In pictures
Paris Games Week has finished happening. It happened across the street from Games Connection, where I was busying myself with loads of smaller folks’ games, so naturally I visited.
I played The Order, which a lot of folks are carrying water for. I played Bloodborne, which I like a lot. I played Type-0, which may become its own spin-off series for some reason. I played Splatoon, which is pretty sweet outside of the GamePad tilt controls for aiming. It was the usual trade show things, but sometimes in French.
But there were…idiosyncrasies.
Like these dangerous raised floor platforms that tried to kill me. I tripped off of these things at least three times. The kid’s section was particularly littered with them, which seems especially cruel. Their fine motor skills are still developing, damn it.
There was also a trampoline land and some kind of motorized skateboard course in the kid’s section. Also a little half pipe. Over in the Nickelodeon booth you could throw bread into cut out face holes and get covered in green slime.
And photo ops!
Eventually I made it out of the kid’s area, across the hall to the adults section with adult games like Super Smash Bros., Pokemon, and Splatoon. Splatoon really is pretty awesome, though. Sorry to the French booth attendant who had to stand awkwardly next to me (language barrier!) as we waited for eight players to fill up for a multiplayer match (and then more time when the power went out or something and they had to sneak into a pillar of wires and things).
I laughed when I saw these stationed next to each other. And again when I saw the Lords of the Fallen character with a woman on either arm putting on his giant costume.
Square Enix was a bit more merchandise than games, though there were lots of Type-0 stands. Definitely enough to play before the enormous public days, which brought in all sorts of riff raff. And trash.
There was trash everywhere. There was trash all around (not full) trash cans. The man walking around picking up after these litter bugs is the hero of Paris Games Week, I think. What the hell is wrong with the French?
Here’s the other thing: during the public day, there was the dizzying smell of candy everywhere. Skittles wrappers were a popular trash item. Do you know why? Paris Games Week seems to be largely attended by literal children. I’m talking 11 year olds, everywhere. It was weird.
Oh, yeah, let’s energize the monsters.
Okay, the soccer interest was also weird. Huge FIFA queues and all that. Outside of the kids, filth, and soccer, though, it was videogames as usual. That was Sony’s kitted out Bloodborne area.
There was an Order-themed area behind it with fake ammunition glued to the tables and a lot of rope strung across everything in a “I’m not trying too hard to make this rope look really cool and my nonchalance actually makes this rope look really cool” sort of way.
And then that PES area (Metal Gear Solid what?) with play stations sandwiched between “goals” on a fake “pitch.” And a lot of racing games and nice cars. I probably should’ve hopped in one and tried a racing game with an Oculus on and steering wheel/pedal controls.
Plus, there was this cool retro section, which was different from the AAA sections of, “play all these games that are already out or you’ve played at the last three trade shows.” I went to play Far Cry 4. I saw a cool, snow capped mountain and decided I wanted to run to it. A few seconds of sprinting and the game was warning me I was leaving the mission area and it would restart if I continued. That was sad. I don’t want to clear some random “kill dudes” mission when there are elephants to get trampled by. Mortal Kombat was fun, though, even if I don’t remember how to play. Or they’ve changed things since Mortal Kombat IV.
Anyways, retro section. They had ET. I didn’t play it because some damn kid had his grubby hands all over it. Those Game Boys, particularly the one in the foreground, were pretty sweet, though.
Over at Game Connection there was also a sweet arcade cabinet that had a few hundred games on it, including Gals Panic, which I’ve never played and can’t show pictures of here because all the games have naked anime girl tits. They’re fun, though. There was this weird Sonic, though, And a pretty awesome Sailor Moon beat ’em up in classic fashion that boasted impressive amounts of enemies on screen and some good animations. I went with my girl Sailor Mars, natch.
I almost bought a Totoro plush here, but it was like 15 euro. Plenty of anime cross over among the attending videogame fans children.
Paris is weird. The crowds at the Eiffel Tower (above) weren’t nearly as bad as I thought, though. And I guessed they recently cleaned it because I remember it being more of a dingy olive? There was a lot of construction going on, so maybe it’s part of their restorative efforts. Their pizza, however, was the greasiest, grossest thing ever. And overpriced, like everything else.
This is my favorite picture I took in Paris.
