Imagine you wake up in a world were everyone smells like Mountain Dew, democracy has been replaced with games of Call of Duty, and the newest fashion statement is a thick neck beard. Well I witnessed all of this and more at the GameStop Expo last week.
The GameStop Expo is a conference for all the popular videogame developers to demo their newest games to anyone willing and dedicated enough to waste their day playing them! All the big names were there: Activision, Sony, Microsoft, and even Nintendo. The expo opened up into a large ballroom filled with TVs for all of us nerds to play games to our hearts content. I can honestly say that I had no idea what to do with myself.
The first stop on my trip was probably the most exciting. I stopped at the booth containing the newest Nintendo console the WiiU and its newest game called ZombiU. The point of this game is to just survive as long as you can in a zombie apocalypse, but if the undead hordes chasing you catch you, its game over. The fun part is if you keep playing you can see your past lives wandering the streets as a zombie. You can even take a picture of yourself with the controller and put your own face on a zombie. Needless to say this game was a ton of fun.
Up next on my quest there was a large platform dedicated to a game called Dead or Alive. Dead or Alive is a super intense fighting game with crazy over the top characters. What was really fun is that GameStop brought in some world champs to sit around and accept challenges from anyone foolish enough to think they could compete, and yes you guessed it, I was a fool. I fancy myself pretty decent at fighting games, but I got my butt whooped in a matter of seconds.
After a quick cry and a shameful walk to the snack bar, I made my way to the Capcom booth to play the newest survival horror game Resident Evil 6. I love scary things so this game was right down my alley. The demo of the game was set on a college campus overrun by, you guessed it, zombies. The atmosphere was unsettlingly creepy and destroying zombies while in a college lecture hall is oddly satisfying. On my way to the gift shop I was stopped in my tracks by a group of breakdancers dressed up as, once again, zombies. I don’t understand the fascination with the undead, but I have to say, these zombies could move.
The day went on moving from game to game, zombie to zombie. I played the new Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, and Gears of War, all of which looked amazing. I played so many video games I think I gave myself carpal tunnel. The GameStop Expo was a great experience. As a gamer it was everything I could dream. Row after row of never before played videogames, dancing zombies and a giant statue of Sonic the Hedgehog.
If you are a gamer in the slightest then get prepared for the upcoming year because there are some amazing new games and tech coming your way!
Matt Prendergast is a senior majoring in communication.
