Dubai: Hot on the heels of last week’s Xbox One launch and this week’s Destiny game launch comes the annual highlight of the UAE’s gaming calendar: GAMES 14.
As well as being able to try out Microsoft’s new console, attendees will be given the change to meet industry bigwigs and try out the hottest new releases and upcoming games.
The three-day event, created by the Games Alliance Middle East (Microsoft, Sony and the two biggest regional game distributors), RED Entertainment and Pluto Games, starts on Thursday, September 11 at the Dubai World Trade Centre and runs until Saturday, September 13.
Alongside demos of new and upcoming game releases, this year’s event will feature an open mic panel with game legend Ian Livingstone, Ubisoft product manager and character lead Jeffrey Spicer and Ahmad Nasheet, founder of Bahrain’s DVLz Game.
Livingstone attended for very first GAMES event back in 2008, when public game demos were considered a sideshow to the business conference taking place.
Bungie’s multi-platform, shared-world shooter Destiny, released worldwide on Tuesday, is sure to be a major attraction at the show. Other headline games to be demonstrated at the event include Activision-Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Ubisoft’s highly anticipated action-sneaker Assassin’s Creed Unity, set in the French Revolution, and Konami’s long-awaited Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Fans will also have the opportunity to try the upcoming Xbox One exclusive action-shooter Sunset Overdrive for themselves.
Fighting game fans are looking forward to their first chance to try out the upcoming Mortal Kombat X, due for release next April. It’s the first new game in the venerable series since 2011’s franchise reboot.
Driving fans will be able to try Microsoft’s Sims Forza Horizon 2 and Forza 5 and Ubisoft’s open-world MMO driver The Crew,
Bethesda’s new survival horror game The Evil Within, due for release in the middle of October, will also be on show.
Batman’s pretty big this year, with Warner bringing both Batman Arkham Knight and Lego Batman 3. Family games include Skylanders Trap Team on Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes.
The annual releases of football Sims FIFA 15 and Pro-Evolution Soccer 15 will be on show. Other sporting titles include WWE 2K15.
There will also be a tournament for Titanfall, the Xbox-based multiplayer team shooter pitching infantry against giant mecha.
Also at this year’s event, for the first time Dubai shop Geeky Lizard will be giving attendees a break from screens with a series of tabletop games, including the war-games Warhammer and War Machine, the card game Magic The Gathering, and a tournament of the Japanese trading card game Vanguard.
The event will also feature an appearance by former WWE heavyweight champion Sheamus.
