The second MCM Exhibition of 2009 Report

The second of the bi-annual MCM expo took place last week, and Andy and Colin braved another dive into the sea of anime’ and manga to dig out the latest gaming nuggets. Here are the highlights...

Surrounded by hundreds of costumed manga fans, my counterpart and I checked in, grabbed our shiny press passes and hit the expo floor.

First on the agenda was Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, which was being shown in action by a Ubi rep.

The action on screen seemed faster than previous titles, with an increased feel of playing ex-Third Echelon agent Sam Fisher as more the aggressor than sneaky spy. The rep quickly grabbed one enemy, before using the ‘mark and execute’ trait to shoot two others in the head, breaking his captive’s neck and shimmying up a nearby pole.

It remains to be seen whether any of the earlier title’s stealth-based sneaking has remained intact in Ubi’s interesting reboot of the series, but I’ll certainly be happy to see Sam’s return in early 2010.

Right across from the Splinter Cell zone another rep was showing off a build of Avatar: The Game.

Donning a pair of 3D glasses I studied what appeared to be a decent recreating of the upcoming movie’s lush worlds and brutal firefights, with the rep starting out in a helicopter-hunter-killer-flying-thing before hitting the ground and burning the hell out of a massive, slavering beastie.

The 3D effects were excellent, but I was assured by Ubi rep Phil Brannelly that the effects could be turned off for those of us without a 4,000 inch TV screen. Appearing to be a decent cross of Cameron’s world with a Gears of War-style shooter, it remains to be seen whether Avatar will break the trend of rubbish film tie-in games.

Across a busy street of massive sword-wielding manga fans I spied the raven locks of Bayonetta, Sega’s latest slice-em-up, which features a witch who carries a sword, user her hair and clothing as a weapon, can conjure up a giant boot to kick anything into the distance and has a gun strapped to each limb.

Playing very similarly to Devil May Cary, I was quite drawn with Bayonetta’s outlandish attacks and artistic style, but I fear the game is too similar to Devil May Cry to really stand out on its own. But, from what I played, it hasn’t ruined the simple ‘slice things, shoot things, repeat’ method of the DMC games, and so will no doubt be a riot of action in early 2010.

Hidden away in a nearby metal container was a build of Valve’s necrotic flesh-em-up Left 4 Dead 2, which will offer more missions, more guns, and more of the brilliant co-op action the series does so well.

Though I didn’t get to play it (there was a large queue of spiky-haired ninja in the way) it looked like as much fun as the last game, and a representative promised me it will lay fan’s fears to rest after the ‘boycott Left 4 Dead 2’ campaign took root in a disappointed fanbase.

Leaving the zombiefied remains of new Orleans, we swung by Lego Rock Band’s stall, where a team of confused-looking people dressed as anime animals were trying to pull off the Kaiser Chief’s Ruby while little Lego versions of the Chiefs danced on the screen – this is just more of the same old Rock Band I fear, just with Lego - it will be interesting to watch the sales figures for yet another Rock Band title, and whether or no the public have cottoned on to the money making scheme yet.

2K was up next, who were showing the E3 video of Bioshock 2 - in all its art deco loveliness - on one wall, and had about 30 gamers blowing enemy after enemy away on Borderlands on the other four.

Though reviews for Borderlands have been overwhelmingly positive, I took the time to ask PR director Alex Bickham why the 2K team decided to do away with the realistic feel of the game and instead replace it with a cel-shaded, cartoon style for the wasteland shoot-and-loot experience.

“It was an insurrection.” He told me, furiously handing out posters to the game’s many fans, “the team took the build and went off and added the cel-shading behind the developer’s back, then they came back, showed it to the team and the bosses and they were like ‘wow’, so we decided to go with that.”

Not one for cel-shading myself, Colin thinks it’s sure to be a fun title to play, and was wondering if the wasteland scavenger approach (which brought back memories of the excellent Fallout 3) might have had something to do with Borderland’s makeover? Either way, the game looked like a fast-paced shoot-em-up with a decent co-op experience tagged on, and we’re sure to have a review of that for you soonest.

Wandering amongst the katanas and bunny ears, we came across the final gem MCM had to offer us - Star Trek Online, the MMORPG sensation which has got every Trekkie jumping up and down at the chance of becoming a starship captain - including Colin.

While I settled in to play a decent build of the space combat section, happily blowing away Klingon ships with my starship’s weaponry in a very pretty space theatre, Colin asked an assistant (whose name he forgot to write down…) a few Trekkie questions:

Who can you play as?
"You can play as a federation officer, a Klingon, Vulcan or a Romulan."

What about the Borg?
"You can't play as the Borg yet, but we are considering that for DLC.  The Borg are definitely going to feature in the game - in a mission you will have to defeat them in a space battle.  They are going to be huge and it will take about 20 players to defeat them".

What is the plot?
"It’s set 30 years after the movie Star Trek: Nemesis, and there is a big political struggle around the Neutral Zone.  It's an endless universe and there will be various missions for you to check out.  It will be presented in episodic form to give the player that typical weekly TV impression"

Does the JJ Abrams vision of Star Trek feature in that at all?
"There's a funny story about that.  The development team went to see the film last summer, by which point the game had been in production for 3 or 4 years.  As we watching it we all gasped in horror when Vulcan was destroyed - but by the end of it we all like 'oh ok, this is a new timeline, so it shouldn't affect anything. But yeah, since the game is a MMO there is plenty of scope for sending players to different timelines - a recurring theme in the Star Trek series".

Personally I found the space combat bit to be a little tricky to master, with a difficult and unruly camera that was, I was told, able to be clamped to the rear of the starship – I just couldn’t find the option to do it. Other than that it was great fun, shooting phasers and firing torpedoes into wave after wave of Klingon ships. The ground section, which was a ‘rough build’ (in the assistant’s words), was a bit jagged around the edges, but judging by the commitment the team have put into the game I’m expecting Star trek Online to be something special - so watch this space.

And so, our business done, Col and I made for the Jubilee line, dodging dozens of manga fans, people clutching signs offering ‘free hugs’ (what’s all that about? Answers on a postcard please), and made our escape.

Expect a report from next week’s Eurogamer event soon!