Gamescom 2010: The Way It Is

What do you know? We're at Gamescom. In addition to checking out the big releases and other big news, this show gives us the opportunity to see what life's like on the other side of the globe. And folks, it ain't always pretty. Here's a glimpse at some of the things we've seen during our first day at Gamescom.

When you think about video games, chances are your mind naturally drifts to remote-controlled boats. In that case, you are in luck. There is a stand that sells remote-controlled boats.

If you know anything about waiting in lines, you know that Blizzard's booth is a must-see attraction. Last year, people mobbed this booth for a chance to play Diablo III. This year, it's all about Cataclysm.

Yeah, it's Cyberbike: Magnetic Edition. In this game, you can ride some kind of mine-cart contraption...

...or a pedal-powered submarine! Yep.

Germany is home to huge innovations, such as the Duracell Bunny.

It's also home to a big, honkin' EA booth. Note: I didn't know this guy was in the shot until I looked at it later. For real.

Football is still really big here, even though that world cup thing is over.

If you would like to get your hair styled while in a truck parked inside of a gaming convention, you must visit Cologne next year.


This Lego guy is made out of smaller Lego blocks. It really makes you think, doesn't it?

Here's a look at Microsoft's booth. First, here's the left side. Notice all the Kinect pods. If you play a game here, lots of people are going to be watching you.

And the right side. It's pretty big, overall.

Nintendo's booth is right across the way. In fact, you might be able to catch a glimpse of it if you had X-ray eyes.

Here's the other side of Nintendo's booth. You can't see it now, but the guy on the stage in back was dangling prizes in front of the crowd with fishing poles. It was pretty barbaric stuff.


Finally, an officially sanctioned place in which we can pimp our shirts. Did I mention that Germany is a progressive nation?

This is a giant inflatable baby head. I should probably take this opportunity to mention that I am an excellent photographer.

I saw a lot of people taking pictures of this car. Now that I look at it in the hotel room, it looks like a perfectly nice Volkswagon. Am I missing something here? Seriously, people were frothing at the mouth to snap pics of this dumb thing,

On a serious note, Sony kind of owns Gamescom. This is their home turf.

Here's more of Sony's massive booth.


Here's some kind of space guy. Yeah, I know he's from StarCraft. Sheesh. Lighten up already.

This is my last shot. It's of one of the guys from the Landwirtschafts Simulator 2011 team. That would be a tractor sim. I played it for a while, and it works just like you think it would. You drive a variety of farm equipment on fields and roads. I saw a guy ride a combine up a mountain. Here's the thing: According to one of the guys I talked to here, this game was the second best-selling PC game under 30 euros last year, right after World of Warcraft.

Germany.