As someone who’s about to attend his fourth EGX (my previous visits include during the event’s original incarnation in 2008 at the Old Truman Brewery, then again after the move to Earl’s Court in 2012 and 2014) I’m hoping that this little guide might give you some advice and allay some fears you might have based on my own personal experiences. Some of it may be obviously, maybe some not so much. Of course, if there’s anything I’ve missed or haven’t answered, feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll do my best top answer for you. So without any further ado, here are my tips for surviving EGX.

1) Make a plan…

Whether you’re attending for just the one day, or all four days, I cannot overstate this point enough: plan your time at EGX! The event is super popular, and has only grown more so over the years. While that’s been great for the show as a whole, it does of course mean it’s become increasingly more important you take full advantage of all the opportunities given to you to make your visit go as smooth as possible. Download the app, make yourself a copy of the Developer Sessions schedule, get hold of the map, make sure you check the website and Twitter for updates as often as you can.

Depending on what you intend to see – and how much time in which you have to see it – you might not get to see everything on offer at EGX – you almost certainly won’t get to play literally everything in one day, so prioritise your time. If there’s a game, stand or YouTube celebrity you absolutely cannot leave without seeing, make sure you put them near the top of your list. And if that thing is likely to be popular, make sure you allow time for queues – more on that later – and get there as early as possible. You don’t necessarily have to stick to your plan like an Army Major, but try to have a general idea of how much you want to see certain things, and decide which things you won’t be too disappointed about missing out on or sacrificing should you end up taking longer at a booth or stand than you intended for the time you have left.

And if you’re there all four days, you can of course leave the less urgent things to later days in your visit – though bear in mind in general the Saturday and Sunday being the weekend proper naturally makes those two days more busy – especially considering families etc – than the Thursday and Friday, so be ready to take that into account, especially if you’re intending to see some of the more family-orientated games on the floor.

2) …but be Flexible

A harsh reality of the popularity of EGX over the years has meant queue times have increased dramatically over the last few years, It’s an unfortunate side effect, but one that can’t be helped (although every year the event does it’s darnedest to alleviate this issue as much as possible. So make sure when making your itinerary, that you are aware you may have to queue for a while, especially on the more popular AAA titles. It may help to bring something to do while you’re waiting such as a DS or Vita, or make sure you’ve got some extra power for your smartphone. From experience, shooters and fighters are incredibly popular at EGX, so if you intend to get your hands on the latest Call of Duty, clash lightsabers on Star Wars Battlefront or challenge your friend to a bout of fisticuffs on Street Fighter V, my advice would be to get yourself to those stands early.

If you’re intending to attend any one of the Developer Sessions – and I advise you do, because they’re often wonderful and often give you the opportunity to glimpse things you won’t see on the show floor – this advice is doubly important. Usually, the halls in which the sessions take place have a finite number of seats, so make sure that whatever time the talk is due to begin, you get there around fifteen minutes before the scheduled time to give yourself chance to queue up and get good seats. This goes doubly so for the most popular sessions – I personally suspect this year that honour will go to the Valve VR talk on Thursday and the talk with Sony CEO Shuhei Yoshida on the Saturday – so maybe think about joining the queue for those even earlier.

Of course, don’t be too disheartened if you miss the admission time for any of the developer sessions. In recent years, EGX have taken to broadcasting the talks live in a separate area of the show (usually the chillout zone), so keep an eye out for that. It’s not quite the same as being in the room, but it’s a great alternative. Of course, if worst comes to worst, most if not all the talks will be broadcast and archived on EGX’s official channels, for you to watch at your leisure after the show.

Again, it’s one of those harsh reality things, but EGX events over the years have had visitor numbers in the many tens of thousands. And if you’ve ever had problems trying to connect to the wi-fi when the family are all using it at once at home, imagine what it’s like for an event with that many people. So yes, while Wi-Fi might be free and provided at the venue, do not expect it to be the most reliable all the time.

