MCM Expo London--Eat your heart out Comic-Con!

You may or may not have been aware that one of the most iconic video game, anime, manga, comic and movie conventions was in London's ExCel Center last weekend where an astonishing 55,000 + people got their nerd on! Yes Comic-Con, eat your heart out because it can be done just as well across the pond and boy was it an absolute blast!

GameSpot UK Crew @ MCM Expo!

I was fortunate enough to get back together with the GameSpot UK team and man their booth (as the muscle) across the weekend, with front row seats to their excellent stage show and all the weird and wonderful action of the Expo around me. My partners in crime were the lovely Lauren Wainwright and Capcom's Daria Gerasimova, who are both super happy fun time people and need your love on Twitter!



So I thought I'd drop this blog to give a little run-down of what was present, the GameSpot UK booth, stage-show and whatever else I managed to catch a glimpse of amidst all the carnage.

The GameSpot UK booth was right at the heart of the arena, which made sense considering the amount of space needed for the stage, audience and the booth itself. This was a prime location as it seemed everyone was buzzing around us, waiting to see what goodies we were showing off, and giving away.

The picture says it all doesn't it?

Across the weekend we show-cased Child of Eden (Kinect), Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (360), Shadows of the Damned (360), Red Faction: Armageddon (360), DiRT 3 (360), Mortal Kombat (PS3), Virtua Tennis 4 (PS3) and some old school classic arcade games. Endless amounts of people flooded through our confines, played games, talked to us, signed up for our awesome competition and had a great time. It was obvious the exclusives were getting more attention than other games, but nothing was ever free, so we were kept busy.

The gang recording a podcast with the guys from Red Faction: Armageddon

The awesome stage show was really the highlight for GameSpot UK, with a plethora of content, special guest speakers, a live podcast and lots of cool games, I don't remember a free chair all weekend. The stage saw Europe's first exclusive look at Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition with Capcom's lead PR Leo Tang leading the presentation, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Child of Eden, Red Faction: Armageddon, Earth Defence Force and a host of other titles throughout the weekend. Fantastic work from our team up on stage ensured everyone was kept entertained and every presentation ran smoothly.

Lion Man busy promoting his awesome lion wrestling abilities.

When I wasn't playing security for our booth, I had a chance to wonder around and take in and awe at everything around me. Needless to say, every single person was dressed in cosplay--you couldn't walk from one booth to another without stumbling into a Batman or Cloud Strife. Highlights for me included 2K's fantastic Duke Nukem courtesy of their PR team, Darth Vadar, Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit and a female Predator. I also totally met the Lion Man from the hit show on Sky 1--no idea what he was doing there but super stoked regardless!!!

Hail to the King baby!

There was plenty of other amazing stuff across the arena--aside from all the little shops selling memorabilia and the countless tables set up for card games, I had a chance to check out the other video game booths. Nintendo were in attendance showing off The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. I tried to get a quick go but was quickly told to turn round and look at the 200 man line waiting to play--needless to say my VIP badge was not getting me on that console any quicker. Epic Studios had a wicked 5 on 5 LAN Gears of War 3 station that showed off essentially the Beta that came out not too long ago. F3AR and Mortal Kombat also had their own booths and Red Faction: Armageddon was sitting near by too. I think Capcom had the most popularity across the weekend as they held Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournaments. Every time I wondered over there the place was rammed and it was super cool that they had arcade sticks for the more hardcore gamers.

So that's about it from what I remember, the weekend was just so hectic that I may have forgotten bits and pieces but I will add things as they come back to me. This would of course be an appropriate time to thank the GameSpot UK team for inviting me to work with them again, always an absolute pleasure. For those of you guys who want to see all the amazing photos we took over the weekend, you can do so right here on the GameSpot UK website.

The next expo is in October once again at the ExCel Center London, you'd be crazy to miss out it is truly one of the best experiences! See you guys there! Hit me up on Twitter: @ss4Igor

GameSpot UK Internship Recap

Hello everyone! In a world where everyone wants to be heard it's certainly tough to raise your voice above the rest--fortunately I bellow so loud you'll probably hear me all the way from your PC monitor.

My name is Igor Kharin, 21 years old, about to graduate from the University of Cardiff with a degree in BA English Language & Communication. I've been writing since I can remember for various sites about various topics--video games, sports and music included. A vast array of my work can be found here at http://uk.webuy.com/blog/. Computer Exchange has been a great resource for allowing me to review video game content over the years and I hope to continue working for them in the forseeable future.

Anyway, moving on to the main topic of the blog--I was fortunate enough to earn an internship at CBS Interactive, more specifically for GameSpot UK and my first blog will be a recap of everything I learned and accomplished with the team. At this point I'd like to extend my gratitude to everyone at CBS and GameSpot UK once again for welcoming me to the team and helping me progress throughout my time there.

The internship lasted 4 weeks, but due to the ridiculous amount of bank holidays and the royal wedding, it was only 15 working days. Regardless, those days were incredibly productive, mutually of course.

The most important thing I learned was the importance of media journalism--gone are the days of the paper and pad journo and enter the world of voice-overs, videos and lots of other digitally inspired media. This is an incredibly exciting prospect, in a world where talk, talk and more talk runs the show, I feel like I can thrive. I learned that I'm certainly no tech-wizard, but I'd love to give it a go one day. Nevertheless, the contemporary media journalism world is where I belong.

Here is a list of the work published by myself during my time there;

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Hands-On Preview

Transformers was by far my most successful piece at GameSpot so it gets first mention. The article saw front page status on the US (30 million unique monthly users), AU (1.3 million) and UK (4.6 million) sites, paving the way for lots of user discussion. I was shocked at how the article took off but very proud that I was part of something so big.

News - Cohort Studio Closure 

This article gave me the opportunity to interview TIGA CEO Dr. Richard Wilson on his views about the Government's policies towards Game Tax Relief--incredibly interesting stuff.

News - UK Chart 

A news editor role has always been very appealing to me, so working on pieces such as this will hopefully give me experience with the style of writing required to bring news to an audience.

News - MCM Expo London 

With the expo itself coming at the end of the month, the buzz can certainly be felt by many in the video game community. As a result, this also saw front page status on the UK page.

Outland Hands-On Preview

This preview gave me the opportunity to work with audio kit and record a voice over from the script I wrote. An excellent introduction into contemporary media journalism.

The internship was the best 4-week experience of my life. It solidified my intention of working in the media journalism industry--and if I am fortunate enough to choose, the video game industry specifically.

However, now that this is history, it is time to move on. After my exams finish in 2 weeks time I will put significant time into the industry as I search for work. Stay tuned in to my blog where you will find regular opinions about the current climate of the video game industry, reviews and news. I like to think that everyone has something they can contribute to the plethora of opinions out there, but you will find enthusiastic, elaborate and I hope, interesting views here.

Thanks for reading and speak to you soon. Follow me on twitter @ss4Igor