This weekend was a riot for gamers not only in the UK (250k PS4's sold in 48 hours, WOW!), but here in Athens as well, since it was finally time for the 2nd Gaming Festival. People in Greece finally got a first look at a next-gen console. Sony was the only one of the major companies that actually had any next-gen action to bring to the Festival. Microsoft hasn't decided yet on a release date for this part of Europe (they say sometime in the spring) so no XBox One's were available at the show and Nintendo was mysteriously absent.
The Festival took place from the 29th of November till the 1st of December and a lot of events were held during that time. There were, of course, the regional cosplayers (and a cosplayer show on the final evening of the festival), some major tournaments with massive awards given out (League Of Legends, FIFA 14, NBA 2K14, PES 2014 and most of the winners won PS Vita's and PS4's) and random awards given out at times during the show (at one of which, yours truly won a copy of Dead Space 3 that he now doesn't know what to do with, lol).
A lot of games were shown off at the festival. One that actually caught my attention was PS3's "The Last Of Us". The game has been released since March yet the show-runners decided it was so important that they had to feature it again in order to remind the people who have it and to show those of us that don't, what a masterpiece it is. I actually played the opening minutes and I lost myself in it, forgetting all about the place I was in and totally focusing on the story this game has to tell.
The XBox One may not have been present, but the 360 sure was! With games like GTAV, NBA 2K14 and Battlefield 4, the machine showed that current-gen is all but finished. I was watching a game on NBA 2K14 since one of the players had picked the team that I support and I was amazed at the visual resemblance of the players. I thought it would be something like FIFA, but it was nothing like it.
As mentioned earlier, a lot of cosplay was going on. Resident Evil's Umbrella Corporation apparently has a Greek division and they were all but present at the festival, along with the occasional zombie. They didn't seem too mean though... Maybe they had been properly fed!
Apart from that, there wasn't really much else going on and it seemed more like a "PS4 introduction" than a full-out expo. The console releases in 11 days and despite the financial situation, people will be lining up to buy it. After that display of dominance in the UK, it will be interesting to see how things play out in the rest of Europe. As for the festival, Greece is just now taking its first small steps into welcoming in the gaming world. There's still a lot to be expected. But as the years go on and the need to see what's new in the gaming industry rises, these events will only get bigger and bigger.
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