EB Expo 2015 Report

Having experienced the 2013 EB Expo and the first opportunity to play the then unreleased current generation consoles in Australia, I was curious to see how my visit to the 2015 EB Expo would compare in size and atmosphere. This year I would be joined by fellow GoodGame Admin I_live_4_fun(Live) who made the journey from Melbourne to attend the show.

"I was interested to see how it stacks up to PAX's event in Melbourne having attended that for the past two years and of course trying out new games", I_live_4_fun

Having two days available gave us a great opportunity to get around to most games to get some hands-on time with them, while also being able to view some presentations and have some time to walk around and take in other things offered by the Expo.

Read on below to get our thoughts and impressions for the games we got to play, presentations we saw and thoughts on the EB Expo itself.

Sony's area was quite large with close to half of it taken up by the 40 player Star Wars: Battlefront demo. A playable Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 demo as well as a viewable Uncharted 4 demo were also given some focus and floor space along with a room for the PlayStationVR (available via booking only). On the floor demos comprised of bigger titles such as Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Street Fighter 5, smaller titles including Alienation and Shadow of the Beast and several others so they offered a wide range of playable games.

Uncharted 4 Presentation

spectre51: Even though I've watched the full E3 demo already seeing it played live was still enthralling, interesting and engaged my full attention throughout it. Getting to see it played in person live really lets you appreciate how good it looks more so than from a videos watched on a PC and the amount of details that Naughty Dog has just crammed into the world.

Live: Seeing the E3 gameplay demo played differently was still very enjoyable indeed. I hadn't seen the extended version before where Drake's brother was being chased on his motorcycle so that (and the little cutscene at the end) was a pleasant surprise for me.

Alienation

spectre51: I enjoyed my hands-on time with Alienation immensely. It reminds me so much of Dead Nation in the controls, which was no surprise with Housemarque being the developers behind this as well. It had co-op setup between two PS4 systems and a single map with a few objectives. It controls well, feels responsive, uses an active reload mechanic has a few powerups and graphically it looks sharp. Alienation looks to be a definite future purchase for me.

Fat Princess Adventures

spectre51: I only had a few thoughts on the brief time we played - its colourful pleasant to look at but does feel a bit basic control wise though it does seem like straight forward fun little co-op game.

Live: This was such a colourful and oddly violent little game to play. I thoroughly enjoyed playing the co-op with Spectre on the same screen locally and learning to play more strategically with different abilities rather than trying to button-mash my way through the enemies.

Ratchet & Clank

spectre51: It felt good to be playing Ratchet & Clank again. I didn't notice the drop from 60fps of previous titles to 30fps as it still felt smooth and responsive to me. It looked good, very colourful, and pleasant on the eyes. It all felt familiar but different enough to not fell the same; definitely looking forward to playing the full release to see how all the old locations end up looking.

Assassin's creed Syndicate

spectre51: First little disclaimer, I am currently playing through the series and as such am a little behind with the most recent title I have played being Assassin's Creed 3.
I had a go with the Jacob level. Climbing felt fluid and quick and I was able to effortlessly climb up and down building with great ease and speed. Combat also feels so much better since I could be more aggressive with combos and not having to sit back waiting to counter-kill everyone. The crouching mechanic really added to the stealth and it is an oddity that something so simple went absent through so many entries in a game about stealth and staying hidden. Really though, gameplay-wise I am incredibly happy with the improvements this game brings. Being behind in the series does affect my opinions on it but getting some hands-on with Syndicate has reinvigorated my interest in the series tenfold.

Other games

spectre51: Being behind in making the jump to the newest generation of consoles and behind in playing recently released games I also took the opportunity to play a few already released games being Journey, Destiny: The Taken King and Tearaway: Unfolded. So just a few little brief thoughts on them: Journey feels so similar to Thatgamecompany's previous two games unsurprisingly. Destiny: The Taken King feels solid, I liked how the shooting and jumping felt and the sparrow was a nifty little thing to scoot around on. Lastly, Tearaway: Unfolded was enjoyable to play still being new to the PS4 controller I liked how it incorporated its new features into the game it added a new dimension to play.

The Xbox area had a nice open feel to it with Halo 5, Tomb Raider and Quantum break each getting their own roomed areas. On the floor Microsoft put forth a good variety of games, displaying their more popular series in Forza 6, Killer Instinct and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition as well as several [email protected] titles including Cuphead, The Flame in the Flood and several others.

Quantum Break Presentation

spectre51: Graphically it's a good looking game and how it plays, the combat looks interesting and fun with the use of time powers. It was mentioned the game will have 5 acts of gameplay and 4 episodes of the live-action television show at the end of each act. Each episode of the show will focus on the "bad guys'" point of view and will play out based on a decision you will make when you take control of the "bad guys" at the end of each act. The amount of effort they are putting into the story, making the show episodes such a big part of the game definitely intrigues me.

