Game City 2017

Game City 2017

Game City 2017

Game City 2017Yesterday we visited the Game City – the biggest gaming event here in Austria. It always takes place once a year in the city hall of Vienna, and the best thing is, the admission is free ^_^. You can play new games by almost all the big game developers here, like Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and much more just to name a few.

For us people here in Austria the Game City is one of the first possibility to try all the new games after they were shown at E3 and/or Gamescom and I’m really happy that we get that chance.

In the past, Tom and I attended each year, when possible, but the last time we could go was 2013. In 2014 Flynn was still way too young, in 2015 we tried to go on a Saturday morning together with Flynn, but when we saw the line coming out from the entrance of the city hall but no end to it, we decided to do something else. And last year we couldn’t go because Flynn was sick and when he finally felt better it hit me on Sunday >.<…

So this year we were pretty lucky because the date of the Game City fell in our October holiday week. Yay! Since we didn’t have to work yesterday, we decided to go right on Friday morning, because it’s the least visited time from our experience and Flynn could stay in the kindergarten.

The weather was fine and the sky was blue (as you can see), so the perfect weather to make your way to the city hall and play some games!

Game City 2017

We arrived shortly past 9 am and there were already some school classes and other people lined up, but it was nothing in comparison to the experience we had two years ago.

We had to queue for around 10 to 15 minutes from what I remember, but it felt so long because the music was so loud >.<. When we left at around 11:30 am there was no line anymore, so maybe it’s better to come right at 9:00 am or just a bit later when the first congestion is over.

When we were finally allowed to enter, we had to line up a second time for our 18+ years wristband, which just took about 3 minutes or so. You need a 16+ or 18+ wristband to enter the areas which are only suitable for older audiences. And then it was time to look around.

Sony PlayLink

When we entered the city hall the first developer we found was: Sony, yay! You could try out the PlayLink Games like ‘That’s You!’ (I played it once at our summer party this year with my friends. It was okay, but I couldn’t feel much replay value. I’d rather play any Jackbox game like ‘Fibbage’ or ‘Quiplash’ anytime with my friends, if I needed a party game) or the brand-new ‘Hidden Agenda’, which will come out by the end of this month, by Supermassive Games, who also made the great ‘Until Dawn’. I really wanted to play it, but on the other hand, I didn’t want to spoil myself, so I tried not to look at it ^,^°.

[ PlayStation / YouTube ]

If it’s just anything like ‘Until Dawn’ it’ll be a really cool game to play together with your friends with this voting feature. I can’t wait for it!

Sony PlayStation 4

Then we continued our way to the left, where we found many more PlayStation Games. Fortunately for us, they weren’t many people playing, yet, so we just had to wait for some minutes or even could try some of the games at once.The first one was ‘Project CARS 2’, which didn’t look as good as ‘Gran Turismo Sport’, which you could also try out at game City, but which we already played the demo version of) and unfortunately didn’t feel any better playing than GT Sport either. While all those racing games look so realistic and nice and have so many customization features, they just aren’t for me. I can’t really say why, but they just feel so awfully

The first one we saw was ‘Project CARS 2’, which didn’t look as good as ‘Gran Turismo Sport’ (which you could also try out at game City, but which we already played the demo version of) and unfortunately it didn’t feel any better playing than GT Sport either. While all those racing games look so realistic and nice and have so many customization features, they just aren’t for me. I can’t really say why, but they just feel so awfully slooooooooow. I’m much more like a Mario Kart or F-Zero type of person. I also really enjoyed the wide-open world of ‘The Crew’ and I’m really looking forward to the ‘The Crew 2’.

Game City 2017 - Ni no Kuni II

Then I took the chance to try out the tactical battle mode of ‘Ni no Kuni II’, which was funny but nothing really new. Regardless of what others say, I really enjoyed playing the first game. In my opinion, it was one of the best JRPGs on PlayStation 3, and if you’re interested in it, you can read my review here. Sometime later I found out that you could also try out the normal battle mode:

Game City 2017 - Ni no Kuni II

I’m really looking forward to it coming out next year (hopefully/ finally), and I’m definitely getting it when it’s out.

By the way, I’m still surprised how they named the main character Evan. While Flynn’s middle name is Oliver, just like the name of the main character from ‘Ni no Kuni’, I always thought Evan would be a nice name for my baby as well back then ^,^°.

Game City 2017 - Dragon Ball FighterZ

But back to business. Next up was the 2D fighting game ‘Dragon Ball FighterZ’, which Tom is so crazy about. We tried out the player vs player mode, I picked Android 18, Piccolo and Son Gohan, but I was destroyed by Tom ;_;. While it seems like a really fun game, most of the time I just didn’t know what was going on @_@. He made so many weird combos and special moves and I really didn’t know what to do.

Game City 2017 - Dragon Ball FighterZ

Tom will buy it nevertheless, so I’ll have more time to learn all the moves later without any hurry. But in the end, I’ll always prefer 3D fighting games like Tekken or Soul Calibur.

After that, we decided to check out the Sony 18+ area. We had to queue for it again, but after some time they asked if anyone wanted to play ‘Far Cry 5’ or ‘Detroit: Become Human’. But everyone just wanted to play ‘Monster Hunter: World’, which would have had a wait time of 15 more minutes and since we didn’t want to wait anymore we tried out ‘Far Cry 5’ next.

