rAge Postmortem: Share your experience

DieGrootHammer

DieGrootHammer

Daddy TK
The weekend is coming a close, and so is rAge. I know a few of you went through to the expo, and this thread is to share your experiences; what was the good and the bad of rAge 2013. If you have taken some pictures you wish to share, go ahead and post them here as well.

I went to rAge on the Sunday. I'll list what was good and bad for me:

Firstly - The Good:

Both of the Xbox One and PS4 was playable at the expo, and I got some time playing Forza 5 and Driveclub. Forza is a tremendously beautiful game and the Xbox controller gave such great feedback that you could quite easily feel the car over and under steer.

I saw the demo of Dead Rising 3, and I got much more excited about this game than previously. Any game where you can dress in a football uniform with red cowboy boots wearing a shark helmet going around falcon punching zombies while shouting HADUKEN is an awesome game in my books...

The Crew absolute blew my mind away, as did the showing of South Park: The Stick of Truth. Both games blindsided me with how great and fun they seems.

The organisation of the event seemed to be better than in the past. No real long queues and all the card machines work at all the stalls I spent money at.

The Bad:

This was the first time both of the new consoles were shown to the general public, and both Microsoft and Sony could have done much more to celebrate these. Both of their stand were such let downs.

There were a distinct lack of PC exhibitions. Yes you could have bought all the components you wanted, but why would they not exhibit more PC? In the past we got the chance to play games over 3 screens powered by a beast of a machine. I found the lack of PC exhibitions quite disappointing.

Both the Assassins Creed booth and the Telkom DGL stand were carbon copies of what was done last year. I mean even the demo of AC looked the exact same as last years demo (naval warfare, with prettier graphics)

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Overall I felt they could have done so much more with the expo. There are so many things happening in the world of gaming at the moment; from a hardware up to the actual games. The expo just didn't showcase enough of the world of gaming at the moment. And if they keep op upping the prices of these events, I'm going to expect them to up the quality as well.

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What did you think of rAge 2013?

What did MyGaming readers think of the rAge expo this year?
 
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No real long queues ...
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Saturday morning took me about 45 minutes to get in. Perhaps different times brought different results. So I will call you fortunate :)
 
McT said:
Saturday morning took me about 45 minutes to get in. Perhaps different times brought different results. So I will call you fortunate :)
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Perhaps, which is why I started my post with "went of the Sunday". ;)

Oh and another thing that pissed me off, I get it that all the exhibitors has worked for 2 and a half days, but the expo is ending at 4 on Sunday, and it's bloody lame of you to start packing at 1 on the Sunday. I paid for a full day...:mad:
 
I always vow never to go to Rage again and end up going every year.

My 4 yr old and I queued for about 30 mins in the midday sun, so buying a ticket beforehand is the way to go.

I'm always left with mixed feelings regarding Rage. It never seems to live up to all the hype, with the expo feeling like a mere afterthought with the LAN being the focal point. There were so many people with so few stands that everywhere felt crowded.

As groothammer said, I didn't feel that the exhibitors went to much trouble either.
 
My ups: it's tech and glitter and glamour and all that dazzles the eye. I really enjoyed all the folk who dressed up in outlandish costumes. Kudos to them all for the effort.

The Wii/Nintendo stand was good. First time I had seen the new machine in action. Graphics and games looked good. For me it was about looking for new options for my children. The new Wii U is probably it. We'll see.

There was not a lot else that really grabbed me to the point that I could include it in my positives.

The organisation did feel better. Queues for food and drinks felt a bit long.

On the downside, I was looking for more stands on PC hardware and peripherals. Nothing really about mice or keyboards or anything to please the eye there. Where were those displays or is gaming just about consoles now?

Was I being too hopeful to ask for displays of tablets and applications for tablets? Was really hoping for something in that line. Mega disappointed.

Not a lot of software displays or anything of the sort for computers like Windows 8 or Office or anything remotely similar.

Will I go next year? Unless there is something really outstanding and new, no. I would rather go play adventure golf with my kids or so some gardening.
 
i was on my way up from Durban on Friday night to visit the family and go help at the El33tonline stand... then i hit a freaking truck tyre in the middle of the road, just before the Tugela 1-stop - radiator busted on our Jetta... glad we are all ok, it could have been much worse.

so we spent a quiet night in Ladysmith, and rented a car back to Durban. had we gone up with the rented car we still would have to buy tickets to fly down later, and then the trip is no longer a financial option.

i am bummed i did not get to see the new consoles in action, but since i am not getting one at launch i can wait to see what they really look like. other than that i dont think i missed too much...
 
rAge is always a bit underwhelming. it's a bit of a tradition to go with my buddies every year. Went in cosplay this year (Mugen from Samurai Champloo) so that was cool. getting to see all the costumes up close and the chicks >_<

None of the stands were really that hype this year around. I know not to expect too much already so the main reason I go is to try and get PC hardware and games at awesome prices. A few of the stands were too small while others were oversized. There were constantly lines outside the Dark Carnival stand (which tbh had the best stuff).

