The tenth edition of Brasil Game Show took place in São Paulo between the 11th and 15th of October, bringing in more than two hundred thousand gaming fans throughout those five days. The fact Brazil isn’t exactly a major gaming market didn’t hinder big companies such as Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Activision and CDPR from setting up big and shiny booths full of games and fan-pleasing interactions. WTMG was there during the entire show and will now tell you the best (and worst) from this year’s edition. Enjoy!

Best of BGS 2017 – Distortions: By the far the most interesting game presented at this year’s show, as well as the biggest surprise, this Brazilian indie is an amalgamation of various genres, points of view and level designs combined into something quite difficult to explain with words. Elements of Shadow of the Colossus, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Another World, Guitar Hero, Silent Hill and many others were used in order to create one of the most unique gaming experiences seen in a while. The game comes out next February on Steam.

Worst of BGS 2017 – Hideo Kojima: Metal Gear and P.T. godfather Hideo Kojima was invited to this year’s BGS as the main attraction of the whole show, even more than Sony or Microsoft themselves. Even though we were obviously not expecting him to spill out anything new about his baby project Death Stranding, his presence at the show was limited to a 15 minute long lifetime achievement award followed by half a dozen fanmade questions and a two hour long autograph session. There was a journalist next to me who was shouting “Kojima you thief, you stole my heart” during the whole lifetime achievement show, by the way. True story.

Best Booth – Sony: Sony’s booth wasn’t exactly the prettiest booth (that award goes to CDPR’s medieval-esque Gwent booth), but it was the one which featured the largest amount of what everyone’s actually interested in: games. Sony did a great job in bringing more than twenty titles, including in-house titles (Gran Turismo Sport, Detroit), third-party exclusives (Ni No Kuni 2, Dissidia), VR titles (Moss, Inpatient) and widely anticipated multiplats (Dragon Ball FighterZ, Monster Hunter World, Far Cry 5). There was a bit for everyone. Needless to say, Sony’s booth was, by the far, the busiest during all five days of BGS.

Worst Booth – Epic Games: Epic takes the cake for bringing a booth with literally nothing in it. No staff, no TVs, no games, not even a small desk with some business cards. Literally nothing. Pretty sure some bureaucratic problem happened, as Unreal’s creator wouldn’t be stupid enough to set up a (pretty small considering its fame) booth for no apparent reason but if you’re not going to show up, the people behind BGS should have at least taken a couple of minutes of their time to dismantle it. It looked like an amateurish mistake in the end.

It Won Me Over Award – Gwent: When Gwent was initially announced, it screamed F2P, making me completely not interested in it. Thankfully, things have now changed: I was able to see Gwent‘s single player mode, Thronebreaker, at a small press conference at CD Projekt Red’s booth, and all I can say is that I’m sold. Thronebreaker not only implements the card game into a single player campaign, but also uses elements of traditional RPGs, environmental puzzles, a good/bad morality scale and base building. Seems like CDPR can never go wrong after all.

Dumbest BGS Moment – Whatever the Heck that History of Games Section Was: BGS decided to come up with a “The Evolution of Gaming” exhibit this year, showcasing the vast majority of consoles and portables released throughout the more than 40 years of console gaming’s history. Great idea in theory, terrible result due to sloppy execution. Consoles placed out of chronological order, weak lighting, no guides, with the only bit of historical information given to each console limited to a small piece of paper containing half a dozen words explaining which company made it and when it came out. If you’re going to do such an exhibit, put some effort to it.

Finally, biggie up to my friend Knack for showing up during the show. See you next year, BGS!

Article was done in partnership with our friends at Bacontástico