After making my way through the throngs of avid gaming fans outside, I stepped over the thresholds of Gate 4 to be confronted with the master stand from Frontosa, supplier of a wide range of tech and gaming brands. Frontosa acted as the one-stop shop for all gaming and tech needs. GIGABYTE and AORUS stood at the ready with their high end gaming laptops. Intel was displaying some of their new tech, enough to get and keep your gaming going. Microsoft showed off demos for the new Windows 10 and Office 365, as well as keyboards and mice.
Corsair and the Ventus team stood ready with some live demos and afforded gamers the chance to battle it out in a number of games, including Witcher 3, FIFA '15and StarCraft 2. Corsair (alongside Frontosa), Intel, The Division and Orena hosted all kinds of game play. Plumped down on the giant beanbags, attendees could enjoy the show on the live Ege-Corsair screen.
PlayStation also launched a few games in their makeshift cinema, including the launch of Batman Arkham Knight, Shadow of Mordor, Metal Gear Solid 5, The Elder Scrolls and Dying Light. In fact, PlayStation had quite the line-up. You could sit down and put your hands on a PS Vita or take a stand at one of the PS4 stations where players indulged themselves in some FIFA and Lego play.
HyperX supplied you with everything you need for an advanced gaming experience, as did BitFenix and Cooler Master, who also had some great prizes to give away. A simple Facebook 'like' could land you a Quickfire Rapid-I keyboard, and participating in their survey gave you the chance to grab a (sexy in black) Scout 2 Chassis. BitFenix enticed gamers with the unique Pandora case that was up for grabs.
Both adults and kids had a go at the multitude of driving games available and put pedal to the metal. PlayStation had great futuristic wheels of Gran Turismo fun. Logitech had a race of its own on the vintage Final Lap with their promo girls waiting at the finish line with some great prizes including some nifty mice, headsets and more.
ADATA and WD displayed some of the best and most cutting-edge products for all your storage and electronic needs. To connect it all, via Wi-Fi or tablet to PC, D-Link brought out the big guns with their routers and other products specialised for connectivity, including the Ultra Wi-Fi Router (that looked like the destroyer of all other routers - from space).
All this could be viewed from or linked up to the sleek and shapely curved monitors introduced by Samsung or one of the Sinotec flat screens with the crispest of crisp displays (unfortunately their new products that were on display will only be available at the end of the year.)
Seeing how much you can have also make you think of everything you can lose, but not to worry. Kaspersky was just around the corner to protect you with their anti-virus program.
If you didn't feel like getting behind the wheel of a car, a mouse or a console and you love gaming but don't know the difference between one brand and another, there was more to the EGE expo than tech.
Battle Bunker, retailer of table-top miniature games in SA, launched one of the most popular board games, Settlers of Catan, Catan 5. They also demonstrated Star Wars and Mars Attack table-top games among many other things, all weekend long. They had a massive number of board games and memorabilia on sale to feed the gaming madness, including Catan, a Sherlock Holmes version of Cluedo, Magic the Gathering and version upon version of Monopoly.
The Readers Den comic shop supplied fanatics with some great reads and collectibles. Across from them you could find the mini-market, which had everything from dragon rings to cosplay headdresses as well as the digital musings of Valentina Philips. Hungry after all the gaming and shopping? Food trucks, of course! Here attendees had their own game of musical chairs and powered up for the next round of play.
The hall was packed to the brim with all sorts of gamers, but we were also visited by characters not of this world for the Cosplay competition. Though the turnout of dresser-uppers weren't as large as we hoped to see, those that went, went all out. Anything from the basic onesie to a full-on lizard girl (scales and all) and all manner of warrior princesses who stayed in character even when posing for photos.
One of the most exciting things was Learn 3D, which demoed the Oculus VR headset. Virtual reality taking the gaming world to the next level.
Learn 3D wasn't the only educator to train you into the gaming industry. Friends of Design also lured gamers and designers to their stand where they offered their one-year full-time G.A.M.E course, which covers the gaming industry, the design processes and game production. The Animation School also offered their three-year diploma in digital animation.
It's safe to say that the first ever EGE expo covered all their bases, from top-of-the-shelf tech, to customised table-top gaming. Gamers were rotating from machine to machine and table to table to make sure they get to sample all the gaming wares. If you're an IT, tech and gaming fanatic or you're just a fan of having a PS console in your hands on the weekend, you missed out. Make sure you get your game on next time!
View some of the tech madness on the Bizcommunity-EGE gallery.
