That’s not to say we didn’t spend some time playing more mainstream titles. We started with Ico and Shadow of Colossus Collection, the highly acclaimed PS2 title now revamped in HD for the PS3. If you haven’t heard of Ico and Shadow of Colossus then I suggest you watch the following trailer. Visually the game is stunning and although we were sleep deprived and in great need of coffee, we were still awake enough to respect just how good this new HD Collection looked.

Resistance 3 is a game I have seen trailers for on TV and have actually thought to myself that a PS3 might be a good idea one day. Being a Microsoft fan (I sport an Xbox360 & a Windows Phone 7 device) this is something that still leaves me feeling cold and used. Anyway knowing that I could get some hands on time at Eurogamer I made sure we stopped so I could see what all the fuss is about. The game looked great albeit a bit sluggish at times when in combat and, if I am completely honest, didn’t quite grab me as I thought it would. For one thing the game was full of nasty little clichés like the collection of diary notes, postcards and audio logs. Haven’t we moved on from this? Anyway I managed to spend 30 minutes or so playing Resistance 3 and I won’t be rushing out to buy a PS3 anytime soon to play this.

After bumming around a bit with Resistance 3 we decided to check out The Lord of the Rings: War in the North and having spent the last hour or so playing with the hugely uncomfortable PS3 controllers we decided Xbox360 was the way to go for this. Sam and I were thrown into the deep end a little and as the bumbling idiots we are, we had to restart pretty quickly. Once I got the controls in order, which  is incredibly simple, we were off. War in the North is basically an Action RPG title allowing you to play multiplayer CO-OP and create your own Fellowship with two of your online buddies. Elf, Dwarf and Human are your choices… yeah I know, I was disappointed to not see Hobbit in this list. But then, in the Middle Earth lore I don’t believe the Hobbits had quite explored that far up north, although I may be wrong!?! Anyway Sam and I were supposed to be defending some large wooden door against an attack of Ogres. We did alright for a time but they eventually overwhelmed us 1000 against 2, and were forever known as heroes defending to our last breath. In fact the truth is we did so badly I sheepishly walked away as one of the Warner Bros (games developer) reps was watching us play and was smirking at our pathetic attempt.

From here we went on to play some Tekken Hybrid, (Sam wanted to chill out with a little button bashing), and then made our way into the Indie Games Arcade which is where the main part of our day was spent playing great little games like Pineapple Smash Crew, Waves and Smuggle Truck. But we have a separate feature coming up soon on that part of the Expo, so I won’t go into too many details here.

Note to self... remove ones bags from the shot before taking the picture.

As we walked the expo floor and explored as much as we could we stopped by and watched a FIFA tournament happening live sponsored by Samsung, we watched some pretty cool Jedi vs. Sith battles in Star Wars the Old Republic (and a pretty awesome queue to take part in the battle also!). There was the usual assortment of hard-core gamers, families, old folk who took a wrong turn somewhere outside  Earls Court and of course an ever increasing number of girl gamers in attendance. Let’s not of course forget every spotty teenager’s favourite wet dream, the Eurogamer booth babes. Oh yes, they were in attendance. From dancing in podiums, to stopping random horny 14 year old boys and getting them to play the Nintendo 3DS they were also somehow in my field of vision.

The Expo was bigger than the last one I attended in 2009 and I guess I should say with the increase in size came an increase in fun. I have  a grumble mind you; where was my free drinks fridge in the press room? Don’t they realise playing games, talking to indie developers, taking pictures and generally looking after Sam makes me a thirsty guy? It’s a hard job out there and I require adequate refreshment. And definitely not enough freebies! Bottles of Guild Wars 2 branded water and Xbox Avatar items are good and all but I would like a one of their 50inch Samsung HD/3D TV’s.

If you haven’t checked out our photos of today then just follow this here link and bask in the glory of my amateur photography skills. And with that I am going to leave you and head back to work on my Indie Game Arcade write up.