Gamestart 2014 Coverage: A Great Start
Gamestart 2014 kicked off this past weekend and the HWZ team was there to check out what could potentially be Singapore's premiere gaming convention in upcoming years.
The start of a true gamers' convention?
Gamestart 2014 kicked off this past week, and drew throngs of gamers to its hallowed halls. Held from the 25th - 26th of October, this was Gamestart's inaugural year. Occupying one hall in the Suntec Convention Center, the show had numerous companies on hand to show their upcoming games, as well as panels and competitions galore.
Before the start of the first day's session, the doors weren't even open yet but already there was a massive line.
The line for entry to the hall was insane. 30 minutes before its opening, the line had already stretched way past the hall, past the stairs leading up to the 4th floor.
45 minutes AFTER opening, and the crowds still didn't let up.
More and more people kept streaming in to queue.
The lines were 5-6 people wide and still stretched on and on.
The main stage. Nothing's happening at the point of shooting this photo as the panels commenced later in the day.
There were a handful of booths up on the show floor but the biggest of them all was Sony's. Divided into numerous sections, the Sony booth had everything from Driveclub, to unreleased games like WWE 2K14, Until Dawn, Bloodborne and The Order 1886 in its M18 section.
The Playstation area was massive, with multiple sections all dedicated to Playstation games.
Sony's M18 rated games were held in this The Evil Within inspired shack.
Sony had Driveclub running on two custom driving rigs.
The Playstation Arena. Ultra Street Fighter IV and a few other games were present here, as well as the tournament for Guilty Gear.
Opposite of Sony and beside the main stage was Blizzard's booth. Compared to Sony's extravagant area, the Blizzard booth was tiny and subdued. The fact that it didn't actually showcase anything new might have contributed to why most people just passed by it without a second glance.
Blizzard's booth was mainly Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, which is currently in Closed Alpha. If you're interested in Heroes of the Storm, you can opt-in to the Alpha by selecting your interest in your Battle.net account profile.
Blizzard's uber popular Hearthstone was on the show floor but no new announcements were made concerning the upcoming Android or iPhone versions.
Near the back of the hall was the Versus City area, filled to the brim with old school goodies. All sorts of games from the early (and not so early) days of gaming were there and proudly on display.
If you're an old school gamer, the Versus City booth was like walking down memory lane.
Tons of retro games, most of them awesome! Shadow Dancer, Sonic 2 and even Golden Axe! Where's the Shining Force love though?
Street Fighter II on the Super Famicom! Pretty much every single video game store back in the day had it on their TVs to attract passersby.
These games may just be a generation or two back, but they still bring back memories. Especially Samba de Amigo.
Anybody else remembers the Micro Genius console from the late 80s/early 90s?
Hit the next page for even more pictures from Gamestart, including the Evolve area and Project Cars!
Things seen, booths visited...
Wander from the Versus City space and you would find the Founders Base area tucked right at the back of the hall. Local indie studios are here, as well as local statue sculpting studio, Kinetiquettes.
The Founders Base area. All sorts of cool stuff were on display here.
The Evil Ryu diorama from Kinetiquettes is extraordinary! Look at the detailing! It's set to complement an upcoming Oni diorama.
Ryu's never looked so good...or in this case, evil.
Hands down, the coolest thing at Gamestart was this levitating statue of Dhalsim. It serenely hovers and rotates as Dhalsim meditates.
We thought there were wires holding up Dhalsim. Nope! He really floats!
Nearby, Razer's booth had the real Dhalsim in action. Razer hosted the Singapore leg of the Capcom Pro Tour and had custom arcade stands running Ultra Street Fighter IV.
Razer's mini stage hosted the Capcom Pro Tour.
Despite Ultra Street Fighter IV being out for months, people still queued up to have a go at Razer's booth.
If you weren't keen on the fisticuffs and hadokens, 2K's booth was right beside Razer's. Featuring upcoming 4 vs. 1 shooter, Evolve, the line to try the game was constantly full.
Gamestart didn't have the gigantic Evolve monster statue from E3, but it did have playable demos.
Right smack in the middle of the hall, sat Bandai Namco Games. Visitors had to queue to enter its hallowed halls, which meant that space around the main stage was constantly full when the doors had opened for the public.
It was hard to ignore the Bandai Namco booth with its bright colors. Even in the darkened hall, it's easily the most visible.
Two of the Tales games proudly displayed. Tales of Hearts R was playable on the PS Vita and was showcased on the right side of Bandai Namco's space.
On the left side of Bandai Namco's booth were God Eater 2: Rage Burst and Sword Art Online: Lost Song. Both set for 2015.
Right at the back of Bandai Namco's booth was Project Cars, which not to be outdone by Driveclub, also had its own custom rigs.
The demo of Project Cars was running on a PC, so we have no idea how it'll look like on consoles.
Continue on for even more photos, including those from the Ultra Street Fighter IV event.
On-site events and other interesting stuff
We attended a couple of the events held at Gamestart, namely the Sword Art Online Producer session and the Ultra Street Fighter IV showcase.
Tentatively slated for 2015, Sword Art Online: Lost Song will feature different types of battles. The producer described a hypothetical scenario that had players switch from one style to the next.
More from the SAO session.
Undoubtedly, the most popular event for Day One of Gamestart was the Ultra Street Fighter IV showcase.
The crowd was massive! It stretched from the entrance (near Blizzard's booth) to the Bandai Namco Games booth, which was more than halfway into the hall.
Ono-san on stage talking about the Omega Edition of Ultra Street Fighter IV
Ono-san had a Street Fighter quiz and he picked this Cammy cosplayer (who also won) on the condition (jokingly) that she give him her phone number.
Ono-san asked for this quiz winner's number too and laughingly joked that the t-shirt prize was too small for the winner to wear (which was true).
The final winner of the quiz. Yes, Ono-san asked for his number as well.
Daigo Umehara was on hand to challenge the crowd, only for Xian (Singapore's SF champ) to appear and challenge the Japanese champion. Xian later won the series of matches, beating Daigo 2-1.
Gamestart was not all about games. There were also some goodies being sold and we took photos of some of the more interesting ones:-
Bishoujo Harley, from the DC Bishoujo series. There's also a Marvel series if you're not into DC.
Minecraft Creeper plushies. All's fine and dandy until it blows up in your face.
Watchdoge. There's nothing more to be said.
New Vegas might be an old game, but this poster's still cool.
Cadaq had a 3D scanning booth, where you can scan yourself and get a small 3D printed copy.
3D printed stuff in Cadaq's space.
That's all we have folks. We hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures as much as we did taking them. Hopefully Gamestart will be held again next year too! As a parting gift (and also because it didn't fit into any of the above categories), enjoy the self explanatory picture below.
No cameras, bub!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.