Play Expo @ Manchester - My first Gaming Show!

Once again thanks for all the views of the last post - all of them greatly appreciated guys.

This time around I'm going to be previewing my first visit to a Gaming Expo/Show - Play Expo at Event City Manchester on the 12th-13th of October.

The event incorporates lots of different aspects of the gaming world in one event, and they are broken down into 4 areas:

• re.play (retro systems and arcade/pinball machines)
• now.play (previews of the latest games and hardware)
• pro.play (casual and competitive tournaments)
• cos.play (costume competitions and dealers/traders)

At this Expo they have already confirmed attendance from Nintendo, Ubisoft, Namco-Bandai and Oculus Rift who will all be bringing hands-on previews of their very latest games and hardware. More publishers are to be confirmed. 
They will  also be hosting the UK heats of the World Cosplay Summit with a chance for a pair of entrants to win an expenses paid trip to Japan for the finals!

The re.play area will will feature hundreds of arcade machines, pinballs, consoles and computers and is set to be the biggest retro display in Europe. New for 2013 is the introduction of the PC LAN zone featuring classic networked games from the FPS, Realtime Strategy and Driving genres.

Pro.play will stage tournaments on FIFA, Mario Kart, Halo and Minecraft plus many more and they will be hosting the UK qualifier for the Super Street Fighter 4 Capcom Cup with a trip to the USA for the winner!

For me personally it will be a new experience, getting to meet gaming industry people first hand and seeing face to face what experiences are to be had at events such as this.
I'm very keen to get my hands on Assassin's Creed 4 and also seeing any other new releases on show.
I'll also be keen to meet up with any other gamers attending the event, and maybe put faces to names! 

I will be hopefully getting loads of info to put into an upcoming blog post, and give my views on all aspects of the event.

If you would like more info on Play Expo and Replay Events who organise the event, then their details are below.

Play Expo - www.playexpo.net
Replay Events - www.replayevents.com

Send me a message if you're going to the event, and hopefully we can have a chin wag!

Let me know your thoughts people, and feel free to get in touch -
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Old_GrumpyGamer
XBL - NastyNeil WR

Peas out chaps! 
Neil