Eurogamer Expo 2012 – Are You Going?
Eurogamer Expo has already cemented its place as the biggest gaming convention in the UK; it’s Britain’s closest thing to E3. So if like me you are a gamer, and are lucky to live close enough to get there, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you put down the twelve-or-so quid needed to attend. If you do go, what can you expect to see? What’s the Eurogamer Expo like? Never fear, here you’ll find everything you’ll need to prepare to enjoy Eurogamer on September 27th-30th.
Last year was my second Eurogamer Expo, and my second visit to London’s Earls Court. Each year the Expo has taken place on just the bottom floor, but has filled pretty much the entire floorspace. On entering the arena you are greeted with a colourful display of high-tech booths, boasting the latest in high-def screens to show off the represented games. Most of these displays are so large that they easily obscure anything beyond them, meaning you are faced with a wall of gaming stands. Herein lies the first lesson to learn: get the lay of the land. On your way in, make sure you grab a programme featuring a map of the show floor. With the aforementioned limited visibility, intel provided by the map is a must-have for the shrewd gamer.
Unless you are a VIP, press, or have paid for an early entrance ticket, you will likely enter the show between 11am and noon. When you get in, even if you were at the front of the queue, you will find the place already quite well populated with all those previously mentioned who got in earlier. On the Sunday of last year’s show, I got in on an early ticket, and still had to queue for the best part of an hour at the Onlive booth. Thus we find tip number two: use your map to identify two, or three things you really don’t want to miss, and head straight for those queues. This way you will see the things that matter to you, and hopefully by mid-afternoon you’ll be done with ‘em. This leaves you free to grab a beer, and wonder around the convention being amazed by the rest of the show.
While enjoying one of said beers on the Sunday afternoon of last year’s Eurogamer Expo, I came to a horrifying realisation. Before I attended the show, one of the things I was really looking forward to was meeting Uncharted’s Nathan Drake (AKA Nolan North). Turns out I missed his panel due to not joining the queue quickly enough. That brings me smoothly onto tip three: do your homework. Before you go, visit the Eurogamer site and look at the list of what will be going on. Then, make sure you note the times, and don’t bloody forget them!
Now, if you’re a gamer who follows the yearly coverage of the likes of E3, PAX, or Comic Con, you may be wondering “should I go for Cosplay at Eurogamer?” Well, I’d encourage you to go for it! At the very least you should wear a gaming t-shirt of some description. Eurogamer Expo is a celebration of all things gamer, and the biggest celebration of its kind to grace the British Isles. So don’t be shy!
Eurogamer Expo is also a great source of free shit. Last year I returned home with an Onlive console, a Mass Effect 3 t-shirt, some Battlefield 3 dog tags, and a fuck-tonne of lanyards amongst other stuff. So, the next tip is to take a bag with you to carry all of that. Even if you end up binning half of it, you still come away with some really cool freebies, so a bag is a great way to avoid losing any of them.
If nothing else, Eurogamer Expo is simply an awesome few hours that you can spend with your fellow gamers. It’s not like playing on Xbox Live or PSN, where you can feel lost in either a condescending elitist circle-jerk, or a festering quagmire of foul-mouthed 12-year-olds. No, at Eurogamer Expo you will feel at home, feel the collective excitement of thousands of gamers enjoying the E3 of the UK. So make sure you book your ticket for this year’s show, you will not be disappointed!
More info about whats on show at the expo and ticket sales can be found here eurogamer.net/expo
Are you going to Eurogamer? We are thegamejar.com/2012/09/euroga… Let us know if you want to meet up.
— TheGameJar (@TheGameJar) September 13, 2012
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