Gamescom 2014 Milka's Blog

There was just one problem - I'd have to get up early, which is kind of a major problem for such a nocturnal person as myself. In the end I decided to do it, as my evil mind had already formed plans on what to do.

When Thursday finally arrived I readied myself with several cups of coffee and then started the trip. 200 km were to tackle, which I thought was no problem due to one of Germany's greatest inventions - the Autobahn. Yet like always when you want things to go smooth, they turn sour fast. Rain and lots of construction work slowed it down. Yet, finally I made it to be met with friendly, yet incompetent stewards. "Press parking.. err.. yea.. just drive on, the guys back there will help you", so I was directed to some random parking spot - at least it was close to the entrance. It took me a while to actually find the entrance, as it was pretty small, yet now that I saw pictures of the main entrance and the queues there I am happy for that.



Once I was in I noticed I was actually rather close to the lair of Relic Entertainment. I decided to drop by early to say hello, laugh at their full schedules and then bail before they could retaliate and walk around a bit. So I just entered the booth - and simply went for the first guy I saw with Relics iconic "r" on the shirt. This person turned out to be Alex Price, their brand director. He really caught me off balance by asking "Are you rich?" without any introduction. 1:0 for Relic, damnit! He quickly sent me to Noun since he was super busy, who then also introduced me to Mitch and Quinn. I seem to have arrived just in their short lunch break, as they were quickly munching some sandwiches. It reminded me a bit of a quote on Homer Simpson:

"The conversation was mostly focused on what Relic was doing that day and I certainly wouldn't want to swap places with them"

Later that day I learned they had an ample supply of drinks, but no food and just a really short break, so I guess I would've done the same. Still they were able to talk between bites and they revealed some of the upcoming information, but mostly small talk. Since they were quite busy and had their next interview, I took a bit more of a look at the other areas of Gamescom. It was roughly 1 pm and it was already pretty full, yet I actually had the chance to test out a few of the Indie companies games there. While strolling around I received a text from Lord Rommel, who was attending on behalf of CoH-HQ, the biggest German CoH fan site. Communication was quite hard since the mobile phone nets were bursting, so calling was impossible and texting while in the middle of a huge crowd is also not that easy. Yet we managed to find each other and decided to give Relic another visit. This time we mostly talked to Mitch (the hairy guy, as he was recently called) and had a few chuckles, especially over that comment. The conversation was mostly focused on what Relic was doing that day and I certainly wouldn't want to swap places with them. Confined in a small room to present the same stuff over and over again, I guess I personally would lose a bit of my enthusiasm after a while. Yet Mitch didn't, he was super happy to finally present the outcome of his hard work and you could feel that. Even in that unofficial conversation you could feel he likes what he is doing.

After spending more time strolling around Gamescom finally the time arrived for the press conference. Sadly for now I cannot reveal the contents, but it's looking quite good. I assume I'm allowed to reveal that they had a heated battle with the other SEGA game, Alien: Isolation. Several times during the presentation the sound was increased and damn, it sounded so great! Alien:Isolation of course retaliated and you could hear screams and screeches from time to time. At the end they were so nice to sign the posters that our artist Le Wish made and they even gave us some stuff. YARR Loot! Two signed copies of Western Front Armies as well as Relic shirts.


I was told Noun wore all of them previously. That's why I was 'Oh yea, lemme smell that' and probably also why Quinn is laughing



Once the official part was over the really great stuff started: Food, drinks and talking! Since I sadly had to move my car I got delayed for quite a bit, but I brought the Relics some nice compensation. As any German knows, there is only one city in Germany where there is no beer, and this is Cologne. They have Kölsch, whose ingredients I best not describe for the sake of readers. So I brought them some beer from a local brewery and since Noun was so freaked out by "the mixture of Cola and Fanta" I also presented him with some other non-alcoholic drinks. Since we had to wait quite a while for the food, but were drinking rather quickly the mood got to a good state quite quickly. Now that Noun's guard had slightly dropped I had him exactly where I wanted him. Besides the beverages I also brought a desert-camo Leman Russ which I asked him to hold for a second. I then took a few pictures of it and told him he had just announced Dawn of War 3. His face was so worth it. I'd say now it's definitely 1:1!

