The annual Armageddon Expo in Auckland has always been a staple go to event for pop culture enthusiasts. With an array of gaming, anime and cosplay events and activities on offer, it is an event that should be experienced at least once.
This year’s Armageddon Expo 2017 edition was on another level compared to previous years with a star-studded lineup of guests, fantastic gaming events and activities as well as the slightly biased fact that I got to stream video games on stage as well as speak about my work with Attack On Geek and TenForward.
This year, Beyond Reality Media, the company behind Armageddon, did a fantastic job with bringing pop culture ‘gods’ to Auckland including the ever funny, charming and still fairly good-looking, Nathan Fillion, of Firefly and Castle fame; the hilarious and talented John Barrowman, from Torchwood and Arrow; the dastardly Draco Malfoy a.k.a Tom Felton from the Harry Potter series, and so many more.
I had missed out on the chance to meet Nathan Fillion several years ago when he attended Supanova Comic Con in Australia, so I was determined to not miss out again (I’d have regretted it if I did) and instantly planned out my Armageddon weekend around seeing him. The event began on the Friday of the long, labour weekend, with surprisingly more attendees than the usual media and exhibitors. This year, far more members of the general public were in attendance on the Friday evening. However, it was still the best time to experience all that Armageddon had to offer, without the hassle of huge queues and crowds.
Whilst it was incredibly sad to not see Xbox present, it was amazing to see Omen by HP (HP New Zealand) dominate the showgrounds with their huge presence, followed by Sony PlayStation, who has always managed to steal the show with their incredibly big blue stand. It was awesome to see Lenovo have a fairly large stand as well, with their new Jedi Challenges Augmented Reality experience on display.
Though Xbox themselves were not present, their newest console, the Xbox One X was, hooked up to Samsung 4K TVs for attendees to experience true 4K gaming of either Forza Motorsport 7 at the Samsung stand or Assassin’s Creed: Origins at the Ubisoft stand. I really loved the Egyptian theme that Ubisoft pulled off for their latest iteration of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
What was equally fantastic, was seeing Let’s Play Live and Logitech G team up to put together a brilliant eSports arena showcasing amazing gaming talent. I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to actually chat about Attack On Geek and what I do as a gamer, streamer and pop culture enthusiast during Let’s Play Live’s LP Lounge event. Of course, the opportunity to talk about Attack On Geek didn’t stop there. Thanks to the amazing folks at HP New Zealand, I was given the chance to actually stream video games on a live stage and experience the new range of Omen by HP computers. That was a whole lot of fun and a fantastic experience. Sadly, I was a little unwell and was losing my voice so that made streaming a little challenging. Still, it was great!
Actually being part of the entertainment at this year’s Armageddon was an experience like none other, but the highlight was still meeting Nathan Fillion and being able to interview the voice actors of Master Chief and Cortana from the Halo video game franchise and Bryce Papenbrook, who voices popular anime characters from the anime Sword Art Online, Attack On Titan and Blue Exorcist. The interviews of these stars can be found on separate posts, here for the Halo interview and here for the Bryce Papenbrook interview.
This year, I didn’t quite focus on the cosplay on offer, mostly because I had a lot on and due to having a rough cold, I just wanted to get through my day and go home to rest. Though, there were some really awesome cosplay on show and like always some went all out with their costumes.
The Auckland Armageddon Expo 2017 was nothing short of great and it was incredible to see so many high profile celebrities in attendance this year. I had a fantastic time and encourage pop culture enthusiasts who’ve never attended a single Armageddon to do so at least once.