Last Saturday me and a small number of friends attended PLAY EXPO GLASGOW which was held a Braehead Arena just outside Glasgow city centre. PLAY Expo being a Games convention hosted by Replay Events Ltd which itself declares the Expo as “The UK’s favourite video gaming expo”, this is the first time the popular UK wide games convention has come to Scotland. In this article I shall discuss my time at the Expo as well as what it had to offer.
In terms of events PLAY Expo offered a wide range of great activities ranging from retro consoles and arcade cabinets to the ability to try out new tech such as the HTC Vive. Unfortunately I couldn’t try the VIVE out due to the amount of people who had signed up in advance which was in a way predicated given the recent rise in popularly of VR peripherals. Other events which were held throughout the day of course included the convention staple of Cosplay. Various contests were held for Cosplayers such as the Lip Sync Battle where Cosplayers had to show off their lip syncing (as well in some cases dance) abilities. Of course arguably the crowing cosplay event was the masquerade in which cosplayers were judged on various attributes such as the accuracy of their costume as well any act or skit they might have performed during the masquerade.
Vendors also played a huge role in this years expo, with various stalls offering all kinds of great gaming merchandise. From obscure and consoles to rare collector’s items, these stalls had something for everyone. Other stalls offered great displays of sketches, drawing and all kinds of art work from anime to games scenes; these are always great to browse and pick up at events as you are supports local artists who spend great deals of time putting passion to paper.
The Expo also had a traditional LAN area set up with classic games such as DOOM and Counter Strike source which I personally spent the majority of my short time at the LAN area. Overall the Expo in my opinion is a welcome edition to the ever growing Glasgow gaming community, with Play EXPO, Resonate and other Glasgow/Scottish run conventions, now is definitely a great time to be a gamer in Scotland.
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