The GamerVets evilenger, M1GO and Rock5teady managed to get down to the Fan Expo Canada 2012 at the Metro Convention Centre this year. We had a great time and thanks to tsilon (what is tsilon?), a couple of us got there a bit earlier to compete in the LG Modern Warfare 3 tournament. Here’s our recap of our experiences including some photos and a short video.
Image may be NSFW.
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First things first, what’s up with the price? I paid $25 + service charge to go on Thursday, and that was the cheapest adult ticket available. I get that it cost money to run these, and sponsor and vendor fees won’t fully cover the cost, but paying that much to attend a convention seems a bit steep. 
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Agreed! This was my first Fan Expo so I was a bit surprised at the pricing. I guess that’s how it goes nowadays, especially since I hear it’s getting bigger and bigger each year. Being a bit cheap, opted to buy the Thursday ticket too. Little did I know that I would be roped in to the LG MW3 tourney (thanks to M1GO and tsilon). By participating, I was given a couple of extra tickets from LG that would be good for all days except Saturday. Good deal and maybe a tip for next year. 
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I’ve been going to Fan Expo for a few years now and have also checked out the smaller conventions as well and I think the pricing is actually pretty good for what you get. I mean, considering Importfest is happening next in the north side of the building on Saturday, where they’re charging $22 to look at cars. Another one, TFCon (aka Transformers Convention) is $30 on Saturday and took place in a small conference room at the Delta in Mississauga with 3 guest appearances. There are also 2 Toronto Comic Con’s earlier in the year in March and April one hosted by FanExpo and one by Wizard. Both range around the same prices from $20 – $30. Even though both are at the Metro Convention Center they were significantly smaller in scale and in celebrity guests. Even the Anime North convention charges $35 on Friday and $40 on Saturday. Anyways my point was to prove that in comparison with the other conventions this one definitely gives you a lot more bang for your buck.
What I find terrible about that weekend is that there is just so much going on. There’s FanExpo, Importfest, Buskerfest and CNE. It’s an absolutely ridiculous weekend in Toronto.
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When you put it like that, I guess really can’t complain too much. I do plan on going next year and will probably try to plan things out a bit better as I just kind of winged it this year.
What was cool about being in the the LG tournament was that we got early access into FanExpo on Thursday and at around 2pm, literally just bypassed the other people waiting in line as we made our way to the LG booth. However, once in, we had to wait about an hour before it even started. Oh well, I guess we could kill some time cruising around. I even got a chance to try out Halo 4 before most people did.
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Yeah! That early access was definitely well worth it. Thank you to the guys at Tsilon for giving us the opportunity. What did you think of Halo 4? Clik here to view.
Halo 4? Well it felt like … Halo! Not a huge Halo MP guy so I can’t say much about some of the finer details but the game felt pretty good. I didn’t remember the control scheme so there were many times that I would hit the left trigger thinking it would aim down sights but would end up tossing a grenade! I was also told by the reps there that for the first time, there’s a run button. Clik here to view.
I wish I was able to join you guys for that tournament, but if it’s any consolation, I guess my poor time management skills allowed Rock5teady early entry.
While waiting in line for Halo 4, I was having a discussion about how I’m always so pumped to play a new Halo game. For some reason, I anticipate that they’ll modernize it more and adapt some new controls or whatever. I’m usually disappointed.
When we finally got in, the Microsoft employee touted their new sprint function, since its no longer tied to an armor ability like it was in Reach. However, once we started playing, it was basically the same Halo experience that you’ve had countless times before. That may be a good or bad thing depending on how much you like Halo, but the look and feel stayed pretty close to its roots.
They did add more loadout options and I think the full game will have different classes with unique armor but underneath it all, it’s still Halo, with it’s power shields, floaty jumping, and overpowered battle rifle.
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Let’s not forget they not only have the Battle Rifle before the the DMR as well which I was quite interested to see how each one played out. I still like the BR Clik here to view.
When I played, the sessions were 8 vs 8 team slayer on some enclosed, circular map, so there were no vehicles available, and I didn’t come across any power weapons either.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try out many of the guns available, partly because I was just too excited to play the game, and partly because our session was cut short when our xboxes lost connectivity for some reason.
