OXCGN’s EB Expo 2012 Awards

The hits and misses of EB Expo 12 

by : Arthur Kotsopoulos and Daniel Geikowski

©2012 Arthur Kotsopoulos and Daniel Geikowski

EB Expo 2012 has come and gone and the OXCGN team had decided on the categories they felt necessary to award to the event’s various games, publishers, staff and venues.

It was a long 3 days and 2 nights where gamers fought the heat, the wind and the rain to try out the latest games before their release.

Besides the usual awards you’d expect, we’ve decided we felt the need to acknowledge a variety of other unsung heroes and villains that featured over the expo.

Here are the second annual OXCGN EB Expo Awards:

GAMES & EXHIBITS

Most Popular Booth

Ubisoft

Headlined by Assassin’s Creed III, Just Dance 4, ZombiU, Far Cry 3 and Splinter Cell: Blacklist, this booth had lines that were constantly full.

Not only that, but there were always a large number of spectators watching the gameplay, as well as the Just Dance 4 dancers and members of the public busting their moves.

Having a large number of anticipated titles was always going to make Ubisoft a popular choice with gamers.

Loudest Booth

Ubisoft

Whilst Ubisoft undoubtedly had prime positioning at this year’s EB Expo, they also had the loudest noise that drove every publisher, PR, worker and consumer insane.

If you hadn’t already gotten sick of “Call Me Maybe” then I believe 3 days worth of hearing it on full blast, having all other sound drowned out, would have definitely driven you to despise it.

Whether you were at Microsoft’s booth or near the Community Hub, you were able to hear the blaring music from anywhere; there was definitely no escaping it.

Most ‘Unique’ Hardware Booth

Razer

This year’s EB Expo was more keen to recognise the eSports community in Australia, and brands such as Razer, Triton and Alienware were in full force.

However one stood out above the pack and that was Razer.

From the moment you entered the Dome the first thing you would see was a large Razer logo pitted on a black canvas directly in front of you.

They had most of their peripherals available on hand for the consumer to get a hold of throughout the show.

Least Popular Booth

Warner Bros.

I definitely have to put this one down to very bad placement, as WB were situated in between the Black Ops 2 mammoth booth and EA Australia’s booth.

Whilst Injustice: Gods Among Us did get some crowd, the booth overall just wasn’t pulling in the numbers as others were.

For those wanting to try out Injustice the lines would have been roughly 10-15 minute wait, which was nothing compared to Assassins Creed 3‘s 2 hour wait over each day.

Longest Queue for a game

Assassin’s Creed III/Black Ops 2

The next instalments of both the Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty franchises were hands-down what a lot of gamers came to experience.

The lines were pretty much massive the entire time, with wait times from 2 hours plus.

The booths accommodated this by having around 12-16 stations in order to get large numbers of people through quickly.

Most Crowded Booth

Just Dance 4 Area

Being situated smack bang in the middle of the Dome, Ubisoft’s Just Dance 4 was by far the most crowded area.

With a large amount of traffic moving past all the time, Just Dance 4 always had a massive crowd hanging around waiting to see the next Cosplayer dressed as Ezio or Master Chief bust a move on the dance floor.

Most Varied Booth

Sony/Nintendo

Sony and Nintendo had a very diverse ranges of products to demonstrate to the public.

Sony had their major upcoming titles such as God of War: Ascension and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance playable, as well as various Playstation Move titles aimed at young gamers.

Sony also had their PS Vita with the new Assassin’s Creed: Liberation as well as others on display.

Nintendo had games for their 3DS system and upcoming new console, the Wii U.

Most Peaceful Area

Community Hub

The Community Hub section was a peaceful area where people could go and hang out, taking a break from wandering around checking out all the Expo.

Having a large number of Love Sacks to relax on, the Community Hub allowed gamers to talk to developers and staff on a more personal level.

Best Kept Secret of the show

EB Staff Canteen

Over the course of the 3 days, media were led to believe that the food stands on the outside of the Dome and inside were the only food resources available, however during the last day right before lunch we were told that we could enter the EB Staff canteen where food was cheaper and the surrounding area was quieter.

