{"id":1138,"date":"2012-11-02T14:55:27","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T14:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/play-expo-2012\/"},"modified":"2012-11-02T14:55:27","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T14:55:27","slug":"play-expo-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/play-expo-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Expo 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

After my trip to EuroGamer<\/a> this was quickly followed by my annual trip to the north west for Replay Expo under the new branding of Play Expo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Replay Expo used to be one of the biggest retro gaming events in the country and myself and several friends have made the trip to Blackpool for the last couple of years to spend a weekend playing classic games from yesteryear.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\"WP_000167\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A bit of tradition at every retro event\u2026beating StreetFighter 2<\/em><\/p>\n

The change of name reflects a change of focus for the event. While there is still a heavy focus on retro gaming which is now just one section called \u201cRe.Play<\/strong>\u201d alongside, <\/p>\n

\u201cCos.Play\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 costume competitions, talks, traders and lots of people all dressed up! <\/p>\n

\u201cNow.Play\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 this area focuses on new and upcoming games, hardware and accessory releases. <\/p>\n

\u201cPro.Play\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 an eSports event (EGL 8) featuring competitive tournaments. <\/p>\n

This considerably bigger event also meant a change of venue to EventCity<\/a> next to the Trafford Centre in Manchester. <\/p>\n

So let\u2019s get it out of the way\u2026.The first day got off to a terrible start. <\/p>\n

Doors were scheduled to open at 11.00. We arrived around 10ish and as with previous years there was already a large queue full of people eager to get in first. In previous years once the doors have opened the early crowd get in pretty quickly and everyone else who turns up just after 11.00 then get in just as quickly as a \u201csecond wave\u201d. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately 11.00 came and went and the doors weren\u2019t opened. The queues started getting larger and no-one really knew what was going on. I checked the EuroGamer twitter account and Facebook page but couldn\u2019t find anything out. Eventually I managed to find a staff member and was told a power cut had caused a 30 minute delay. However, it was much closer to 12.00 by the time the doors were opened and the once organised queue started to collapse as people tried to get in. <\/p>\n

I decided it best to not get involved with this and as we\u2019d been standing in the cold for a couple of hours went to get a cup of tea. Half an hour later people were still trying to get in and it was 12.50 by the time I actually made it inside. <\/p>\n

The organisers added an extra two hours onto the event in an attempt to compensate but this wasn\u2019t great for anyone who had a train booked and as it turned out some of areas such as the pinball still closed at the regular time. <\/p>\n

On top of this the presentations were all cancelled as there issues with the PA system.<\/p>\n

I was also rather miffed at the catering. Regardless of the time of day it was a big queue to stand in to get some food and as my with my visit to EuroGamer the local mobile network struggled to cope so staying in touch with friends proved hard work. \"WP_000175\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not very well illustrated but\u2026queues<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But\u2026\u2026now that\u2019s out the way. <\/p>\n

The event was as usual very entertaining and everyone I was there with all said how much of a great time they had. <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t spend all that much time in the Now.Play section. Having been to EuroGamer a week or so beforehand I didn\u2019t really feel the need. I did give PES 2013 another go as well as NBA2K13. Initially I wondered why you\u2019d need this section considering there are dedicated events like EuroGamer but my opinion did change afterwards. Not everyone wants to go to events in London. The location was a serious consideration when booking my tickets to EuroGamer so if you live in the north of the country I can understand that even more so.Having a small part of the event used to preview some of the newer games is generally a good thing and the larger venue meant it wasn\u2019t at the expense of the other areas. <\/p>\n

The Pro.Play section was a link up with EGL (European Gaming League<\/a>) which had a very<\/em> <\/strong>different vibe due to it\u2019s competitive nature. Not really my scene so I largely avoided it but you had to go through the section to get to the catering but it certainly showed the more serious side of gaming. It felt very much like an event within an event. I didn\u2019t see all that many people who were involved with EGL doing anything in the Re.Play section (they weren\u2019t difficult to spot). <\/p>\n

The Cos.Play section was pretty cool. At any big gaming event there are always people dressed up as their favourite characters so embracing that as a part of the event was a smart move, especially as it adds a real sense of fun to the whole atmosphere. <\/p>\n

The Re.Play area was exactly what you\u2019d expect. Just about every gaming platform you\u2019d care to think about as well as pinball machines and classic arcade machines. <\/p>\n

\"WP_000176\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Awful picture of Space Harrier..but there was a queue!<\/em><\/p>\n

This year I somehow managed to avoid spending a small fortune on anything but as usual there was a great variety of stands selling their wares. <\/p>\n

Two new additions this year which were pretty good were Retro Request Zone and the mobile site. <\/p>\n

In the Retro Request Zone if you wanted to play a specific game on a specific system a member of staff would go find it from their collection and bring it to you! A great idea as there are limits on the amount of games they can have out at any one time. <\/p>\n

The mobile site could be found at www.playexpo.net\/mobile<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The site allowed you to find your way around, discover what was going on in each zone as well as browse the list of games available at the previously mentioned request zone. The only downside to this was the fact I could barely use it. The mobile network just wasn\u2019t up to it on the day and I couldn\u2019t use the site. <\/p>\n

If I could add a suggestion for next year I\u2019d love some kind of match up service. The ability to find people to play against on favourite games would be interesting. There tournaments that are run over the weekend but if it\u2019s not one of your favourite games you\u2019re out of luck. <\/p>\n

So in summary while the event got off to a bad start it made up for it in every other area. Everything that has been good about the previous events is still there with some nice touches to improve the experience. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s highly likely I\u2019ll be back again next year!<\/p>\n

There is a great post-event round up on the PlayExpo site<\/a> with reviews, videos and pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After my trip to EuroGamer this was quickly followed by my annual trip to the north west for Replay Expo under the new branding of Play Expo. Replay Expo used to be one of the biggest retro gaming events in the country and myself and several friends have made the trip to Blackpool for the<\/p>\n

<\/span>Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming"],"yoast_head":"\nPlay Expo 2012 - Andy's Techie Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/11\/02\/play-expo-2012\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Play Expo 2012 - Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After my trip to EuroGamer this was quickly followed by my annual trip to the north west for Replay Expo under the new branding of Play Expo. 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