Gadget Show Live 2014 Experience / Review

Discussion in 'Reviews' started by InsaneNutter, Apr 13, 2014.

  1. InsaneNutter

    InsaneNutter Resident Nutter Staff Member

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    Yesterday myself, Trebor, Popcorn and another friend who's not a member of Digiex went to the Gadget Show Live exhibition, hosted at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England. We set-off around 6:30am and arrived in Birmingham just after 9:00am for the start of the exhibition.


    What is the Gadget Show Live?

    The Gadget Show is a TV show in the UK which talks talks about gadgets, games, tablets and phones as you would expect. Each year the Gadget Show puts on an exhibition where you can go and see gadgets, games and other cool things, along with watching a live version of the TV show.

    The live show we watched covered the last 10 years in tech, as it was the Gadget Shows 10th anniversary this year. A video was shown on several large screens showcasing a look back at some of the tech released that year. The presenters were also doing things on stage during talking about each year and getting the audience involved.

    Peredur Gwynedd from Pendulum was a guest at the event and played the guitar on stage during part of the event, along with getting involved with the presenters.

    The live show was quite good, i wouldn't say it was amazing, however it wasn't that bad either. Its something you could miss watching there and have a perfectly awesome experience at the exhibition without watching .

    I have recorded the start of the live show, along with a very good Robot like dance a team of people did in the pitch black arena dressed in lights. The lights were timed to come on and go off, coordinating with the sound / music. It's kind of hard to explain, and ive totally forgot who the people are who did that, however if you watch the video below you will understand what im talking about.

    Gadget Show Live Video:

    [video=youtube;gpQL52dwSGM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpQL52dwSGM[/video]

    0:01
    - Gadget Show Live Introduction
    4:32 - Robot Dance
    7:23 - Robot Wars
    9:07 - Robot Wars Battle 1
    10:36 - Robot Wars Battle 2
    12:17 - Skanect 3D Face Scan with Microsoft's Kinect
    13:01 - Waterproof Paper
    13:22 - Leap Motion Controller for PC and Mac
    13:57 - Various other things on the show floor
    17:07 - RC Car Race

    Alternative Video:

    (Our other video got copyright claims so this video has the footage from the stage event removed, and features the exhibition only, if you can not play the original version this one should play)

    [video=youtube;gNY9mfZSJ4U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNY9mfZSJ4U[/video]

    The Gadget Show Live Exhibition

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    The Exhibition had something for everyone, ranging from random gadgets such as air drones, 4K Ultra HDTV's, unreleased games to play, live robot wars events and more.

    Trials Fusion

    I quite enjoyed the gamers section as i got to play two unreleased games, the first was Trials Fusion which is actually released next week on the Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PS4. After playing the beta which includes limited content (you can get the Trials Fusion beta for PC here right now) it was great to be able to have a play on the final finished game and see some of the content restricted in the beta. If you love Trials Evolution this game is more of the same thing, except more crazy, absolutely mental tracks, quadbikes and the addition of stunts. The game is launching with plenty of content that will keep you busy for a long time to come!

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    Evolve

    The next unreleased game i got to play was Evolve, this is an FPS game been developed by the team responsible for the first Left 4 Dead game. Evolve is basically a co-op game where four players hunt an alien monster controlled by a fifth player. To play Evolve we went in to a separate room and were shown a trailer showcasing what can be expected from the game when released. Evolve was shown in private and we were not allowed to film anything or take any photographs, so unfortunately i cant really show you anything from this, the only photo of the actual game i have is this one below:

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    For our play of the game ten people at a time were invited in to play the game, we were then split in to two teams of five. One player in each game would be the monster and the other four people would be hunting the monster. At the start of the game each of the human team members had to select a different class, each with its own unique abilities. No one class is like the perfect class. I was basically the medic class, my special ability was my own health regenerated, however i was not the strongest at fighting. I had to ensure i stuck next to the other three people on my team to heal them in battle.

    Team work was essential when playing this game, we all had to put headsets on to play Evolve. One of the developers from the game spoke to us through the headset and talked us through getting started with the game. She also encouraged us to work as a team, stick together, communicate and "track" the monster together. We all worked really well and won the game within the first couple of minutes of play time.

    The monster has three stages of evolution, becoming increasingly harder to kill the more it evolves, that's why in the game mode we played working together as a team was essential to take it down sooner, rather than later. We kinda of shot ourselves in the foot a bit working so well together as we could have had a more time with the game if we didn't kill the monster on its first stage of evolution.

