Category Archives: Eurogamer Expo 2009

EG just announced that its 2010 Expo will take place in London’s Earl’s Court.

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Valve’s finally confirmed proper details on Left 4 Dead 2′s Realism mode, saying it’ll be playable at all difficulty settings, will remove character glows to force teams to greatly increase communication, and give the Witch super-kill powers.

“Realism mode isn’t just making Expert harder,” Valve boss Chet Faliszek said at the London leg of the EG expo last week.

“We have our four skill levels again, and you can play Realism mode with any of them.

“We find that people play with the same people a lot… And those teams don’t necessarily want to play Expert or Hard, they want to be challenged as a team.”

Faliszek outlined an intrigued proposition at the Expo, one designed to take closely knit player-groups to the limit.

“It’s real easy to say, ‘Let’s make the creatures harder for you to kill and you easier to kill.’ It’s less interesting,” he added.

“With this, we remove the glows, we make events like the Witch more important now, because if the Witch hits you once, she kills you. And you die. You don’t come back.

“There’s no safe closets. You can use the defib to get back, but your team has to do that for you.”

No glows? No glows.

“Way back in development of Left 4 dead 1 we didn’t have glows for a while, and it was really frustrating and hard,” Faliszek said.

“The first time you turn around, and you run off by yourself and you’re going to get something out of this building, and you turn and go, ‘I’ve got the pipe bomb! Oh, man, where is everybody?’ And you have no idea. It’s a really different experience.

“Realism mode is really about pushing the skill of the team.”

Left 4 Dead 2 hits on November 17. The 360 demo’s out now for all Gold subs.

Didn’t attend the Eurogamer Expo? Didn’t catch the Q&A that Tom Bramwell and Ellie Gibson did in London? Dont worry, the site has you covered by giving you all 40 minutes of it.

Oh, and there is the stark realisation that no one has a PSPgo. Oh dear.

Find it through here.

Quantic Dream’s David Cage has revealed that the PlayStation 3 is “the best platform” available for Heavy Rain.

He was speaking at his Q&A session during the Eurogamer Expo in London on Saturday, where he said the choice to make the game for the PS3 was down to two reasons: the hardware and the architecture

“Whatever I answer, my answer will be suspicious… I think it had to be on PlayStation 3 for two main reasons: the hardware, the architecture of the PS3 is extremely powerful in the way it is structured. If you make a real PS3 engine, then you can have really fantastic performances. If you try to port from another platform, then it becomes difficult,” said Cage.

“This is a console we all love at the studio. I play PSOne, PS2, it’s really a part of my culture. The controller is part of my home… and it’s a really, really powerful console.

“I’m not so much into graphics, to be honest with you, I don’t believe you need ultra realistic graphics to get emotion, you can get that with very low graphics. But we wanted to create emotion from believable characters, that was the idea. With this approach PS3 was by far the best platform.”

Find more over at PushSquare. Catch some video we captured of the demo that was on the show floor at the Expo last week in Leeds here.

It’s out next year.

Didn’t get on the MAG beta? Want to know what the Zipper shooter actually looks like in action?

Hit the link. We shot this off-screen at the EG Expo in Leeds earlier this week.

PS3-only, out next year. For the record, someone else was playing the game.

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Update – Stewart told us this morning the game’s actually out in December.

Just Add Water boss Stewart Gilray said at the EG Expo yesterday that PSN-only vector-graphics shooter Gravity Crash is to release in November.

That’s the European date, apparently, with a Japanese release happening soon after.

Thanks, PS3Center.

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has said that PC-only projects simply cannot attract enough money from publishers to create triple-A results.

“About two or three years ago we realised that we really wouldn’t survive if we only made PC games, since purely making PC games was incompatible with our goal of making triple-A games,” said the developer, demoing current project Brink yesterday at the EG Expo in Leeds.

“You just can’t get the publisher budget to ever [use] an orchestra in London, and then go and record at Abbey Road and get the best voice actors if you’re only going to release on the PC, where there isn’t the sales to justify that kind of work.”

Wedgwood added: “Because we needed to make that transition, I started playing console games,” and that he now plays “a lot more time playing console stuff” than PC games.

Wedgwood’s background is from the PC mod scene. He told the Expo audience that he originally resisted console gaming because he considered himself to be “hardcore PC guy,” but “loved it” and got “more and more into it”.

For the record, Brink looks properly, properly awesome. Hopefully we’ll be able to show it to you soon. It’s out for PC, 360 and PS3 next spring.

Immediate joy. Hit the link to see video of two laps from Black Rock crash-racer Split/Second, filmed off-screen at today’s EG Expo in Leeds.

Surprise of the show. It’s the most instant fun we’ve had with a car and a games console for a long time.

The game’s out for PC, PS3 and 360 early next year.

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Hit the link for eight minutes of God of War III gameplay, shot off-screen today at the EG Expo in Leeds.

It’s a bit bonkers, to be honest. This is filmed from the E3 code.

Off you go. It’s out next year.

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Splash Damage boss Paul ‘Locki’ Wedgwood just confirmed in a Brink EG Expo session that the game will have dedicated servers for multiplay. He made a proper point of it, in fact.