The best kept secret of the show for us? Most definitely. We must have spent a good hour in there discussing different aspects of the expo before realizing we had to actually go outside and do some work.

Biggest Disappoint of the show

Media Room

More along the lines of just a room with tables than a modern ‘Media Room’, the only thing that it was good for was interviews.

Away from the noise where you could actually ask your questions and not need to hold the microphone right at developers mouths to grab their answers, this room provided a quiet space.  But not much else.

I understand that the EB Expo is more a consumer show, but when you provide media with a room that has no WiFi,  especially in Western Sydney where certain carriers aren’t exactly reliable for typing and posting content, then I just feel as if the effort for media wasn’t really there.

Most Annoying Aspect of the show

The announcers over the PA system

I guarantee that if you listen to any audio interview done at the expo you will at some point hear a male or female announcer on the PA system interrupting everything with force.

Whilst many children did get lost throughout the show I feel they could have turned the volume down because this made conducting interviews a real pain.

On top of Just Dance 4 blaring, you sometimes seemed to need to cover your ears for a few seconds just in case your ear drums burst.

Most Media Friendly

Ubisoft

With the amount of games Ubisoft was featuring this year, it was great to see that they also had the friendliest staff on hand to talk and be sure to help consumers of all ages.

Every publisher (bar one or two) at the show had amazing staff on hand treating media and consumers with equal respect, however Ubisoft went that extra step, especially with the crowds they were pulling in.

I don’t believe I heard any complaints over having to wait 2 hours for Assassins Creed 3 which is a big plus.

Least Media Friendly 

Activision

For a second time in 2 years, Activision takes home the wooden spoon as the least media friendly booth.

Whilst many publishers and PR were more than happy to mingle media with gamers, Activision once again just refused us from entering their Black Ops 2 booth.

I don’t understand their logic.

OXCGN’s Overall Awards

Game of Show

Medal of Honor: Warfighter

While the big titles such as Halo 4, Black Ops 2 and Assassin’s Creed III were immensely popular, OXCGN’s Game of Show goes to Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

EA offered both singleplayer and multiplayer versions to play, each highlighting the game’s main features and strong points.

The singleplayer demonstrated the intensive narrative Danger Close is aiming for, while the multiplayer highlights the co-op ability introduced with Fireteams.

The Medal of Honor presentation demonstrated the visceral action players can expect from Warfighter. The demos allowed players to get a feel for the gameplay style, and I for one was pleased to see that Danger Close weren’t blindly following Call of Duty.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a fantastic authentic shooter sure to please the hardcore FPS fan.

Publisher of Show

Ubisoft

Ubisoft is our Publisher of Show due to the vast number of high quality titles they had on offer.

The booth was entertaining, always playing music and giving away free swag.

Not only that, all staff demoing Ubisoft’s games were more than happy to take time to talk with us.

While they were happy to talk about their games, they also took time to talk with us about the expo in general.  This meant they didn’t give us the impression they were solely trying to persuade people to buy Ubi games.

With a quality line-up of games, along with friendly and helpful staff, Ubisoft easily took out OXCGN’s Publisher of Show.

Visit our main page to see more EB Expo features, including our massive Cosplay gallery.

©2012 Arthur Kotsopoulos and Daniel Geikowski

Filed under: 3DS, 3rd Party Games, Console gaming, Demo impressions, EB Expo, EB Expo 2012, EB Expo 2012, Events, Game Impressions, Game Industry News, Handhelds, Industry News, New Game Information, New PS3 Games, New Xbox 360 Games, Opinion article, Oxcgn Special feature, PC Previews, PS3 Game Previews, PSVita, Support Australian Stores, Wii U, Wii U News, Wii U News, WiiU, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Game Previews, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | Assassin's creed, Call Of Duty, EB EXPO 12, eb expo 2012, EB Expo Awards, EB Games Expo 2012, EB Games Expo 2012 Awards, Electronic sports, Far Cry 3, Microsoft, Razer, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Ubisoft