So this Friday was the beginning of the 2010 Eurogamer experience and GNG were right in the forefront of the action with Tengu and Leo walking the floor of the expo all day finding lulz, talking to those people who matter and occasionally having a beer. And watching the Kinnect girl steal a sandwich. No lie.

I’ll start off with the negative and work to the positive as this seems only fair. First and foremost Eurogamer was ultimately what I can only described as a very British affair. Dull. Wet. Overpriced and seemingly lacking the enthusiasm of those who should be invested in it most.

Where has the US has the awesome E3 with it’s life Tekken X Street Fighter shows and surprise announcements and Japan has TGS with all the innovation that brings… the UK simply has a exhibition centre with some consoles in it. I know this sounds harsh, but we here at GNG are beginning to become bitter about this. Why does the UK get all the shit versions of the Cons? Why can’t anything exciting ever happen here? We suck. Badly.

Lets talk about the exhibition center itself for brief time; Earls Court Brompton Exhibition Center. Firstly; ‘jobs worth’ security guards making even those on Press and Industry passes feel unwelcome by being rude and generally unhelpful should be a massive no no for what is essentially an event which boils down to being one giant industry advert. There were a number of security staff, in particular those involved with the venue’s quite ridiculous exit / smoking area.

For those of you who are not familiar with the venue, the only way into the arena is up an escalator and the only way out is a bizarre huge staircase affair leading to what I can only describe as a ‘human whack-a-mole of fire doors’. It was raining on Friday, going outside for a smoke involved standing in front of these ten or so fire doors and hoping you didn’t get knocked the fuck out, which for the record, I was about an inch away from twice – and yes, I would have been calling CLAIMS DIRECT. The fact that no provision had seemingly been made to extend or make the smoking area less actually dangerous in event of rain (it’s October in London guys; it’s raining) is mind blowing and representative of the “Whatever” attitide of the event staff on the day.

I have to point out here in fairness that leading up to the event the actual Eurogamer staff (Tom Champion) in particular, were very helpful indeed. Earls Court and contractors definitely let them and the expo as a whole down on the day.

The security staff stationed there on Ice Station Retard Whack A Mole for example were frankly offensive and just generally, to cut a long story short; dicks. I’ve been for a smoke – why can’t I, with my press pass, go back up the stairs the way I came? Why is it necessary to have me walk around the entire building? Oh, other than the fact you are a complete dickhead. But I digress…

The most important criticism of the venue and facilities can be summed up thus; two baked potatoes a beer and a coke should never cost £18 unless they imbue you with magical powers. Flight or invisibility perhaps. That’s just profiteering. Fuck that and the money train it rode in on. And if you are going to charge people ridiculus amounts, you can ensure your staff are helpful and polite, not retarded drones seemingly sapping both my money and will to live at the same time!

Moving on to the actual content of the show I’ve got to start by saying that GNG feel there was asevere lack of developer and in some cases, staggeringly, PR or Marketing presense from some of the bigger names exhibiting. Indeed the Nintendo stand (with no 3DS and one closed off booth for Zelda) was little more than a joke – it was the same “Unleashed” crap parlour they rolled out for Comic Con this year (why is their booth structure named after a rival company’s flag ship product from a few years back anyway??).

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