Kayleigh's Experience of London Gaming Con

I've attended many conventions over the past few years, and I was excited to be able to grab a press pass and attend the London Gaming Con at The Rocket House. The thought of a convention devoted to the gaming side of things was pretty appealing afterall.


When I arrived, I was quite surprised at how small the venue was. In fact, if I am being honest, I was a little disappointed, as due to this small space, not as much could happen on this Saturday. The artist section was a little small, and the interest was definitely devoted to the countless televisions and consoles that were set up around the venue for gamers to take a spin on. Perhaps if this event manages to grab a much bigger venue next year, there will be more room for gaming artists? We shall see.

As with all conventions, it seems customary for a few people to turn up in cosplay. The London Gaming Con was no exception. Although the amount of people in cosplay was a little thin on the ground on the Saturday, there was definitely a few standout costumes, including John Marston from Red Dead Redemption, who won the Cosplay Masquerade. 


I managed to grab a go at various games throughout the day, including Blazblue Continuum Shift, which I was surprisingly OK at (beat-em' ups are not always my strongest point, I forget the combo's!), Streets of Rage 3, Guitar Hero: World Tour, which I was roped into after Lewis Terry failed on expert against some Guitar Hero addicts. Alas, expert also proved to be too much of a challenge for me too. How do these people keep up with it?

Me playing Blazblue Continuum Shift

For old time sake, I also played a bit of Mario on the NES, and tried my hand at some Soul Calibur II, which I happily purchased back when it was released, especially due to Link's cameo. As well as these, I tried out a few classics, such as Time Crisis 2 and Bomberman.


There was definitely an impressive amount of games on offer which appealed to the retro and modern gamers tastes. Other games included Halo: Anniversary, Smash Bros Brawl, Tempest, Left 4 Dead 2, Gears of War 3, Sonic 2, Mario Kart Wii and Double Dash, and many more.


The highlights of the day for me was definitely seeing the Brentalfloss Q&A, where the guy himself answered many bizarre, funny and insightful questions. He also performed an exclusive track which will be making it's YouTube debut this coming Thursday as part of his 12 Days of Brentmas. I also really enjoyed hearing the chiptune covers and the OverClocked Remix panel, which also consisted of a few performances.

Brentalfloss

 We also managed to win a copy of their Donkey Kong Country remix album due to being the first to answer a Zelda question correctly, which was brilliant! Expect a review of the album on here in the next few days or so.


All in all, the London Gaming Con was a great day. There were a few slight disappointing aspects, such as the presence of anime which didn't seem to fit in with the largely game focused convention. The cosplay was also rather limited, so those dressed in cosplay for the day seemed a little out of place, and the convention would have benefited from a larger venue, with more stalls and a few more events, as I did feel that you can finish browsing it all rather quickly in all honesty. However, criticisms aside, this was a fun day out, and I got plenty out of it. I look forward to seeing how the next one appears.