Any games that you saw which made a big impression on yourself - any surprise (positive or negative) ?
Thanks for asking, you, but I think you’ll have more luck getting a decent answer from Myrthos. He is interviewing devs, and gets a promo with footage, or live action, which, all in all, lasts for 15 minutes to half an hour or so. That way the chance of getting more useful info is higher.
Because the conference is so big and I want to see as much as I can in one day I tend not to stop for long at a stand.
I move on after admiring the visuals, after watching the behavior of the people in front of the big screens showing the highest quality videos.
Your question, I find it hard to answer:
In the big Halls it is all aimed at visual and audio effect. Every way you look is screaming at you for attention. From all sorts of games. For PC, Xbox, etc. And not just games. Facebook was there. Google was there. Twitch was there. Hardware suppliers. I sat in different gaming chairs. I saw a company that makes (visual) incredible looking PCs. Observing the visitors is another fun thing to do.
Now, back to the games. I know that big advertorial effects don’t say anything about a game, looks can be quite deceiving. But when you are walking there, having these stimili (incitements) coming at you from everywhere, you get spoiled. And then you tend to overlook the humble displays in the small corners. Corners that may be taken by a diamond (of a developer or a game).
The biggest stands are taken by the well-known names, with the loudest game noise/ music/presenters, and the many Indies are all packed together in one small area with hardly any space between them and many folk surrounding them (the hot temperature, caused by so many people close to each other and all the warmth creating equipment in that area did not make it appealing to stay for long).
Queues don’t necessarily mean that a game is worthwhile to play. It often turns out that there is a contest going on. People like to win things, even rubbish.
So why waste time if it does not exclude a disappointment?
Like I said in another posting. Often you only get to play for an x amount of time, and just the parts that were pre selected (and having no single bug). Every now and then a game company offers you the chance of starting a new game though, so right at the beginning of the game.
Well, that is my experience when playing at the Gamescom anyway.
So you get to learn the controls a bit. Now, it usually takes me some time to get used to them. Especially when a stranger is looking over my shoulder to see more of the game.
So I can not really be a trustworthy judge of the controls either.
Than there is the quality of the visuals. Yeah, I prefer movie quality, but I am well aware I was a big fan of Zork, complete darkness… so…
I have a soft spot for medieval/history, so I look longer at the big or small screens when my eye detects a sword or a crossbow. Post apocalyptic theme is not my thing - it does not necessarily mean those games suck.
The first time I visited a game convention I felt like a kid in a candy store, I was overwhelmed and did not know where to look, smiling all the time, trying to get my hands on every free item that was thrown in the air.
Now I am more accustomed to it. And to leave a good impression on me, or even to surprise me, that takes more than just a nice show.
I remember having a nice conversation about Gothic with the fellows of Piranha Bytes once, at that time working on Risen 1. And a few years ago, a pleasant talk with the guy that created that cute mouse (Ghost of a Tale), who was sitting in a dark quiet hallway, easily overlooked but the adorable mouse suddenly got my eye.
Now, you, something memorable like that did not happen this Gamescom.