"Everyone ate traditional German cuisine - Schnitzel, Kassler with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes, Fleischkäse with roasted onions - and it was well received."

With the group slowly growing we reached a critical point. The space was getting small so we tried to get a bigger table, yet our waiter was not really friendly and offered no help. Joking that such a "Lebensraumerweitung Ost" (Yes, it's a joke. I know it was a serious event, but humor does not mean you disrespect the actual occurrences) was well suited for a German asked two guys sitting at another table and they volunteered to swap. I don't know who they were, but they wanted to meet with Relic the next day at Gamescom, so they might be able to answer that. A huge thanks again to you, you allowed us to have a great evening! Noun gave them a couple of Relic shirts as well as a gesture of good will. With the new table claimed and the first bits of food being served (salad!) the mood got even better, at least for those who got the food. The envy in the others eyes was clearly visible. Everyone of us was pretty starved, having only eaten a small sandwich the whole exhausting day. Relic was quite surprised that there were waiters who did almost nothing but bringing new beer. Unless you stated explicitly, you got a new beer whenever yours was close to being empty. Finally the main dishes got served and were instantly tackled. Everyone ate traditional German cuisine - Schnitzel, Kassler with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes, Fleischkäse with roasted onions - and it was well received. Since Noun took pictures of a lot of things the whole day I jokingly asked him why he wasn't taking one of his food as well and uploading it on instagram. After a short awkward glance he said he had just taken one with his phone, which caused a bit of laughter. Sometime after finishing the meal the last parts of the group arrived which now consisted of Mitch, Alex, Quinn and Jeffrey for Relic entertainment, Lord Rommel, Pepsi and his coworker Olivier, GeneralMistake, Daniel Veloceraptor and of course myself.






We started talking about the dreams and hopes for CoH2, our current problems with the game, what we liked and disliked. With Quinn we discussed an African faction for quite a while and the problems it would pose. Lightly armed PIIs and PIIIs against a latewar Soviet faction? Yet it would also offer access to one of the iconic German WW2 weapons, the FlaK88. Maybe something like an almost complete opposite of the Oberkommando? Lots of medium tanks and support weapons, but little infantry? Another topic we tackled was a German campaign. If Africa is the next focus, make a campaign based on Rommel? Or go for the exact opposite and choose a resistance cell in Germany as the characters for the story? Resistance against Hitler inside the Wehrmacht was by far not as uncommon as people think and the 'Rote Kapelle' (Red Orchestra) and 'Schwarze Kapelle' (Black Orchestra) named groups could be possible. We did not only discuss single player, but also multi player issues. The unit reactions and some design problems. Pepsi raised a few issues with the new weapon-upgrade system of the US compared to the old one and the lack of the iconic Jeep. We talked about the early alpha stages of the Western Front Armies and in general had an awesome time.



Yet not only good things happened. A mistake was made by nobody else but GeneralMistake. Ordering actual beer (Weizenbier in this case) in Cologne. The temperature in the room certainly dropped a bit and the waiter suddenly looked rather evil and threatening, then he started shouting: (translated) "What do you want? Where do you think you are here. You now get off your arse and go outside, look at what's standing above the entrance. Look closely. Then you come back and you tell me what you want to order." Even a few minutes later the waiter still gave our General some evil stares and snide remarks whenever he brought Kölsch. The day was exhausting and sometime around 22:30 (10:30pm) we got ready to move out. The Relics had to prepare for the next day and so the rest still talked a bit outside. I count the fact that Relic left before I did as another point, therefor ending at 2:1 for me and winning! Looking at the cathedral and how dirty it is, but still how impressive it looks at night, talking about previous and future conventions we slowly let the evening end and then a few people at a time trailed off, for it was just the second (or first, for the public) day of the Gamescom and there was still plenty to see and do!

Thanks for reading and hopefully enjoying MilkaCow's awesome Gamescom-diary. But that isn't all! Stay tuned for some more News from Gamescom and Relic, just around the corner!