3) Maps: Love Them Like They Love You

If you’re going as part of a party, make sure you’re all familiar with the layout. Maps are available on the app, or will be available in the show program. Make yourself familiar with the safety stuff, of course, but get yourself a meeting point – that way if you all split up to cover more ground and see what different members of your party want to see, you can find each other again. You might get a phone signal in the building, but bear in mind it can get quite loud and it might be quite hard to hear your phone in a pinch on the day, so don’t forget to use the old fashioned methods. And if you’re ever completely lost – look out for the folks wearing EGX Staff shirts (they’re usually blue) – they’re literally there to help you out, so if you’re ever unsure where to go or need any kind of support whatsoever, don’t hesitate to seek one out and let them know.

It’s also useful to note where the food and drink is – believe me, the arena can get pretty warm with all the bodies everywhere, especially if you’re in costume. Knowing where you can get a drink or something to eat when you need it is so useful, and you’ll thank yourself for it later. Bear in mind that though food and drink might be permitted in general on the show floor, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to have it on the machines while playing or too close to the displays – after all, no-one wants to hold a sticky controller.

And on that hygienic note remember you’re going to be in a hall with a lot of people, with very heavy lights under the glow of many, many screens and goodness knows what else. It’s a fact – it’s going to get sweaty. So – and it seems obvious – but just practice good hygiene. Try and make sure you get a shower at your hotel every day (especially if you’re attending over multiple days) and maybe consider taking some anti-perspirant with you to freshen up in the toilets if you’re particularly prone to whiffy-ness (Hey, it’s fine and natural!). There’s not much worse than having to queue behind someone stinking of BO for two hours (and it can happen) – so don’t be that guy/girl and be considerate to your fellow attendees. And it’s probably obvious, but good hygiene practice will also help stave off the dreaded “convention flu”.

4) The Fun Doesn’t Stop When the Show Does

One of the best things about EGX is how it brings together all sorts of diverse communities from around the world for a four day extravaganza. So even though the doors to the show might close at 6pm, keep an eye out for parties, gatherings or other events both during and after the show. Whether it’s cosplay, Streetpassers, E-Sports fanatics or just fans of your favourite game/genre you’re sure to meet them. And if you’re already a member of a community, look on Facebook, websites or forums, shout out on Twitter and see if they’re doing anything at the event – or of course feel free to organise one yourself.

Even if you think you’re going alone you’re sure to find like minded people and potentially new friends at one of the many community events. A good place to start is the EGX Facebook page, and of course if you’re over 18 don’t forget to get tickets to the community party on the Friday and Saturday evenings, they’re always great for meeting new people and this year even promises some none-dance related fun with Rocket League tournaments and interactive gaming live show WiFi Wars – make sure you bring a fully charged smartphone for the latter. (Seriously, you’ve not played Pong unless you’ve done it with 20+ people controlling one paddle and another 20+ people controlling the other.)

5) Most Important: Have fun!

The main takeaway I get from EGX every year is how fun it is. Even with differences from year to year in the times I’ve attended, I’ve always left with fond memories and I enjoy attending – whether as a guest, as press or attending. Quite obviously there’s loads to see, do and experience and for me a great opportunity to catch up with people and friends as well as see so many different people enjoy the show in a multitude of different ways, whether it’s families playing Minecraft, young kids getting the chance to meet their favourite YouTube stars or the folk just excited about finding their next gaming fix of the next twelve months.

So, enjoy yourself and have fun. And don’t be afraid to take a chance and give something a go that you weren’t originally intending to try out – you might find your new favourite game in the Rezzed area or Leftfield Collection. You might get some advice on getting into the industry from the GamesIndustry.biz Careers Fair, or see some amazing creativity from the folks in the Cosplay competitions. Or of course, you could just challenge your friends to some classic Mario Kart 64 action in the Retro Arcade.

It’s obvious and cliched advice, sure – but it holds true. And again, if you ever have questions or need some help while you’re there, be sure to track down an EGX Staff Member/Volunteer who’ll be more than happy to help you out. See you at the show.

Quistis isn’t just your typical dragon. Back in 2010 he was contacted by a small team of games developers, looking to include him in their debut release. A game that was to cross the bridge between popular off-road rally simulations, and dragons. “I wasn’t too familiar with the gaming scene at the time,” Quistis recalls “but there was this bearded fellow who many of my dragon-friends had been speaking of. They noticed him around while on their daily kingdom flights, always just out of view but staring with awe and intent. One had even claimed they saw him paint himself gold in the hope that a dragon would pick him up and take him to the treasure pile in his cave.” That man turned out to be Hank Omodo – a self proclaimed dragon expert. Given the insular nature and rarity of the species, it wasn’t long before Quistis had a personal encounter with Omodo.

