And so, like a soldier returning from the front lines to his beautiful wife, I re-enter the blogosphere with stories of bloodshed and comradery. Today, Destructoid, you are my wonderful wife, the ear on which I will chew. These are my thoughts and feelings taken from the East End of London's Eurogamer Expo 2008:



Setup:

As you'd expect, the floor plan consisted of many many rows and blocks of televisions and consoles (they had a few PC's but they weren't on my radar). Special mention to Sony, who went the extra mile and provided what appeared to be 42" Sony Bravias all round, with surround sound in many cases. This reflected Microsoft's (mostly) stand-up, small TV, these-belong-in-a-retail-outlet-of-some-kind rigs. Sony had you sitting at a low level, immersed in your own personal game, while Microsoft made you feel like you were on a conveyer belt. On the other hand, some people got too comfortable with the idea of chilling out and playing a game for way too long. I had to bite my tongue a few times.

Games I Played:



Killzone 2:

I had 15 minutes with this. I'm not even going to beat around the bush: Killzone 2 blew my arse out of my pants, into orbit, set it on fire and then decided it was time for a dip in the molten lava of a volcano. This game is incredible. Graphically, this game is sheer class. People go on about the lack of colour on show? I say it looks fantastic. For instance, it really brings out the red eyes of the Helghast to give them a more threatening appearance. The styling is so gorgeous and familiar, you can spot it a mile off. Just so much going on, the demo they showed off here was an intense experience, made even more so by the drooling masses, eager to whip that control pad out of my hand as I lay four more Helghans to waste with a cheeky grenade that perched delicately on a ledge (amidst the most undelicate of battle scenes).


Don't believe it. Random internet photo. Third guy in, Adidas jacket. That's who beat me at SFIV

Street Fighter IV:

So I'm queueing up and I notice that the same guy has remained at one the Street Fighter IV rigs for at least ten minutes. It's winner stays on. Suffice to say I ended up playing him and was out of there in about 30 seconds. I will say this: When I sat down I wasn't concentrating on the graphics. Instead, I felt like it was 1992 all over again and I hadn't been away from this arcade situation for more than a week. That is what I wanted from this game. Yeah, I got a couple of dragon punches in on him and that did me, but I was pwned.



Mirror's Edge:

Wow. You know, watching the videos is nice but it is not until you take Faith into your own hands and make her move that you really appreciate what this game is all about. Jumping over obstacle, sliding under them, punching the F out of enemy guards; this game is a revelation in first person-gaming. It may be my pleasant surprise of the show. You see, I knew it would be a great game, but this is great.



LittleBigPlanet:

I smiled. I smiled so much and with a man I'd never met. We played co-op on a few levels and I could have played that game all day. It really did remind me of the first time I played Mario on the NES. The jumping physics may be difficult to grasp at first, but that is one of the beauties about this game. It is very hard in places (in fact, we got stuck at one point and decided to move onto another stage) and the jumping both frustrates and makes you laugh at the same time. My eagerness for this has gone from 100% to 10000%.



Resistance 2:

Superb, rather grand scale action. This game is what I expected. It still feels like Resistance, it just looks lots better. I RPG'd a 300 foot robot to oblivion, all the while having to follow another soldier around without losing him or falling down a massive drop or just getting blown to hell by said robot's ridiculous rocket power. Can't wait until I get my mits on this one.

Call Of Duty: World At War:

Great set-up for this one. Two booths of 8 for a deathmatch scenario (8 vs. 8 or all against all). I played all against all and, being a CoD amateur, got blasted away. I did highly enjoy the map, based in some green hills, with a few buildings for cover. It was a short-lived experience and, obviously, felt like Modern Warfare but that was a good thing, right?

Games I saw:

Resident Evil 5:

I witnessed some zombies being burned by some exploding barrels. This sight alone was enough for the game to be contender for the best looking award. It was almost painfully photo-realistic. You really got the sense here that the player was being attacked from all angles as the terrifying zombie masses quietly surrounded you, causing much panic and last-second head shots. Great stuff.



Left 4 Dead:

Zombies coming from all directions. The player's hands and gun are are relatively small in comparison to most FPS games. You need some wide vision span to avoid death by the undead so this may not be a bad thing, but it did seem a little dainty and slightly strange. Graphically inferior to the likes of Killzone 2 but that is no bad thing. The game looked like fantastic, endless fun for yourself and a group of friends to enjoy. teamwork was essential in taking down the larger beasts.

Conclusion:

Well, what can I say? That was one of my fondest days of gaming and, although I didn't have the chance to really get into any of the titles, I can say that the next few months are going to provide us with some of the all-time great games. Sorry if I didn't mention a game you wanted, I don't want to make this too long-winded (it already is) and I really didn't get much action outside of the games I've mentioned.

Game of the Day: For me, Killzone 2.



And then I had a ruby and got drunk.