When NAG reviewed the Gyroxus gaming chair earlier this year, it wasn’t given a sterling recommendation. Too often you’ll find gaming peripherals and devices such as these that aim to improve the gaming experience, but may not perform as necessary in all areas. The Gyroxus chair was ostensibly one of those products that fell victim to doing too much all at the same time, but my hands-on experience was, in short, fantastic. And my arms hurt like hell.
Last night saw a few issues in the main LAN area, from power cuts to network traffic troubles between some of the areas, but downstairs in the Telkom DGL LAN they seem to have everything under control – as of 9am most of the weekend’s games were underway.
We could spend the whole weekend reporting on every game, telling you how they went and who insulted people’s mothers, but that’s a lot of hard work and frankly, is a little boring. Don’t worry, we’ll let you know who came out on top tomorrow, but for now, we’ve decided to spend the weekend chatting with the gamers and getting to know them a bit. Well, a bit more than absolutely not at all, at least.
In the DGC area I was introduced to Etienne “Celestial” Nel – one of the favourites for this year’s StarCraft II tournament, and one of two SC2 players in the relatively new multi-gaming organisation (MGO) GamerNET. Officially formed just a few months ago in Cape Town, GamerNET is already making a name for itself in the local gaming scene with their FIFA 13 and StarCraft II players.
I actually said “say cheese” when I took this picture. Apparently that’s not the best thing to say to a bunch of StarCraft II players.
One of the interesting things to do if you’re allowed is to take a look at the weird and wonderful variety of chassis and peripherals at the NAG LAN. Sometimes the sheer size of the cases will shock you, or occasionally you’ll see a rig so small you’ll wonder if it actually works. I didn’t see any of the latter today but I did snap some photos of the best or most weird cases and peripherals I’ve seen at the LAN thus far, and I’d like for you to join me in checking them out. Some surprises are in store.
Nintendo has a big presence at rAge 2012 with dozens of hands-on stations scattered about their expansive stand. Pikmin 3 is one of the many playable games they have available for anyone to pick up and play, which is exactly what I did.
The latest offering from Miyamoto’s beloved franchise is looking lush and colourful on the new Wii U system. There’s a strange mix of almost photo-realism surroundings with the typically cheery characters you’d expect to find in a Nintendo game. It’s pretty much exactly what Nintendo fans have been clamouring for ages for: their favourite franchises in HD.
Two different game scenarios were available to play on the rAge show floor: a Trial Course and a Boss Battle.
Making a turn in by stand #86 I happened upon AMD’s display and was pleasantly surprised by what I could find there. A few products were dedicated to AMD’s new Trinity APU family based on the Piledriver design and a raft of Bulldozer builds sponsored by Evetech, showcasing what is possible with the brand.
rAge 2012 has been going for a little over four hours and already the passageways are starting to swell with bright-eyed gamers, but on the competitive gaming front, things are going slow.
In the build-up to the opening of the expo tomorrow I thought I’d visit the dome a little early and take some pics of what’s happening behind the scenes while you’re planning on how early to queue in the morning. In short: this weekend will be a blast!
I was trudging through the stands today as they were being built and stocked up and the way in which this proceeds in an almost orderly fashion surprises me – or maybe it doesn’t, considering it is the expo’s tenth year of existence (and also the first one I’ll be attending ever). And while I was walking around I had to take notice of two stands you simply must visit tomorrow: Dion Wired and Comptium.
Our fine friends over at Ster-Kinekor Entertainment (the local distributors for a bunch of publishers, including Sony titles) dropped us an email to inform us of a late edition to their rAge 2012 line-up. It looks like SKE will be bringing a particularly enraged Spartan with them to the expo this weekend. God of War: Ascension will be playable on the show floor so keep an ear out for the shrieks of pain as Kratos eviscerates the population of Greece’s mythical creatures – you know, before he moves on to eviscerate the pantheon of Olympian gods in the three games we’ve already played. Fun times with swords and overly-elaborate quicktime kills are just around the corner!
This weekend’s rAge Expo is all about gaming, gadgets, technology and everything in-between, and beneath the vast hall that is the Coca-Cola Dome lies the Telkom Do Gaming League’s annual eSports tournament – the Do Gaming Championship. It’s the heart of eSports at rAge, with 600 of our nation’s best competitive gamers coming together for a weekend of tough competition in a number of games and genres. In addition to the DGL tournaments, a number of smaller, less formal tournaments take place in the open NAG LAN in the main hall, and, of course, we have our own NAG Gaming League’s LOL finals taking place.
Among our other coverage of the whole show this weekend, we’ll be keeping an eye on the eSports events both downstairs and in the open LAN. We’ll chat to some of the gamers and report back on as much as is humanly possible during this short but assuredly frenetic weekend, so be sure to stay tuned to NAG Online and @nagcoza.
