Gamescom Community Report

So I’m the lucky person that won the Gamescom competition. I wrote a review of God Of War 3 which somehow won a trip for me and a friend to Gamescom 2010 in Cologne, a Sony Vaio laptop and a Sony Bloggie camera.

I took my friend Dave and this is my/our report on what happened on our trip.

Day 1

My word it’s early, 3:45am to be precise & I’ve been woken by a combination of an alarm on 2 phones and a wake up call on the hotel room phone. It’s all good though as I’m up this early to catch a plane to Germany so that I can attend Gamescom.
After a bumpy landing (which Dave describes as a controlled crash) we arrive, already Dave is talking non-stop about getting “free stuff”, as much as he can carry, he wants a free PSP Go. I tell him he’s not going to get one. Our first experience in Germany is listening to “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners in the taxi taking us to the hotel, it’s a bit random.

We meet James (our Sony contact for our stay) in the hotel and we arrange to meet up at the entrance to the press conference later, we also meet the competition winners from Spain & Germany.
The Sony press conference, wow. Being at such an event was fantastic and a real honour, a genuine feeling of a once in a lifetime thing. From the business side of things everything is looking good for Sony and the Playstation brand. Now on to the important stuff, the games.

LittleBigPlanet 2, MotorStorm Apocalypse & InFamous 2 were shown in video previews during the presentation. There was a first look at a Killzone 3 multiplayer, and all I can say is jet packs in multiplayer. I’ll say it again. Jet packs in multiplayer. We were taken through a level of Medal of Honor with a guy from Likin Park, (can’t remember his name) who, comically died right at the end of the mission.
We also had a visit from the guys at Insomniac Games to make an announcement, they announced… a new Ratchet & Clank game, everyone was expecting Resistance 3 but they showed a new Ratchet & Clank game that included 4 player co-op, display over and they head off stage. Maybe Resistance will be announced later in the year.

Hang on though, what’s this, they’re coming back on stage to show something else they’ve been working on. It’s a live action trailer, that’s a bit weird. We get to the end of the trailer and it becomes abundantly clear it’s for Resistance 3, there are Chimera everywhere, their eyes lighting up in the dark. Lots of whooping and cheering, Resistance 3 is confirmed.

After the show there is hands on access to all the games shown, I had a go on MotorStorm Apocalypse in 3D, LittleBigPlanet 2, The Fight PS Move game as well as Tiger Woods using the move controllers & Gran Turismo 5 (with pedals and steering wheel) all of which are excellent.

Motorstorm in 3D is very well done, it’s nice and subtle and doesn’t try to dominate the game, the best 3D bit for me was during one of my many crashes, when another car went over the top of mine, that really showed off the 3D. After I’d finished, I chatted with a couple of the gents for Evolution Studios who confirmed to me that the 3D does not increase the games load times at all.

Sadly I missed my main aim, playing Killzone 3, but there was a demonstration on the main stage of playing Killzone using the move controllers, it looks very good and easy to use.
After consuming plenty of free drink and food, Dave & I collected a goody bag each and headed back to the hotel talking like little giddy children about what we’d been lucky enough to have been a part of.
Dave leaves without a PSP Go

DAY 2

Gamescom press day.

Our passes allow us entry in the press day at Gamescom; this is a day earlier than the general public are allowed in. It gave Dave and I an excellent chance to have a look around while the venue was quieter than it would be when the public was allowed in (although there were still a few thousand people there!)
The PlayStation stand was brilliant, with access to hands on time with loads of games (Killzone 3, InFamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2, MotorStorm Apocalypse, Eat Them and SOCOM to name a few). Moving around the show we got hands on time with Crysis 2, Medal of Honor, PES 2011, Enslaved & Brink. The only disappointment is that I didn’t get to see Rage or Fallout: New Vegas, the queues were crazy even on press day.

Killzone 3 stands out for me personally, I played the arctic mission that involved the jet pack and I can say that controlling the jet pack is easy and a lot of fun. As you’d expect it looks stunning. I was always going to get Killzone 3 now I want it more than ever.
We tried to take advantage of the thinning crowds later on in the day and the smaller queues. We did this for Call of Duty: Black Ops, as the queues for this had been huge all day long. Having said that, we still queued for 40 minutes. Once we got in we got to watch a play through of a level set in Russia, it would have been nice to get some hands on time but it wasn’t to be.

The main push of the show is clearly motion control. I have to say that now I’ve experienced Move first hand I think it’s excellent, there is no lag in you movements appearing in the game and they are unnervingly accurate, the Tiger Woods game confirms my golf is as bad in the virtual world as it is in real life.

A long very tiring day is going to end with a trip to a few bars in downtown Cologne.
Tomorrow’s report may be a little groggy.
Dave does not have a free PSP go,

DAY 3

Today we decide to leave it a bit later before heading to Gamescom, we have a feeling there might be a few more people there today. We are right.
Being able to attend on the press day has turned out to be more of a bonus than we’d thought it would be. The queues are massive, it’s difficult not to go up to people in the queues and tell them where their time would be better spent queuing.

It really makes you appreciate how lucky you are when you see signs that say “2 hour wait from this point.”
With so many people there today Dave and I decide to only stay for a couple of hours. We spend the rest of the day in Cologne city centre enjoying the continental café lifestyle.

I’d like to finish off by thanking everyone at Sony for running the competition, then for some reason picking my entry and for being excellent hosts. Dave & I had an excellent time.
I’d recommend that everyone buy PlayTV, it’s an amazing product with some stunning PR (hopefully that’ll help James).

If anyone has any specific questions I’ll be happy to try and answer them in the comments section.
Dave does not have a PSP Go.

NB. Paul’s at work at the moment, so he may be slightly delayed in responding to any questions you might have about his Gamescom 2010 experience.

Score:

• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook