Gamescom: judgement time

NiSuTe Europe at the Gamescom 2009

The crew of NiSuTe arrived a few days ago on Tuesday at the Gamescom just to find us up to our necks in work. Struggling to get to all developers in time since the place is huge and having the hardest time to even find the time to write about it, the whole team pushed the boundaries of overtime (working from 7:00 AM to 3:30AM, YES that is only three and a half hours of sleep and that for 5 days in a row!) It was almost getting the better of us with people falling asleep while writing, but this all meant nothing in the face of so many games to conquer. Blizzard, Capcom, and Sega were most definitely the best interview partners this event, with the bringing of great games for us to write about. All in all a great start for a first time event. We are looking forward to going next year.

What the crew thought about Gamescom:

Maiky-NiSuTe (aka Maikel de Bakker)

“Capcom absolutely made this event for me with the great interviews we had with them about all the games that are coming. In terms of my duty within the team I’ll have to find a way to streamline things more and not drag things out too long. I loved the event for the space it had and the great setup of the business ear. Although some companies thought the Gamescom was not worth paying attention to, I do think that they should reconsider for next year. Thanks Cologne for the hospitality and see you all next year.”

dech2410 (Dennis Chafia)

“Normally the big guys take advantage of these large events, but remained rather quiet this time. The smaller game companies impressed me with good expansive information, new lineups, alpha-versions and hospitality. The venue was an amazing place, with enthusiasm in the entertainment area and besides that, a good opportunity to have a more quiet chat in the business area. We see a lot of small companies become bigger and better and I think this Gamescom had more of a nuance to the gaming industry. I hope the set up will remain the same for lots of years, and I hope all developers and companies can see the beauty of this great event.”

Capz (Leroy Ketelaars)

Leroy

“After a disappointment with the big guys in the industry, the smaller and unknown developers completely made up for that, and with some great playable games, and the announcements from sony like the PS3 Slim and PSP Mini’s, this Gamescom has made a good, lasting impression, and with competition from E3, I’m sure next year both GC and E3 will be more awesome than ever before. Most interesting games of the show for me were God of War 3 and Section 8, and I was mildly disappointed with Monster Hunter 3, but I’ll give that one a second chance when I can test the online play.”

Weni (Menno van der Krift)

“For me it was all a bit overwhelming, I expected a big event, but nobody told is it was this huge.

We got to see a lot of new games, but what I was really interested in was Call of duty Modern warfare 2, however the line for playing the game was so long I decided against it.

Still got to see a presentation, it was a bummer they only talked about the new co-op option and not the solo and multiplayer options.

Overall, I had great time, seen lots of new games, had a lot of fun and the interviews and game presentations were very interesting.”

Golden Boy (Kenneth van Eijden)

“Amidst the swarms of fat, sweaty Germans, gross nerds, noise pollution and way too much visual information for your brains to process, I am amazed that I am coherent enough to still make a judgement between good and bad. So let’s give this a go.

Best Game (hands-on): Bayonetta for X-Box 360, a Devil May Cry clone, but also a huge improvement over it. Extremely stylized and kick-ass. Witches have never been so sexy.

Best Game (eyes only): Alien vs. Predator for PC, PS3 and X-Box 360, this game impressed with it’s visuals and atmosphere, and playing as the Alien was amazing to behold.

Best Booth: NCSoft, Excellently designed, good to navigate and there was no shortage of playable computers. Plus Aion seemed to be a sure hit.

Worst game: Yoga for the Wii, seriously, stop this damn casual sporting business.

Worst Booth: Nintendo, seemingly forgoing their fan-base and focussing purely on casual blubber, the Nintendo stand was a festival of mediocrity.”

Chris McEntee (…)

“Right, well, Gamescom eh?

Didn’t know what to expect to be honest, and I especially didn’t anticipate 4 hour waiting times for game demos (thank god for all access press passes!); but most of all, I didn’t have any idea what would go on behind closed doors and, I must say, the business area really was where the magic happened. Not only did we get to see exclusive games and play them, we also had the opportunity to talk with the minds behind some of our favorite games (old and new). And a few of us were even lucky enough to stand at a urinal right next to Hideo Kojima (here’s looking at you Golden Boy!).

The interviews were definitely what really tickled my fancy; I could have spent a lifetime discussing the inner workings of the latest projects from the coolest developers (or in some cases, their translator), but, alas, there were tight time constraints. For me, my choice for game of the show is completely 100% biased and, hell, the version I demoed was still the E3 build from earlier this year. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant surprise during a Capcom interview when they whipped out Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles and I got the chance to play it first-hand, and that for me was game of the show, with Bayonetta (OMG!) as a super close second.

Over and out.”

Kitoshi (Virgil van Es)

Gamescom…. I had no idea what to expect of it, I had never been to any conventions before this one. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out, the first day went a bit messy because a lot of things on the schedule weren’t really appointments but just stand invitations. This basically meant we only got to see the booths the first day, which was nice as well, but having talks with the guys behind the games is nicer.

All in all it was an awesome trip for me, i got to play some of the titles I have been dying to play for so long, games like God of War 3, Heavy Rain (which is surprisingly awesome), Uncharted 2, White Knight Chronicles and of course my most anticipated game of this moment, Diablo 3. I had a lucky break when I got to check D3 out, we (me and Chris) got to do 3 consecutive play-sessions of 20 minutes each because our game decided to bug out on us; we decided to just keep playing even though we had “Thanks for playing” on our screen for a good 40 minutes, be sure to check our article on Diablo 3 on the website.

It’s hard to really say what THE game of the show for me was, I think I have to make it a tie between Diablo 3 and God of War 3, both were just so awesome, D3 was just what I expected of it and more, God of War 3 was just totally brutal, the gore, the hack and slash, the amazing graphics, it was all just to awesome.

Even though I didn’t get to do or sit in on a lot of interviews, being the tech guy and all, it was still an amazing experience, and I hope I can go again next year. Maybe get an interview in here and there, for now I left that to the guys that knew what they were doing and had more experience in that then me.

That wraps it up concerning my personal experiences on Gamescom, i could go on of much much longer but I wouldn’t want to push your attention span.”