Before I ramble on with my post, I would like to let you all know that Video Games Live in Dubai is worth every buck you would pay for. Don’t fret if you missed this one Cyclops communications and Tommy signed up a five year contract to ensure VGL is back in this region to play new song sets!
To give you a scoop of what you will be treated to I’ve taken a few pictures of the event, the first thing you see when you enter the venue is a lobby area populated with a few of the latest video games from Pluto and a couple of food stalls to arm you up for the show. Cosplayers were running around wild in this event and we managed to get a few shows of them striking some random poses.
Once the gates opened Bob snatched the cam off me to show us the VIP treatment he got, along with the front row seat view! Tommy was there to give them a private talk and they were given priority for the meet and greet segments!
Once the cattle…err I mean us premium and regular show attendees were allowed to go in, I was surprised to see that the Premium seats were actually quite good! All the rest of the footage you are about to see is from the premium seats. The show starts with Sumeet bringing up the best cosplayers on the stage for a fan shout-off competition, for which the winner was the John Mac Tavish cosplayer (seen above). We will upload the cosplay contest video soon on our YouTube channel. After that a funny short of a real life Ms.Pac Man running away from Ghosts gave the crows the case of the giggles, I recommend taking a look at it on YouTube.
The show started with a collage of video game classics merged together into one epic intro, the music was coupled with some creative light works and 3 giant projected screens all working together in unison to trigger your childhood memories. It was quite a moment for me when the Contra music popped up, good times!
The show went on to play music from Halo, World of Warcraft, Metal Gear Solid, Pokemon and many more along with a few originals such as a Tetris opera!
My favorite segment was by Martin Leung (AKA the Blindfolded Pianist, AKA Video Game Pianist), he wowed us all with his soothing performance of a Final Fantasy mix. He later re-appeared on stage to play some Mario themes, BLINDFOLDED as if it was child’s play! He finally proved to the Middle East that his slight of hand is no mere cheap trick, but the result of years of practice and dedication! A standing ovation by the audience was no short task for his stunning performance!
Fans were not excluded from the show as we were often involved in segments of the show and were given a greenlight to shout all we want, whenever we want! In one part of the show, a member of the audience became a live controller for a game of Space Invaders and won a Black Ops 2 care package!
While the highest scoring Guitar Hero player was brought onto stage and was given a score of 250,000 to beat on hard mode, the player soon interrupts the show and ups the challenge by saying he could do it on expert. Lo and behold, the guy hits a homerun and shatters the target on the maximum difficulty!
The last piece of music was a treat for us all! CAKE! Or for better accuracy, the lack of it! We were all asked to sing the Portal song (Still Alive) while the orchestra played along a funny slideshow that was shown onscreen!
At the end of the show all the special appearances that came to the Middle East were giving a last bow to the audience. Again, if you missed the show, there will be others and I whole heartily recommend it for any game or music lover.
Head over to our Facebook Album for the full image set!
Note For you camera lovers I was using my 18-135mm for the wide and medium range shots and the 70-300mm for the close ups. So you would be able to get the same results for the Premium seats.