Friday, October 4th kicked off the annual rAge expo at the Coca-Cola Dome, Northgate. Thousands of gaming enthusiasts came through to get their fix of gaming and technology. Running for the 11th time, rAge definitely brought an action packed weekend, filled with New games, unique cosplay dress ups, a “Lan” section and featured a spectacular array of exhibitors!
When arriving at rAge you instantly feel the vibe of people who are really passionate about gaming, and why wouldn’t they be? Everyone was spoilt for choice by the previews of new consoles such as the Nintendo 2DS, Xbox One and wait for it, yes, the Playstation 4!
While walking around the large Coca-Cola Dome we bumped into some of South Africa’s top notch celebs! Roxy Burger and Sade Giliberti were on scene for MTV, but definitely surprised everyone when they dressed up for the occasion. Professional geek, Grant Hinds was spotted too, soaking up some tech awesomeness and even stopped to snap a photo!
One exhibitor in particular, Afrihost was extremely generous! Every hour, on the hour the exhibitor threw out prizes like Xbox’s, games and T-Shirts, the crowd went wild!
(No really, look at this!)
Even with the Giant Box Game developers on non stop duty, Dominic Obojkovits and Dave Nickerson stopped for a quick picture, before being taken back to the massive crowd where EVERYONE was hooked on their game, Pixel Boy. Dominic and Dave are very proud to be 100% indie and everyone at rAge knew that Pixel Boy had blood, sweat and tears put into it!
The Pixel boy game is: well to use one word, beautiful. The gameplay is easy to learn and you could see it as keen gamers wanting to try, grasped it within minutes. Pixel Boy, an action shooter, follows the lead characters quest in the “Dungeon Runner’s World Championships.” On this quest, Pixel Boy is equipped with his upgradable pixel gear. Your job is to help him on his epic quest to victory! But, it’s not that easy, get ready defeat swarms of giant ants, snapping dogs, dangerous dungeon birds and big bosses!
Pixel Boy is expected to release early 2014, but it’s clear that Giant Box Games have a hit!
Next up on the rAge list was the epic amount of Cosplay characters! Authenticity, creativity and a big amount of will power (The Dome is not a airconditioned arena!) were put into this years costumes, but the love was definitely seen! Many rAge visitors took the liberty of dressing up as their favourite Anime/Movie and television heroes, from Lara Croft to the Joker, we saw it all!
The rAge expo for 2013 was a massive hit, but with an event this big, we can only wonder how the organizers are going to beat it in 2014! One thing for sure is that the gaming community is one that not many people get to experience. rAge brings gamers together to collaborate in what can be deemed as “gamers paradise.”
-Kevin McLennan