You’re-a-Gamer Expo

Last weekend saw the start of the London Games Festival, heralded in by the fifth Eurogamer Expo. Not exactly as groundbreaking as an Apple Keynote, the Eurogamer (EG) Expo is a place for developers and publishers to offer up their latest works to the willing public, letting us play games months before their release. Being stretched over four days, the expo holds a variety of unique developers Q&A sessions, and the opportunity to meet developers – indie and professional alike. There’s the usual mix of record-breaking games with budgets larger than most films (slight exaggeration), but there’s also a fresh contingent of smaller developers who get to show off their pet projects. Hosted in Earl’s Court Exhibiton Centre (only a 30 minute walk from college) the EG expo initiates the migration of many starved gamers towards the fertile lands of central London, ready for the autumnal downpour.

Now, as high revenue producing series are bound to sell, there is always the problem of little change for the big names. That being said, this year’s Eurogamer has brought out a lot of sequels and there seems to be some hope on the horizon. As examples, I’ll have a couple of games stand up at the front of the class and I’ll prod them with my stick of analysis. Farcry 3 seems to have recaptured some of the fun of the original and Assassin’s Creed 3 is now grittier and feels a lot more ‘lived-in’. The atmosphere of the previous AC games, despite being set in cities such as Rome, always lacked the feeling of history and humanity. I understand that ruins should feel like ruins, but these felt like ruins for ruins sake (I’m trying to see how many ruins I can get into this piece, before you complain. Think of it like a psychological test. Or don’t, that’s the point). Now, you’re running through people’s houses, killing husbands and the fathers of the children you see running about, and you can actually feel a slight pang of guilt (I kid, I kid. I feel nothing) which is great. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Eurogamer also gave us the chance to play around with a few sequels that have run a little off-piste, seemingly grasping for originality. Tomb Raider now has you controlling a character who feels more like the public schoolgirl she is, rather than the bigger-breasted Harrison Ford we all remember, and Metal Gear Revengeance is a futuristic Bayonetta that bears as much resemblance to the original Metal Gear series as the Resident Evil movies to the games (yeah, I went there). Not wanting to fill these pages with (even more) drivel, I think I should get around to highlighting a few of my favourites, that I wasn’t expecting to see. Firstly, The Unfinished Swan is a beautiful concept for a game. In the role of a young boy, you chase a swan into an incomplete fantasy world. The physical world exists all around you, but there’s no colour and no shadows, so your screen is initially pure white. Your one tool in this journey is a supply of paint blobs that you can throw around the place, covering the walls and floors, so you can see where you need to go. It might sound like an odd idea for a game, but I suggest you go and watch the trailer – http://giantsparrow.com/games/swan/ (or just YouTube it like normal people). I met a few people at the stall who had issues with the game from a brain-hurt point of view, due to walking a few steps and being surrounded by white again, confusing that ever-so-squishy part of the brain that tells you if you’re going crazy. One of the fondly remembered classics in the Felix office is Theme Hospital – a light-hearted hospital simulator that also had a wonderfully steep learning curve if you wanted to excel. We’ve not seen games of its ilk for a long time now, and we’re now seeing a return to the plan, build and run style of games. In Prison Architect, you control the going-ons at a prison, managing the buildings and wardening team. The thing is, the engine of the game doesn’t feel specifically made for the prison sim genre (I joke, but I expect I’ll get one through the post soon). I expect that this is probably on purpose, and should allow for a steady flow of games once this flagship game has been released. I’m just waiting for Halls of Residence Simulator 2013, but can’t help but feel it’ll simply be a retitled Prison Architect. They won’t even need to change the cover art.