It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you first step onto the con floor at Eurogamer.
Game booths sprawl all over the place with no understandable order, flyers are shoved at your face, and you can barely move for black novelty t-shirts. It’s sort of like the Freshers’ squash, but somehow less of a fire hazard.
The queue to get in is always long, but moves surprisingly quickly. This does not last.
While it’s tempting to head straight for the brightly neon-lit mega displays of Sony and Microsoft, you’ve got to think tactically. It might take hours to queue for the main booths and new consoles, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get a game you want to play anyway. The newer games are always looking to show off on the next-gen though, so it pays off to be inventive.
Look out for the smaller stands that still have the new kit and beat two birds with one stone, like this year’s Surgeon Simulator. You’ll still be standing around for a while though, so make sure you bring something to do.
When you finally get your hands on the controller, time passes all too quickly. In order for the booths to deal with the queues, you often only get to play a single match, fifteen minutes, or sometimes even less.
It’s not really long enough to totally grasp a new game, or get a real sense of story or character, but you need to get the most out of it that you can. If it’s open-world then make sure you do something ridiculous, because you’re not going to get very far with anything else.
It’s a shame, but the booths are more likely to be crewed by a bunch of unenthusiastic part-timers than any of the real developers. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the game, but don’t be offended if you get blank faces in return. At the same time, don’t get too keen when you find a real developer. They might be looking a bit bored, but they’ve been stood there for several days now and are one spilled coffee away from a meltdown.
Eurogamer may be smaller than some of the international cons, but that’s not such a bad thing.
You can rock up to a developer’s session barely five minutes before it starts, for example, and still get in. But the flip-side to this is that it’s obvious some developers don’t make an effort. The Sims 4 had a shockingly useless stand that only let you play a stripped down version of Create-A-Sim, and no actual gameplay at all.
It’s a shame when big franchises waste an opportunity like this, especially when there aren’t even any decent freebies.
Even though the free stuff can be a bit disappointing, you can still pick up the odd key-ring, poster, or t-shirt. It’s pretty unlikely you’ll ever use them, or even look at them again after shoving them into your wardrobe the day after, but nothing can stop the overpowering urge to hoard as much as possible.
The power of free shit is strong, but it’s still shit. So avoid elbowing kids in the face, even if they do sound like the sort that insults your mother on Halo.
Even though Eurogamer forces you into queues with hundreds of teenagers, the atmosphere still buzzes. After all, you’re surrounded by hundreds of people who share your interests, who are just as excited to be there as you are. Some of them are even wearing costumes, and some of them you might even recognise. So be happy, bring snacks, and above all else, try to avoid anyone dressed as a zombie clown.
Becky Mullen, Games Editor
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