Right, so I know there was supposed to be a Day 2 and Day 3 update in here somewhere. And, for that matter, a wrap up should really occur when you actually, you know, wrap up at an event. But attending these things (not to mention travelling to and from o’er land and sea as I did) is tough, especially when you get back home to a full time job and a girlfriend annoyed that you’d spent the last four days geeking out in London without her.

Regardless, here’s a couple of thoughts now the Eurogamer Expo is well and truly done and the post-event hype has receeded. If you checked out the latest Citizen Gamecast you’ll have heard what Danny, Joe and I thought of much of what was on offer on the show floor. So, please, check that out. It’s also probably the first and only time I’ll actually physically be in the studio for a recording too, so enjoy the sound of my voice while you can. I certainly am.

Anyway, Eurogamer. It was a little bit good, in the end. As Danny brought up on several occassions he, Tamoor and Mark had already played most of the Expo games when they attended Gamescom in Cologne, but for me it was a long awaited chance to get my hands on games like Crysis 2 and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. My PC gaming group (Java Server, represent!) also use the event as a time to meet up so I got a chance to have a drink with some friends that I hadn’t seen in person in a solid year. And not to mention the super special Citizen Game Staff Team Building/Bonding Corporate Exercise.

Game of the show, personally, was Bulletstorm. As I said on the Gamecast, my interest in the game went from zero to day one purchase in the space of the ten minutes I had to play it. The game is worth checking out for the whip mechanic alone. Pull enemies towards you, kick them into the air (or other enemies or environmental hazards) and shoot them, all while the energy of the whip makes them react/float/die in slow motion. Fantastic fun, complemented well by the likes of the explosive bolas that let you tie enemies up with bombs before blowing them to pieces. And it was also nice to see an Unreal-powered game with a colour palette broader than grey/brown.

Whip it, baby.

Disappointment of the show was undoubtedly Crysis 2, specifically the console version. Much has been made about the sequel’s ability to run smoothly and look good on the less powerful hardware (relative to high spec PC’s) found in the Xbox 360 and PS3. If you played the 360 demo of Crysis 2 on the show floor, you won’t have seen anything like that. It was rough, buggy and looked… well, bad. The PC demo, by contrast, certainly looked better even if (judging by the button prompts) it was the same build they had running on the 360′s. I still love the original Crysis and the two most impressive aspects of that game are the achingly gorgeous tropical visuals and the flexibility and freedom in the combat in the first half of the game (before the aliens show up and ruin everything). The console demo of Crysis 2, given the technical state it was in and the claustrophobic feel to the level I played, lacked both those qualities. Here’s hoping Crytek have some more tricks and surprises up their sleeve before the game’s release next year.

Getting to hang out with the rest of the Citizen Game staff and meet lots of other people who love games as much as I do is always fantastic. It’s why I always say to people that if you can ever get to a show like this you totally should. Never mind the games on show, it’s just pretty cool to be standing in a crowd of people and know that, for a change, ever single one of them could probably talk to you about games for hours. That’s special and it’s why events like this are always a pleasure to go to. We’ll see you at next year’s Expo and, if you were there this time around, why not share your experiences in the comments?

•