EGX is the UK’s biggest gaming show, and it’s in full bloom. This year, the event is in London’s ExCeL Center and is running from Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th October for four days of gaming exclusives, hard-fought competitions and much more.
Whether you’re attending or not, The Nerd Stash has compiled a list of the must-see at the event. Enjoy!
Sony
Starting from the obvious, Sony is going all-in for EGX 2019. The company is showcasing 24 gaming experiences, ranging from big exclusives such as Death Stranding and Final Fantasy VII Remake to Virtual Reality games like Iron Man and the all-time high Beat Saber.
Other must-play from Sony are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which will be released globally next week, and the Medievil remake. I have played that game when I was eight-year-old last time, and after twenty years it felt extremely strange and nostalgic to wear the shoes of Sir Daniel Fortesque once again.
Still not satisfied with Play Station? Then you should check out Nioh 2 and the upcoming Dragon Ball Z Kakarot. If you’re a fan of the anime, you will absolutely love this game.
Nintendo
As per usual in big gaming events, Nintendo focused less on individual stands and experiences and instead focused on big stage competition. People competed for various prizes on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as well as on other games.
The company exhibited the highly-anticipated Luigi’s Mansion 3, together with Pokémon Sword and Shield and the infamous The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
Nintendo also showcased its most recent handhelds at EGX. The new Switch, as well as the Lite, were proudly displayed for gamers to hold and to behold.
CyberPunk 2077
Arguably one of the biggest reveals of EGX 2019, the CyberPunk 2077 experience was something to remember. I had to book a separate ticket in the morning to take part in it in the afternoon but it was absolutely worth it.
As part of the experience, we got to see a member of the CD Projekt Red team play an exclusive demo of the game for 45 minutes while UK Head of Communication Hollie Bennett explained the game’s features and storyline.
No spoilers here, but the demo showed a few new things worth noticing. First of all, it seems like players will be able to develop their characters in very different ways. You could have a “hacker” character able to exploit surrounding electronics to execute enemies or have a brute force warrior ripping off military-grade turrets and use them as personal weapons. Depending on the players’ choices, CyberPunk 2077 could be a very different kind of game.
The demo also revealed a core element related to the plot. The “life path” you chose at the beginning will heavily affect the storyline. As a consequence of this, some conversation choices will be available or not, shaping the story in quite divergent ways.
Finally, the open-world showed in the demo looks highly promising, with several environmental elements to interact with, including numerous vehicles and various shops selling body enhancement modules. One of them will hack your enemy’s prosthetic arm and will make them blow their brains off. Scary stuff.
Tabletop Library
But enough of CyberPunk 2077 (for now)! EGX also featured its traditional Tabletop Library area with devoted players enjoying themselves in card games like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and many others. Personally, I grew up with all the above and I couldn’t help but stare nostalgically as people bravely placed their monsters/Pokémon on the paper field.
Retro Zone
Last but certainly not least, the Retro Zone! I must have spent an hour going through all the old handheld consoles, including Game Boy, PS2, and the first Xbox, and was frozen in front of a big screen as people played Crash Team Racing on PS1 (not the remake!).
Shortly after, on the same screen was shown the original Tomb Raider from 1996, and Lara never looked so beautifully pixelated as in front of an adoring audience of old-school gamers.
Finally, Minecraft is definitely worth a mention here. The huge area of lan-connected painstaking nerds was a view to behold, as they mined and built and destroyed worlds together.
Bottom Line
I hope you enjoyed this round-up of EGX. What do you think about it? Did you attend the event and thought we missed something? Let us know in the comment section down below.