Australian Gamer Game Event :: eGames and Entertainment Expo 2007

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eGames and Entertainment Expo 2007

A comprehensive report of the event that was the eGames & Entertainment Expo 2007 in Melbourne, as told by various AustralianGamer members who attended the event.

Preface (Brett) | Friday (Oracle) | Saturday (Yug) | Sunday (Samo) | Closing (Brett)

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I woke up Saturday morning feeling absolutely fine.

After a big night of drinking, this is always a bad sign.

Either it means that after years of heavy alcohol consumption your liver has finally built up a strong enough resistance to booze that ensures the rest of your body doesn't suffer a hangover ... or it means you're still drunk.

Our accommodation in Melbourne was nothing special, a step up from last years to be sure. Sleeping in the same hotel room as Matt was now common practice for me, but the strange noises that echoed out of Brett and Oracles room that night were frightening.

Regardless, after collecting our thoughts and necessary equipment, we decided this time to follow the lead of Oracle and catch a tram towards the Exhibition centre. Although initially we found ourselves walking in the complete opposite direction and therefore cursing Oracle as much as the damn flies, eventually his idea came good and we boarded one of these fancy mini-train machines and arrived without too much fuss.

Myself and Matt had been tasked over the entire weekend with MC'ing and to a large extent, running the main stage presentations. While this is certainly something we enjoy doing, it also restricts the amount of time we have to visit the rest of the expo. I'll leave that to Oracle and Samo to talk about; I'm going to focus on the main stage presentations.

Anna all dressed up for Laser Skirmish and ready to go shoot someone.

There was a Laser Skirmish presentation first up, which had our very own Anna dress up in Camoes and run around pretending to shoot people. I think she enjoyed it way more then she'll let on. Deakin University showcased their Motion Capture Lab technology again, with an extremely interesting and informative presentation. Although I'd already heard alot of it from last year, it was still fascinating to watch.

About mid-way through the day we had a half hour slot allocated for a Guitar Hero 3 Idol competition. In typical AustralianGamer style, we hadn't really thought the entire thing through ... well ... at all. I believe there was some mix up, with Activision not even HAVING enough Guitar Hero guitars to contribute to the competition, so Sony stepped up and donated a PS3 and two wireless guitars, thus the event become the SONY Guitar Hero 3 eGames Idol Competition.

guitar hero 3 idol competition at eGames 2007

Hardcore rockin' out during the Sony Guitar Hero 3 Idol Competition

Oracle was charged with signing people up and handling the contestants (he's an easy man to find), and I randomly pulled in some favours to get 3 'celebrity' judges to give the verdicts. Our final challenge was in the song selection list, none had been unlocked, but thanks to some handy Guitar Hero fan boys, they had entered in all the cheat codes and we were, literally, ready to Rock.

The contestants� styles ranged from focused finger picking to semi-retarded epileptic fits. Points were awarded for style and skill, leaning heavily towards style. As long as you could at least hit one note (and at least one person couldn't), you were in with a chance. The crowd was, surprisingly, the biggest of any stage event all weekend, and it was obvious they enjoyed the performance. While our judges offered touchdowns and general abuse, the final two contestants battled it out until there was only one winner, some crazy little kid who walked away with an arm-full of prizes.

Nintendo were next to take the stage lead by their main man Calum, their crowds were always loud and proud supporters. On hand were their latest offerings - Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy, and the Wii Zapper. What can you say, Nintendo always do fantastically on stage, and as long as Swinburne keep attending eGames in droves, Nintendo will always have screaming fans at eGames.

Nintendos fans get all excited about their stage presentation

Sony were next, a much more low key event but alot less gimmicky, they had flown in Bryan and Ryan, two of the top game developers from Insomniac Games, to showcase their latest game - Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction. These guys had a solid product to show, and the levels and events they played through had the crowd laughing and clapping, a testament to the game. These guys were alot of fun, and we even had the pleasure of a casual interview / chat with them later on the Sunday, which you can view below.

Yug and Matt speaking to Brian Allgeier and
Ryan Schneider from Insomniac Games

Early in the afternoon one of the other major events took place - the Scorptec Build Off. 5 contestants were chosen, I don't know how, to be provided with all the original pieces of hardware on stage and tasked with putting together a fully functional working PC in the shortest period of time, with the winner getting to keep said computer.

On your marks ... get set ... BUILD A PC!

