rAge 2014 kicked off yesterday – 10 October 2014 – in great style as an army of gamers, cosplayers, PC enthusiasts, promo guys and girls, and Star Wars mug salesman packed into The Dome in Johannesburg.
2014 marks the 12th year that rAge has been going, and this year’s iteration – the first that I have been to – is sure to impress those who attend. For those of you who are still debating whether to attend or not, the event is running on Saturday 11 October and Sunday 12 October 2014, with lots to see and do.
Here’s a taste of what happened on day one.
The Games
Second Opinion: An old hand’s perspective
I’ve lost count of how many rAges I’ve attended. Easily enough to warrant some comfortable grumpiness and cynicism, along with a bit of yelling at kids to get off my lawn.
Yet this year’s rAge once again delivers something special. Not only is there plenty to see and do (as Kevin explains well), the larger exhibitors have put up even more impressive stands this year.
Old hands will also immediately notice that the walkways at rAge are slightly wider this year, making manoeuvring feel more like walking through crowds in Assassin’s Creed and less like Monday morning on the N1 between Pretoria and Johannesburg.
— Jan Vermeulen, grand-high editor and main smartie in the box
rAge is playing host to a number of just-released and unreleased titles this year, including: Evolve, Mortal Kombat X, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, NBA 2K15, Splatoon (from Nintendo), and a whole lot more.
The team from Megarom and 2K have a great setup going for Evolve, which saw eager gamers queuing at length for a chance to have a go.
For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it is a first-person/third-person multiplayer action game and the main mode is a 4v1 “hunt” in which four humans take on one giant monster. The four “hunters” can choose from four different classes: Medic, Assault, Trapper, and Support, and must work together to take down a behemoth.
The Evolve stand at rAge has 10 PCs split into two sections, with the player controlling the monster blocked from viewing the hunters’ screens – and vice versa – as pictured below. The game was LAN-based at rAge, but Evolve team members were unwilling to give more detail on what matchmaking/LAN support would be available in the final version.
Graphically the game is stunning, by far the prettiest game on display at rAge [I don’t know, man, there are a tonne of good-looking soon-to-be-launched games on show -Ed], and the gameplay looked smooth and fun, too. The test build of Evolve was running on PCs, but the developers promised they are aiming to make the game look as good as possible on the PS4 and Xbox One as well.
The other games that were looking good in the aesthetics and smooth gameplay department were NBA 2K15, Mortal Kombat X, and Shadow of Mordor.
This list is likely to be expanded by the likes of The Witcher 3, Far Cry 4, and Assassin’s Creed Unity when we spend a bit more time with them over the course of the weekend.
Evolve
The Cosplay
The standard of cosplay on day one of rAge was excellent, with fans of the respective characters they were emulating going all out to look the part. A few of the cosplayers we spoke to said it took them up to six months to get their outfits together, and the hard work defenitely paid off.
One of the stand out features were the brightly coloured contact lenses that some people wore to truly get into character. We were told they are not comfortable, but beauty is pain sometimes.
Day two should see even more well-dressed souls descending on The Dome.
Cosplay
The Exhibitors
There are 95 exhibitors at rAge this year, according to the organisers, with T-shirt salesman to SA’s largest game distributors showing off their wares.
For the PC modders, I have never seen so many GPUs and LEDs in one building in my life. Hardware sellers and manufacturers are at rAge in force, showing off the latest in tech and offering discounts during the event.
If you are looking for a slighty more niche offering, rAge has that too. 3D printers, micro flying camera drones, Star Wars mugs (I bought a Storm Trooper one), Dota t-shirts, gaming prints, the list just goes on with regards to what is on offer.
Games on sale
The LAN
To truly appreciate the scale of the LAN at rAge you have to see it in the flesh (or carbon and steel, rather). Rows of tables dominated by gamers and their PCs, with a few consoles thrown in, take up a large part of the ground floor and the balcony levels.
IS has provided connectivity for all those who are taking part — expected to be in the range of 2,500 — with maximum Internet download throughput going over 4.8 Gigabits per second towards the end of the day. We thought you were only hooking us up with 4Gbps, IS?
These guys take their gaming seriously, and many a player was seen sleeping under or on top of tables as they took a power nap before getting back to the action.
Below the main expo floor, the Telkom Do Gaming League had its own LAN set up, where professional teams lined up to take each other on. Wearing matching branded shirts and sporting powerful-looking PCs, it made for some impressive viewing.
rAge LAN
The Board Games
One thing I did not expect to see so much of was board and card games, and board and card game players. Although in the minority, there was a strong community of card and board game players taking each other on at the event. Young kids and bearded adults sat at the same table – the difference in age nullified by the board and its esoteric markings between them.
The variety of board games on display and on sale was also impressive, a must see for someone looking for an “unplugged” challenge.
Board games
If you have never been to rAge, like me before this weekend, I would recommend it. There is guaranteed to be at least one aspect of the event which will fascinate and intrigue you, plus you get to play unreleased games, admire fine cosplay, dream build a new PC while checking out the exhibitors, and maybe even take up a new card game.
For more on rAge, read our “rAge: What you need to know” and “rAge: It has begun” articles.
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I attended Rage and the LAN this year, the biggest complaint about the event is the uncontrolled noise pollution that some stands were abusing. The ASUS ROG stand employed some downright irritating DJs, and their entire marketing strategy was based on creating a “party” that tries to outnoise other stands as much as they can. Catch the R20 baseball cap “giveaways”, and racing booths that generated more noise than real race cars. Everything else was real good, except that you cannot actually hear or discuss anything due to the overloaded distortion of subwoofer, and kids were crying because they were scared, and people had to leave after 40 minutes due to a headache and nausea. gg RAGE