Hey party people oaf12 here and welcome to The Man Den!
Friday 27th September this year saw both albinorob and myself attend our second EuroGamer in consecutive years.
Even though I follow the twitter account and check the website every now and then I think the tickets must have gone on sale while I was on my honeymoon because, by the time I realised I could get tickets, there were only Friday afternoon tickets left 
Last year I managed to get early access tickets for the closing day (Sunday) which was great as you definitely need a full game to get around this place if you want a good look at more than one or two games. Plus the early access meant we could make a dash for the Call of Duty area and get that out of the way with no major queue times.
Funnily enough, I didn’t bother with the CoD stand this year after trading the last one in before even completing the single player campaign or going prestige on multi-player….Ghosts looks good but I’m wondering if it’s time to try Battlefield?? Thoughts welcome…..
I don’t know if it is just because of the awe of it being the first time I went but I think I preferred the set up last year – everything was downstairs and the over 18′s area was enclosed with ID being checked before access was allowed. This year part of the over 18 area was upstairs and part down, this would have been really cool if the downstairs part was still enclosed, the stairs could have been inside the enclosure and the ID could have bee checked outside the enclosure. Instead the part downstairs seemed pretty open and the only ID I saw being checked was on the stairs – hey ho!
Also, another note for the organisers – bring back the bacon baguettes, lol!
Last year the stand out game for me was Tomb Raider, so much so I made number two on my top 3 anticipated games for this year. We got to play the game and watch a presentation about it. I have since played and completed the game – it didn’t disappoint!
Due to the fact that the best developer presentations seem to be saved for the weekend we didn’t bother going to any of these this year – nothing ‘tickled our fancy’.
Talking of last year – funny story – as we were on the last day, by the time we left the stands were all being taken down and there were a few freebies still around. We approached the CoD stand to find people jumping and diving for Black Ops t-shirts.
albinorob was on the phone not really showing much attention so I thought I’d see if I could catch one. One of re thrown t-shirts just scraped the top of my fingertips and landed behind me, as it did I heard what could only be the sound of rabid dogs behind me snatching at the top! As I turned I saw a group of friends snatching at and arguing about the shirt and shouting at each other “WE ALL CAUGHT IT” after a few minutes one of them actually said “come on, all this arguing means we are missing out on the chance to catch more”.
The very next t-shirt flew straight past the group and was destined for the back of albinorob’s head, until he turned (still on the phone) and caught the t-shirt without even changing expression. It was brilliant! To show the rabid dogs what friendship actually was albinorob gave me the t-shirt….I think his actual words were “here you go, you’re sad enough to wear this” haha.
This year the games that made it to joint first on my anticipation list were both there. Elder Scrolls Online, which I believe is actually being released next year, was playable and was OK. Watchdogs wasn’t playable, which was a shame, but we did get to watch a live demo and I must say I cannot wait to get into this game, I went straight to the GAME stand after the demo and pre-ordered it. Recently, however, it turns out that this has also been delayed LINK which is a real shame, but I would rather them finish it correctly! I cancelled my pre-order as I ordered it on PS3 as will probably wait until next year to get a PS4, therefore I should have one by the time Watchdogs is released.
albinirob seemed particularly keen on Beyond: Two Souls, although neither of us have actually purchased the game yet…..I’m sure at least one of us will at some point. Has anyone played it yet? Any thoughts?
One highlight of the event was that we got to play the PS4 
OK, so it was only Skylanders Swap Force but my son was ‘well-jel’ (yes, I should be shot for using that term!). I think I might even take him (the eldest) next year, plus the wife so she can follow him around while I’m in the over 18 area lol
Just to complete both ends of the scale, we also spent some time playing on an Atari which I thought was a great touch. While playing the Atari I got to meet my first (in the flesh) GamerDad. His Twitter handle is @daverage and he runs a review site at www.yetanotherreviewsite.co.uk go check it out. For those of you that are unaware of www.gamerdads.com have no fear! I will write a blog on this wonderful website soon.
So all in all I enjoyed the Expo but will definitely keep a closer eye on ticket sales next year and grab an early entrance ticket for at least one of the days – might even go crazy and get a ticket for more than one day lol
Some of the stands, talks and merchandise is really cool (Geek is the new cool lol) so I should really take more spending money next time too!
Cheers all
oaf out
