Saturday, November 14, 2015

GameStart 2015: Game On!


GameStart 2015 has officially started! Those who are going over the weekend I hope you are ready. Expect to be wowed!


Upon entering the event halls you will immediately see the PlayStation booth. As promised their booth is bigger and better. There are two floors of games for you to try out! The VR games can be found on the upper level. If trying on the VR headset is a priority for you, you will want to head right to the end of the booth and make a left (right side of the pic below) to queue. The VR games include The London Heist, The Deep, Kitchen, Hatsune Miku Project and the Playroom VR Games. You have to decide which game you want to try out and inform the staff so they can allocate you to the proper queue or a timeslot (depending on situation). Stay away from Kitchen if you cannot take horror! 



I tried out The London Heist VR game and it was awesome! It felt truly like you were in the game. Whichever way you looked the environment would match. Your hands open and close and move in the manner as if they were your own via the microphone like control sticks. Unfamiliar with the game I kept dropping the gun and did not reload for a long while before I realised I had to use the ammo clips. I managed to blast away some enemies in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!


After getting a taste of it a couple weeks back, I just had to play Street Fighter V again! This time there was a new playable character available in Dhalsim! I took him out for a spin and got beaten easily... I was testing out the moves and got him to teleport and do a couple of fire moves. I love the animation of his elasticity and his "bendiness". Switching to Ken for another match, I got my revenge!



Star Wars Battlefront will be released next week! If you cannot wait till then. there are several consoles for you to play it at. I love playing as Han Solo. Nothing like charging and blasting. Some of the other games I tried include Fallout 4, Call of Duty Black Ops III and Transformers: Devastation. If you are a Transformers fan I highly recommend trying the game out. The characters are G1 based and the action is superb. You can play in both robot and vehicle modes. Attack combos incorporate transforming as well.


The following are some deals that are available and also the PlayStation Stage Schedule. Click on images to enlarge.


























Expect the queue to be long for the Star Wars Battle Pod. I feel the wait is worth it though. This is a rare opportunity to truly pilot a ship from Star Wars. There's nothing quite like the thrill of destroying the Death Star! 



The Bandai Namco booth now. Dark Souls III is the first I'm playing a game from this series. It is quite something. I played as a Northern Warrior. He looked heavily armoured, or so I thought. I found myself struggling and kept dying. I like that you can switch between dual hand and single hand and you can use a combination of the equipment you are carrying. 



Some of the other games at the Bandai Namco booth include Just Cause 3, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, Swoard Art Online: Game Director's Edition and Gundam Extreme vs Force.



Blizzard too has an impressive booth. Their most notable title would have to be Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void which was released a couple of days ago. I have not played the latest Hearthstone adventure yet so I was happy to try out some cards from the "The League of Explorers". The other playable title is Heroes of the Storm. 


The following are the activities going on at the Blizzard booth.


If you're looking for some Blizzard items they can be found at the "Tavern" by Saint Games which is located just beside Blizzard. I feel a need for a Hearthstone pillow. Then I can teleport home whenever I want. I wish...



Be sure to drop by the Singapore Gamebox booth. They have some really cool games there.


Monster Chronicles by Delta Duck Studios caught the eye. The game is kinda like a mix of RPG and strategy sort and it features some cute anime like characters. The game uses a grid battle system. Imagine a tic-tac-toe board. Its 3 vs 3 and your characters are randomly placed on it. If your characters form three in a row, you can unleash power combos. You can knock back opponents to prevent them from forming a line. I spoke with Kelvin who's the Sales Rep and he says the game will be released mid 2016 on Android and IOS.



Another game which I found to my liking is Kancheong! Kopitiam Saga by Mojocat. It was actually released earlier this year as part of the SG50 Celebrations. I only just found out about it. It contains several mini games which Singaporeans can relate to. There's "Auntie Lai Liao", which sees you as patrons of a Kopitiam (coffee shop) eating and must quickly rush back to your vehicle when you see the "parking auntie" (who hands out fines) coming. There are a couple of memory games which involves memorising customers' orders such as "Milo peng", Tiger Beer etc. You can challenge other players in these games and you can "sabo" (sabotage) them by flicking a spider over to them. 



I liked that the RetroDNA section is back. I have not played some the old games in a long time. I spent quite a bit of time on Time Crisis II. I used to play this series a lot back at the arcade. I can still go pretty far with one "credit". All the games are free to play, I'm just saying. I also played Street Fighter II. I should probably have spent more time on Street Fighter V.


Check out these tabletop games. They really bring back memories. I never had one but I do remember "testing" them in the stores back then. Lol.



Also located at the RetroDNA section is the official GameStart Game challenge. You stand a chance to win prizes if you get a highscore. I took it as an opportunity to try out some of the new characters as I am still nowhere near having the required stars to unlock them.



Here's something really cool! A levitating M.Bison statue by Kinetiquettes. "Anyone who opposes me will be destroyed!"



That's about it for Day 1. The event is on until this Sunday, 15 November 2015 at Suntec Convention Centre Halls 401 and 402. I'll be going back to see if I can get more game time in. And also catch some from the stage and cosplay segments.


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