Perhaps one of the most appealing parts to the Melbourne eSports Open, is to venture into the Game On Zone, once again sponsored by JB HiFi and sample some upcoming games or learn about the ones that are still a way out from releasing. While the area started out slow, as the Saturday moved on, the crowds came, and lines formed and for good reason.

For good reason as well, as some of the biggest games of the year were there, as well as a few classic titles to taste as well, companies like PlayStation and Nintendo dominated with multiple games, but Xbox and Ubisoft were also showing off a few titles as well. 2K was there giving people the chance to play Borderlands 3 ahead of its release in a few weeks and there was even the chance to test out some of the PC gear from various companies, but how did it all come together.

Stepping into the Game Zone was much like stepping into a micro PAX, with plenty to see, just without a lot of the loud brash music blasting around the place, that was in the other venues. As you entered, the first booths you were exposed to were, a Fortnite free play area and the Girl Geek Academy, then beyond them saw PlayStation and Nintendo taking the spotlight. If you were looking for upcoming titles from Nintendo, then you would be disappointed, as the event was all about the recently released content, such as Super Mario Maker 2 and even things like Super Smash Bros Ultimate and that is not a bad thing as both games had people playing them all the time; plus no matter how many times you see it, a four play Smash game is always crazy.

PlayStation on the other hand, only had a smattering of already released content and instead opted to focus on content that is yet to be released, including Iron Man VR and Medievil. There was a sign-up process for Iron Man VR, but even still, people were loving the game and while I did not stop to check it out, there was no denying it looked fun, if the faces of the people that had played it were anything to go by. Medievil had a nice line of people waiting for it, which goes to show when your game is a classic, people love to play it again. Littered around the booth were also stations to check out FIFA 20 and Dreams, which also had a few people watching what was going on, such is the power of that game.

Of course, there was a lot of interest in Borderlands 3, which given how close it is to release is not surprising at all, inside their booth, players could jump into one of two dozen setups to give the game a go, playing as either Moze, Zane or Amara, sadly no FL4K and there was even a couch and massive tv, for those willing to showcase their skills in the open. I jumped on and enjoyed running through one of the earlier missions again, having done it a few times now and still loved it, so bring on September 13 already, if you want to know more about my time with the game, check out my extended hands on preview, or the things that they are getting right and wrong with the game.

Xbox had an interesting booth, on one side was Minecraft, a staple for most events these days, on another was Hollow Knight and what I think was Human Fall Flat. In front of the booth was a crane game, free for all to try, where people could win some Xbox themed deodorants and such, to help lift their game, or if you are quite the crane game enthusiast, win some Xbox controllers or games, like my friend did. Of course, the centrepiece of the booth and I mean that it was in the centre, was a hands-on session with Gears 5 and while I did not do it, having played the game before, the line for it was constant each time I walked past.

Now the three console makers were not the only ones around, you had Omen by HP, Razer, Turtle Beach, Plantronics (more on them here), Logitech and a few others, showing off the latest hardware from their respective brands, there were even some deals to be had. The part that I like was even the smaller stands, where Koch Media were, showing off the new GRID, or Five Star Games and the Sega Mega Drive Mini and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, a game which I had to play again. Local distributor Bluemouth were on hands, showing off a range of controllers from SCUF, as well as having a giant wall of Fig Pins to people to look at. These booths all had people checking them out, with some of them, being quite hard to get into, due to the number of people already in and waiting for them.

The final booth that honestly would have been hard for people to miss, and yet easily avoided was that of Ubisoft, who were showing off Watch Dogs Legion, a game I got to play at E3 2019 and playable for the first time in the country, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, something I also played at E3 2019. Both games had amazing art up on the sides of the booth, but sadly there was nothing to say what was going on inside, a white board was hanging up in the narrow space between the backside of the Logitech booth and the Watch Dogs Legion entry door, to states times for events, but that was it, though the folks that were staffing the booth were great.

While the range of things to do, might not suit everyone, I found that for the size, there was a lot of things packed within the small space, however given the size of the venue, a few more steps between booths might be welcome next year. If you were going to the Melbourne eSports Open for just the main content, then you did yourself a disservice in missing out on the Game On Zone.