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Gamescom 2024: Opening Night Live watch party / announcement thread!

It's time for another major gaming show, which means it's time for another Just About Video Games (JAVG) watch party!

Just like we did at The Game Awards last year and Summer Game Fest back in June, I'll be watching Opening Night Live later today and threading all the major beats for you to react to in real time, or so that you can catch up on them at your leisure.

It all kicks off today at 8pm CEST (7pm BST, 11am Pacific) and we've embedded the stream below.

Why not join us for a little hype discussion while you're waiting? We know quite a bit about what to expect, with more from CoD: Black Ops 6, Civilization VII, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Marvel Rivals, Dune Awakening, and Monster Hunter Wilds already confirmed. As is tradition with Gamescom, we're expecting gameplay reveals to feature more prominently in the mix than at SGF, but we're promised plenty of new game announcements, too.

What are you most excited to see? Let us know down below, and keep an eye on JAVG for plenty of bounties to celebrate Gamescom 2024!

Created at 11:50am, 20th August, 2024. Page last updated at 2:49pm, 27th August, 2024.

Dave 8/20/2024, 4:32:23 PM

Nice! Civ 7 and Dune awaking are pretty much certain purchase for me unless they are really bad. Looking forward to seeing more.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 5:27:57 PM

Dave

Cannot wait for the Civ 7 gameplay tonight. Very hyped!

Dave 8/23/2024, 8:02:22 PM

Rich

I was a bit disappointed witb Dune. It looked more like a PvP first person shooter in this presentation with a side quest of building a base from your rewards. Previous showcases made it look like a shared world with lots of pve style content, or at least a slower, calmer pace.

Hopefully it's not a change of direction as the final product takes shape and this is just one aspect of it.

Dave 8/23/2024, 8:02:51 PM

Rich

Civ looked decent enough. You don't want anything too radical in a new one really and end up breaking the formula. Will be buying it as always. Probably the game I've put more hours in than anything else over the last 30 years.

RichStaff8/24/2024, 1:25:35 PM

Dave

Yeah it's between Civ, Destiny, and Total War for me. Civ 7 looks fine to good, which is more of a compliment than it sounds considering I had high expectations. Getting rid of worker units is a nice change, I've just started another Civ 6 game and the micro is already bothering me!

RichStaff8/20/2024, 6:02:24 PM

Here we go! Updates, trailers, new gameplay vids and more all coming soon right here. Geoff's on-stage introducing the show, promising "new game announcements you're not expecting."

RichStaff8/20/2024, 6:09:12 PM

World premiere new game announcement from Gearbox: Borderlands 4!!

Teaser trailer below. Features a planetary body leaking purple light crashing through green light ... eh, it's gooey sci-fi stuff. Just give it a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Q8WImF649E?feature=oembed

Coming 2025, wishlist now.

Way to start strong, Geoff!

RichStaff8/20/2024, 6:14:12 PM

Katherine Anderson, executive producer, and Jon Zuk, creative director at Raven Software take the stage to introduce an extended look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, one of the pre-announced gameplay reveals.

Live MP, zombies, and Warzone gameplay will be shown at the Call of Duty Next event on August 28. The MP open beta runs from September 6 to 9 unless you pre-order, in which case you get early access from August 30 to September 4. You'll be able to try out "the brand-new omni-movement system".

Raven and Treyarch are cooperating on the action-espionage-thriller campaign. The gameplay video is a mission from said campaign called Most Wanted.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fh03Y7Hgv08?feature=oembed

As you'd expect from the campaign mission they picked to show, it's impressive and splashy, with the dull bits fast-forwarded via some nifty '90s VCR-style tape effects. There are juggernauts, remote-controlled throwing knives and cars with bombs, and a tense action set-piece in an elevator shaft. It's all very CoD. The most noticeable thing for me is the way the characters move - sliding looks more dynamic and there are mid-air one-handed assault rifle kills. I guess that'll be the omni-movement system.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 6:43:55 PM

Goat Simulator Remastered, coming 2024.

