Arts writer
WITH gaming growing as a sport and even morphing into a culture in its own right, Canal Walk and BT Games have joined forces to offer a tantalizing inside look into the latest gaming ideas and releases that are racking up appeal around the world.
The Canal Walk Gaming Expo will take place from tomorrow to Sunday. Favourites such as Guitar Hero(remember the movie Couples Retreat and The Playoff?), Fifa 16, Skylanders Superchargers, Forza 6 and many more will be on offer for hands-on test-driving.
Joining the line-up will be the latest generation of powerful video game consoles, including the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo’s WiiU, as well as other items like gaming keyboards and headsets, which will also be available to experience.
The gaming world has eclipsed movie pre-orders and as such, early ordering of next generation games like Uncharted 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, and Just Cause 3 is essential for fans.
Aside from electronic consoles and games, the gaming world of fantasy and anime comes to life with a specially crafted cosplay competition.
“Gaming is more than just the latest screen experience and video game releases,” says Karl Klöpfer, Marketing Lead at BT Games, “it includes trading card games, such as Magic the Gathering and YuGiOh and more, which is why we have called this a gaming culture exhibition. Furthering the notion and playing to the connected home theme, which is where the human race is headed, we will also be introducing visitors to the new BB-8 Sphero Droid – the Star Wars app-controlled droid, which can also be won.”
As we move into a world that is dominated by technology and apps, so young people are adopting coding as a basic language. The Expo will have a number of programmes and consoles available that can demonstrate how even very young children can learn how to programme, and make coding fun by using apps on iPads, iPhones, Android tablets and phones.
Vanessa Herbst, Canal Walk Marketing Manager adds, “With the festive season around the corner, we wanted to make sure that our shoppers had an advance look into and even experience of what could be on the request list for kids and even older gamers as gaming is for all ages. To make it even more exciting we are delighted to be able to work together with BT Games to provide a number of competitions, challenges and opportunities for visitors to show-off their talent and even win win great products and take advantage of special deal offers only available at Canal Walk to get festive season shopping done early.”
l To see the Expo’s full schedule, which includes a media football shoot-out competition that will take place over the Halloween weekend see: www.canalwalk.co.za or follow the chat on Twitter: @canal_walk @BTGamesstores #gamingexpo