Three weeks ago, I made my way to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show 2015 (TGS’15). For those who are unaware, TGS’15 is an annual games show held in Japan where many different publishers and indie developers alike come to Japan to showcase their games. There’s cosplay, game demos and many other interesting events. The show itself spans a few halls which are spread out across two buildings. The main events and booths take place at halls 1 – 8 which featured all the big name companies like Sony, EA, Konami and so on. While it was a pity that Microsoft did not attend TGS this year, here are the highlights:
Sony
Sony, being the owner of the PlayStation brand, no doubt had the largest presence back at TGS. They had a large stage, showcasing all their PlayStation exclusives and more as well as many smaller stations giving attendees to try out said games. Among the games featured were:
- Dark Souls 3
- Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
- Bloodbourne: The Old Hunters
- and more.
They also had an entire stretch of smaller booths showcasing PlayStation VR (previously known as Project Morpheus) and the many demos they had for it. Unfortunately, this meant they were also the most popular booth and slots for trying out any of these games or the PlayStation VR device ran out before lunch.
Capcom
Capcom brought 2 heavyweight titles: Street Fighter V and Biohazard: Umbrella Corps. They were showcasing and allowing attendees to demo Street Fighter V but what’s more interesting is their Biohazard portion where they teamed up with Tokyo Marui (a Japanese airsoft gun manufacturer) to offer a small firing range within the exhibition itself for attendees to fire some rounds.
Konami
It’s no surprise that Konami was showcasing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on a large stage with emcees talking in Japanese about what I assumed to be MGSV. They also had a booth, allowing attendees to create their own custom MGSV PS4 disk case with their face on the front of it. Queues were a little long so I didn’t end up queuing for it.
EA DICE
This has to be one of the most interesting booths at the show. EA set up a large stage with 2 sets of 20 PlayStation 4s on the left and right of the stage. Attendees are able to obtain a ticket and play Star Wars Battlefront on stage in a intense 20 vs 20 match. I was one of the lucky ones who were able to do so and it was certainly an amazing feeling playing on the stage with 2 large screens behind you showcasing the match being played. Aside from the fact that I was not used to the DualShock 4 controller, the game was pretty enjoyable.
The build being demoed seems to be running the same build demoed at E3 and for an alpha, plays very smoothly. We were given 4 weapons and 2 different gear loadouts to choose from. However, I feel that the UI still needs some work. It looks great but they aren’t very eye catching as compared to DICE’s other games like Battlefield 4. There are some scenarios where I would miss out on the objectives that were updated. Gunplay and the sound, however, seemed really good. Certain gear options like the boost jump seem a little overpowered as I was able to use it quite easily to evade a Jedi and deal a lot of damage before being killed by him as well as escaping from many near death situations. Overall, the game is looking good and I look forward to the release in November.
Koei Tecmo
Koei Tecmo were showcasing their long awaited Attack on Titan game for the PlayStation Vita and they had a booth where you could take a picture with them and they would Titan-ize your face and put it up on this large screen that they have for all attendees nearby to see.
Production I.G
Production I.G had a tiny theatre at TGS to show a panoramic 3D video related to Ghost in the Machine. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but the video was projected onto a curved surface diagonally upwards. We were then given anaglyph 3D glasses to watch the video. It was a stunning 3D video showing robots, mechanical contraptions among others.
Monster
Interestingly, Monster (the energy drink, not the company that makes overpriced cables) had a booth showcasing their drink as well as Need for Speed. Attendees who were able to get tickets to play NFS were able to give the new NFS game a go. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to so that was a real pity.
Others
A few Singaporean game developers were also showcasing their games at the Indies section of the show. Students from Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Interactive and Digital Media also had a booth showcasing their games with many other institutions at a booth sponsored by Sony at the smaller hall.
Google was at TGS as YouTube and they were there to pretty much showcase their competitor to Twitch.tv, the YouTube Gaming streaming service.
There was also a booth for MSI, Steelseries and EIZO together sponsored by G2A where they had a small Counter-strike: Global Offensive match where anyone could partake in.
Logicool (also known as Logitech to the rest of the world), had a large stage where they were hosting a small League of Legends tourney as well as a smaller booth showcasing Project Cars using their peripherals.
All in all, it was certainly an interesting experience as a gamer and a budding games developer so I do recommend attending a future show if you are able to, as a bonus, Tokyo’s a really nice place to visit especially with the weather in Singapore at this time each year.
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