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Right after my demo of Halo 4, the LG tournament finally got under way. To my surprise it was not a 8 person FFA but a 1 v 1 game! I think it would have been a lot more fun if it was a full FFA as we spent too much time just running around looking for each other. Losing by one kill stings a bit more since I knew the time was running out and I knew there was not much chance of me finding him in time.
As for the 3D dual display TVs, disappointing. I noticed immediate input lag and the display only outputs 480p. To me, almost unplayable under normal circumstances. Cool concept where 2 people can play on the same TV playing full screen but not ready for prime time in my opinion.
Rock5teady, what did you think of the setup? Compared to last year?
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Haha. Oh technical issues. That sucks M1GO. But I agree that it feels very much like Halo so I guess 343 is doing a good job. I do feel it’s a bit faster paced and I was able to kill faster. I think this is only the second year they’re doing it so I think they’re still trying to figure out what works. Also I figure they thought it would be perfect to demonstrate the Dual play feature.
I think it’s the whole 3D thing that’s causing a lag issue. As you mentioned evilenger about the lag I really did feel a delay between my inputs and the what happened on screen. Since Dual play is basically using the 3d feature with each person using 2 left eyes or 2 right eyes to see they’re own screen. I noticed whenever my opponent stepped into the light there would be a lot of ghosting on my screen and actually make my screen change different colours. It was weird. Anyways comparing my experience to last year with the display itself I felt the lag on both years which hindered my gameplay. Even my opponents all mentioned to me after the match that there was a lag. The set up last year was a free-for-all with I think it was 8 players. This year’s 1-on-1 was very slow paced. Like you mentioned evilenger I also ended up spending most of my time running in circles around the map seeking out the other player. I think I prefer last years free-for-all.
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You know what’s funny? I actually voiced my opinions to one of the LG reps who said they were going to look into it and see if there was some configuration issues. I kind of thought it was a bit of lip service but I also spoke to the guy who beat us both about his experience in the finals. He said that the lag seemed to be fixed although there were some ghosting issues once and awhile. He also said they changed the format up in the finals and made it a true FFA game with 3 rounds of 16 people in Dome! You can imagine the chaos. Hopefully they’ll iron out some details for next years inevitable Black Ops 2 tournament. Clik here to view.
Ok, so it looks like the dual play screens get a thumbs down for now until they can fix the lag issues and bump up the resolution.
What were your thoughts on the other games at the show?
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I know a lot people were excited to try out PS3 All-Stars Battle Royale. It’s a purely button masher for me as I had no idea what I was doing. Was fun playing in a group though but it’s not really my kind of game and most likely will never play it again. I was never a Super Smash Bros player but I can see the appeal and I am sure fans will love it. Clik here to view.
Yeah. It handle’s very much like Super Smash Bros. except it’s a mad rush to build your meter to kill other players since there’s no actual damage taken. Clik here to view.
Would’ve been great to know that Rock5teady! I thought all those times I was hitting you guys, I was inflicting some sort of damage.
I’ll admit, it was fun to button mash for a bit, but I can’t see myself playing this over “true” fighting games. It’ll probably make for a good party game with your non-gamer friends though.
Speaking of fighting games, I got a chance to play Injustice: Gods Among Us, the new justice league fighting game based off of the MK engine. I’m normally more of a Capcom-style guy but I’ll admit that this game was a blast. The environments were highly detailed, interactive and multi-tiered, and the characters they let us use seemed to be diverse. I’m looking forward to trying that out more in the future.
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LOL sorry guys I thought you knew. The guys at the Playstation booth should have at least explained that to the players.
Oh I completely forgot that Injustice was there to try! I should have tried it on Thursday when there were less people because I thought I could try the games on another day but I was far too busy. Well it’s great to hear that after playing it that you’re still excited to play more. That’s one I’ll be waiting for as well
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The only other game that I tried was the multiplayer for Assassins Creed 3 at the Ubisoft booth. It was some kind of hybrid domination type game. Was alright but I generally play AC for the single player so it wasn’t a game changer either way for me. The SP line was too big but I could see they were showcasing the naval battle scenes which look pretty cool. Come to think of it, I really should have lined up to try ZombieU. Would have loved to get a feel for that new WiiU controller. Clik here to view.
I thought the multiplayer for Assassin’s Creed 3 was quite fun but I completely forgot to go over and try the Naval gameplay which they had behind it. I think Ubisoft had a really nice set up and great they had a lot of new games to try along with a store in the middle to buy some Assassin’s Creed hoodies and hats. Clik here to view.