Live: The main character's time manipulation abilities seem very fun to use not only for strategic uses in battles, but also for exploration. For instance, the presentation showed a sequence where the main character was escaping huge buildings and towers that were crumbling down around him, but he made his way through with ease by using a time-rewind ability to reverse the fall of a walls or containers just enough to walk through or climb over before letting time lapse normally again. Similarly when engaging enemies, he could freeze time temporarily, create protective bubbles to slow down the trajectory of bullets around him and also perform a time-dash move to reach and dodge his enemies very quickly. I liked that the storyline has already been established with the fact that the main antagonist shares this same power as well so the soldiers under his command have some defences against time manipulation.

I also thought that the tie-in to the live-action television show complimenting the Quantum Break game seemed like a nice feature as well.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

spectre51: The playable demo was a previously shown gameplay demo from other conferences so I was able to progress through it quickly knowing what to do. It controlled well and the movement was quick and easy. Being a demo, obviously this could be forgiven for being a short tomb but it did show good potential for the full game. If they expand on tomb sizes this really can be an interesting part of the game to go through.

Live: The graphics looked really good and I especially liked the return of voice-overs when reading the description or contents of artifacts and letters - even if some of the voice-acting still sounded a bit melodramatic at times. There were also lots of platforming segments and puzzles to solve involved in the demo we played. Unfortunately though, I took too long to solve them all and progress so I was booted off (politely) before I got into what looked like the combat sequence near the end.

Other games

spectre51: I did get around to some hands on with Happy Dungeons, The Flame in the Flood, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. I don't have much to say on any of them though, Gears of War had a multiplayer demo and my time with the two [email protected] titles was short and I don't really know much about them.

EA's area was small and mainly consisted of a Need for Speed area and behind that was an area for Fifa 16, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 as well as a closed room for a Mirror's Edge Catalyst presentation.

Need for Speed

A special congratulations to Live who managed to score herself a t-shirt by topping the reputation point leader board for our group.

spectre51: They really are trying to bring back the in depth customisation. While it doesn't have the full control over parts like autosculpt in past titles there are still a lot of options available. Tuning provides a lot more options then you would usually expect in a Need for Speed title as well with options for tyre pressure and camber being able to be tinkered with. A negative I can see in regards to customising/tuning to me is that you only get 5 car slots.
Handling wise, like most of the series its handling is accessible while still lightly adhering to real world physics just made more forgiveable. I had sound issues with my demo so I can't really comment on the sound of the cars.

Live: Well, I definitely did not expect to place at the top of the leader board in our NFS demo group, but I was ecstatic that I did.
In regards to the game itself, I really liked that there were a lot of ways to gain reputation points to achieve a higher rank as I am usually not too great of a driver in many games (or so my friends often joke about). The police cars did not become super-aggressive and chase me down as soon as I passed the speed limit like in the previous entry, Need for Speed: Rivals, so I had a lot of fun performing stunts without having the police constantly hot on my heels. The slightly more accessible gameplay has made me much more interested in the game so I am looking forward to checking it out more details when it releases next year.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst Presentation

spectre51: I had already seen most of what was shown from previous gameplay reveals apart from maybe a few seconds of scenes at the start. The gameplay was nothing new but the laptop that I assume was used to play the video seemed to struggle at times as I noticed stutter, which I know is not from the actual game itself having seen the same gameplay video play smoothly elsewhere beforehand.

Live: It was a bit of a shame that the video had stuttering issues but the gameplay and parkour still looked extremely fluid and fast-paced, nevertheless. The presenter also made a point of saying that Mirror's Edge: Catalyst will have more of an open world environment compared to the original game so that players can approach objectives in many different ways and through lots of different routes.

Ubisoft brought four titles with it to the show for its section, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, Rainbow 6: Siege, The Division and Just Dance 2016 with all managing to draw good crowds.

The Division

The demo began with our group of 3 human controlled players starting just outside the Dark Zone. We then entered the Dark Zone and proceeded a short way until we encountered and engaged a group of AI enemies to collect a piece of contaminated gear. We were then directed to an extraction zone where we encountered two other human teams and some more AI firefights until the demo time was up with no teams able to extract.

spectre51: Graphically, it doesn't give the wow that the original reveal trailer did but still it's quite an impressive looking game. I didn't notice any performance or visual hitches while playing. The controls are well laid out and going into cover, shooting and vaulting all felt good did take some adjustment to the layout though I tended to hit the 'vault' button instead of 'cover'.
The biggest oddity to me was dealing damage and how suited it is to the game. You look at it as a Tom Clancy game with a realistic setting, graphical style and all and like other similar games, I instinctively aimed high for head shots to get quick kills only to see numbers pop up and the enemy still have a noticeable amount of HP (healthpoints) left. It is the system they have decided to use to promote hunting for better gear and show improvement in levelling though and is what I think will be the main determining factor on whether someone may enjoy it or not.
But after playing the demo my interest in the game has still increased from what it was before. Even though I found the damage system odd it's not from disliking it just something that I need to adjust my mind for.

