Home Gaming Gavin’s take on rAge this year

Gavin’s take on rAge this year

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Roxy-2012-by-Warren-Louw-391x1024Over the last few years I’ve had the good fortune to attend many gaming events and so I thought I’d put together a mini editorial on my take at rAge this year compared to previous local and international events.

First things first, I was at Gamescom this year and as such had already played every single title on the show floor at rAge so my editorial is not about what games were on show but rather the show itself. In so far as the range of games this year I would say this was easily rAge’s best showing and for that they need to be commended.

However I can’t help but feel that it was a little too disjointed this year, I wandered around feeling a little lost at all times, it was like there was a maximum height set on all the stands as unlike in previous years nothing stood out above the rest that I could use as a marker for where I was.

The LAN is obviously a massive part of the rAge experience for those attendees but for everyone else it just comes across as slightly creepy really. Trying to explain to my kids why these people had their beds and clothes all over the floor was a weird experience. And the chain link fence made it feel like we were looking into a zoo at caged animals rather than a showcase of some of the top gamers in the country.

I hope for next year they manage to make the LAN appear more professional and a stage area for the current league games going on would have been awesome.

Speaking of the stage, this years stage just felt like a let down from previous years. It was cut off from the event by the grandstands and I didn’t even realise it was a stage until I wandered around the wall and saw an empty stage as someone appeared to have skipped out on their timeslot.

And last but not least, the stands. Off the top of my head I’d say the stand of the show must go to Nintendo with their Wii-U section, but only half of it. The 3DS section was bland and the section with Rayman and.. can’t remember what, was forgettable. However the Wii Fit, Nintendoland and dancing section were a great success.

Megarom as always had a large presence at the festival but I couldn’t help but find their stand difficult to navigate, the Let’s Dance and Hitman sections were fantastic but the Skylanders, Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed sections all felt a little cramped and poor XCom looked abandoned in the corner.

Playstation’s section was terribly disjointed and you felt like you were in an eternal crush there, I did however think the Wonderbook setup was pretty good.

EA’s section was the weirdest of all though with all their games being shoved in little alcoves that made it really difficult to watch people playing and, through no fault of their own, getting to FIFA 13 was impossible.

Microsoft did a decent job with their Halo setup but it lacked enough branding to see it from a distance but the Forza setup with the Ferrari was a big hit at least.

All in all I think rAge was good but not great this year but I am also well aware that my non-excitement for the games played a big part in the let down. What was fantastic to see though is that the gates had to be closed at one point as the venue had reached capacity, there is no better compliment than that.

Last Updated: October 8, 2012

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