When I saw the first Trailer of ‘Far Cry 5’ I somehow really like the setting and the flair. But when I tried out the demo now, I’m not so sure anymore if I really want to play it. It just didn’t feel that good playing. You had to liberate a small village of some “bad guys” (I think) together with a partner (out of three) of your choice. You could find more weapons lying around, I almost died two times, was rescued by my partner, who also killed most of the enemies (I think), and then the demo was over. What Tom and I both agreed on was the fact that you always had the feeling you were missing while shooting. I never played a Far Cry game, but that just felt really strange somehow.

Detroit: Become Human

Next up was the ‘Detroit: Become Human’ demo. If you ever played ‘Heavy Rain’ you’ll notice how similar both games are. You play as Connor, an android working for the police and you have to save a little girl, who is held hostage by a defective android. You can check different places inside the apartment, to increase the chance of the girl to survive. As the good role-player that I am, I first tried to check out everything: I rescued a fish which fell out of an aquarium, I looked at a photo when suddenly an officer and the mother ran up to me. Then I realized that time also counts here and panicked o_O. In the end, I came up with a success rate of 99% (I think I got pretty good at negotiating by playing all Fallouts with high charisma and always trying to talk to everyone first) and finished the demo with mixed feelings. The game itself seems to be pretty cool, but having to make so many important decisions might give me a really hard time ^.^°.

[ PlayStation | YouTube ]

After that, we took a short look at ‘Monster Hunter: World’ and it looked great. I’m really happy that there’s finally a new non-portable-version of Monster Hunter coming soon. I played Monster Hunter Tri on Wii and 3DS for a really short time back then, but it wasn’t really what I was expecting. Especially the 3DS version was even worse from what I can remember. Everything was just way too small.

Game City 2017 - Monster Hunter: World

There was also some new Call of Duty game to play (sorry, not really my type of game), for which a lot of people lined up.

Nintendo Switch & 3DS

After we finished most of the Sony games we headed up the stairs to Nintendos big red booth.

Game City 2017 - Nintendo

They had most of their Switch games available to play: ‘ARMS’, ‘Pokken/Pokemon Tekken DX’ and ‘Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle’. And you could, of course, try out the brand-new ‘Super Mario Odyssey’. Understandably many people wanted to play the last, so we just skipped it and watched someone else playing ‘Fire Emblem Warriors’ on Switch, which sometimes looked okay and the other moment really outdated ;_;. But it’s a Warriors so you might be able to overlook the graphics (not that graphics are everything. At the moment I’m still playing Fallout: New Vegas on PS3. That hurts my eyes more than enough, but it’s fun nevertheless).

Game City 2017 - Super Mario Odyssey

Hands down the best thing were the Mario + Rabbids Rabbid-ear caps some of the Nintendo promoters were wearing XD! I really want to have one, too! And one of the nice blue PlayStation T-shirts, the Sony promoters were wearing XD!

Game City 2017 - Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

You could also try several 3DS games, but none was interesting enough for us, so we just continued our way to the next place.

Game City 2017 - Nintendo

Microsoft XBOX One

I’m sorry, I might be biased on this part, but I’m just no XBOX fan. We had a 360 back in the days for all the good games like ‘Lost Odyssey’, ‘Tales of Vesperia’ or ‘Viva Pinata’ XD, but the One just never appealed to me. There was no game I would buy an XBOX One for, and all the games that might be interesting are also released for PC.

Game City 2017 - XBOX

Their booth was pretty nice, but the selection of games wasn’t that good: You could try out ‘Forza 7’ on PC or XBOX, ‘Cuphead’, which I love the style of but which I’d never play, because I might be depressed and sit crying in the corner after 5 minutes of playing, because everyone says it’s too hard ;_;.

Game City 2017 - Forza 7 Game City 2017 - Super Lucky's Tale

Then there was the cute jump and run game ‘Super Lucky’s Tale’ and some Disney games. You could also take a look at the new ‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’. Finally, you could also find many old games like ‘Tomb Raider’, ‘Quantum Break’ or ‘Gears of War’. I’m not really sure, why they displayed those old games, but “maybe” there wasn’t more to show or maybe they were XBOX One X enhanced…

Game City 2017 - Assassin's Creed Origins

And there’s even more!

Other than that there were many other exhibitors on site. I especially like the “Egyptian” design of the ‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’ booth next to the interior of the city hall:

Game City 2017 - Assassin's Creed Origins

There were also booths for Blizzard’s card game ‘Hearthstone’, PC producers, indie developers, a kids corner, a retro area and much, much more. Outside there was also a PlayStation VR truck, for which we didn’t have any time anymore. Since we only had about 2 hours to spend we focused on the things that were most interesting for us.

Game City 2017 - Shops

One thing that was new this year was the shops in the outdoor area. You could buy consoles, games, merchandise and more. They even had Super Nintendo Classic Minis at the Media Markt tent (but we already got two, so we didn’t need any)!

Game City 2017 - Shops

And finally there was a great variety of food to choose from: Several food trucks or stands were just waiting for you in front of the city hall with burgers, pizza, noodles, Pyramid cakes (Tom had to buy one, and it was awesome!) and more.

I really want to go again next year, and if possible, on Friday again ^.~.

If you want to visit the Game City you can still do so tomorrow from 10 am to 7 pm. For more information just take a look at the official website: http://www.game-city.at/

Have you been to the Game City? Which of the games do you want to play the most?