Live: It took a little while for me to get used to the controls as well since there were separate buttons for moving into cover and for vaulting. The cover system seems to work very well though - the game highlights where you can easily snap into cover if you are near an object and, like with many third-person shooters, you can easily pop your head out to fire at enemies, stay in cover and hip-fire or utilise various gadgets and grenades that you may be carrying. Using cover was very integral to survival as the enemy AI were deadly accurate with their shots and easily took us down if we stood out in the open or popped our heads out of cover for too long.

I really enjoyed the seamless transition into Player versus Player (PvP) environment went it came to signalling an extraction from the Dark Zone. One of the members in my demo group accidentally fired at another neutral team, causing us to go "rogue” and become marked by other groups in the area. As we fought our way to extraction and waited for the helicopter to arrive, we had to defend against enemy AI that wanted to stop us from leaving while also staying aware of other player teams that also wanted to Extract and attack us for becoming hostile in the first place.

All in all, I really enjoyed the demo and I can see The Division being a great tactical co-op game to play with a great sense of risk and reward when exploring and fighting hostiles (both human and AI) for some very cool loot.

Of course, the above four publishers weren’t the only ones showing games at the Expo with plenty of other games represented around the hall. Games from Bandai Namco, Warner Bros, Square Enix and Gearbox to name a few could be found around the Expo Hall. Lego Dimensions and Skylanders both also had pretty substantial areas set up as well and of course, both were popular titles with the younger attendees.

WRC5

spectre51: The track available was based in Australia and it felt good. There was a nice balance of quick and slow corners, not too wide and the track itself had some length to it. Based on the settings of the demo I could feel that they were trying for a bit of a realistic approach to the games' handling while keeping it accessible. A few occasions I slid off the track a little bit and feathering the throttle was needed out of corners but it still felt accessible and didn’t punish me for little mistakes too much. I quite liked the balance of handling overall.

Dark Souls 3

Live: First off, I will just make it clear that I am by no means a great "Souls" game player. I tried the demo twice over the two days at the expo and died by the tougher normal enemies both times. Some of the other people I watched seemed to fair better though and I saw one of them reach a boss fight too.

To me, Dark Souls III felt a little faster than the older Souls titles in being able to get around and dodge enemies a little quicker. It wasn't to the extent of how fast Bloodborne plays though, where you can roll, sidestep and recover HP (healthpoints) from attacking quickly enough - Dark Souls III still felt like it required a more methodical approach to encounters like the old Souls games from the small segment that I played of it. This was especially because of the presence of shields and having to get around them to attack and parry enemies.

Both times that I played, I used a knight class with a sword and shield and had to get used to blocking properly again. The demo had other pre-made classes available to use at the demo stations as well though, like an assassin (which reminded me of Bloodborne), so I am sure there won't be a lack of different playstyles and character builds to try out when the game is released.

Just Cause 3

spectre51: This felt quite similar to Just Cause 2 on foot, unsurprisingly, just with the addition of the wing suit and some grapple hook improvements from what I noticed in my time with the demo. I only drove a tank but it felt weightier with more control over how it handled and felt more precise to drive. Hopefully this also translate sacross to other vehicles like they have mentioned as vehicle handling was one of the poorer aspects in the previous entries. Overall, if you enjoyed Just Cause 2 you will definitely enjoy this since it is more of the same good, old chaos.

Fallout 4 Presentation

spectre51: Honestly, I didn’t have much interest in Fallout before I sat in on this presentation. After watching and listening to it though, I have become more interested in the game and the customisation options look deep and varied. The snippet of the shooting really helped in gaining my attention it looked smooth and really reminiscent of a First-Person-Shooter, not just an RPG. You can definitely see ID Software's input in the gameplay mechanics. A Doom snippet that was also showed at the very beginning looked fast-paced and forward moving, just chaining kills from demon to demon with gory action and speed.

Other games

spectre51: We also got around to some hands on with Dragon Quest: Heroes, Yo-Kai watch and Homefront 2. Not too much to report on these titles, Dragon Quest: Heroes is a colourful bright looking game but we both struggle to make any real progress in the demo before the time ran out against the boss. Yo-Kai Watch another colourful game and looks good on the Nintendo 3DS, the combat is much more interactive then in Pokemon and Homefront 2’s demo didn’t really do much to stand out or differentiate itself from the time we had with it to stand out from the crowd.