Luckily I'm at the point where I know what to expect from rAge so nothing really disappoints. the highlights are always the artist corner, dark carnival and if you ever get to win something. (i know the only dude to win the Dark Souls 2 challenge). I'd like to see more stands selling stuff at awesome low prices but else rAge is always fun times if you don't take it too "seriously"
 
I enjoyed rAge this year but it was far from my previous experiences. This year seemed to be dominated by big corporates and in the end it looked more like a giant advert than an expo. Thinking back it seems a lot was missing, eg. Overclocking stands, PC builds, hardware displays etc.
The PS4 and Xbone stalls were nice but just looked oversized and under stocked to me, looked like a classic big man small package display.

Then it was poorly planned, they had an area where they tried to teach people to play magic but then the actual play area was on the other side of the dome. Then they had the artist corner but once you walked down the isle there was no way out, dead end. They also had the comic book stalls also in the same boat, I figure having the stalls around the trading card area would have been more effective.

Then lastly they had those badges at all the demo stands but that was a serious lost opportunity there. If I was there in the press room I would have given out lanyard things with a card printout with all the badges out there. Then you know which demos are out there to play and also can set the challenge to collect the whole set and get a rAge badge.
On the whole I saw plenty of dropped balls and if it wasn't for the free ticket I would have been kinda pissed.

As for the playable demos, I enjoyed those.
AC iv was good with the 3 options to play and if not for the line I would go back and play the other 2. Love the new berserk darts and then using 2 on the guards and watching the mini battle below me and then stabbing the last guy. The swords felt chunky and slow but switching over to the hidden blades was buttery smooth. The sleep darts work well but I wish they lasted longer so I don't have to run over and kill him in 10 seconds.

I was very glad I got to play the crew, now I know not to buy it at all, the cars just felt heavy, slow and unresponsive.

Batman played just like the last one so I loved it and its easy to review, if you liked Arkam city then get this one.
 
Ike_009 said:
On the whole I saw plenty of dropped balls and if it wasn't for the free ticket I would have been kinda pissed.
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This is how I feel. I paid for a day ticket and honestly, when I got there I just thought: "this blows". I didn't enjoy rAge. I have been looking forward to it for a while. I think that there was some cool stuff on display, but there just isn't enough space to accommodate the crowds. It was very difficult to get in to see anything at all.

I got a good look at the the South Park game and the Batman: Arkham Origins (both of which I thought looked very cool). Other than that I wasn't bothered to stand in the queues. I left after an hour and a half. Maybe next year I'll go on the Sunday when it's a bit quieter.
 
DieGrootH@mmer said:
Perhaps, which is why I started my post with "went of the Sunday". ;)

Oh and another thing that pissed me off, I get it that all the exhibitors has worked for 2 and a half days, but the expo is ending at 4 on Sunday, and it's bloody lame of you to start packing at 1 on the Sunday. I paid for a full day...:mad:
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That is a bit of a cheek really. Not cool man.
 
Ike_009 said:
I'll try for a friday next year, not keen to see them closing shop around me.
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Roomys_ZA said:
That is a bit of a cheek really. Not cool man.
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Yeah I hated that probably the most. But on the Sunday there wasn't that many people so you do have less queueing to do. But I agree with Ike, I'll probably try to go on the Friday next year, that is IF I go.

On another note, is NAG the main organisers of the event? I was thinking of sending them a message with feedback within this thread. Hey, maybe they'll listen and change some stuff for next year...we'll never know until we try...
 
DieGrootH@mmer said:
Yeah I hated that probably the most. But on the Sunday there wasn't that many people so you do have less queueing to do. But I agree with Ike, I'll probably try to go on the Friday next year, that is IF I go.

On another note, is NAG the main organisers of the event? I was thinking of sending them a message with feedback within this thread. Hey, maybe they'll listen and change some stuff for next year...we'll never know until we try...
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They are the main organizers as far as I know.
 
i went to the lan will post details on how the 4 days went. I will also point out what i think about 2013 compared to the other 8 times being at rAge.
 
That whole head phone wearing is pretty gross. I must admit I wouldn't put the headphones on lol.
 
Buying (in many of our cases - winning) your ticket before you arrive at the Dome helps a lot.

What I did like:
1. The amount of talent in the Artist Alley.
2. The Nintendo stand was really well done. It was built to accommodate traffic and they had lots of Nintendo guys everywhere that showed you the games.
3. The Skylanders Swap Force stand was incredible!
4. The cosplay just gets better and better every year.
5. The Batman Arkham Origins stand was pretty cool. You could easily walk up to any screen and see what was going on.

What I didn't like:
1. I was not impressed with the PS4 and the Xbox One. Perhaps I just built it up far too much in my head, but there was nothing happening with those consoles that had me thinking of buying one on release. Also, their stands were not the greatest that I've seen.

2. DAT crowds! I wonder if the Dome is still the appropriate venue for the show. When they start telling people that they can't come inside because of fire hazards, then you perhaps have to think about getting a bigger place.

3. The Artist Alley and the shops for comics and figurines was impossible to navigate through. Something really has to be done here. It was easier to get time on the PS4 than it was to get from one point to the next in the Artist Alley.

4. Crowds to see demos. Perhaps an online booking system can help out with this.
 
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