I really wish I had more time to check out the other games. As goofy as it looked, I sorta wanted to check out that Avengers Kinect game (although I still hold the belief that unless you’re a dance choreographer, you can never look cool playing Kinect).
Zombie U would’ve been great too, but I was too late and they were no longer allowing people to play by the time I lined up. Quick note to those wondering about the WiiU console – they actually only showed the tablet, with the cord going straight into the wall beneath the tv.They’re most likely still running it on whatever demo boxes Nintendo gave out to developers, and as far as I know, we haven’t seen the final version of the console yet.
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Yah I would have really liked to try that Wii U and it’s unfortunate that the console itself was hidden away. Zombie U looks like a great game and if I had some money to spare I would pick up the console for that game. So once again I praise Ubisoft for that. I wish I had more time between Celebrity panels and such. Did any of you guys get to try out Dishonored? That was another one I missed the chance to try out. I think if we all go again next year we should perhaps separate and try out different games and meet up again. Meet again with around a certain time and area because signal is terrible down there. Clik here to view.
Once again Ubisoft comes out on top. Just like with E3, they’ve really upped their game while Sony and Microsoft still kind of play it safe. Even Nintendo didn’t show their new console yet, just the game demo. Could catch by the way guys, didn’t even think about that fact.
Would have loved to get some teasers or info on the next gen stuff or even some up and coming games like Last of Us, new Gears or even Aliens: Colonial Marines.
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Yeah, I was very impressed by the Ubisoft setup, and they came out in full force, which was a great sign. They’re growing their Toronto office, so I assume they’ll want to continue to give back to the gaming scene here.
Microsoft’s booth could have been better, I think. They had an enclosed space with two rooms that had 8 tv’s/xboxes for the red and blue teams to play in, and they had the Halo 4 console on display, but that was about it. Master Chief did make an appearance, but that was expected. I would’ve wished they went the Ubisoft route and displayed some merchandise to purchase. I’m sure they would’ve sold a lot of stuff to both casual and hardcore fans. All I got was a small sticker that said Halo 4…
Sony had a more casual, open lounge atmosphere in their booth, where they had couches for people to sit in while they played some of the games.They also gave away prizes and cool giveaways such as free 1-month PS+ memberships, and action figures for those who won matches. Rock5teady won one actually, after killing us at PS All Stars.
There was also a pretty big EB Games booth, although half of their space was dedicated to selling their games, and the rest had a few demo stations. They were giving away tote bags, which was pretty cool. The bags had a huge image of Master Chief on it… funny that EB’s Halo 4 giveaways were more impressive than Microsoft’s…
I didn’t even know they had a demo of Dishonoured! I saw that they had Metro 2033: Last Light and WWE13 though.
Were there any other disappointments this year in terms of gaming?
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Hmm…Compared to last year’s visit EB Games, Microsoft and Sony are pretty much doing the same thing. Below is a picture I took of Sony last year. The bags are better this year from EB Games though.
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Rock5teady, your right though, I think if we all do go next year, we shuld have a better plan of attack. I guess since I was a FanExpo noob I was kind of like a deer in the headlights just wandering around and seeing whatever catches my eye or just following along. Next time I’ll focus more, especially the gaming so I can take it all in. Clik here to view.
Same here – I really just took it all in, and my quick video shows that. I went around kinda just taking shots of random things, but when I looked through the video I took, there really wasn’t a lot of compelling stuff in there. We’ll definitely have a better plan of attack next year, and I’ll make sure to take a day or two off work to attend Fan Expo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxWkVRL5cMg
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Hahaha. It’s ok. You really need a few days if you want to see everything. Maybe take one specific day to see all the gaming stuff and perhaps the rest of the expo afterwards. For me it was hard to try to see everything and be wary of the time to try to catch celebrity panels that I want to see as well. Definitely Thursday and Sunday would be best to try out all the gaming stuff because there’s not as big a crowd so lines would be much shorter. Actually if we had known the LG Tournament wasn’t going to be ready just yet then we could have tried everything out as we were the first in. Oh well.
Fan Expo Canada 2012 Gallery
Image may be NSFW.
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[many thanks to http://ettuandyou.com for taking some of the photos]