This is almost certainly a brand-new game, in Goat Simulator's excellent tradition of not being remotely sincere in its naming conventions (its last game, the series's second entry, was titled Goat Simulator 3).

The trailer is worth a watch, with some fun digs at Skyrim's endless re-releases, the GTA remasters' poorly received rain effects, and other so-called 'crimes of gaming'.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xi2LMbWbkws?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 6:47:15 PM

Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis

World premiere trailer for the remake of the divisive expansion. Bit of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it trailer, but hey:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jq8ovdofUh4?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:44:32 PM

Dying Light: The Beast.

A new standalone game set in the Dying Light universe that started life as the second promised DLC for Dying Light 2, and as such, will be available free to all owners of its Stay Human Ultimate Edition in a classy move from developer Techland.

It stars Kyle Crane - the protagonist of the first Dying Light - who breaks free from some kind of lab after years of brutal experiments. Geoff says it promises "20 hours of gameplay" and "a new open-world."

The trailer features a bunch of special forces-type dudes exploring and commenting on some grisly scenes in gruff British accents while being hunted down one-by-one in a forest by an unseen creature. But then we cut to your man Kyle...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mPhpe_EE8jM?feature=oembed

"Every man has an animal within. If you push too much, you might unleash the beast."

Here's the Steam page. No release date yet, just "coming soon".

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:01:08 PM

Black Myth: Wukong launch trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wl05yGSDpxY?feature=oembed

We've known about Black Myth: Wukong for a long time, of course, but this is a new trailer to (roughly) coincide with the game's release in the last day or so. The big story is that it has racked up more than 2.2m concurrent players on Steam at its launch day peak - likely fuelled by the vast Chinese market but nonetheless, absolutely astonishing.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:03:16 PM

DragonBall Sparking Zero gets a new "50 days from now!" trailer. It is full of shouting, bright lights, and someone declaring that they will turn someone else into a Super Saiyan. I know this is a good thing, but it has an air of threat.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ROcsMP0yHJ4?feature=oembed

October 11 2024, pre-orders open now.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:10:25 PM

King of Meat is a new game announcement. The dev team features staff formerly of Media Molecule and legendary UK studio Lionhead, and it's published by Amazon Games.

The announcement trailer was prefaced by a fun animated sequence that puts Geoff himself into a gauntlet of traps, much like the game: it's a party game, featuring up to four-player online co-op, in which you'll team up in a fictional reality TV show to complete dungeons full of enemies and traps. The best bit? You can create said dungeons from scratch and share them with the game's community.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xPmUWMUKWQY?feature=oembed

Interested? Eurogamer has a fuller preview write-up, and you can sign up for playtests at the website.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 6:51:28 PM

Interview and world premiere reveal trailer for Lynked: Banner of the Spark.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/XFTYhRyVeSI?feature=oembed

Guests from Fuzzybot are on-stage to introduce their debut game Lynked: Banner of the Spark. A co-op action hack-and-slash with some roguelike elements, in which your goal is to fight and salvage materials from the evil robots that are trying to dominate Earth in the future, in order to build the cute and cozy future "town of your dreams" while befriending "the cute ones". Lots going on here!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/X5GvEANLsqk?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:17:52 PM

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage gets a gameplay trailer. This one's a narrative adventure game from the creators of Life is Strange, in which four high school girls start a punk band one formative summer in the 1990s.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BKWX3WvOAf0?feature=oembed

Vibes are lovely: sepia-tinted, nostalgic. You can navigate between two timelines and shape both narratives - in the '90s and in 2022 - but for now it's unclear how this will happen and thus, how heavily Life is Strange's signature supernatural elements feature.

