PLAY EXPO (formerly Replay), 13-14 October 2012, Manchester

[Slick2097]

If you were thinking of using my directions I posted earlier, then when you get across the bridge to barton square just head down the escalators and go out the doors at the bottom, they have put walkways in now that take you straight to event city .. much easier.

I've just got back from 8 hours of helping setup some of the event and the place is HUGE. Its going to be awesome. Big Kudos to all the volunteers who've helped set this thing up, they've put some hours in already and most of them are still going ...

See you all tomorrow.

Ste.

[sscott]

Big change of plan for me, I am now coming - so I will see you all there!!!!

Really, I thought you were an Internet spambot!

[Spector]

I won't be there which is disappointing for me, but I'm looking forward to hearing who fell out with who!

[DPrinny]

If anyone wants to know

Bus number 250 drops you off down the street from the Lass

[Overheat]

still queueing

[Floob]

Is the massive queue for people with tickets as well?

Wondering if its worth venturing out of the Trafford centre yet

[shmuk]

Wish I could be there now!

[mlucifersam]

What happened to the talks? I wanted to see Anthony Caulfield's press event on this film about the games industry. I found Anthony wandering about at 12:30 (when the talk should have been on) and he said there'd been a delay and even he didn't know what was going on! It was one of the things I was looking forward to. It either didn't happen at all, which looks more likely as the place where the talks were supposed to be was taken over by people eating from the burger vans, or it was on later and I missed it.

Real shame that turned in to a shambles as I was looking forward to it.

[boyo]

Back home tonight to watch Jack Dee at Warwick Arts Centre.

Awesome event - well done chaps!!

Will be there all day tomorrow - so come and say 'Hi'. I'm the one with the white t-shire that has the RF logo on - being looked after by Attic Bug!

[RichL]

Just got back, wouldn't say it was awesome tbh, decidedly 'meh' but there you go. An hour to queue to see the Wii U which wasn't too bad, dont really play online so avoided that part of the hall where all that shizzle was going down, saw Darran a couple of times (funnily enough, both times by the Future Publishing ladies) Jeff Minter and his cans of Stella, Bob Wakelin later in the afternoon and Lara Croft - if you reads this then 'hello' - I was in front of you outside when we were queueing to get in!!

Was tempted to buy the brand new Saturn from Console Passion, but sadly didn't have £200 in cash

[SIR'86]

Got back earlier. Loved the selection of arcade machines - was chuffed to get a decent high score on Mr Do, only to come back later to see my score was utterly demolished.

I was disappointed that all the talks got cancelled - apparently it was due to the people supplying the sound system letting the organisers down, and there was only one microphone available. So they didn't think it was feasible to carry on.

I'll be back tomorrow without the family in tow so I'll be more free to move around, play on stuff and chat to people.

Hope to see some of you there.

[psj3809]

Yep i felt sorry for the guy who had to announce there wouldnt be any talks, as Sir86 said they were really let down by a company who didnt seem bothered about sorting out their mistake, so with just one mic they couldnt really do it. Big shame to get let down by a supplier on the day.

As for the show, amazing how big the place was, as always was great to see people from the forum, great to meet some others for the first time eg Jagfest. Chatted to a lot of people, finally played a few retro games later on. I only went for the day (daughters birthday tomorrow), big well done to the organisers but boy was it a mammoth event !

Feet ache from standing up most of the time, took an interest in pinball machines for the first time, enjoyed going on those. Seeing Jeff Minter, should have chatted to some of the other 'celebs' but missed out.

The Cosplay thing was funny to watch, there were some good costumes out there and some classic bad ones !

Glad i went, shame it wasnt 2 days, really good day though. Yeah theres some issues (queues outside, queues for the food, suppliers letting them down for the sound equipment) but nothing ruined my day.

[Gonad]

What was the reason for the wait to get in out of interest? Someone said there was a power cut.

It was a shame about the talks, but extending the opening until 9pm was excellent, it really quietened down and I went from one pinball machine to the next, all the way down the line for about an hour!

Good selection of retro machines too.

The now.play bit was strange, with those high walled areas with big queues outside you'd think that these game publishers didn't want to show their games off. I realise it was something to do with the games being over 18 games, but the EA stand wasn't and their marketing was (imho) appalling - a huge long queue, people in the queue couldn't even see the game being played (as the queue was round the side) and they seemed to be letting about 7 people in at a time, to play what seemed like a 15 minute game. Needless to say I quickly made my way back to the retro gaming bit where there are no barriers to gaming, and everyone was politely moving on after a 3 minute game to let the next person on!

I find the whole cosplay thing kind of odd. But entertaining. I laughed every time I saw that girl leading the giant Mario round by the hand, with no visibility of where he was going.

[Scapegoat]

Blimey that was hard work!

Huge numbers all decided to turn up at the same time making crowd control fun, having to be the one to go out and tell everyone that there was a 30 minute delay due to electrical problems was a bit of a squeaky bum moment but pretty much everyone through the door was extremely patient and friendly.

Floor walking the section with the new games and consoles reminded me how much i prefer the old stuff.

Good: meeting some lovely people, playing one some cracking retro stuff especially the homebrew.

Bad: the pro gamer lot seem to be rather self important and sometimes more than a little rude.

Wierd: the whole obsession with Japanese games and culture. I mean, whatever floats your boat and all that but seriously, what about it is so appealing that people even want to buy japanese snacks to be a part of the experience ?

[RichL]

Yeah I didn't buy any of those Japanese sweets either.