He said the aim is to have free, dedicated servers for the title available on day one. As you’d hope.

We’ll go back through the recording and dig out the quotes in a bit.

We weren’t allowed to film in the session – which featured a long gameplay demo – or take any photos, unfortunately. It looked pretty damn swish.

It’s out for PC, PS3 and 360 next spring.

The Leeds leg of EG Expo 2009 is now open, with over 1,000 gamers having queued through the morning outside the Armouries in the city’s centre.

It’s completely sold out for both today and tomorrow, so don’t turn up if you don’t have a ticket: you won’t get it.

Hit the link for pics from the queue and showfloor. It’s proper bonkers in here. For the rest of our EG Expo coverage, hit this.

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Hit the link for a five-minute movie of the Hassan’s Shop section of Heavy Rain. This is shot off-screen from the GamesCom build at today’s Eurogamer Expo in Leeds.

The section sees an investigator, Shelby, going into a shop, talking to the shopkeeper and… well, take a look.

The PS3 exclusive’s out early next year. For all the rest of the news from the EG Expo today, hit this.

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Hit the link for a video of Eurogamer’s Craig Munro killing the shit out of the Dante’s Inferno Limbo boss. This is shot off-screen from the E3 build set up at today’s Eurogamer Expo in Leeds.

The game’s out early next year. To be honest, it really does look fucking hot in the flesh.

Check it out.

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Eurogamer Expo’s on in Leeds today, and we’re here in the drizzle. We’ll be updating all day with videos, images and news, and all articles will be linked here.

The show’s a sell-out. It’s on at the Royal Armouries in Leeds and is home to playable versions of God of War III, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age and loads more. Check the movies of the showfloor to see what people are playing today.

For everything we’ve written on the Expo in the run-up to today, hit this.

• Brink boss – PC-only sales cannot “justify” triple-A budgets
• EG Expo – Split/Second video does the proper awesome
• EG Expo – God of War III, eight minutes of gameplay video
• Brink single-player to “compete” with “Halo, Call of Duty, Gears”
• Brink to have dedicated servers
• Pics – EG Expo kicks off, over 1,000 through doors in an hour
• EG Expo – Full Dante’s Inferno boss battle video, Limbo level
• EG Expo – Pre-opening movies from the showfloor
• EG Expo set-up in photos

Hit the link for videos of EG Expo Leeds’ two halls. See the play stations for God of War III, Mass Effect 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and more.

The show’s on today. It’s a sell-out. Here are some shots we took of the set-up last night. We’ll show you what it looks like covered in “kids” later on.

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If you’re wondering why the site hasn’t been updated much since the early evening yesterday, it’s because I was travelling up to the Eurogamer Expo in Leeds, which opens today. Get some pics of the unopened show and the Eurogamer crew setting it up after the break.

As you can see, some of the industry’s biggest upcoming games are going to be playable at the event today, including Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2 and God of War III.

We’ll be there all day, covering panels on games like Brink, and hopefully grabbing some videos of the bigger stuff for you as we go along.

And remember – the show’s completely sold out, as is its London leg later this week. There are no tickets on the door, either, so if you didn’t buy one you’ll have to wait until next year.

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If you were thinking of going to the Eurogamer Expo in either Leeds or London next week, you’d better get on it for tickets. EG sent out a press release this afternoon saying tickets are about to dry up.

Tickets are still available for Wednesday 28th October in Leeds, but the other three days of the event – including two in London on 30th and 31st October – are now fully booked.

Tickets are expected to sell out completely tomorrow. More than 11,000 have been sold in total.

No tickets are available on the door. If you’re part of the trade, can still get tickets by contacting expo@eurogamer.net in advance.

Hit this for more info, and get the PR after the break.

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The split-stage Eurogamer Expo’s confirmed a string of top-flight developer sessions, GI reports.

Team 17 be talking Alien Breed in Leeds on October 27-28. Paul Wedgwood will also be doing a Brink presentation at the event.

Introversion’s Mark Morris will demo Darwinia+ in Leeds, as will Stewart Gilray from Just Add Water with the PSN-exclusive Gravity Crash.

London sessions for October 30-31 include Nick Baynes demoing Black Rock racer Split/Second, and Quantic Dream showing off Heavy Rain.

There’s more through there.

Sony’s confirmed MAG, God of War 3, Heavy Rain, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for this year’s EG Expo.

The Eurogamer Expo 2009 is being held in Leeds and London, starting up north on October 27-28, before heading to London on October 30-31.

Buy tickets and get more info here.

Eurogamer Expo 2009 just announced its full publisher line-up, and it’s pretty much “complete,” from the look of it.

Sony, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, Eidos, Sega, Capcom, Konami, 2K, Bethesda, Namco and Deep Silver will all have playable games on hand.

This year’s show is split over two UK locations. The Leeds event is being held at The Royal Armouries on October 27-28, followed by a London leg at Old Billingsgate October 30-31.

Games confirmed so far include Assassin’s Creed II, Halo 3: ODST, Borderlands, Tekken 6, Left 4 Dead 2, Dante’s Inferno and Aliens vs. Predator. Expect an awful lot more to be announced as we get closer to the show.

Buy tickets here. PR after the break.

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