This weekend I attended the EB Expo 2012 in Sydney (really, it was just an excuse to wear my Teemo hat). I thought I’d just quickly note down my impressions of the games that I looked at and the event in general.

(Might go back and clean up this list later… [But I’ll never get around to it])

Venue

The venue itself was good with plenty of room; 2 halls and a 3rd building for extra stuff like inidie developers, tournaments, king comics, madman, etc. I thought there could have been more cool stuff from vendors, but I’m guessing EB wanted to be the only place selling stuff. There was also a distinct lack of swag, very few booths even had bags. I actually like getting random stickers, posters, mousepads, magazines, pens, notepads, etc.

God of War Ascension

The demo area was a bit hidden so got in quickly. The demo was about 10 minutes long with several different areas and a boss fight. I’ve actually not played the other God of War games, but I really enjoyed the demo. The game was resposive, with a cool dodge mechanic, and plenty of gore.

Skylanders Giants

Apparently this is a big thing now? The only memorable about this booth was getting a free Dark Spyro figure (rare swag get!).

Sony

The Sony both was interesting with plenty of games and demos going on.

  • Need to keep an eye out for Jet Set Radio on the Vita.
  • PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was not very impressive. While I was expecting a Smash Brothers clone, it wasn’t even a good clone. All the stages seemed to just be a small box too, sometimes a visually interesting box, but still a box.
  • The Wonderbook game had some pretty cool AR effects, but I’m not sure if there’s any real game play there

Just Dance

Really big presence with two big stages, as well as two smaller ones in the Nintendo and Sony areas. It looked ok I guess; a bit clumsy with a Wiimote/move controller though.

Rayman Legends

I was impressed with the demo on the Wii U, especially the last scene/event (nice blend of platforming and music). The Wii U controller added an interesting aspect to the game where a 3rd person could control a character that could find and move objects in the world that normally couldn’t be interacted with. It played OK, but I’m unsure if it was just a gimmick. Still, as a 3 player party game it looks very promising.

Epic Mickey 2

Can’t believe I stood in a line for this…

TT eSports

  • +10 points to TTeSports for having CS:S computers setup.
  • -10 points for having no mechanical keyboards on display
  • But another +10 for having a keyboard signed by Tasteless, Artosis, HD and some other big names in SC scene.

Alienware

Alienware booth was, well, filled with Alienware stuff. Small area, but they had a lot of computers setup (maybe 15 desktops and laptops) with several different games. The hosts were a little annoying but those keyboard are sexy.

Nintendo

Over in Nintendo Land.

  • New Super Mario brothers on WiiU (5 Players) prefect party game, but what did you expect.
  • I’m a little confused about the new Scribblenauts, it’s a good portable game, but I’m not sure if it works on a home console.
  • ZombieU sounds like a good concept and has some interesting use of the WiiU controller for inventory management and being able to scan the room. Still felt a bit gimmicky though and the game itself wasn’t that impressive (the handholding by the Nintendo reps was a bit over the top too)
  • Didn’t see anything interesting on the 3DS XL. Console itself was nice to hold, but damn that screen looks bad compared with a Vita. I’m sure Black and White 2 will be a success.

Assassin Creed 3

Why would you demo an area that had a stealth failure condition!? They were showing off the outdoor free running in the demo videos which looked very cool. But in the playable demo you were stuck in a inside a town for the most part hiding from enemies and climbing boxes. I found the whole demo a little frustrating.

Farcry 3

+20 points for having Keyboard and mice, as well as controllers and having a very open demo world. We were told where to head towards to unlock the minimap, and then left to screw around for 10-15 minutes. Had plenty of fun mucking around, but didn’t really see anything new about the game (but it’s hard with demos and short time). Overall I was still impressed and had lots of fun.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Very cool combat, loved the blade slicing gimmick. Didn’t see much else of the game, but that’s all I needed to be very interested.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Please Sega, just kill Sonic and stop making horrible games.

Indie Game: Giant Robot Destroy Everything

An in development indie game on IOS and Andriod. You make shields to deflect projectiles, kill enemies and protect your Giant Robot. The robot even does the gangnam style dance if you play well enough, worth keeping on eye on just for that.

www.giantrobotdestroyeverything.com

Anime: Mass Effect: Paragon Lost

Watched the entire anime movie thanks to Madman. The movie was enjoyable, but also a little confusing where it all fits into the universe/canon, to me it seemed to fucked with the background of ME2. Overall it was OK, but not great.

Cosplay

There were lots of amazing cosplay outfits. My top picks were Plantman from Megaman, Madoka and Mami from Madoka Magica, Seras from Hellsing (honorable mention to Alucrard too) and the Black Mage.

Summary

Overall, a great weekend. Looking forward to it doing it all again next year.