PC Gamer Weekender 2017

So last weekend I was lucky enough to go to the PC Gamer Weekender.  I thought I'd write a little about it and the games I played while I was there.  You can find out more about it on their website here.

This won't be a complete write up, I wasn't planning to write about it while I was there and we played quite a lot of games so I'm not going to talk about all of them, but I thought I'd mention some bits I enjoyed.

The event was at the London Olympia and took up the whole of the 2nd floor so there was plenty there.  We walked around a bit when we first got in just to see what was there.  It was pretty busy when we first arrived so couldn't get on most of the biggest games then so spend most of the first hour or so on smaller Indy or Retro games.

Little Nightmares

We all had a go on Little Nightmares which was quite fun.  I had watched it played on Outside XBox before so knew what was involved but I'd never tried it before.

Little Nightmares

I quite liked it, you are trying to hide and sneak around and solve some basic puzzles.  The art work for the game is very cool.  You play as some sort of small creature in what looks like a yellow raincoat running round, climbing up cupboards, desks and counters and crawling under kitchen cabinets.

The game was quite hard, at least to start with. You have to try and avoid a huge chef that will kill you if he catches you, and if he spots you he will almost definitely catch you.  I got caught so many times trying to get past him.

It was pretty simple and might be something I pick up on my PS4 if I see it in the store for a decent price.  We didn't get very far so I would be interested to see what happens later in the game, plus I'd like to find out what is going on and why I'm trying to hide.

Limbo

Next up I had a go at Limbo.  I had seen screen shots but never really watched any game play so didn't know what to expect.  After playing it I am still not 100% sure what was going on.  It was fun to play but very very odd.

Limbo

The game is all silhouette and you play a young boy running through the woods.  To start with it seemed like a standard 2D platform/puzzler.   The story and why you were there was never explained and from what I could see there was no dialogue or anything like that.

The game got even more strange when you find a giant spider.  It follows you as you run through the wood and kills you if you run back into it or it catches up with you.  Like I said there is no explanation about why it is there.

This was another game that I would be happy to play again, but don't think I would pick it up unless I found it in a deal somewhere.  Visually it was a very unique game and well worth a look.

Super Meat Boy

There was a large selection of Retro games that we spent a fair amount of time playing as well.  The one I think we spent the most time on was Super Meat Boy.  As well as old PC games they even had old consoles that were hooked up that you could play.

Around the rest of the hall there were a lot of popular games and tournaments.  We didn't sign up for any of the tournaments but it was interesting to watch.

Overwatch was on show and seem very popular.  Obviously I've heard of Overwatch and seen it played a few times but I haven't played it myself.  It reminds me of an updated Timespliters.  I didn't get a chance to play it on the day because every time we went past there wasn't a free PC.

There were plenty of games on display that haven't been realised yet that people were able to play.  For Honour, Tekken 7 and Halo Wars 2 were all there with presentations and demos available to play.  The one I was most excited about was Dawn of War 3 though.  I played the first two Dawn of War games a lot and had high hopes for this one.

Dawn of War III

We started off watching the developer presentation about the game.  They showed of some multiplayer and special characters.   They were talking about the ideas for the game and that came through when I got a chance to play it.  They said that it was designed to be a mix of Dawn of War 1 & 2.

In play this meant you had the base building and army building that you got during the campaign in Dawn of War 1 and the special characters that were the main focus of Dawn of War 2.  I did find this meant that you needed to do a fair bit of micromanaging during play but I did work out it was possible to build up an army and brute force the problems.

Dawn of War III

During the Presentation they showed plenty of different fractions.  In game play we were able to play a campaign mission as the Blood Ravens against the Eldar.  It was a good mission and pretty challenging.

One of the special characters we got in the mission was an Imperial Knight which was a really nice addition and very powerful, giving a lot of fire support.

The campaign style is definitely an improvement on Dawn of War II but I do hope they add Last Stand or at least something like it.  I am looking forward to it more than I was before I played it so will probably pick it up when it is released.

Dawn of War wasn't the only Games Workshop IP we played.  For months my friends have been telling me I should try Total War: Warhammer, but I haven't had a chance yet.  They had a demo of that up and were introducing some new factions which had just been added.

Total War: Warhammer

I played two battles with different factions.  Both were late campaign battles so were pretty hard because by then it would normally be expected that players were getting better at the game, but I have played a lot of Total War games before so I did OK.

First I tried to use the Wood Elves.  This one I struggled with, I think I set up well, with flanking archers and ranged magic users on hills either side of the channel that Chaos were going to be coming down to hit them as they approached.  Then I had Infantry back to be the first line that the Chaos reach and mounted and flying units behind to act as fast counter attack wherever they are needed.  I didn't know the first wave of Chaos had magic shields which meant I couldn't hit them.  They survived the ranged attacks and then tied them up in combat so they weren't effective against the later waves.  In the end I lost.

My second battle I did better using Bretonnia.  I was against Orcs and using archers I was targeting low armour units as they approached to wear them down and tying them up with large units of peasants in combat while my nobles charged their flanks and countered where needed.

I will be looking to get the game in future, I know two of my friends play it a lot so should be able to get some good multiplayer games.

Computer games weren't the only games at the event.  There was a small section of board and card games with a stall selling them and tables set up to learn to play different games.

Of the games set up there were a few I already knew how to play, Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride among them. There were two I wanted to play but I only got a chance to play one of them.  I really wanted to try Colt Express, it is a game I have wanted to play for a while but every time I was around a game was in full swing.  The other was Raise your Goblets.  I hadn't heard much about it before but a friend had played it the day before and really hyped it up so I wanted to give it a go.

Raise your Goblets is a bluffing/memory game where you have to try and poison the goblet that your target drinks from at the end of the round while not being poisoned yourself.

You can't see into the goblets and players will add wine, poison or antidote tokens to them secretly.  You can use other actions to peak into the goblets, swap them or rotate the table.  At the end of the game you want to end up with a safe goblet in front of you and a poisoned goblet in front of your target.  Trying to remember which ones are good and which are bad is hard but fun and trying to make sure they end up in the right place is a challenge.

I enjoyed the game and I actually managed to win our 6 player game.

There were some other stalls about seeing the normal stuff you see at conventions, t-shirts, Pop Vinyls, Minecraft swords etc.  One was quite good though with a selection of gaming themed weapons on display.

At the end of the day I had a really good time and it was well worth going.  I got to play plenty of new and old games and saw a lot more.  If you get the chance to go next year it is a good day out.

I did try not to buy anything...but that didn't work.  I came home with two new board games and I'm going to use a discount code to buy a PC game off Steam.

My Haul

Colt Express

Star Realms

So I brought Colt Express even though I didn't get a chance to play it and Star Realms just because it is such a small and portable two player game that I have heard really good things about.  Both were very well priced so well worth picking up.  I will be using a discount code I have to pick up Total War: Warhammer, providing my PC to play it.

I will also be keeping my eye out for Dawn of War III when it is released.

Total War: Warhammer