A marriage of Mountain Dew and Xbox games attracted a handful of gamers to Goldstein Auditorium Tuesday. Despite a spirited combination of caffeine and videogames, the videogame expo was still really boring. In fact, the most exciting part about it was the new Mountain Dew can design.

The expo, Gamelive, featured numerous games, including demos of upcoming games such as ‘Aeonflux,’ ‘Serious Sam II’ and ‘NCAA 06: March Madness.’ None of the upcoming games were very impressive.

‘I think it’s amazing that something like this could be put on,’ said Clarence Cross, a junior broadcast journalism and marketing major.

Some of the gamers came to the expo in hopes of catching a glimpse of the upcoming Xbox 360, Microsoft’s next videogame console. Sadly, Gamelive couldn’t deliver here either. There was no Xbox 360 at Gamelive, but it will be released Nov. 22.

‘I was really hoping to see the new system,’ said senior public relations major Jackie Pilato.

While good video game expos such as the Electronic Entertainment Expo can draw hundreds of people, the crowds at Gamelive stayed small throughout the day.

‘I don’t think many people know about this,’ said Ben Ryall, a sophomore in The College of Arts and Sciences. ‘They should have advertised more to get more people.’

While there were a number of videogames featured at the expo, the selection was confined mostly to shooting or sports games. Considering that Xbox doesn’t have much of a collection outside these genres, this isn’t incredibly surprising. But that doesn’t make it okay.

‘The setup is sort of one-sided,’ said Sean Madigan, a senior education major. ‘If they wanted to attract gamers they’d have a whole variety. … (The selection) is good for the average college student but not the average video gamer.’

Pilato said she was not impressed with Gamelive’s selection either.

‘I haven’t really seen anything that I would get,’ Pilato said.

Also, there weren’t nearly enough booth babes.

Gamelive also included a 20-person ‘Halo 2’ tournament. The tournament lasted over two hours and Matt Belanich, a sophomore science education major, emerged as the contest’s winner. Belanich said he played ‘Halo 2’ every day during the summer.

‘Once I got here it was really fun,’ Belanich said.

Belanich’s victory was rewarded with a free Zen MP3 player.

‘My little sister wanted (an MP3 player), so I’m probably going to give it to her,’ Belanich said.

Published on September 20, 2005 at 12:00 pm