Expect new real-time strategy titles, open-world role-playing games, narrative adventures, and more at this year’s Gamescom.
After spending the week at Gamescom in Cologne, PC Gamer’s Phil Savage and Mollie Taylor have released previews for The Callisto Protocol, Homeworld 3, and Jagged Alliance 3. We’ll have to wait till they come to find out what games they’re most looking forward to, as they’ve seen many more than that (I saw some terrifying schedules before they went).
Gamescom runs through the weekend, but the show’s greatest announcements and revelations occurred earlier in the week, notably on Tuesday’s Livestream, which was once again presented by Geoff Keighley, the presenter with the most videogame events that he presents.
If you missed Opening Night Live, you may catch it in its entirety by clicking here (opens in a new tab). It lasts over two hours, and the major surprise at the conclusion is actually merely the release date for Dead Island 2. Even if there were some thrilling games during the exhibition, it’s not something you really must be present to fully appreciate. Other events took place as well, such as the sequel to our publisher’s Future Games Show. After keeping up with everything that’s happened this week, these are the six matches we’re most looking forward to. ( And now, we bring you the remainder of our Gamescom 2022 coverage.
Revival of Real-Time Strategy, according to Wes Fenlon. The return of the real-time strategy genre! The original Command & Conquer and Red Alert were restored by EA and Petroglyph Games, a tiny business created by several of the former Westwood developers, a couple of years ago. That game was so well received that developer Petroglyph unveiled a similar real-time strategy game set during World War I, titled The Great War: Western Front. It’s a little too earthy for my liking, but I enjoy the idea that Petroglyph is exploring macro-level strategy in a manner that it didn’t with C&C. The Steam website features a phrase that sounds very much like Total War:
“As Theatre Commander, you’ll get to experience engaging turn-based grand strategy as you plan your army’s advance across the Western Front, conduct research, and distribute supplies. You may also play the role of Field Commander in intense real-time combat, where you’ll have to guide soldiers to victory by doing things like digging trenches and sending infantry over the top.”
Reinforcement: The Falconeer Chronicles is awesome-looking.
Lower Settlement Builder Chris Livingston: Once in a while, a trailer will come along and force my brain to release endorphins. Airships? Settlements? Large fortresses perched on precipitous cliffs? All of the above are correct. The Falconeer, a game about aerial warfare, is not something I’m familiar with, but its sequel, Bulwark, looks wonderful. Construct towns and fortifications on the snowy peaks of an ocean world, acquire commanders who grant access to new construction possibilities, and defend against aerial assaults. My physical self is prepared.
It’s like “Pinnochio,” only it’s Bloodborne.
For Tyler Colp, True, He’s a Bloodsucker, but Despite the fact that Lies of P is a souls-like game with a tenuous connection to Pinocchio, I tend to forget about it. I like how the trailer alludes to the premise’s absurdity without ever breaking the fourth wall: Pinocchio, who is oddly appealing, fights off bizarre foes and eventually reunites with his father, Geppetto, in gloomy 19th-century France. Everything about it screams “Bloodborne,” and I feel compelled to play it.
Author Lauren Morton’s But She’s Bloodborne: Actually, I haven’t completely blocked out the existence of Lies of P and have been eagerly anticipating it without irony ever since it was announced. No one stopping me from using “Pinocchiosouls” in a title was the only thing that surprised me.
With the release of Tales from the Borderlands, the team at Telltale Games has expanded.
New and Old Weekend/Australian Editor Jody Macgregor: In April, Gearbox stated that they were working on a sequel to Tales from the Borderlands, with the caveat that it was being developed internally. The first game’s brilliance resided in the fact that it deviated so drastically from the typical Borderlands experience, with new modes of play and a cast of everyday people to emphasize the surreal nature of the looter-environment shooters from the player’s perspective. The fact that the writers of Borderlands 3 were attempting to tackle such a comedic tone raised some eyebrows. (Though to be fair, both the Borderlands 3 downloadable content and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were upgrades in the writing area.)
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford released a statement (opens in new tab) alongside the New Tales from the Borderlands teaser at Gamescom, revealing that the game was developed by “a crew of original Telltale storytellers, writers, and developers that worked on the original game.” According to IGN (link opens in new tab), Gearbox’s director of development James Lopez said that the team “partnered with key alumni from the first Tales game” to create the script. So perhaps it is reasonable to have high expectations.
On October 21, look for the latest installment of Tales from the Borderlands.
A killer indie mystery game, full of quirk and originality.
Detective Chris Livingston: The brief demo for the independent detective game The Case of the Golden Idol had me hooked immediately. Explore murder scenarios depicted in bizarre pixel art by looking for clues and clicking on them. It’s like a cross between Return of the Obra Dinn and Mad Libs in that you have to figure out what happened and whodunit by dragging and dropping words from a dictionary onto a scroll to reveal the truth about a murder. There will be a dozen homicides to solve in the whole game, and it’s intriguing to think that they may all be connected. It’s a mystery when the complete game will be published, but the demo has piqued my interest and I can’t wait to dig further into the world.
At long last, a game in which I may practice my public speaking skills
To quote Tyler Wilde, the Chief Spokesperson: The premiere night live performance was our first exposure to Where Winds Meet. It’s an open-world action RPG that takes place during the conclusion of China’s Ten Kingdoms era (after which there are no longer ten kingdoms), thus things become hectic. Even though we were warned to be wary of a game’s claims of realism and freedom, it was refreshing to see actual gameplay footage at Gamescom instead of the theatrical trailers we’d been accustomed to. I was quite pleased with the city environment; all the NPCs dressed in period-appropriate clothing caught my eye, and I want to learn more about the non-combat activities we may engage in while in Where Winds Meet.
My two favorite jobs are orator and ferryman. Picture yourself spending hours on a boat giving speeches to NPCs while you transport them about. That is what I mean by a cutting-edge video game. The developer of Where Winds Meet, a PC-exclusive role-playing game, has been put in touch with me by the publisher, so I should have more to say about this game in the near future. The company is located in Hangzhou, China.