The big presentations happened here, laid out differently to when I went really made use of the length of the room compared to the year I went. We sat at the front and also middle during the presentations we viewed and from the spots the video and audio were good didn't have trouble making out what was on screen nor struggling to hear what was being said.

EA

spectre51: EA's presentation felt short compared to the other two presentations we watched. Of course, they did only focus on two games and we were aware that they would only focus on Need for Speed and Star Wars: Battlefront beforehand but still it didn’t completely fill out its scheduled timeslot, which wouldn’t have helped with that impression. Both games are visual and audio standouts but honestly, the presentation didn’t do much for me. I found it the least engaging of the three that we went to see even though I do have interest in both the games they focused on.

Live: I was also quite surprised when EA's presentation ended so soon with only two games shown. They did, however, go through the details and gameplay mechanics of the new Need for Speed in quite a lot of depth which was nice to watch.

Ubisoft

spectre51: Ubisoft showed off its 4 playable games at the Expo in Just Dance 2016, The Division, Rainbow 6: Siege and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate giving them all equal time on the stage. Overall Ubisoft’s presentation was good, they shared the time around well between the games and gave you a good look into each of them if you were unable to get your hands on to play them. Apart from Rainbow Six: Siege I enjoyed what was shown Just Dance looks like it could be fun. This was definitely a good presentation that made good use of the time and didn’t make any one game feel less favoured than the other.

Live: Ubisoft's presentation easily left the best impression on me. I was already interested in The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege for the co-op gameplay so the developer video walkthroughs made me even more excited for those games after seeing how well things could play out in team with good communication. The way that they showed off Assassin's Creed Syndicate made me very intrigued about the game too even when I had near zero interest in trying out the game at all beforehand.

Microsoft

spectre51: Microsoft’s presentation went, as expected, with a strong focus on their two big holiday titles in Halo 5 and Rise of the Tomb raider while also showing features and games to add value to the Xbox One. It was amusing when the actor posing as Lara Croft came up on stage and lit up a smoke flare that ended up covering the screen and impeded the start of the presentation. The Tomb Raider gameplay that they showed wasn’t anything brand new though. Forza 6 did kind of feel out of place with it already being released and wasn’t given much time. The segment for Halo 5 was great though as we got to see some new single-player sections for the first time as well as a new opening cinematic for Masterchief's team. I did feel that they were one game short though in the line-up compared to previous presentations. I think the focus on Xbox One backwards compatibility and the inclusion of certain previous Xbox 360 titles being bundled with certain Xbox One holiday releases was a good showing. It really is one step they have over Sony and can add quite a lot of extra value to their games getting full games as a bonus.

The EB Expo offered much more than just playing or watching games with a the EB Megastore and several pop culture stands sold merchandisesuch as keyrings, replica swords, dvds, figurines and many other items. There were also several cosplay competitions, fireworks, comedies shows, a history museum, rides and even laser skirmish were also available to keep everyone occupied at the show.

Live's Final thoughts

“Some of the cosplayers looked amazing and I was so delighted to see a giant Atoi from Tearaway hobbling around the Expo Hall with Sackboy and an EB Games assistant to guide them. It was really cool seeing so many small and big bits of merchandise to browse and buy around the Expo as well. I ended up purchasing a few gifts to give away to people from the EB Megastore and probably would have bought even more if I had brought more money with me (which is probably for the best that I didn't).

Overall, it felt like the EB Games Expo felt like it had a huge focus on enabling attendees to watch and play as many upcoming and new release games as possible on the show-floor. I enjoyed all the buzz and excitement of people lining up to try out their favourite games, especially when it was busier on the second day as it created a great and lively atmosphere all around the Expo. I am really grateful for having been able to attend this year and had great time with Spectre throughout the event.”

spectre51's Final thoughts

And now for my overall thoughts on this year’s show. Once again I enjoyed myself greatly.It understandably it didn’t have that same sense of excitement and felt less busy then 2013 but unlike my colleague, I preferred the less busy Friday show because it made it easier to move around and get hands on with games. In a time where less actual game demos are getting released fr people to try out upcoming and new release games, getting to try out so many games without buying them has been a great opportunity at the Expo. Many of the floor demos were easy accessible with many people being respectful of others and not remaining at stations past the demo’s completions or timers. It was good to have someone to chat to this time and share opinions and thoughts as it was experienced and fresh in our mind so many thanks for Live to make the journey from Melbourne as well.

Of course, our thanks go out to the EB expo for once again granting us the opportunity to experience and attend the show. Heres hoping that we will be able to do it all again next year.