Hank Omodo – Dragon Expert on Dragon Rally

“I was asleep on my treasure pile, when I felt the brush of whiskers against my tail. I spun around, and there he was. But rather than cowering in fear, his eyes were wide with glee. My normal reaction at this point would be to charbroil his flesh from his bones, but as I reared my head, he interrupted me with a proposal. He asked if I would be interested in working on a project with him and a man named Gwynevere Scales.” The proposal came as somewhat of a surprise to Quistis, but he had heard good things about the games industry from fellow dragons; “My brother had actually worked with a company called EA on a title they called “Dragon Age” about a year or so previously. He had a good working relationship with them, and he told me they’d managed to capture his majesty well, even going so far as to be on the cover.”

Gwynevere Scales, lead developer on Dragon Rally, pictured in 2011

The project that Omodo was proposing turned out to be Dragon Rally. A multi-format game that promised to marry the concepts of high-octane thrills from the popular genre of rally simulation, crossed with dragons. Although he wasn’t too familiar with the “horseless metal carriages” known as cars, Quistis was intrigued by the brazenness of the man, and joined the Dragon Rally project in late 2010. “By this point, the game was aiming to be announced in early 2011. One of the first things the DR team wanted me to take part in something called “Motion Capture” in which they put hundreds of ping-pong balls over my body to get the most accurate depiction of a dragon in a game ever.” Famously, the amount of ping pong balls required subsequently caused panic later in 2011 when the London Olympic commission feared they wouldn’t have enough ping pong balls left over for the Olympics the next year. It gave Quistis his first taste of controversy within the industry. “Scales was excellent at damage control, he never once threw me under the proverbial bus (not that a bus would have done much damage) and fought to keep me on the project at every step of the way.”

The Dragon Rally cover art, unveiled in early 2011

As development on the game itself continued, Quistis had his eyes opened to the game development process from a unique perspective. “I was amazed at what these computer things could do. They told me they used fifteen polygons for every one of the many thousands of scales on my body. I was so impressed at the level of care and attention just spent on my character model, and they got all my points of articulation, including the way I open my jaw to spew bursts of red-hot flame to my enemies.” What surprised him the most, however, was how well the two elements seemed to gel together. “Even from my perspective of limited familiarity, I was quite excited at how the game was going to turn out. You would be driving your horseless can over a large hill, and then I’d see myself swooping majestically through the air towards it, ready to cook all who were unfortunate to be caught in the path of my searing flame. Only the best players would be able to avoid their fate, and there was always a thrill seeing myself take the charred metal shells off-screen, presumably to be added to the other spoils kept in my cave.”

Come May 2011, the public reveal went into full swing with trailers, previews, interviews and posters blasted out to the games media at large. The public lapped up information about Dragon Rally, even with the lack of screens and the focus on mainly concept art. “It was certainly the busiest time for me – though I wasn’t comfortable with doing face-to-face interviews, I was regularly asked if I could help with the PR side of things and answer interviews via email – Omodo had to type for me, because quite clearly my claws are not suited to a keyboard.” A smile comes across Quistis’ lips “And I won’t lie, there were a few fair maidens who wanted me to take them to their tower, if you know what I mean.” Endorsement from Jason Bradbury at the Video Game BAFTAs that year was the cherry on a very happy few months for the dragon, feeling something he hadn’t felt in quite some time – mainstream acceptance.

Sadly, despite promises of a 2018 release date, things went south for the Dragon Rally developer. “Well, my contract was only really for a year – with the option to extend should the need arise.” Quistis heard less and less from Scales, and had heard nothing of the game itself in any of the media for several months. Reports came out about concept artists suffering from burnout and PR stunts that were blocked by authorities for going too far. There was also the talk of the mistreatment of interns, but Quistis wouldn’t be drawn on that. He would however, tell of us of how his relationship with Omodo took an odd turn: “At one point he asked if I’d be interested in describing dragon mating practices with him, perhaps even doing some mo-cap work. But I wasn’t comfortable with it. I felt it would cheapen the integrity of the game somewhat. He seemed disappointed, but understanding.”

