PC Gamer’s Phil Savage and Mollie Taylor were at Gamescom in Cologne this week and so far they’ve published previews of The Callisto Protocol, Homeworld 3 and Jagged Alliance 3. They’ve seen a lot more games than that – I saw some terrifying ones schedules before they left – so we’ll have to wait for them to regain consciousness to find out what they’re most excited about.
The rest of us watched from home: Gamescom continues this weekend, but the biggest reveals and announcements took place closer to the start of the week, particularly during Tuesday’s livestream, which was re-hosted by the host with the most video game shows. which he hosts, Geoff Keighley.
You can watch the entire Opening Night Live here (opens in new tab) if you missed it. It lasts about two hours, and for your information, the big reveal at the end is just the release date for Dead Island 2. It’s not really a moment you need to see in context, but there were some exciting games on the show. There were other shows as well, including another edition of our publisher’s Future Games Show. After checking out all of the week’s activities, here are the six games we’re most excited about. (And here’s the rest of our Gamescom 2022 coverage (opens in new tab).)
A new RTS from the C&C Remastered studio
Wes Fenlon, real-time strategist: RTS renaissance. RTS Renaissance!! A few years ago, EA teamed up with Petroglyph Games, a small studio founded by many of the former Westwood developers who made Command & Conquer, to work on a very good remastered collection of the original C&C and Red Alert. After that success, Petroglyph announced a World War I RTS called The Great War: Western Front. I have to say it’s a bit brown to my taste, but I like the sound of Petroglyph dipping its toe into large-scale strategy in a way it never did with C&C. This quote from the Steam page is very similar to Total War:
As a theater commander, experience an engaging turn-based grand strategy as you direct the deployment of troops, research and carefully consider how to spread your resources across the Western Front in a war won by inches. Additionally, take the mantle of Field Commander in dynamic real-time combat as you direct units to defeat your opponent, build trenches and launch direct attacks by sending your infantry over the top.”
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles looks so cool
Chris Livingston, Settlement Builder-Upper: Sometimes a trailer comes along and immediately jabs a finger on the endorphin release button in my brain. Airships? Settlements? High castles built on steep cliffs? Yes to all those. I never played aerial combat game The Falconeer, but the sequel, stronghold, looks fantastic. Build fortresses and cities over the tops of snow-capped mountains of an ocean planet, recruit commanders to unlock new building options, and defend against attacks from enemies in the sky. My body is ready.
Pinnochio, but it’s Bloodborne
Tyler Colp, but he’s Bloodborne: I routinely forget that Lies of P exists and that it is a soul-like game loosely (really loosely) based on Pinocchio. The trailer capitalizes on how absurd the premise is without breaking the fourth wall and I respect that: an oddly attractive Pinocchio cuts through freaky enemies, then meets his father, Geppetto, in a dark 19th-century France. It’s all so unabashedly Bloodborne that I think I should play it at this point.
Lauren Morton, but she’s Bloodborne: I think I have to admit that I have not forgot that Lies of P exists and have been unronically looking forward to it since it was announced. So uh, I guess the only surprise for me was that no one dragged me away from putting “Pinocchiosouls” in a headline.
New Tales from the Borderlands, old Telltale staff
Jody Macgregor, New and Old Weekend/AU Editor: A sequel to Tales from the Borderlands was announced in April, albeit with a caveat: it will be made in-house by Gearbox. The original was great because it was outside of the mainstream Borderlands, with completely different gameplay and a cast of civilians to emphasize the absurdity of the looter-shooter setting as seen from the ground. The people responsible for writing Borderlands 3 trying to deal with that style of comedy seemed like a potential red flag. (To be fair, both the Borderlands 3 DLC and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were improvements in the writing department).
However, the Gamescom trailer for New Tales from the Borderlands was accompanied by a statement from Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford (opens in new tab) explaining that the creation involved “a group of original Telltale storytellers, writers, and developers who worked on the original game.” Gearbox production director James Lopez also told IGN (opens in new tab) that the studio “worked with key alumni of the original Tales game” to write it. So maybe it’s safe to put our hopes in after all.
New Tales from the Borderlands will be released on October 21.
This unusual indie detective game beats
Chris Livingston, murder investigator: In the short demo for indie detective game The Case of the Golden Idol alone, I was completely engrossed. Look at strange pixel art scenes of murder scenes and click clues to investigate. To solve a murder you have to find out the names of everyone involved and determine the nature of the crime, by dragging and dropping the words you collect onto a scroll, so it’s part Return of the Obra Dinn and partly Mad Libs. The full game will feature a dozen murders to investigate and, intriguingly, all of these murders are connected in some way. The demo is excellent and I can’t wait to keep researching when the full game is released, although that date is still a mystery.
Finally a game where I can be a professional orator
Tyler Wilde, executive orator: We got our introduction to Where Winds Meet during Opening Night Live. It’s an open world action RPG set at the end of China’s Ten Kingdoms period, after which there are no more ten kingdoms, so a lot is happening. You have to be skeptical when a game promises things like authenticity and freedom, but with all the movie trailers we saw at Gamescom, it was nice to see real footage of a video game being played. The cityscape in particular impressed me – look at all those NPCs walking around in their cool era clothes – and I want to know more about the non-combat tasks we can apparently do in Where Winds Meet.
Orator and Ferryman are my top picks: Imagine cruising NPCs on a boat while singing to them for hours on end. Now that’s what I call modern video games. The publisher of Where Winds Meet put me in touch with its developer, a studio in Hangzhou, China, so I should have more to say about this PC-only RPG soon.
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