Will release in two episodes, or 'tapes': the first on February 18 2025 and the second a month later, on March 18. Wishlists open now, here's the Steam page.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:20:15 PM

No More Room in Hell 2

We saw this already at Summer Game Fest, but definitely not complaining about another look, and I say this as someone who isn't massively keen on zombie games. This one looks very promising, though: grisly zombie slaying open-world fun for up to eight players, made by the people behind the excellent Chivalry games.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bp3nRkfkp1w?feature=oembed

"Coming soon", wishlist now. There's (a bit) more on Steam.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:27:41 PM

ARC Raiders was first revealed at another Keighley show, The Game Awards, way back in 2021. It's had several further videos and teases for various different occasions, tonight's being the 'release window' announcement.

That window, however, is a wide one: ARC Raiders is coming in 2025. Presumably we'll get another trailer for the release month, then the exact release date, then the launch, etc...

If you can't wait - and to be fair it does look pretty cool - you can sign up now for a public tech test, running from October 24 to 27. Do so on the Steam page.

The game will be a free-to-play, third-person, PvPvE survival/extraction shooter set in "a lethal future Earth ravaged by a mysterious mechanised threat known as ARC". Personally I hope it clings tight to the understated, atmospheric vibes in the trailers rather than going too bombastic...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fl_0b9ZsbBI?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:31:05 PM

Infinity Nikki promises to be "the cosiest open world game" in its new trailer, which doesn't appear to have been released for any particular reason. But perhaps it doesn't need one when it's... this. The trailer description says "day and night, Miraland is always filled with joy" and personally I can hear the words "or else" lurking just off stage.

It's quite the sugar rush:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6YI7sR97kzI?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:35:34 PM

Space Marine 2 gets a new trailer, with pre-release accolades from Skill Up, PC Gamer, and others. This trailer goes heavier on atmosphere and production value than previous ones which have emphasised action or gore, which - I may be reading too much into this - to me speaks of a reassuring confidence on the part of publisher Focus Entertainment.

Anyway, even from this new angle, Space Marine 2 continues to look good. And, as the trailer reminds us, we've not long to go: release is set for September 9, 2024, and you can play four days early with the gold or ultra editions. Here's the Steam page.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_DchUEbEAt8?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:39:18 PM

Predecessor gets a launch trailer. This one's a MOBA-shooter built by an indie team from, in Geoff's words, "the ashes of Epic Games's Paragon." It's been cooking for a while, has seen over two million players so far, and its 1.0 version has now launched and is free for all to play.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AxnN2DYyAAg?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 6:55:33 PM

Path of Exile 2. Been a while since we had an update on this one! There's giving Diablo 4 a wide berth and then there's this.

There is a creepy-looking helmet and some extremely gross monster designs followed by some gameplay footage, and it looks great. Fans of the action-RPG genre will be dining well when early access begins on November 15th, 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/uDdNXSv3CWc?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 8:54:43 PM

Dune: Awakening gameplay and release date news: coming to PC early 2025.

Gameplay looks very full-featured. You begin as an anonymous survivor, abandoned after a crash landing on Arrakis, which gives you quite a bit of freedom in character creation. We see systems for survival challenges including heat stroke, and are shown a choice of approaches to combat as we attack a base, with your choice of abilities and weapons determining your approach. Swordmasters are featured as an aggressive melee class, for instance.

We'll be able to build not only bases, but flyable ornithopters (Dune's helicopter-like flying vehicles). Making alliances will be key, not only with randoms in the desert but at the level of grand factional politics (we see our character joining the Harkonnens - not my pick). Our character explores a densely populated settlement, showing the scale of the game, before finally using thumpers to summon Dune's iconic sand worms to aid in a battle.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ud3EW5aAUZ8?feature=oembed

You can sign up for the beta at the website and wishlist on Steam.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:00:29 PM

New game announcement: Reanimal, a new horror game from the creators of the Little Nightmares series. It seems to use a similar perspective and will also be playable in co-op, but it looks to me like Tarsier Studios is doubling down on the horror.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mUymvhAXOnM?feature=oembed

Trailer description reads:

"A brother and sister go through hell to rescue their friends in this terrifying horror adventure. Either solo or in local and online co-op, use your wits to survive and escape this twisted island." Looks like a PS5 exclusive.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:23:08 PM

Genshin Impact gets a jaunty new gameplay trailer showing off Natlan, the game's eagerly anticipated next region and setting for its upcoming content. Also new is its Xbox release date: November 20.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wMZN4SV01Yk?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:24:18 PM

Monster Hunter Wilds

Ryozo Tsujimoto, producer on MH Wilds from Capcom, takes the stage to show us another pre-announced segment on the next main-sequence entry in the smash hit monster-hunting series. There are hands-on demos available at Gamescom if you're at the show!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/gVqdxfPls6s?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:30:13 PM

Naraka Bladepoint x Tomb Raider crossover. In one of the most surprising of many crossover and collaboration announcements, Lara Croft is coming to Naraka: Bladepoint. She makes her debut in Netease's free-to-play, hero-based battle royale on August 28.

If you don't know Naraka: Bladepoint, here's the Steam page for more, though if you're looking for further explanation of this, you won't find it there.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bt-e69OoXI8?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:33:07 PM

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, a new fighting game in a series that's been dormant for 26 years, gets a release date trailer and further details about its character line-up and release schedule.

Release is set for April 24, 2025, here's the Steam page for more.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lHjjlpCoBOQ?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:35:13 PM

A new look at Mecha Break, the multiplayer mech game revealed at The Game Awards. This gameplay trailer shows off the "mecha mayhem" of its 6v6 mode.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xIGs_3YQMAc?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:36:33 PM

Here's a welcome surprise!

Announcement of and first look at Monument Valley III, another instalment in the iconic series of beautiful and clever puzzle adventure games. It's coming exclusively to Netflix Games along with both of its predecessors on 10 December 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/QcpzdbyTF6E?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:39:38 PM

As we hit the mid-point of the show, it's time for my personal most anticipated game of the past several years: CIVILIZATION VII! Releasing on February 11, 2025.

Ed Beach from Firaxis is on stage to introduce it, before the gameplay reveal video rolls. Here's what he says:

"By far the biggest, most ambitious game Firaxis has ever made - everything from its new gameplay features to its gorgeous art style was designed to immerse you in your own journey through history."

Here's the gameplay reveal trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kK_JrrP9m2U?feature=oembed

Looks like the art style isn't a huge departure from Civ 6 - everything still pops and looks very warm and friendly - but there's a ton more detail, with super close-in gameplay as well as the series's more traditional zoomed-out perspective, and it looks gorgeous in both. There's a bit where Cleopatra and Caesar grumble at each other across the screen as the player avatars do in Humankind, which would be a departure from recent Civ leader screens in which the style has been for the other leader to grumble at you down the camera.

We'll see much more at the official showcase, coming right after ONL. Here's the stream link:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tc3_EO6Bj2M?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:42:55 PM

The reveal trailer for Starfield's Shattered Space expansion is far more colourful than the realistic, grounded shades of grey used in marketing for the base game. We know it'll add the Rev 8 driveable vehicle, which should make planetary exploration a lot quicker and more fun. The release date is set for September 30, 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9ZVJaUpSeTE?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 7:27:58 PM

Gameplay from Marvel Rivals, the third-person hero shooter featuring Marvel's superheroes. There's lots of shots of the Winter Soldier looking very Doomfisty, slamming a tentacled power fist into the ground from the air.

It closes on a terrifying shot of a god-sized Dr Doom. December 6, 2024, all heroes unlocked and free to play from launch and beyond.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/WF2Ckd3Fziw?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 7:11:15 PM

There's a segment on sustainability in the games industry, in which the Gamescom sustainability award is given to Tencent Games. Brent Irvin, vice chairman, is on stage to accept.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:51:23 PM

This is exciting: Secret Level is a new animated anthology series featuring new, original stories set within the worlds of various video games. What games, you ask? The trailer teases Warhammer 40k, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Dungeons & Dragons, Spelunky, Sifu, Unreal Tournament, and many more. You can get the full list via Amazon, and the series will release on Amazon Prime on December 10.