An image allegedly by a concept artist working on the game several months into development.

The Dragon Rally Studio itself went dark in 2012. “The next time I heard from anyone on the project was Omodo in late 2011, he was now doing something for company called Bethesda and asked if I could record some lines remotely for some RPG game he was working on. I have no idea what happened to Dragon Rally.” There have been rumours that Scales is still continuing work on the game behind closed doors, while talk of a Kickstarter to continue development has been frequent but without any results. Quistis doesn’t hold any ill-feelings at all though. “I was definitely paid well for my work.” he tells us. “There aren’t many of us dragons left, and we’re still facing a lot of the same issues we’ve been facing all our existence. I think I’d prefer to just quietly destroy knights in my cave, but I wish the team the best of luck.”

We contacted both Scales and Omodo for comment, but sadly neither of them responded to our emails (except from an auto-reply from Omodo which said he was away “testing out his new wings”) – but Quistis has some advice for the most popular canine in gaming right now: “Don’t let the fame go to your head. It’s all well and good essentially drowning in bones and bitches, but eventually all that stuff goes away. I’ve got an egg now, and I just want to raise him in the right way with a good head on his shoulders.” Leaving Quistis to his treasure and his young family, it’s clear that he’s enjoyed his time as part of the games industry, but he recognises it’s time for someone else to have the limelight. If Dragon Rally ever does appear, Quistis will certainly be amongst those playing it with his egg when it hatches, but if his progeny don’t get into the games industry, that’s fine too.

(Quistis declined having his picture taken for this article. At least we assume that’s what we took the melted camera he sent back to mean.)

Recently though, I was made aware of the awesome Open Source Broadcaster software. The best part of it is the fact that I can stream directly to Twitch and then subsequently export to YouTube while taking up as little hard drive space as possible (because it all goes directly to Twitch’s server and then from there to YouTube.) As a result of this I’ve been doing semi-regular playthoughs of certain games – the aforementioned hardware issues (not to mention issues relating to my terrible internet speeds) mean I can’t really stream many graphically heavy “AAA” titles myself, but I’ve done a couple of older and less graphically intense games to some success.

Of course I’m going to post them on here, you didn’t think I was above that did you?

Sorry Cate!

So here’s my first completed series so to speak on one of my favourite shooters from 2002, No One Lives Forever 2 which was inspired by the frankly shocking news story that no-one seems to know who owns the rights to the series anymore:

Followed up by my desperately flailing into the guts of Surgeon Simulator 2013’s Steam release:

If you want to keep up with future broadcasts (and of course I’ll more than likely post roundups here from time to time, not to mention alerting you via the medium of my Twitter) then here’s the standard plea to go visit my Twitch channel or my YouTube page to marvel at my ineptitude like a polar bear trying to unwrap a Penguin. Underwater. While being tickled by a Kraken.

Also – I’ve done another review for the lovely folks over at Official Xbox Magazine which should be appearing in next month’s mag, along with my visage so you know where to direct your hate even if you’re away from the internet! It’s for the lovely game Terraria, and if you’re don’t fancy going to buy a copy of this excellent publication just for my review you can find it on their website as well.

Well, that idea evolved and morphed with the help of backers like myself and has become Thank You For Playing. And bringing us to the point of this post I am ecstatic to help the guys and the many many people who also helped contribute to the project announce that the first episode is available for your viewing pleasure right NOW. You can find it embedded below or you can head to the Thank You For Playing website to take a look at it.

Based on the theme of Togetherness, rather than as straightforward linear video show, TYFP is a mash of video, website and even game so to speak. Each episode is called a “World” and on that world are several sections with their own video and theme. Watching the videos unlocks supplemental material which can also be viewed and enjoyed at a rate that’s completely down to you. You can save your progress, so you don’t even have to finish it in one sitting. Thank You For Playing works best in full screen and on Google Chrome browsers, although other browsers are supported and being worked on, and the team welcome your feedback both technical and otherwise in the hope to make subsequent episodes.

On a personal note I am incredibly happy to see the fruits of their labours and I am so very impressed with the final product. I am fully in support of the guys being able to continue to a full series, and following these guys on their journey including having met the guys in person at Eurogamer Expo has been a privilege. Now, there’s only one thing missing…

Where are you, Mantler?

