Thursday 21st September saw EGX open it’s doors to the masses, and with Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo all coming to the party with the biggest stands I have seen in my 5 years attending, it looks like being a great show. I was lucky enough to be able to let my teenage son come with me, but this year saw a strict focus on age related restrictions, so he was unable to play the majority of the AAA games on show that were rated 16. I suppose it was understandable as the VSC Rating Board and games trade body Ukie have today announced a renewed partnership in the form of their newly refreshed AskAboutGames site, which launched at EGX. Having this kicked off whilst allowing children to play (potentially) inappropriate games at the show was probably not the best policy!
So, my day one at EGX was not spent playing the newest AAA games, but I did unearth some gems within the Rezzed section.
We started off on the Xbox stand as the Xbox One X was powering most of their games. Both Forza Motorsport 7 and Super Lucky’s Tale looked amazing, and the latter really impressed me with its fun gameplay, and reminded me a lot of Banjo Kazooie. Cuphead also impressed but this is definitely looking like a controller throwing beast of a platform/shooter! The staff on the Xbox stand are also giving away 1 month Game Pass codes, so that’s well worth a look!
We then took a good look around the rest of the show floor, taking in the most wonderful merchandise available, mainly on the official Destiny 2 merchandise stand, which had the LOUDEST music playing EVER.! Thanks also to the chaps manning the Destiny 2/Virgin Fibre stand for letting my boy go home with posters, T-shirt and an inflatable Titan shield. That went a long way to improving his day!
Next was the Rezzed area, and the highlights of that section from day one is as follows.
Huntdown from Easy Trigger games is a very retro inspired, co-op 2D shooter where you play as bounty hunters tasked with taking down the gangs who control the streets. We played a demo on the Nintendo Switch but this is also coming out on Xbox and PS4 later in 2017. The Official Huntdown Website is here!
Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 continues with the story of Vinnie the gangster from the original game. Its a hand drawn side scrolling shooter, which played extremely smoothly. I had never played the first one, but will definitely be checking this out! Check out the official website here.
Shift Quantum was a really fun puzzle game, where you switch the background from light to dark in order to escape a maze. My son is not a huge puzzle game fan but this was one he raved about afterwards! Developed by Fishing Cactus, Shift Quantum is currently only available on Steam, so check out the website here!
Dead Cells was one of my favorites from the Rezzed section. It is an upcoming roguelike-Metroidvania hybrid video game being developed by Motion Twin. Again, currently only on Steam but is being brought to consoles at a later date. Check out their website here!
Check out the site for an update on Day 2, same time tomorrow!