Welcome to the 58th edition of Reloading…

 

Everyone needs a feel good moment to start the day. Let’s go with this…

 



 

I realize that Jeff sent out yesterday's Reloading... only a few hours ago and that today's will be arriving to the east coast around 1 or 2am and on the west coast it will still be yesterday. But hey, we're shooting for realism here to make you feel like you're actually at gamescom. And part of that is the jet-lag. I know--greatest gift ever.



I don't understand this country. It's a nice place, don't get me wrong, but there are some things that I'm having a hard time adjusting to. You may remember last year when we were here Reuben and I shared a room, and the first room the hotel gave us was a single bed. Well, as it turns out, that's pretty standard practice here, at least in Cologne. I arrived at the hotel about four hours before Jeff so I got to know our room rather well. The beds are about the size of three sofa cushions and while there is technically some space between our beds, flailing arms and legs are an apparent real danger to us here. Woleslagle body parts found their way into my bed last night, and I'm sure the reverse was true at some point too. And if that wasn't enough to cause us mid-life identity confusion, there are no dressers or drawers here in the room. There's also no door on the shower stall. There is, however, a closet with some food in it and an electrical outlet in the wall safe. So while Jeff shaves by the wall safe and cooks breakfast in the closet allow me to tell you about what we're going to see today at Europe's biggest video game convention.



We start off the day with a Press Briefing from NCsoft. You remember them. The guys publishing Guild Wars 2? Remember? Not only that but they're publishing for a new company called Carbine Studios. We're not entirely sure what we're going to see at the Press Briefing but we're willing to bet it's going to be some big cool news.



After the Briefing we'll be heading over to talk to some of the folks at Turbine about The Lord of the Rings Online. There may be something from here, but expect the really good LotRO stuff to come from PAX Prime next week where Reuben will be soloing.



From LotRO we head to one of our favorite game demos to play at these events: TERA. We all enjoy playing this game so much that to figure out who gets to go we usually end up in a boxing match or tickle fight or some sort of hybrid MMA match. And by MMA, I mean 'mixed moronic actions.' This time though, I extended the olive branch and we'll both be in attendance to check out the action MMORPG. Keep your feet to yourself tonight Jeff!



At 1pm Central European Time (that's +1 GMT/CST to most of you) we split up and Jeff goes to a Paradox Press Conference and I head to Red 5 to check out their upcoming MMOFPS (which is just about into beta!), Firefall.



The dynamic duo reunites at 2pm (+1 GMT) for Trion Worlds. We're not sure what to expect at this appointment. We may see some of Rift and very likely a lot of End of Nations, which was recently announced to be launching as a F2P. What I'm anxious to see though, is if we'll be hearing more about Defiance. Their goal is to have the Syfy game running in synch with the television series to be cross-console compatible. At the demo at E3 we even saw the Xbox and PS3 being played in unision in the same game. But the real question here is whether or not Sony and Microsoft will ever get along enough to work out some sort of rights which will allow the two consoles to be played together. Anyway, we'll see, but I hope we get to see more of Defiance, overall, today.



We conclude our day in the EA Press Lounge where we'll get to see all the cool games we mentioned yesterday. Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Mass Effect 3, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and even some non-MMO and non-RPGs.



It's going to be a long day, particularly since it's nearing 2am on my regular schedule and I'm just getting up now to hit the shower and get ready for the day. But it looks like Jeff's done with the wall safe, and there are some yummy smells wafting over from the closet, so I'll end it on that note. While we're out, if you just can't wait for us to get back, head over to our gamescom 2011 portal.



Talk soon,

 

Benjamin J. de la Durantaye

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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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