As I awaited my next move however, there was a shout from one of the pirates. I froze and assumed they’d seen the body of their fallen comrade. Then they started running towards me. Holding my breath, I watched as they came straight for me…and ran right past. It turned out there were three carnivorous boars behind me that were about to creep up on me, but the bandits spotted them first. As they fled, chased by seven of the remaining pirates, I took the opportunity to sprint from my concealment to the alarm box on the other side of the stronghold, deactivating the alarm and fulfilling one my objectives to clear the base. At this point I noticed that one of the pirates had not joined his comrades on the boar hunt, and was instead standing on the upper balcony of the main hut, egging them on and – most importantly – facing away from me. Taking the initiative, I plunged my blade into his chest while muffling his screams with my hand. Seven pirates.

Unfortunately, as the animation played out I noticed the other pirates were returning from their boar hunting mission, presumably successful aside from the fact they’d lost a couple of their members in the struggle. Five pirates. As a result, I didn’t have time to hide the freshly-slain body, dropping it to my feet as I legged it to cower in some handy undergrowth directly beneath a gun turret. At this point my plan was to wait until they’d returned to their patrols, and then kill them off one by one as planned. It took a while, mainly due to the slight panic raised from finding the aforementioned corpse, but eventually one of them decided to man the turret directly above me. I was ready to proceed from the darkness when I heard an exclamation that, after the excitement of the boars, I did not expect: “TIGER!”

On THIS side of the stronghold it transpired that a tiger had taken fancy to me, and I had again unwittingly lured the local wildlife towards the pirates. Humorously, due to their pro-active nature, they ran towards the stripy bastard and reached the predator faster than it got to me, which in turn resulted in the expected outcome: Four pirates. Three pirates. Two pirates. At this point I began to worry. You see, the last pirate was a bit of a straggler, and it would mean I was soon to be a closer target for the tiger than he was. I was now caught between a rock and a hard place. Only the rock was stripy and had teeth, while the hard place had guns and would have resulted in a massive drop in XP reward if I let him see me running out of the undergrowth. While he was busy mauling the last of the closest pirates to him – (One pirate.) – I held my breath in real life, while in-game started slowly edging towards the very edge of the undergrowth.

And that’s when things got hilarious.

See, though the pirate was lagging behind, he wasn’t dumb. He saw his mates get devoured. He knew his piddly gun probably wasn’t going to cut it, and so he decided to throw a Molotov cocktail at the beast as he charged towards it. It was a complete success – possibly helped by the few shots his buddies had managed to hit before their deaths – and the tiger fell as the bottle shattered on his body. However, in his fury, the pirate had momentum. Too much momentum in fact, to stop himself running into the same undergrowth as myself and the tiger. Which was now, thanks to the Molotov, on fire. As I was in there too, I had to make a hasty run for the relative safety of the center, and as I did – putting myself out as I went – the final pirate succumbed to the very flames he himself had caused in a darkly ironic twist. Zero pirates.

The game wrenched control away from me for a second to inform me I had successfully taken the stronghold, with the full undetected bonus and only one kill by my own hands as the flames finally died down.

I’m beginning to like Far Cry 3 a lot.

Sadly, I rather stupidly didn’t realise that I had disabled the “stabiliser” function of my camera until this morning, after I had returned home and was uploading this pictures to my computer, as a result I can only apologise for the poor picture quality.

I’m very pleased with how this turned out in the end – one of the things that you don’t often take into consideration when going into games writing is that it’s not always about you saying things with acres of prose or long flowing sentences. In fact, it’s quite the opposite and being able to say something succinctly and within a very strict wordcount is a huge benefit, and given the layout of this article on the page (which isn’t something that comes across as well online) I had a tight budget of words. With a game like Minecraft – which is itself a massive sandbox of possibility and creativity – being able to explain some of the things you can do in such a short space was a challenge I very much enjoyed and I’m very pleased at how it turned out in the end – with no end of thanks to the great editors over at OXM for helping to shave off the rough edges into the final piece that appeared.

Anyway, enough rambling from me – here’s the link to the piece and thanks again to all the Official Xbox Magazine team.