Tim Miller, the director of 2016's brilliant Deadpool movie and co-founder of Blur studio, who gave us Netflix's Love, Death, + Robots, is on stage to introduce it. He gets adorably emotional talking about "our love letter to games" - his passion for this project is palpable. Honestly, pretty stoked for this, especially those D&D and Warhammer episodes...!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wvm-xMVt4Bs?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:54:58 PM

Age of Mythology: Retold is the remastered version of the last of the classic Age games to get one, and therefore everyone on the planet - especially you - is extremely excited for it.

The release date is September 4, 2024, so presumably this trailer will be its last, and it's suitably splashy and epic. Pre-orders are, inevitably, open now, and it's on Xbox Game Pass on day one. Here's the Steam page for more details.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hC2rzhRZroc?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:14:23 PM

Announced last year, we got a gameplay trailer for Towerborne, an Xbox and PC-exclusive action-RPG with a bright and clean art style in a new and intriguing post-apocalyptic fantasy world.

Here's why I'm interested in this one: it's from Stoic, the people who brought us the outstanding Banner Saga series of narrative-heavy tactical RPGs.

It's launching into Early Access on September 10 and you can get involved by picking up a founder's pack on Steam.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/YQlDe-tBV4E?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:19:50 PM

Delta Force: Hawk Ops

New trailer for the military FPS, and first announcements of your chance to get your hands on it: it'll be coming to Steam Next Fest in October 2024, and PC early early access in Q4 of this year. Here's the Steam page for more.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6gyeCoa0Udk?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:16:46 PM

Kingdom Come Deliverance II

Despite recent announcement of a delay, anticipation is still pretty high for this one. It's the sequel to a well-received medieval open-world RPG that put its historical accuracy front and centre, set in 15th-century Bohemia.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AwywU6b_JKE?feature=oembed

Releases 11 February 2025, pre-order now, check out the Steam page for more. This trailer is just a teaser - the full gameplay premiere is coming August 21.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:08:49 PM

Hoyoverse showcase. A new trailer for Zenless Zone Zero shows off a new area of New Eridu:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/oN4bfwkcz30?feature=oembed

The next trailer is for Honkai Star Rail and features two characters enthusing about the prowess of upcoming character, General Feixiao. It also teases the previously announced crossover between Honkai Star Rail and the anime series that inspired it, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, which is due in 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-A4RRYXVjUk?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 9:09:11 PM

New gameplay trailer for Batman Arkham Shadow, the VR game set in the what I guess we're all calling 'the Arkhamverse'. Some cool sequences in which the player throws some punches and batarangs in combat, uses stealth takedowns, and various gadgets you'll recognise if you've played the Arkham games (e.g. explosive gel), all in VR. Looks cool!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ScM8ML79yYg?feature=oembed

Only on Meta Quest 3, due for release in October 2024.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 7:28:35 PM

A brief segment on Gamescom's impact on its host city, Cologne, as well as the ongoing launch of satellite shows in Asia and Latin America.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:01:01 PM

A new look at Little Nightmares 3 after its reveal trailer at Gamescom last year. Not sure we learned a huge amount from this one, but it's interesting to compare with Reanimal, and lovely to look at full stop. I love the Nightmare Before Christmas-esque art style, but for me a good part of the creepiness came from the awkward juddery movement. I wonder if they ever tried to replicate that...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mVF3RdMpLSY?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:04:52 PM

We've got a new game announcement: Herdling, a third-person adventure game from the creator of Far: Changing Tides and the publisher of Firewatch.

Looks like you play a shepherd to some docile-seeming, rather adorable yak-like creatures, guiding them up mountains, through forests, and across plains beside trains. It's all rather lovely until there's a sudden scream at the end of the trailer.

