It’s the most magical time of the year again! No, we’re not celebrating Christmas, we’re celebrating a new edition of FACTS, Belgium’s biggest Comic-Con. As always, you can head over to Flanders Expo this weekend to check out some upcoming games, spot some amazing cosplayers, meet some of your childhood heroes or get some exclusive new merchandise for your collection. Since we’re a gaming website, we’ll focus on the videogames. What can you expect to see and play this weekend? Let’s go!
And the award for biggest booth goes to…
Nintendo! As always, Nintendo brought the big guns to the FACTS convention, offering visitors tons of recently released games or exclusive previews of upcoming Nintendo Switch games. The biggest queue is found at the Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Pokémon Sword/Shield booths. No surprise there as both are probably the biggest releases on Nintendo Switch in the coming months. Besides these two big preview games, you can also break your head on some of the difficult puzzles in Layton’s Mystery Journey Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy or spot one of the upcoming amiibo currently on display at the Nintendo booth.
As if this wasn’t enough already, Nintendo also offers hands-on with The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Ring Fit Adventure, Super Mario Maker 2, and more. It’s a crowed booth but it’s a booth worth checking out if you’re going to FACTS to play some games. On top of that, you can also compete in several competitions, try your luck during the giveaways on the Nintendo stage or watch entertaining shows, hosted by Nintendo’s shoutcasters. The Nintendo booth is back at full force and it’s great to see all those happy faces enjoying their time at FACTS while playing Nintendo Switch games.
Ubisoft and PlayStation
Besides Nintendo there are a couple of booths of other big players too, PlayStation and Ubisoft both brought their games to FACTS and PlayStation even threw in an exclusive preview. Although the PlayStation booth is rather small, you can get your hands on Iron Man VR, in preview. Playing a VR game on a convention isn’t always the best idea but this one just works extremely well. If you manage to survive the queue, you’re in for a real threat, flying and blasting around as Iron Man is incredibly fun and perhaps even the best gaming experience on the show floor. On top of that, you can also check out some PlayStation Now games on the booth or watch an exclusive Death Stranding trailer inside the small cube. Again, it’s not the biggest booth and it could have used a lot more playable games but all things considered, it’s good to see PlayStation’s return on the FACTS convention.
Moving over to Ubisoft who brought their Ghost Recon: Breakpoint booth to FACTS. The game itself has been out for a couple of weeks now but that didn’t stop the company to deliver the most impressive booth in the gaming area. The entire booth is themed in Ghost Recon style and it’s a true beauty. Inside the impressive booth you can take a special 360 degrees photograph that will put you right in the middle of the action. Again, no preview game here but for those who didn’t play Breakpoint yet, FACTS offers you the perfect chance to do so. On top of that, you can also enjoy one of the modern Assassin’s Creed games as Ubisoft brought a couple of those too, you’ll find them next to the exclusive Ubisoft merchandise booth. Not the most impressive booth gameplay-wise but certainly the most impressive one to look at.
Enjoy some retro gaming or go hunt some epic merchandise
So, the list of big companies is rather impressive but there’s a lot more to do than just those booths. In the gaming area, you’ll also find the big stage for eSports competitions, a lot of retro arcades and a couple of the most popular multiplayer games. It really doesn’t matter what type of gamer you are, if you’re going to FACTS this weekend, you’ll be able to play some games together or with your friends. Having a retro arcade booth and popular multiplayer games next to the bigger players in the scene is a fun way to offer the needed variation. FACTS isn’t only aiming at exclusive previews, they want you to have as much fun as possible so they made sure the gaming area is filled with things to discover. Compared with the other areas of the convention, gaming certainly isn’t the biggest one but that doesn’t mean you’ll get bored!
Once you finished gaming, you can roam around in the main hall of FACTS in search of some exclusive gaming merchandise. There’s really a lot to discover, from Pokémon plushies and figurines to true collector’s items such as rare First 4 Figures statues or some retro/import videogames. There’s something for every type of gamer and combined with your time in the gaming area, you’ll certainly have a great day!
