EGX 2018: The Highlights

Another year, another EGX gone by the Birmingham NEC last weekend. This even sees hundreds of game developers and companies setting up to show off their newest games to the public. Varying from playable demos, tournaments or just plain old promotion for upcoming titles!
Lines varied according to what games people were aiming to play, with some lines for the AAA titles, such as the new Kingdom Hearts or Assassin’s Creed entries boasting much larger lines than the other panels. Wait times really depending on what you want to play and how long you were willing to wait, some posts even had signs detailing 1 or 2 hour waits from certain points.
If you are going there to play these titles, make sure you choose an opportune time to line up, and think about what kind of game you are lining up for; waiting for a fighting game might mean people play 2 games each and then leave, while the bigger single player titles could have 20 minutes of gameplay before the players move on, so sometimes it’s about knowing what you’re signing up for! I waited only 5 minutes before playing on Soul Calibur 6, and only about 10 to play Man of Medan.
Upcoming games also had interesting promotion and exposure, including a Fallout 76 Van where you could take pictures and that was also giving our Blamco Mac and Cheese to promote the new Fallout title. Announcers and stages also filled the show floor, be it to watch two plays duking it out on a fighting game, working together, or just showcasing some crazy game you hadn’t heard of, it was always interesting to watch and the announcers really helped to hype up the crowds, even if I myself didn’t even know what was happening. (There was also a lot of Fortnite on the main stage).
If you weren’t looking forward to any big games in particular, EGX had a large area dedicated to indie developers promoting their games. You can honestly expect to find a game to please anyone here, with an unbelievable multitude of genres, games and styles. I saw shooters, puzzle games, a cult management simulator and then that’s not including any of the VR titles. I played a handful of games here and it is a nice way to try titles you may never have heard of, as well as speak directly to the people who work with the games, the developers, artists and people who have worked on putting their ideas onto the screen to be enjoyed.
EGX also had a variety of stands and other areas, including a board game library where you could sit down and play a huge variety of games (with even some rare titles that aren’t even in print anymore!) and merchandise stands to buy practically anything to do with any aspect of the games on the show floor, and also an area dedicated to cosplayers, and a stage for the cosplay showcase.
The next date for the next event is EGX Rezzed. This is set to take place between 4-6 April in London, but otherwise it’s certainly good to keep an eye out for titles coming out between now and next year’s show to get an idea of what you could expect to see.
It was an amazing experience and certainly one I’d be looking to repeat, with me very much looking forward to next year. Events like this are certainly a great reminder about what is great about the video games industry, and how there can literally be a game for everyone in practically any genre.
> Mark Goddard