Coming 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/W3Tx8xeKNKo?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:10:46 PM

Peter Molyneux. We have Peter Molyneux!

One of the industry's OG characters is on stage to show something new. "After messing around on mobile - what the hell was I doing? - I thought I need to come home to PC and console," he says.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/w9ij15VNKMQ?feature=oembed

His new project, of which he is creative director, is Masters of Albion. He leads a team of 20 people dedicated to making something "new, unique, and different." It's an "open-world god game, full of combat, choices, mystery, and story," set in the world of Albion.

You manage a town by day, knowing it will be attacked at night, and the big hook seems to be that you have immense control over what's going on in the town via a kind of quasi-programming mechanic, with the town's many elements able to interact with one another in many ways. A twitchy-fingered hand, straight from a classic god game, moves things around and makes connections between people, buildings, and things.

At night, you can possess heroes and fight the attacking monsters directly, essentially switching between third-person melee combat and the previously seen 'god mode', in which you can also drop superpowers to intervene in battle.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CSLGKKAuZwo?feature=oembed

The Steam page is live now, as are wishlists. No release date offered, merely "coming soon."

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:15:15 PM

Squid Game Unleashed is announced with a tongue-in-cheek trailer featuring several events taken from the hit TV show, plus a few original creations. It's a multiplayer action game in which, according to the trailer description, you'll need to "use skill and quick reflexes to survive twisted competitions."

"Coming soon" exclusively to the Netflix app. The trailer shows heavily stylised graphics and not a hint of gore, so clearly Netflix are going for a broader audience than the series.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/V0nXN7nz9Es?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:21:01 PM

The Witcher's Anya Chalotra appears in a new live-action trailer for Unknown 9: Awakening, in which she is set to star. We got the story trailer just a couple of months ago at SGF when I wrote:

This is a third-person action-adventure starring Chalotra as protagonist Haroona, a tough kid from the rough streets of Calcutta who is born with the ability to enter a mysterious dimension known as the Fold. She "must master its powers to fight a secret society with a hostile agenda", so says the Steam page.

There's little to add other than that the release window has narrowed to a specific date: October 18. Still looks cool!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0QgaV3cZwVI?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:28:01 PM

Arena Breakout: Infinite

A military sim extraction shooter that I assume differentiates itself from Escape From Tarkov somehow. Early access is available now on PC, but tonight's news is of its full release coming end of the year. The "full release announcement trailer" that we got doesn't seem to be live on YouTube yet, but the Xitter account put it out:

https://twitter.com/ArenaBreakoutPC/status/1825986914564059245

Here's the Steam page.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:33:43 PM

Blizzard returns to Gamescom "for the first time since 2019," says Geoff. Blizzard president Johanna Faries takes to the stage to talk about Blizzard's various upcoming projects, with a focus on Warcraft for the franchise's 30th anniversary.

World of Warcraft: the War Within drops on August 26 and starts a multi-expansion arc that's, according to Johanna, as ambitious as anything in Warcraft history.
There will be a new World of Warcraft collab with Overwatch 2, featuring a new Widowmaker skin.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-cEh6Bj0uVo?feature=oembed

Now it's time for Diablo IV to take the spotlight, with its next expansion, Vessel of Hatred, due on October 8. If you're at the show, you can get hands-on access to the expansion and its new Spiritborn class. Johanna then tees up a glossy trailer with a mix of artwork and gameplay showing off the new mercenary companions:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GvJm5wdxrQs?feature=oembed

Finally Brent Gibson, Diablo IV's game director, is up to tell us more about the expansion's other features. These include the Dark Citadel, a new PvE co-op dungeon that'll challenge "everything you think you know" about Diablo combat.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:35:47 PM

New look at a grim and gory third-person action game - definite Soulslikey vibes with a touch of anime - called The First Berserker: Khazan. We've seen it before but I'm liking it more as I watch this new gameplay.