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    I did quite enjoy Evolve, and i must admit i had never heard anything about the game until the Gadget Show, think of the game as a left for dead, kind of combined a bit with Unreal Tournament and you have some idea of what the gameplay will be like. Evolve is a true next gen game expected to be released in September 2014 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

    The Oculus Rift

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    Something else i got to play with which i thought was down right awesome was the Oculus Rift. The Oculus Rift is an upcoming virtual reality head-mounted display, which was in the news recently as Facebook purchased Oculus VR, the company who created the Oculus Rift for $ 2billion!

    For the Oculus Rift demo i got to experience, you were riding around on a roller coaster. In this demo when you moved your head to look around you also moved it about on the Oculus Rift, so you could turn your head right and look and your arms, then look down and see your feet in the rollercoaster carriage and of course look up and see the sky. With the Oculus Rift you are totally immersed in the game, all you can see when you look around is the 3d world in the game. This technology has so much potential in my opinion!

    Never mind 3D for movies, in a few years time we could have immersive movies, where you go to the cinema, put an Oculus Rift on and are free to look about in the world the movie is set in. I have no idea if that will ever happen, however i think that would add so much to movies, forget 3D, the Oculus Rift would be the real next generation cinema experience!

    For gaming i certainly think the Oculus Rift has a lot of potential too, games would be so much more immersive when all you can see is the games world, then when your head movies your view point in the games world moves too.

    The potential for the Oculus Rift is nothing short of mindblowing i think, maybe in the future if we ever do have immersive movies, the chairs could also offer force feedback too? When i was watching the rollercoaster demo the person incharge of the booth suddenly pulled my chairback as the rollercoaster went over the loop, that made me jump and added a lot to the experience too. Lets put it this way i enjoyed my 3 minute demo of the Oculus Rift a lot more than any 3D movie.

    The only thing i will say is the resolution on the Oculus Rift needs to improve significantly, the Oculus Rift i got to try was a 1st generation Developer kit with a resolution of 1280×800, which is 640×800 per eye. Despite the experience been great the image was however very pixelated. The good news is that the second generation developer kits are already 1920×1080, which is 960×1080 per eye, i imagine that should improve the experience a lot more. However give you basically have your eyes in-front of a LCD screen i do believe for the best experience 2K+ plus resolutions would be required.

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    Yes, I do look a bit of a tool with an Oculus Rift strapped to my face, however i really do think this has the potential to be the next innovative way we consume media.

    The Show Floor

    I enjoyed all of what Gadget Show Live had to offer, however for myself playing Evolve, Trial Fusion and experiencing the Oculus Rift was by far the highlight of the day for myself. Below i have shared a few photos i took with a little write up about each one, if you would like me to go in to any more detail about anything just ask.

    The Windows Experience Bus - inside the bus had touch screen computers running Windows 8.1, an Xbox One setup with Smart glass and a Kinect setup, basically you got an introduction to the Microsoft ecosystem, aimed at less technical consumers.

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    Flappy Bird - Just for something random their was a 100ft screen connected to an Android tablet running Flappy Bird.


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    Sony - had some divers in a tank demonstrating that their new phone would perfectly under water and could take photos, as well as record video when submerged under water, pretty neat.

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    Jason Bradbury
    - He randomly appeared as we were in the line to try the Oculus Rift, he spoke to a few people at the front, then had to go off to get ready for the next live show.

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    Active Robots - A company called Active Robots had a robot which could be shown by a human how to do a task, it would then learn how to do that task. For example the robot was shown how to pickup a golf ball from the table in front of it, it would then look at the table and be able to pick the golf ball up no matter where on the table it was placed.


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    Free Advertising - As all the Surface devices there had an internet connection, Digiex was left open on many of the Surface tablets there as we left the Microsoft booth.


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    Skanect - This was some 3D scanning software which used a Kinect connected to a Windows based PC to scan a person in and create a 3D model of them on screen. This would by the person slowly been moved around 360 degrees on a chair, allowing Kinect to completely scan them.


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    Digiex - A photo of the plasma tv which was displaying a webcam mounted on the arena roof, with Team Digiex posing for a picture.

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    4K HDTV's - This can't be done justice unless your stood infront of one and experience it for your self, 4K TV's playing 4K content really do make 1080p HDTV's look like SD in comparison. You almost have to have your nose pressed against the screen just to try and see some pixels. I thought 1080p was more than enough, however you really do notice an absolutely stunning difference the second your stood in front of a 4K display, especially when a 1080p screen is right next to it for comparison.


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    That's about all I have for you, I never actually went to the Gadget Show Live with the intention of writing anything up, or even sharing any photos / videos, however I thought i could do an interesting write up, so here it is! If you have any questions do feel free to ask and i will do my best to try answer them.
     
    Trebor, Rick, xzKinGzxBuRnzx and 2 others like this.
  2. Trebor

    Trebor Dolphin Fan

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    Couldn't have summed it up better myself InsaneNutter. Great review and a great day was had I'd say :)
     

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