Last weekend was Belgium’s biggest “geek” convention. And you know where there’s “geek” stuff there undoubtedly are video games. The organizers were so kind enough to invite us to the biggest convention of the year. I’m going to take the time to talk a bit about what we did and see at the convention center.
F.A.C.T.S. has always been more about comic books and movies so while there weren’t a lot of new games there was a lot of gaming related stuff.
If you are in the market for figurines or swords based on animes or movies you are definitely at the right place. The convention has a ton of stands that sell swords based on the ones seen in certain animes or movies and of course there are a few video game swords there too. Other than swords you can get shirts, figures and other paraphernalia to fill your house or closet with.
Aside from the stuff you can buy, F.A.C.T.S. is the main gathering place for cosplay enthusiasts. Cosplayers from all sizes, shapes and ages. There is a cosplay area for the country’s best to show off their costumes. We took some photos ourselves which you can see here.
There also was an entire hall dedicated to Star Wars stuff. I’m talking a one-to-one size Tiefighter and speeder bike. There also was an AT-AT but it wasn’t one-to-one of course. It’s a cool thing to see if you live in Belgium considering the only place you will see something like that is on the bigger foreign conventions which can get pretty expensive.
But now on to the meat of this article and the thing we focus on in this site. Video Games. There weren’t that many new games on the floor but nonetheless there was enough to play. By far the biggest presence from a video game company was Nintendo. On their booth you could try out Hyrule warriors: legends on the new 3ds(you can read our review here),play versus Pokken Tournament(check out the review here), or check out and play Yokai-Watch. People could also get the Triforce logo spray painted on your body which was neat. The biggest attraction, however, was the Yokai Watch Dance(you can see a video of the dance in action from back at Made In Asia). Aside from Nintendo, Microsoft was also there with Quantum Break(read our thoughts here) and Dark Souls 3 which was running on a 4K curved TV(you can see our video of it here). I wasn’t impressed with the TV. Dark Souls 3 was fun(as you can read here) but the game had a problem with what I assume was the TV’s refresh rate. The representative told me it was because this was an older build of the game but I don’t buy it. And that was just about every new game there. But the fun doesn’t end here. There’s arcades, video game console set-ups and even fighting game tourneys.
So there was a hall which had some arcade cabinets set up with mainly fighting games. But there was also Metal Slug, Puzzle Bobble and more. All of them where free-play and while the cabinets were mostly occupied there wasn’t a line behind the people playing. So you didn’t have to wait long to play and you could continue playing for a long time. And then there was Retrovolt which set up three long tables with tons of cool retro consoles to play on. Right next to Retrovolt was Buttonbash. These guys try to unite fighting game aficionados and create a national fighting game community. They had a setup of televisions with consoles of all generations and all of them were playing a fighting game from that era. It was almost like a fighting game museum or a time capsule. Tekken 3, Killer instinct, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance and even the newly released Street Fighter 5 was there. It was cool to see the variety of fighting games and the amount of people playing them. Most of them picked a console and played a match or two and went on their way. But for the real people who cared about the competitive aspect of fighting games Buttonbash had you covered. They held a tourney for Pokken Tournament, Street fighter 5 and Mortal Kombat X. Entry was free and winning got you some swag and free entry to their next tourney(which is with an entry fee and a prize pool). Overall Buttonbash for me is the reason to go. Anyone interested in not only playing fighting games competitively but getting into a tight and friendly community should check out Buttonbash.
And that’s my experience. F.A.C.T.S. 2016 was a fun convention and is for me personally about meeting up with people and the communities you care about. Whether it’s anime, movies or video games you will find someone to talk to and hang around with.
