Leighton Bellamore was our man at EGX, the new name for Eurogamer Expo.

The event, billed as the UK’s biggest games event, took place across two floors at Earls Court with 80,000 fans flocking to try out an array of new and upcoming titles plus to enjoy a range of other gaming activities.

Here are Leighton’s five highlights from a weekend spent in gaming nirvana.

1. Call of Duty

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare was available to test with a 45-minute teaser which was mind-blowing!

Advanced Warfare was even better than I expected it to be. It’s been predict this game is initially going to sell fewer copies than Ghosts because people thought Ghosts wasn’t as good as the previous titles and the next-generation jump that people are considering might have an impact on sales. I think it will hit the roof when people realise how good it is.

The exo suit is a real game-changer. People need to believe the hype - it’s so much faster that the old Call of Duty games. The TTK (Time To Kill) is a lot longer, similar to Black Ops 2, it is a lot harder to kill people than in the previous title Ghosts. People can get away from gun fights easier using the movement from the exo suit.

Surrey Comet:

There is a new game mode called UPLINK, which is like basketball. Two teams. one point for throwing the UPLINK ball that looks like a Quaffle from Harry Potter into the score zone or two points if you jump through the score zone with the ball. Once you score the ball reloads in the middle of the map. You can pass the ball to team-mates, you cannot shoot when you are carrying the ball. You can also pass it to enemies, then kill them when they are holding it.

These differences are going to make competitive Call of Duty really interesting. Ghosts was heavily reliant on reaction time, aim and predictions. This is going to be a lot more about the movement, how you can ‘out-move’ your opponent and who can aim the best when jumping around in the air.

I got to meet Glen Schofield, co-founder of developer Sledgehammer Games - what a guy!

He was talking about some really interesting things. The work that goes into the game is insane. He has a real passion about the art in the game and the work that has gone into the art – he gave an example of where one of the characters is wearing glasses, takes his glasses off and there is a slight indent in the skin where his glasses were.

He also talked about the guns. There are five different sounds that go into making the gun sounds. The trigger, the barrel, noise the bullet makes going into the barrel, the release of the trigger, the noise the bullet makes coming out of the barrel. They have done loads of research on this to get the guns sounding perfectly.

I can honestly say, I still have a smile on my face after playing it for only 45 minutes.

2. Big discounts

Game had some incredible discounts. I picked up Wolfenstein for £20! Half the retail price. I’ve got to say it’s an incredible single player game.

Surrey Comet:

If anyone pre-ordered something, they would get free gifts, like t-shirts, keyrings etc. If you pre-ordered Advanced Warfare you would get an exclusive call of duty a t-shirt.

3. Headsets

The Turtle Beach stand gave people the chance to test out current gaming headsets and new ones coming out.

You got to test the headsets out while playing on demos. Playing the New Forza game was pretty impressive. The sound of the cars in the headset was incredible, especially hearing the sound the tyres made going around corners.

Surrey Comet:

The Seven for the Xbox One I believe is their most expensive headset - for a reason! Not as good as Astro’s A40 headset though. Surprisingly they didn’t have a stand there. I have a set of Astro A40’s – I did a lot of research on this headset and don’t regret the bigger price spend at all.

4. Minecraft meets Hunger Games

There were Minecraft tournaments – Hunger Games style! Survive and kill off the others to win a Plantronics RIG headset.

It was really good fun and I don’t even play Minecraft.

5. Retro gaming

Getting up close with new Battlefield, Borderlands and Bayonetta is great, but it’s still good to jump back in time. The retro gaming stand gave people the chance to play all their old favourites such as the first Doom, MarioKart and Sonic.