GAMES 15, one of the biggest gaming events in the Middle East, wowed over 15,000 attendees last weekend with its biggest and most successful event to date! Featuring the newest titles and tech from some of the best publishers in the industry, GAMES 15 allowed excited gamers and tech-lovers the chance to celebrate all things gaming over a jam packed weekend!
AbsoluteGeeks was at GAMES 15 during the three days the event was held, covering every aspect of the event. Showcasing the best and newest titles with its interactive exhibition hall, and encouraging eager fans to get up close and personal with industry leading brands, publishers, and key players from across the world. Games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider, Fable Legends, Disney Infinity 3.0, PES 2016, FIFA 2016, Mad Max and more were also featured at the event. Exclusive launches of major new releases such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Rainbow Six: Siege and The Division gave gamers the chance to experience the thrill of being some of the first in the world to play the industry’s newest offerings. We personally got our hands on all these games and found it difficult to step away from the screens, so enthralled were we with the titles!
Yet this was not the only announcement to surprise Dubai audiences, as Square Enix made the exciting declaration that their newest offering will be localised in Arabic. Just Cause 3 will be not only feature menus and subtitles in Arabic, but will have full Arabic voice-overs too! This trend continued, with 2K Games announcing a similar localisation for WWE 2K16, who also delighted fans with the attendance of world famous WWE superstar Daniel Bryan who attended the event to answer questions from fans and to do signings!
In a first for the region, GAMES 15 also played host to the ESL ESEA Pro League Dubai Invitational, which saw 8 of the world’s top teams battle it out on Counter Strike: Global Offensive for a prize fund of $250,000. Hosted within a specially built outdoor venue and supported by Dubai Tourism, attendees gathered to cheer on their favourite teams as they vied for gaming glory over the three days. Despite being a Cloud9 supporter and seeing them being knocked out at the playoffs, I nonetheless cheered on the two teams that made it to the finals: Virtus.Pro and Team SoloMid. In the end, after 5 intense rounds spread over multiple maps and games, Virtus.Pro emerged as the winner, to the delight of the onlooking crowd.
The ESL teams and Daniel Bryan weren’t the only star celebrities at the event however as voice acting legends Ellen McLain and John Lowrie attended the event, dazzling fans with reiterations of their favourite lines they’ve voice acted over their career. If you aren’t familiar with their names, you’re probably familiar with the characters they voiced: GLaDOS and the Sniper from Team Fortress 2 respectively in addition to dozens of other such characters. Capcom legend Yoshinori Ono, who was also present at GAMES 15, announced an exclusive new addition to the revered list of Street Fighter characters. Perfectly timed to excite the audience, Ono announced Rashid; Street Fighter’s first Middle Eastern character, who can harness the power of the wind to defeat his enemies. Queue Darude Sandstorm?
Cosplayers were out in force during the entire three days of GAMES15, especially on the second day due to the Cosplaying competition, judged by Cosplay pros Maddeline “Zhiana” Rose and Variable! Cosplayers of all sizes marched on stage to the soundtracks that added a sense of surrealism to their cosplay costumes. We got to see geeks cosplay as characters from DOTA 2, League of Legends, World of Warcraft and the Final Fantasy series to name but a few. Keeping the crowd hyped during the entire event with the best from Retro to Hip-Hop to International tunes was none other than DJ Trina.
Entrepreneurs and local artists from across the country also had a presence at GAMES15, specifically at the artists alley, setting up stalls and showcasing products they had spent their time and skill crafting. The merchandise on sale there had me leaving the event with a lighter wallet but with a big smile plastered on my face due to having purchased enough posters to cover the wall of my bedroom.
My only regret about GAMES 15 was that it ended so soon, but I know that we here at AbsoluteGeeks are looking forward to GAMES 16. Game on Geeks!
