Wow, comic-con. That was a blast!

I boarded the train from Mid-Wales in a vastly hung-over state, all but 2 hours of precious sleep under my belt, yet, in my delicate condition, I was so excited. I couldn’t be more awake, my senses were working overtime. I couldn’t wait to get to London and take in everything MCMExpo had for me.

Leaving the underground train and walking to the convention centre, my walk turned into a near jog out of excitement, in the distance I could see Imperial stormtroopers, knights, ninjas, characters from things I recognised, and things I didn’t. It was amazing.

It is an odd sensation to be walking through the centre, and feeling out of place because you are the one that ISN’T in costume, in this scenario there are more dressed up than those in street clothes. I regret not dressing up and joining in on the awesome cos-play, I think next year, will definitely have to happen.

I’m thinking everyone’s favourite mercenary; Deadpool, Judge, jury and executioner; Judge Dredd, or the incandescent knight; Solaire of Astoria, from Dark Souls

Send in your answers on a postcard.

Now…The games..

Whilst I was there I had the opportunity to queue for, and eventually play, some awesome games. The biggest titles there were; Halo 4, Far Cry 3, plenty of Wii U titles, Assassins Creed 3, Hitman: Absolution, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengance.  

Halo 4 and Assassins Creed 3 weren’t too high on my “have to play list” since as of the comic-con date, they were out in a few days, but they were fun none the less, first impressions are good though, but that’s for another post. The “exclusive, super, triple a, big budget “title, which I had the most fun with was Hitman: Absolution. That game is shaping up to be something great, I have always loved the adventures and conquests of Agent 47, but from what I played on this game, the developers have done such a brilliant job with it. Everything is intuitive, for example, I saw a coffee mug on a table and thought “it would be awesome if I could smash that in someone’s face”, and who would have thought it, you can! It really feels like its been made by human beings that have gone through these scenarios and tested the game, had these thoughts, and made them a reality inside the game world to give the players a sense of freedom and intuition. The environment has been made to feel as if you know where you’re going, as if you as the agent themselves have surveyed the area, without it feeling linear.

I can’t wait for Hitman, you can expect a review when it’s released.

A lot of people aren’t interested in the Wii U, myself could have been counted amongst them, but since spending a good amount of time with it, I feel conflicted. On one hand, it is an awesome multiplayer experience, just playing some of the small, silly games with strangers and friends alike, it was easy to lose yourself and forget about the noises and sights of the convention and become enveloped within this competitive little world that you and these four others share. We weren’t even playing full titles; one game from the “Nintendo Land” was built around Animal Crossing. Four players were hungry little critters who had to work together to get candy, the fifth (which was me) controlled a knife and a fork that had to poke the pesky buggers and steal the sweets. It was hilarious to hear the shrieks of the strangers next to me as they ran for life, vomiting candy along the way, as my knife and fork used a quite brilliant pincer manoeuvre to get the sweet sugary goodness. It’s scenarios like that which the Wii U will really hold its own.
On the other hand, I can’t see myself enjoying it as a single player experience, it’s hard to be immersed in a game, take in its story and characters, its sights and sounds, when you have to glance between a pad and a screen constantly. It kind of feels clumsy, and for a single player experience there are better alternatives.
Not that I didn’t have fun with some of their single player launch titles, Zombie U is an awesome take on the zombie culture of games, and The Wonderful 101 , I can only describe as super-hero Pikmin on steroids.

There were tonnes of games that didn’t have their own booth, and could have easily been missed if you weren’t looking.

Like Naturo: Ninja Storm 3. I used to watch Naruto Shippuden from time to time, but have neglected it for a while, but after playing this game I may have to start watching it again.
Naruto: Ninja Storm 3 is kind of like a pseudo arena fighter, you get all the wicked skills of the characters in the anime, and even newbies like myself are able to pull of some awesome looking combos and abilities. If you’re a fan of the series, it’s a definite, if not, then it is still worth looking into.

The one little title that I had heard nothing about since this event, the one which even took my a while to find in the convention. A charming game called Foul Play, inspired by titles like Viewtiful Joe and Castle Crashers. Following the adventures of “Baron Dashforth” a dapper waistcoat, monocle, top hat wearing demon hunter who as decided he should entertain the masses by creating a stage show of his life’s events.

Meaning that this awesome, side scrolling brawler is full of the vaudeville charm and excitement of the theater.

The environment drops into place like a theater set, the crowd in front of you cheers or jeers depending on your skill, and the enemies you beat will crawl off the stage only to run around the backdrop and face you again, the fate of a theater extra. The game rewards you for performance over pain, your goal isn’t just to fight your way through the baddies, but to entertain the crowd. Getting high combos and playing to the crowd will boost your performance, in the one boss fight I played, I was instructed by the crowd to bash all the minions, and only then to valiantly defeat the big, bad leader.

For an Xbox Live: Arcade title, its full of action, humor, excitement, and buckets of charm. Keep your eye out for it come Spring.

I saw literally too many things to talk about in a single blog post, maybe I’ll put up some pictures of the cosplay and such.

But I saw enough awesome things, played enough brilliant games, and met enough fantastic people to justify going again next year.

Hopefully see you there.