinion or impression on them, but if you've got any questions about them please post up & I'll do my best to let you know.

EB Expo wasn't just huge because of the slew of games on offer. In addition to the games there were a ton of other novelties & attractions.

The Evil Within game demo was accompanied by a Warner Bros 'Teaser' Maze, a 90 second sneak peak of their upcoming maze that will feature in full at Warner Bros Movie World & it was absolutely excellent. All I can say is that the guy in front of me heading in was behind me by the time we'd worked our way to the end lol.

There was a ton of driving games at the Expo, but Driveclub at the PlayStation booth certainly had the best display. A Lamborghini was accompanied by a Mercedes, along with 2 very attractive young ladies. The setup was really popular, with gamers lining up for photos throughout the event.

Turtle Beach had a great little competition going, a racing simulator setup with Forza 3. We came across it at the start of Friday before the doors had opened. Pantera & I both chucked a lap in just for the fun of it & they recorded our times. At about 4pm that day we returned & my time wasn't anywhere on the list, when I asked where it was they said I hadn't returned to collect my prize of a $350 Turtle Beach headset at 3pm so the person in second place (way behind me) received them by default lol. When we raced we had no idea it was a contest etc, so we chucked up even better times (Pantera shaved another several seconds off) & we sat at the top of the leader board again. I checked with 30 minutes remaining & Pantera was still the leader by several seconds, but between then & the close of the session someone knocked him off by a hundredth of a second & that was that. Great fun though.

League of Legends had a tournament running throughout over by the food court. Not knowing much about the game I could only watch on as teams competed on a giant screen.

The Army had a recruiting stand complete with weapons, an armed 4WD and an APC, along with another stand for Battlefield 4 with an APC which had the consoles setup inside of it for gamers (who donned military helmets before entering & playing).

Robot Wars had matches several times a day & they were fantastic. The large robots weighed in at a cool 100kgs and were complete with CO2 powered titanium axes or systems designed to flip their opponents. They were literally ripping up the concrete as they clashed & during one of the rounds the reigning champion (Ripper) took some pretty hefty damage, they weren't holding back at all !

Of all the sideshows we experienced, my favorite was The Dark Room with John Robertson. It's an old school almost text based game brought to life as he essentially plays the role of the game, providing the audience options as to what to do next. John Robertson was incredibly witty, having completed over 200 shows & no matter what smart comment was made he had several lined up to sling back. It truly was hilarious.

All in all 2014 EB Expo was a 10 out of 10 for me. Full credit to EB Games for putting on such a great event right here in Australia. This little wrap up hasn't covered even a drop in the ocean on what was available to experience at the show. There were indie games & developers by the bakers dozen, a full racing sim setup, Tiltron-2000, where the cockpit pitched & rolled as you raced (I was one of the only people to experience it as it had broken down & I was chatting to the creators at length while they fought to repair it) & PC hardware & peripherals from Logitech, Thermaltake & Razer that I haven't even mentioned above.

Here's to next year's event & here's to hoping GGANZ may have the privilege of attending again.