Release is set for early 2025 with a technical closed beta test on October 11-20, for which you can sign up now on the website. Here's the Steam page for more.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/oKaR7w0bqVc?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:42:48 PM

Ara: History Untold gets a "launch" trailer even though it's more than a month away from launch (September 24, 2024, day one on Game Pass).

It's perhaps a little bold to feature another historical 4X on the same day as Civ 7's full reveal, but I love this genre so I'm not complaining. We knew about Ara already though, and there's not as much in this trailer as I'd hope to see from a game that's a month away from launch. There's some UI-less gameplay that does look pretty lush, but has the air of having been touched up. The only shot that looks like it could be in-game is of a grumpy Alexander the Great at 0:39.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1iF4gAZnZF4?feature=oembed

Here's the Steam page, where screenshots are a touch more extensive and promising, and where you can pre-order if you wish.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:52:40 PM

You probably know Dark and Darker as the hardcore, old-school dungeon crawler that became a Steam sensation in 2023 before being pulled amid a thorny legal dispute, then relaunched during Summer Game Fest this June in free-to-play form.

Dark and Darker Mobile was announced prior to that, back in April, and the big news today is that it's now available for pre-registration.

We got this short, high-energy trailer during Opening Night Live:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/XbF4NihLoOg?feature=oembed

While Dark and Darker's official YouTube channel dropped the full-length version at the same time:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1NNypxWw0SI?feature=oembed

You can pre-register now on the Dark and Darker website.

RichStaff8/20/2024, 10:56:48 PM

Coming into the final straight now, and here's a new game announcement trailer for Floatopia, a very cute and cosy-looking social world builder from Netease. You can change the weather and employ other godlike powers to craft little islands, to which you can invite your friends to hang out and play. Coming in 2025.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/nfOmJ9DnpCg?feature=oembed

RichStaff8/20/2024, 11:06:14 PM

And here it is, presumably the big finish or near enough - Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

"What if I told you there was a connection between ancient cultures around the world? A great circle? Does it exist? Is it the key to some lost power? That's up to you to uncover."

Prolific video game voice actor Troy Baker stars as the good Dr Jones, and that's how he introduces a short but pleasingly gameplay-heavy new trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AMHVWFemTlw?feature=oembed

It's a first-person, single-player adventure set in 1937, between the classic Indy movies Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. We can expect a true globe-trotting adventure that'll take you to exotic environments, caves, and tombs all over the world. You'll have a camera to immerse yourself in the act of exploration, and use it and a journal to gather clues that'll aid in solving puzzles. Indy's famous whip and a revolver both feature, but there's a lot of first-person fist-based brawling, too.

And the all-important release date reveal: December 9, 2024. Xbox, Game Pass, and PC. And it's coming to PlayStation 5, but not until spring of 2025.

There's much more on the Steam page, which has been updated with some luscious new screenshots. These depict pyramids both in the Mesoamerican jungle and the Egyptian desert, an arctic environment, and lots of Nazis ripe for the punching.

Lanah Tyra 8/21/2024, 7:57:05 AM

Rich

OH. I love my treasure hunter games!

RichStaff8/21/2024, 10:59:56 AM

Geoff introduces "one final game announcement" to close the show: Mafia: The Old Country, a new instalment in Hangar 13's Mafia series of open-world crime games, which probably don't get as much respect as they deserve.

This is a pretty big departure for the series, however, taking things back to 1900s Sicily to explore the very origins of modern organised crime. An Italian-accented voiceover, emphasising that treachery and deceit cannot exist within the mafia "brotherhood", plays over lingering shots juxtaposing the tools of violence with Italian culture and refinement.

It's due for release in 2025, there's a "closer look" scheduled in December, and you can wishlist and learn more on the Steam page.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ISjLDArt7y8?feature=oembed

And with that, we're out! What did you think of the show? What were your favourite announcements? We've got a bounty for your ONL opinions, reviews, and hot takes right here, so be sure to let us know!