Every year people from all over Latin America gather together to share their passion for videogames. This year’s EGS (Electronic Game Show) took place in October at the Expo Bancomer, which is located in one of the most important localities of Mexico City.
The event started with the inauguration. Agents from different companies and organizers of the show were present to cut the symbolic opening ribbon. Everybody was anxious to enter and play all the games that were going to be presented.
To access the show you had to take some electric stairs down to the lower level. The view of the show while going down was really cool. You were able to see how big the place was and all the super stuff you were going to try out.
The first booth (and probably the largest) that you were able to see was the one from Microsoft. There, you were able to play games like Splinter Cell Conviction, The Saboteur, Halo 3:ODST, Dragon Age Origins and Borderlands. There were also some Forza Motorsport 3 stations, each one with three screens and a wheel accessory; this is the best way to experience the game.
At the SEGA booth, there were all kind of games, from Monkey Ball, Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games, Planet 51 as well as Sonic and Sega: All Stars Racing and Alien vs Predator. Probably the most popular game of this booth was Bayonetta, the newest creation of Hideki Kamiya that will be released next year in North America.
The Activision booth was one of the most crowded of the show. Everybody expected that finally the company would let us play the demo of the so much expected Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It was really disappointing when we found out that they only had a new video of the game to show us. Fortunately, they had some other cool games to try out like DJ Hero, Band Hero, Tony Hawk: Ride and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.
The EA booth was probably the one with the biggest roster of games: The Beatles: Rock Band, My Sims Agents, Dante’s Inferno, Brutal Legend, Fifa 10, Madden 10, NHL 10, NBA Live 10, Dead Space Extraction, Need for Speed Shift, Left 4 Dead 2, Army of Two the 40th Day and Bad Company 2, were all there. Ironically, the booth had a blackout during the show but fortunately the organizers of the event were able to fix the problem quickly.
For all the PC gamers, Blizzard was also present at the event. At their booth, you were able to play some of the most expected games like Starcraft II and the new expansion of World of Warcraft called Cataclysm.
Konami had some great advertising for PES 2010. But it does not live from soccer alone. You were also able to play the demos of the next Silent Hill game called Shattered Memories, Saw: The Video Game, Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 3 and Dance Dance Revolution X2. It seems the dancing games aren’t dead at all.
As we all know, Disney is always present in every single event and the EGS was not the exception. Almost all the titles at their booth were casual ones but despite that, you were able to see how the kids (most of them with their parents) were fascinated by seeing their favorite cartoon characters in a video game. The titles present at the Disney Interactive Studios booth were: Toy Story Mania, Club Penguin, Tinkerbell the Lost Treasure, Spectroboles Origins, Hannah Montana the Movie, Mobile Games, Princess and the Frog, G-Force, Jonas Brothers and A Christmas Carol.
THQ did stand out with its demo of Darksiders. This game is played like any of the Devil May Cry series and will be released in the first month of next year. Some other games that you could try out at their booth were WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010, UFC 2009 Undisputed, Marvel Super Hero Squad, SpongeBob’s Truth or Square and Cars Race-O-Rama.
It seems that Warner Bros is focusing all its attention on Lego Rock Band since it was almost the only game they had to play besides some others like Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest and Scooby-Doo! First Frights. Luckily, it seemed that all the people who were playing Lego Rock Band were really enjoying it.
The classic tournaments were another cool part of the show. You could participate in the Halo 3: ODST, in the Street Fighter IV, in the FIFA 10 and the PES 10 too. Prizes varied from cash to original copies of the games.
The EGS is a cool experience for all those gamers that cannot go to major events like the E3 or the TGS. Day by day, the videogames industry in Latin America is growing and this kind of events is a good way to show these companies all the fans they have of their games in the bottom part of the continent.
