Andy’s Eurogamer Diary

3 Oct, 2010

You may be wondering why GGS has been more or less a veritable desert of news over the last few days. Well, I’m not going to lie – we’ve been a little preoccupied. Vikki, Sarah J., Steve, Michael, Jen and myself travelled to Earls Court in London this weekend to attend 2010’s Eurogamer Expo! Alongside thousands-upon-thousands of like-minded gamer types, we were lucky enough to play-test the games of the future, including Dead Space 2, Dragon Age 2 and – not to be sniffed at – Gears of War 3, a jammy twelve months before launch.

Jen and I arrived at Earls Court tube station after taking an impromptu detour via Baker Street – in other words, we did it wrong – to be greeted by a queue the size of Stretford End. However, after a mere ten minutes of wet and windy queuing we were on the stairway to heaven. Well, it was an escalator, but the sentiment remains. After a marvellous cup of takeaway tea – made even better once we’d figured out how the milk-dispensing contraption worked – plus a breakfast sandwich containing what must have equated to two thirds of a dead pig, we were ready to go. Let the gaming commence!

Dead Space 2

Now I wouldn’t describe myself as one with a nervous disposition, but 2008’s Dead Space with its predictable-yet-effective shocks and scares almost caused me coronary heart failure on more than one occasion, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a bite-sized chunk of its 2011 sequel for a test drive. I spent a good twenty minutes spectating the gentlemen in front of me as he descended through an endless spiral of death. Before long he’d given up all hope and I was in the hot seat.

Within minutes my character – the unfortunate Isaac Clarke who yet again finds himself at the mercy of marauding Necromorphs – was in pieces and I was mortified. My Y-axis wasn’t inverted – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I took a deep breath and gave it another shot and within a few minutes I was back into the swing of things, tearing this army of vile beasts apart with a familiar array of devastating weaponry, with the inclusion of the new, ridiculously entertaining Javelin gun, which allowed me to pin my foes to walls. Apart from that, Dead Space 2 looks the same, plays the same and for all intents and purposes is just that – more of the same. But you know what they say – if it ain’t broke.

The first game wasn’t big on puzzles and the ones it did feature were fairy simplistic, which is one area this sequel improves on. The section we got to play included an impressively fiendish task that incorporated Isaac’s handy stasis and kinesis modules, so fiendish the nice man from EA was on hand to offer assistance to distressed players. Completing the puzzle rewarded me with a fiddle with the brand new zero-gravity feature. A click of the left thumbstick and I was able to direct Isaac upwards through the air, dodging various obstacles to reach the top of the room. Moving on I entered a cathedral – not something you expect to see on a space station – where I was attacked by child-like monsters that conjured memories of Silent Hill’s original Gray Children, so horrifying they were cut from the European release – only a hundred times more disturbing.

Shortly afterward I was attacked by a large, spider-like enemy that tossed my character around like a rag doll. Like its predecessor, all the action happens in-game, moving from set piece to set piece completely seamlessly. It’s heart-stopping stuff, and each time I thought I could take a breath the game pulled the rug out from under me. My fight with my many-legged friend continued, coming to a sudden and dramatic close following an epic space battle, in eery silence save for the panic-inducing sound of Isaac slowly running out of air. It’s all familiar, but on a much grander scale and I walked away wanting more. I’ll definitely be picking this one up on launch day.

Gears of War 3

The original Gears of War was the first massive game to launch after I got my first Xbox 360 and so it’s a franchise I’m rather fond of. One aspect of the series I never got on with, however, was the multiplayer. Like so many other online shooters, the majority of opponents I encounter while playing are psychotic, brutal, unforgiving multiplayer demi-gods of the highest conclusion, so it was with trepidation that I decided, along with Jen and Sarah, to give a multiplayer demo of Gears of War 3 a go. Considering it’s since been delayed by a further five months I’m mighty glad I did.

After queuing for forty-five minutes I was pleased to see we were pitted against AI bots that, while they put up a good fight, weren’t quite as formidable as human opposition. We sat down and began a match playing as the Locust, where we were greeted with a character selection screen and a choice of the Wretch, the Ticker or a larger Boomer-type with a sword. Naturally I opted for the biggest and scariest. The match we played consisted of four ‘waves’, Locust vs humans. As we made kills, the points we earned converted to ‘tokens’ to spend on a new character when the time came to respawn. As we moved from the first wave to the second and beyond, new characters were unlocked including several different types of Boomer, Kantus and – brilliantly – the Berserker.

Control-wise nothing has changed whatsoever and the mechanics of the game felt instantly familiar to me. Movement and shooting feels as tight as ever and every button is where it feels it should be. Each character controlled in a slightly different way, but with a quick glance at the relevant controls appearing every time we respawned this was never a problem. Adding to the overall package the game is visually stunning, possessing one of the smoothest frame rates I’ve ever seen in a video game and most importantly of all, it was damn fun.

The ability to play as less humanoid variations of the Locust like the Wretch, the Ticker and a bizarre, centipede-like creature that unlocked on our last round is a clever addition but at the same time a novelty, as I didn’t find them to be much use in battle. The Berserker, on the other hand, was everything I could’ve hoped for and won me a place at the top of the table. Fans of the series will be aware that Berserkers – gigantic, shrieking she-devils that they are – are as blind as bats and this is cleverly reflected by a screen effect obscuring your perception of your surroundings, though this didn’t stop me charging around, making a mess and laying waste to every last member of the opposing team. And several turrets. Like I said, damn fun.

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

Now this was a revelation. I’ve owned and played both Assassins Creed games and finished neither out of sheer boredom. The G-whore in me is far too easily sidetracked and wanders off the beaten track in search of increasingly repetitive side-missions to get achievement points – flinging oneself off a building into a bale of hay is only exciting the first fifty times you do it. However, after watching Jen partake in a multiplayer match on forthcoming sequel Brotherhood I gave it a bash myself and actually found it to be incredibly fun.

After selecting from a set of generic character models and a load-out of stealthy powers, gadgets and weapons, the match begins and each player is given a ‘mark’, another player they must find and kill. At the same time, you are made another player’s target and must keep an eye out for your pursuer. A picture of your mark appears in the top-right-hand corner of the screen, but cleverly the same character models you choose from are also found wandering the streets as pedestrians and killing these civilian characters is penalised.

A radar at the bottom of the screen represents the direction of your target, while the marker changes in size to indicate how close you are. Once in the vicinity of your mark they are warned of your presence in order to make good their escape. Then you must give chase and take them down, though a stealthy approach is the name of the game here and will achieve much better results. Electing to walk instead of run when you’ve found your target makes you far more inconspicuous and allows you to walk right up and assassinate them, garnering a bonus for a silent kill.

Considering the multiplayer aspect of games of this type usually feels like a contrived afterthought, it actually works amazingly well and is very good fun. Coming a respectable 3rd I vowed to give the series another chance and have since picked up a copy of the first game which I am determined to play, finish and damn well enjoy. I’ll also be keeping half an eye on Brotherhood.

And so concludes my highlights of Eurogamer 2010, my first experience of a video game expo and a day I will remember fondly for the rest of my life. The good news – we’re already plotting our escape to Germany for the 2011 Gamescom conference! Meanwhile, stay tuned to GGS for the follow-up entry to my Eurogamer diary, ‘Rush-Hour Paddington: The Horror Awaits’.

Just kidding.