EGX 2018 – Monitors and more at the UK’s biggest gaming show

The buzz you get at EGX is different from every other UK gaming show. From the chance to experience a 65″ 4K prototype monitor through to games of skill and chance where you can win a £200 keyboard, the whole thing is aimed firmly at serious gamers (who don't need to attend with mummy and daddy). From independent games getting their first major outing to the latest triple A titles, EGX is literally a game-fest from morning to night over a long weekend. PLUS there's plenty of hardware to get excited about! KitGuru sent new girl Storm to Birmingham – mic in hand – to see what it was all about.

Starting with the latest in TV technology, the HP Omen engineers have managed to develop a 65″ 4K panel with HDR into a 120Hz gaming monster that could be ready for pre-orders as soon as December 2018. On the record, Omen-Guru James game us the company line on specs etc – however another of his cohorts told us off-camera that even the impressive ‘declared spec' could be overclocked further – and that they were expecting to have a 144Hz version available at some point in the future. Our informer also let slip that there are only 2 screens like this in the world right now. If we had to guess, then the real world price is likely to be closer to $2,000 by the start of 2019.

MSI's components team not only showed off their latest range of gaming peripherals, they also had mini-PCs on display for gamers to play with. We're used to seeing the small ‘Aegis' chassis products, but this time they also had a larger tower gaming PC called the Infinite A, which has just started shipping into the UK. One special product is a co-branding venture that MSI now has with Sony and Overclockers – to create a limited edition Venom PC. Check out this video as MSI product guru Cynthia gives Storm a tour of her latest kit.

Natalie from MSI's laptops division was also on hand to take us through the developments being made in notebook cooling – and she also hints at ‘something very different' that will be coming soon. She does give some hints in regards to storage and screen size!

Corsair had one of the largest stands at EGX 2018 and there were plenty of opportunities for gamers to win cool kit – using a specialised ‘grabbing machine'. However, to get the gold coins necessary to play the game, you had to defeat a bespoke indie Tower Defence game called AegisM – created by Simon from All Rock Studios and available to try on Steam.

Corsair Guru Pascal asked Simon to create a brand new ‘Impossible To Win' level – just for EGX 2018 – and Simon obliged. While over 1,000 gamers managed to get some gold coins from the game – only 3 hit the maximum score possible. Pascal also took us through the latest developments in iCUE – as you can see in this video.The Cyberpower and PC Specialist stands were busy all weekend.

Cooler Master had some very cool gaming pods on their stand – complete with production versions of their new chassis.

8Pack from Overclockers was showing off his latest RTX 2080 builds and Noblechairs had plenty of cushioned comforts for tired show-goers to relax on.

The ASUS chaps had the ROG Bus on stand with a queue of eager gamers outside and Aorus team from Gigabyte were running competitive games for prizes all weekend long.

Lastly, Aerocool had a full set of LED gaming chairs on show and GameMax had their latest chassis on display.

Here's a gallery of the highlights!

Storm is a professional graphic designer and animator who has worked with KitGuru (behind the scenes) for many years (as well as Nintendo, Marvel and others!) – and we're really glad she was able to help us tour the event.

KitGuru says: Overall, the event was well attended, offered fantastic opportunities to get hands-on with the games that we'll be buying this Christmas and there was ample new hardware to get your hands on. We'll be at EGX-Rezzed in London next April and again at the NEC next September.

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