EB Expo 2016: Head of Xbox tops off a stellar show
Now in it’s sixth year, the EB Expo held at Sydney Olympic Park over the weekend showed real maturity this time around as it put on a grand display of games, gaming and most importantly gamers.
So often a solitary affair, the EB Expo is an ideal excuse for gamers everywhere to enjoy their favourite pastime with others. With a healthy dose of cosplayers thrown in, the Expo never fails to reaffirm the warmth, enthusiasm and general awesomeness of people that like to game.
While long lines are inevitable as a result of such a booming sub-culture, my Expo experience this year involved a whole lot less waiting with impressive cue management helping things along. In fact, the longest I waited for a game was about an hour for Horizon: Zero Dawn and boy was it worth wait.
Set in a dystopian world where robot dinosaurs are now the dominate species, this open world action RPG from Guerilla Games follows the life of Alloy, a human female attempting to uncover the secrets of how the robots took over and pushed her species into the shadows. After watching a brief demo that involved Alloy hacking and riding a dinosaur before taking down another with a crossbow, I went hands on with the game and was left impressed.
Image: SBS
Everything flowed really well from my brief taste with archer combat and general movement both running smoothly. The world itself is simply incredible with a colourful aesthetic and lush environmental landscape a real treat to run around in. Having previously only made FPS games with Killzone, Guerrilla Games are aiming high with their newest game and they are so far hitting their targets.
Other notable games I got my hands on during the Expo included Dead Rising 4, Gears of War 4 and South Park: The Fractured But Whole, all of which involved no more than 20 minutes of waiting and like with Zero Dawn, were again worth the relatively short wait.
Dead Rising 4 was it’s usual over the top self with my short play through starting off with me shooting fireworks with a crossbow into a crowd of zombies and ending with me slicing through a boss with an ice sword. In amongst all that I got to don an exosuit; a natural evolution for the franchise which will see the game’s hero Frank West taken to the next outlandish level of zombie killing capabilities.
Having previously struggled with Gears combat I was hesitant heading in to my demo of Gears of War 4 but was left eager for more. With some seriously sweet graphics, a potentially deep narrative and a now less clunky cover system, I’m keen to jump back in for a full play through when it releases on October 11.
A big fan of Stick of Truth, I couldn’t resist lining up for The Fractured But Whole, another cheeky South Park RPG that replaces a medieval genre with superheroes. This switch looks to be a fitting one for the franchise with superhero specific classes like speedster and brawler making for even more diverse combat choices. Revolving Cartman’s hilarious Coon and Friends, The Fractured But Whole looks like a sequel that is only going to improve upon the original in every respect with my 15 minutes with it far too short for my liking.
A big draw card for the EB Expo this year wasn’t any single game but rather a person, with a cameo appearance from the Head of Xbox Phil Spencer arguably stealing the show.
His first trip down under, Phil capped off the Xbox talk on day one and in a 20-minute speech spoke frankly about Project Scorpio and how much he values the Xbox community. Controversially announcing two consoles at E3 this year, Project Scorpio and the Xbox One S, Phil said although perhaps not being the smartest decision financially, he felt it was necessary to be open with fans about the future of the company. This transparency seems to have done them no harm however with Phil ecstatic over how well the Xbox One S is selling globally after it’s release last month. The next console on the horizon for the company is Scorpio, a console Phil admitted has been planned with VR very much in his and Microsoft’s peripheral.
Speaking of VR, PlayStation VR strut its stuff on the floor of the Expo with the longest lines indeed coming for the device. While I wasn’t lucky enough to strap one on, observing the demos highlighted not only a very slick piece of technology, but something that is capable of fundamentally changing the gaming landscape. To say those that used it lost themselves in the worlds they were playing in is an absolute understatement.
Even without a VR device strapped on though, I too lost myself at the EB Expo this year with it’s well oiled show, Phil Spencer and so many glorious games reminding me of the magic that is gaming.
Posted in Blog, Games, Technology
Comments