It was messy and alot of fun, while myself and Matt had some good opportunities to do the tacky 'who wants some free stuff' routine, the contestants worked feverishly to get their computers together. After one false ending and one missing power cable, a winner was declared for both the fastest builder, as well as the neatest.

The mess on the stage was slowly cleaned up for the Animavericks Cosplay Parade. I figured I would have a chance to see them again tomorrow, so I took this chance to have a look around the rest of the show.

It felt about the same size as last year�s show, but with more substance and quality. As mentioned, Sony brought the goods, and for all the complaints we've had about their system and lack of games, they really did prove to be a hit at the show with their extravagant setups. Nintendo had their usual setup as well, and were extremely busy showcasing the new Mario and Zelda Training games, as well as a table full of DS's.

Microsofts giant empty Master Chief helmet

Microsoft brought a helmet. I'm sure plenty will be said about how much their stand lacked (3 xbox's, 1 with Mass Effect, 2 with Halo 3), but consider how many other exhibitors had probably gotten their Xbox 360's from Microsoft for the event and you can gain some perspective. Although, considering Microsoft didn't even have a stage presentation, it felt like they had dropped the ball.

Atari were doing a solid job of running Pro Evolution competitions throughout the day at their booth, and Ubisoft were not surprisingly popular with playable Assassins Creed, considering it had been delayed an extra week. EA was a bit disappointing; I hardly even recognised their booth until I remembered I was watching Crysis, a game published by them. Activision was there, but just barely, while new video game publisher D3 Publishing got a great reaction showcasing their upcoming game Dark Sector.

Noticeably absent were THQ and Sega, the latter informing us they couldn't attend because they had only just recently setup shop in Sydney and couldn't prepare themselves in time.

One of the cooler aspects for me was I kept running into the Australian Gamer team all over the place. Oracle was always wandering around playing games (this was before he started doing his disappearing acts), Brett was bouncing between the media centre and the AG booth, Cav was doing an awesome job spruiking the AG brand at the booth - handing out flyers and promising large rewards if people took them, and Anna could be found wandering around aimlessly, usually with forum member Romello closely in tow. Even AJ made a brief appearance early in the morning, before he had to run off to cover the local Game Connect conference running at the same time.

Old school crew - Oracle, Yug, Matt and AJ

There were plenty of other stalls filled with shops, audio equipment, universities, developers, and more (not to mention the awesome Australian Gamer booth), but time drew to a close and I had to make my way back to the stage for an industry panel about online gaming presented by Dissecta. Hosted by the GameSta guys and featuring input from such people as Trog from GameArena, James from Palgn, and even Matt from AustralianGamer.

As the panel wrapped to a close, the amount of people at the event started to filter out, and we realised it was time to move on to the semi-organised after-eGames-drinks. Kicking off at the same (although extremely renovated) Kingpin bowling alley bar in the bottom of the Crown casino, a sizable group of misfits including the full AG team in tow slowly found their way there. Many drinks were had by all, with forum member ShadowTalon even putting on a bartab, much to the delight of pretty much everyone.

Myself and Matt had to scoot off however, to attend the Game Connect Asia Pacific Dinner Party and Awards Ceremony. You'll be able to read all about the event when I upload AJ's article, but for now you just need to know it's the conference for all Australian game developers to attend in order to expand their skills and pat each other on the back. We presented the award for best console game, which was won by Infinite Interactive and their game - Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords ... which pretty much managed to win almost every other award as well. Although by that point I was EXTREMELY drunk, we managed to hand over the award plaque without too much of an incident.

yug and matt present best console game award GCAP infinite interactive

Matt and Yug present the best Console Game Award at the GCAP Awards Dinner

After the enjoyable dinner, we made our way back to Kingpin, where we found Samo had joined the crew, as well as Mick from LavaInjection, Ashwin and Battle from Auran, and some of the boys from GamingSA.com. We decided to move things along and ended up at some dodgy sports bar in another part of the casino, but for all intensive purposes (and considering the inebriated state of most of us) it did the job.

Yug and Ashwin dancing up a storm at the club

After some extremely inappropriate dance moves and a trip to the fast food court, we all parted ways, myself, Matt and Oracle stumbling back to our apartment to gear up for what was sure to be another action packed game at what is unquestionably Australia's largest gaming expo.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE TO SAMOS SUNDAY COVERAGE

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