Eurogamer Expo – Day 2 and 3 Roundup

Eurogamer Expo – Day 2 and 3 Roundup

I’m feeling a bit tired, I don’t know whether it is the expo, or that I have just come back from a few drinks down Leicester Square, but I am still looking forward to the last day of the Eurogamer Expo. Read on after the jump for a roundup of Days 2 and 3 of the expo.

Michael was on his own on day two, due to some major queues he didn’t play many AAA games that were on display, but he did get to play some of the more minor games on show. He also got to interview a few people, with developers from Hitman and Rift and End of Nations along with Tim Willits from id Software.

Day three was highlighted by two of the developer sessions. The first was for Hitman: Absolution, Michael will have more detail soon, but I am starting to put aside some of the fears I had about the game following the early teaser trailers. The game looks great and sounds even better, you will certainly want to use a good sound system when it comes out next year. In addition, there was a very impressive look at the scale of the game engine with a frankly massive crowd scene shown off.

The second session was led by Tim Willits and took a look back at the past 20 years of id Software. It is quite amazing to think back to the early 1990s with titles like Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D appearing before the highly influential Doom appeared. You can look back to Quake 3 and see one of the truest deathmatch titles ever released. Doom 3 showed the immense technical power of some of id’s game engines. The session closed with a short demo of Rage.

It wasn’t until I played Rage back down on the showfloor that I realised that this really is going to be a very good game. It isn’t going to genre defining in the way that Doom or Quake 3 were, but the technical advances made with the new engine could have a lasting impact on game design over the next few years. That isn’t all, as this is quite the enjoyable game. I played a slice of the first mission, then after I died got transported to a save a bit further on in the game. Combat is surprisingly enjoyable, I thought that it might be a weak-point in the game considering the change in pace compared to some of the previous id games.

Elsewhere, Saints Row 3 genuinely pleased me, I returned to it a few times today as I was just having so much fun with it. A mollusc launcher and a dildo shaped melee weapon, brilliant character cusomisation and a relaxed happy-go-lucky attitude really made this a highlight for me today.

I also had a little foray into the indie game area, Xenonauts, Waves and Smuggle Truck stood out to me.

I am going to fall asleep very shortly, so please check out the rest of our coverage of the expo.

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