Mason's Blog

Eurogamer Expo Adventures Part One: EA

Late last week I hopped on a train and buzzed off to London to attend the Eurogamer Expo with a couple of C3 staff. Before that, though, I had some other business to attend to. The first thing: EA's Play 4 Xmas event.



I rolled into LDN at around 3.30pm on Thursday 30th October and immediately made my way to see EA while heaving and sweating under a pile of luggage, because that's how dedicated I am. To prove further that I'm an absolute idiot, what was the first thing I did after entering the wonderfully set up halls where EA were showing off their family-friendly Christmas line-up? I went on EA Sports Active: More Workouts (Wii).

That's not to say that's it's bad - quite the opposite - but if you've played the first Sports Active you'll know how tiring it can get; not the best idea after an afternoon of travel, hustle and bustle. More Workouts is exactly what is says, more of the same, so if you enjoyed the first one it's going to appeal to you; if you didn't, you'd be better off skipping it. The first activity I played was a jet ski one where you had to squat and turn the Wii remote to guide yourself under flags and then stretch to standing to rise up and hit the flags with the top of your head. Along the same lines were ramps that were mounted by squatting, launched off to collect objects in the air by standing. Essentially, it's in-line skating from the first one with an added dose of H2O. I also ran on the spot for a bit, alternating between light jogs and sprints while an unknown person with a video camera filmed for their website/TV show/personal use/whatever. Disturbing. I watched a version of the boxing game from the first title played too, but didn't test it. A person in a giant MySims outfit did quite enjoy imitating the people playing it later, though.



Starving by this point, I raided the bar and was delighted to discover cartons of sausage and mash. I wolfed down my prize and found myself under more relaxed conditions playing Trivial Pursuit on Wii. I tested a mode where the aim was to clear all the blocks off the board as fast as possible by - how else? - answering questions on the games' six subjects. There were some dodgy examples of questions about film animals creeping into the science and nature category, but it seems like a nice package if you'd like to shake a remote to roll dice and watch pieces of pie flutter about the screen rather than dragging out the board. I beat the high score, but considering the other contestants that day were probably approximately seven years old - visitors were encouraged to bring their children - I won't exactly be braying it from the rooftops.

What next? A brief go on Spore Hero (Wii), which involved putting horns on creatures to make them more fearsome, a bit of air drumming to dance monsters about and some mindless kicking of other beasts. All good fun. The lure of the ice cream factory drew me away, however, and I gorged on some mint choc chip before drifting towards Hasbro Family Game Night 2. It includes some big games missed from the first, such as Operation, and it seems like a cleaner, more straightforward package than the last. Remote usage is a little more expanded; Operation asks you to point at the piece to remove, then goes to a view of your patient's innards. Pick up the piece with the popular A + B pincer control and then guide it out by rotating it with remote tilts to fit it through shapes. Other games include Connect 4, Bop It, Jenga and Pictureka.



Finishing the day on a calm note, I had a sneaky peek into EA's new electronic book range on DS, FLIPS. Each edition features a collection of stories, and so far the line includes Enid Blyton, Cathy Cassidy, Eoin Colfer and the Too Ghoul For School series. It's displayed across both screens of the DS held sideways, as in Nintendo's 100 Classic Book Collection. You flip through the easy-to-read pages with a satisfying flick of the stylus, and some elements are clickable to produce sound effects and images - or you can pick up collectable mushrooms, though I've no idea what they do at this point. They should begin to arrive on December 4th, and look to be a friendly introduction to books that may seem daunting to a child at first. For me personally, you can't beat a proper papery wad of words, though anything that actively aims to improve literacy in youngsters can be nothing but good.



After meeting a few of EA's lovely PR staff I tumbled off into the night, crammed my face into doors on the packed rush hour Tube, got lost and eventually found my hotel for a well-earned night's sleep. The next day would bring another tiring event: the final of Britain's Best Nintendo Gamer, with voice of Mario Charles Martinet live in the house...

Thanks to EA for the invite and their excellent hospitality despite my only being able to get to the event in the dying hours - sorry!

- Part two now online: Nintendo.