IGX is back once again to celebrate all things gaming!
We weren't able to set up a booth at IGX this time around and school some n00bs in the ways of Quake, but we definitely had to go down to the World Trade Center for a piece of some of the action. We got there well ahead of the crowd, a good one hour early, to try out the newly released Sony PlayStation VR and get our first taste of some For Honor gameplay. There’s no entry fee for IGX this year either, so if you’re reading this before the 16th of the October, you can still go check it out!
Just like last year's IGX, the latest in gaming was all available in the various booths for people to try out to their heart’s desire. As the crowd got larger, so did the queues, and we thanked our stars we came early and at least got to try out some of the stuff. There were huge displays screening some trailers for the latest games and ones that were soon to release.
There were a couple of gaming tournaments planned for the day. We witnessed a Counter Strike Source tournament – old school LAN ftw! – at the Genesis booth, while a full-fledged FIFA 17 tournament was underway, where the winner would take away a PS4.
Sony PlayStation VR
The Sony PlayStation VR – PlayStation had a big presence at IGX this time around – was one of the bigger attractions at IGX. We managed to log in some play time on few of the PS VR titles such as Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and Driveclub. There were other titles as well, but we weren’t able to try them out due to technical difficulties. One of the titles we did want to try out was Batman VR, but unfortunately we couldn’t.
From the ones we did play, we can say that the PS VR could definitely use some work, the controller mechanics seemed wonky and off for most of the part and the graphics did not look like advertised. Now the wonky controls could have been because of the controller having low battery – yes it actually died on us in our hands – and the games could have been in a pre-release state which would explain the weak graphics. On the immersiveness level however we felt that the experience was as good as any other VR headset in the market right now, however we can’t really comment on the audio since it was too noisy at the expo. Overall all we can say is that it was not as good as we had hoped to expect from the PS VR. However, we’re sure Sony will definitely iron out the flaws in their VR games before release, and we’re itching to try them all out.
For Honor Gameplay
The other main attraction we were there for was to try out Ubisoft’s For Honor. What we’d expected to be more similar to a Dark Souls kind of gameplay turned out to be quite different, and we must say we were pleasantly surprised. The 15-20 minute demo we played introduced us to the basics of the game, targeting, blocking, attacking, the works. It was quite interesting, timing the direction of blocks and attacks, which does in a way simulate actual combat, trying to predict what your opponent might do and then counter with your own attacks. Fighting small fry was more akin to a hack n’ slash game, they can’t stand against your might. Every boss fight – or mini-boss, lieutenant, whatever you want to call them – is like a mini-game where you need to observe, block, and counter to win. It got harder and harder as we neared the end of the demo and the harder it got, the more fun we found it.
Made In India
Another neat thing at this years IGX was a booth dedicated to #MadeInIndia featuring some homegrown indie titles. The games were all set up and ready to be played and people were more than happy to try the games out, and the guys handling the booths were more than happy to help and guide the players through their games. We of course tried them out as well, and we’ve got to say, they were quite polished and well-made. The games we tried at the booth included Asura, Zenith, and Dodgefall. We definitely recommend you try them out too if you plan to visit IGX on 16th.
Merchandise!
And of course no expo is complete without merchandise! There were many stalls selling merchandise, be it superhero merch or video game merch, it was every geek's wet dream. We were already bidding a tearful farewell to our money. Add to that the peripheral booths, MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS, Alienware, you name it, they were there, with all their new goodies for people to ogle at. You were free to go try them out and play games on them, and almost all of them even had an HTC Vive and Oculus Rift set up to show off their VR capabilities.
All in all, we’d say it was an enjoyable first day at IGX. It was nice to see so many people unite under one roof to celebrate gaming in all its glory.
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Manish Rajesh
Manish can usually be found fervently playing video games of all kinds or… no wait he’s pretty much always playing games View Full Profile
