For the first time ever I have gritted my teeth and gone forth with a full weekend pass, and let me tell you, there is a hell of a lot of things to take in. A few friends of mine have made the journey with me - Adam and Duncan Lewis - who are probably the biggest gamers I know. Adam has always been a fan of shooters - both third and first person - while the younger 'Lewis', Duncan, enjoys plugging in hundreds of hours on almost and RPG out there. Between us we have a pretty eclectic taste of most other genres too so I'm hoping, between our experiences, I can fill you in on what's going on.
Call of Duty: Ghosts "CODG" was the starting point for us all; and for around 90% of the other early birds ticket holders as well. Activision had offered the first 500 players of the game a copy of the prestige edition free on the date of release. And luckily we were three of the fortunate gamers who have pre-logged a copy for the 2nd November release (unfortunately - if you can call it that - the game is a current gen edition).
For what it's worth we all got a run at CODG on Xbox One, and played separately so that we could all experience a multitude of gameplay styles and maps. It appears that only three maps are on offer - Octane, a sandy gas station with a large open area in the centre with buildings and first floor vantage points scattered around the perimeter; Strikezone, a in/outdoor combat area set within a sports stadium with long corridors with open lines of fire; and Whiteout, a fishing village covered in snow.
The multiplayer offerings were frantic but in none of our games did the destructible environments come into play. We all decided that, while it was a good multiplayer game, the actual gameplay mechanics hadn't changed as much as we had hoped. Camping was an issue in one of the matches I was involved in and some of the weapon balancing seemed a little off - with the shotgun able to one-hit-kill players even at a middle length distance.
I also got a change to drop into FIFA 14, again on the Xbox One, while a polished representation of what has been shown on the current gen demos, the graphics had obviously been expanded. The most notable of which was the crowd who no longer look like cardboard cut outs. The gameplay is obviously slower than FIFA 13, with the attacking team needing to choose the right chance to get forward instead of playing quick through balls or making direct runs into the oppositions penalty area.
The Bureau: Xbox Unknown was also on the show floor and I had a chance to sit down with this at the Nividia Stand. Unfortunately I jumped into a single player mission quite far into the demo offering and suffered a few hiccups with working out the control scheme, in particularly with the AI partnership commands. While it look absolutely excellent on the PC hardware being used the game itself, to me at least, didn't live up to the XCOM hype that I had put around it. 'Solid', yes, but revolutionary it isn't.
We used the vast majority of the day that remained (due to a two hour queue at COD) wandering around stalls and watching other attendees playing titles so we could plan the rest of our trip. By far the biggest crowds gathered in the over 18's zone where Battlefield 4 and Titanfall had multiplayer demos as well as COD and Pokémon X and Y. If you are coming up to the convention over the next few days and are interested in any of the aforementioned then you'll need to head over there straight away. Some of the queue times were 3 hours or more.
On a side note, Sony have horded the expo floor much more than Microsoft or Nintendo. It's visibly evident from the gallery that most of the stands have a PlayStation 4 or Vita banner. Don't worry if you're and Xbox fan though; you will definitely get your money's worth.
I'll obviously check back in tomorrow with a short roundup of our activities on day two. Otherwise check my twitter feed (@somemanwithplan) so you can come and find me or hear what's going on. Anyone with valid points on what the show-floor has to offer is sure to get a mention.
Time for me to open up my swag.... Here is Duncan's - jealous much?!?!
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