Below we’ve compiled an exhaustive (oh so exhaustive) list of all 36 trailers and announcements shown at this year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, so if you want a roundup of everything you missed, you’re in the right place. Deep breaths everyone. And away we go.
All the Gamescom Opening Night Live trailers and announcements
Much to be expected, the evening was kickstarted with a handful of pretty sweeping shots of little-known indie RPGStarfield, accompanied by a genuinely lovely piano performance from Inon Zur on a bizarrely squished piano. We then were treated to a heartfelt live-action trailer showing off some ship-to-ship combat in an asteroid field, some fancy sand magic, and a cave full of floating rocks which will probably end up giving the main character visions of Reaper invasions or something. Not gonna lie, the excitement is real.
After that (and an unexpected interlude involving a stage invasion), Bethesda Big Boss Todd Howard was invited up onto the Keighley (that’s what we’re calling the stage from now on, deal with it), and spent some time saying a bunch of things that can be said about bothStarfieldandMass Effect, though the general consensus is that he was talking about the former.
Creepy platformerLittle Nightmaresis back with its third game, in which we see two new protagonists seemingly making their way through what seemed like a twisted doll house, among other locales. There seemed to be a theme of traversing a world full of goods that were used and discarded, with the trailer ending on the shot of junk pouring out of a rubbish chute.
A vibrant, fascinating, and somewhat disturbing trailer forBlack Myth: Wukongfollowed, and my goodness, is there a lot to unpick here. We begin with a headless musician singing a lovely ballad at the roots of a gnarled tree. Then there’s a strange tiger-like creature lapping at a pool of blood, a salmon-pink snake slithering through some grass, and a whole load of fantastically-designed creatures being repeatedly walloped by Wukong’s quarterstaff.
Next up, we got to see a trailer forKilling Floor 3, the new sequel in the zombie-wave survival franchise. This was a particularly gory clip of a zombie-like flesh dumpster being cut open and spliced with tech augmentations that soon had it wreaking havoc and tearing through walls. I’d hope this was a boss, because if that’s a look at the standard enemy type… Well, then we’re really in for it.
There was no release date for Killing Floor 3, but it’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC via Steam and Epic.
Excellent RTSAge Of Empires IVis coming to Xbox with an overhauled control system and lots of wheel UIs that make me very happy to look upon. AOE4 is a frankly incredible follow-up and homage to one of the most successful RTS games of all time, and while the trailer was little more than lots of shots of units organising themselves into formations and bashing up against walls or castles or each other, it was enough to make me want to load it up again for another dozen losses - I mean, matches.
Zack Snyder, of Zack Snyder’s Justice League fame, is making a new movie calledRebel Moon. Tis a space adventure coming to Netflix, split into two parts, but we aren’t bothered about that. What wearebothered about (maybe), is that developer Super Evil Megacorp are also developing a Rebel Moon video game that’ll take place after the two movies. Snyder says you can “pick your rebel and go on missions”, which literally tells us nothing. Thanks, Zack.
Okay, by far the best thing about theCrimson Deserttrailer we were treated to at this Opening Night Live is that second-long clip of the player character carrying a lamb on his shoulder just like I hold my cat when she wants a high perch. Beyond this, there’s a lot to pick apart in the trailer for this upcoming open-world action adventure, from castle siege scenes that wouldn’t look out of place inChivalry, to climbing a giant tree creature and turning into some sort of weird smoky bird creature to fly through the air.
Rapper Ice-T appeared to say that he does in fact know a lot about heists in real life, so he also has a heist in upcoming heist-festPayday 3. We got a little look at Ice’s heist, and they definitely weren’t playing stealthy! Lots of shooting, lots of ‘splosions, a very good shot of a Cloaker drop-kicking someone in true Payday fashion. I’m very excited for more Payday, and it’s not far away! Payday 3 launches on September 21st.
Tekken 8got a new trailer in which we saw lots of fights cracking off in an epic downpour. If big, muscly types swinging fists at each other in the rain wasn’t enough for you, though, we also got to hear about a new mode that focuses on the arcade scene, with mii-esque avatars sat playing on arcade machines. I would guess they’re playing Tekken. Do we play them playing Tekken? Do we play them playing another avatar who is playing Tekken? How far does the Tekken-ception go?
It’s like they’re making a game just because they want to be included in mybest rain in gamespost. From the mission’s opening inside a leaky submarine to the climb up the slippery 4k textures of a fortress wall, everything in tonight’s glimpse ofCall Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s first campaign mission looked wonderfully wet. From there, things progress as we’ve grown to expect from every cinematic COD mission in recent memory. A series of silent, synchronised takedowns, followed by an explosion and everything going to shit in a very neat, ordered, linear manner. That sure was one of the Call Of Duty trailers of all time.
Every time I see a newNightingaletrailer, I’m reminded of how angry I am that I haven’t been invited to one of their closed beta playtests yet. But as it turns out, soon that won’t matter, because the game will enter early access in February next year! Tonight’s look at the fascinating fantasy survival game showed off a lot of sumptuously unusual-looking creatures and enemies, and a few punchy-looking shots with rifles and blunderbusses, along with a glimpse at the game’s innovative dimension-hopping Realm Cards mechanic.
Granblue Fantasy Relinkgot a new trailer, showing off some flashy anime combat and someverycool airships. I’m a big fan of airships that look like pirate ships, and this had one! They remind me of Treasure Planet, which is just such a great movie.
A breezy intro from Gina Torres leads into a high-octane trailer for the already-hereImmortals Of Aveum, a magical action shooter where a huge amount of time is evidently spent doing flourishes and other needlessly flamboyant-looking intricacies with your fingers and hands to “reload” your spells. Check out ourImmortals Of Aveum reviewif you’re in danger of getting excited. It’ll bring you back to earth.
This really would be one for Rebecca (RPS in peace) - hi Rebecca!! - but I shall pick up the torch to talk aboutZenless Zone Zero. This is an urban fantasy ARPG from theGenshin Impactand Honkai Star Rail folks, gacha-gurus miHoYO.
The new trailer showed some of the characters we’ll meet, including a wolf man! A big wolf man! He looked cool! There was also a brief look at an arcade game that you can presumably play in ZZZ, before we got to see the player characters (including wolf man!!) fighting some big ol’ mechs.
No more news on when we can expect to see Zenless Zone Zero, but there’s more from miHoYo in the following sections.
In true MiHiYO style, a newcomer would likely finish watching the newHonkai: Star Railtrailer looking like Shrek and Donkey after the Duloc song in Shrek, because there’s just no way that anything that just happened on-screen made any sense at all. But hey, the music is great, the characters are stupidly hot, and the game is actually really goddamn good. And the important information was at the end:Honkai: Star Rail’s PS5 technical test will begin soon, and recruitment starts tomorrow.
Lords Of The Fallen sequelLords Of The Fallen(creative naming) got a new story trailer, in which we saw a hulking demon impale a man in a jagged crown (possibly a lord?) before slicing their head off. A lord no more, then. We then got to see glimpses of a bunch of the baddies you’ll fight in Lords Of The Fallen.
Sonic Frontiersis also a game! Remember that? Oh, how fast a year can feel in vidya games land. Geoff forgets nothing, though, and he shows off a new trailer for Sonic Frontiers which focuses on an upcoming update: The Final Horizon. In this update, you’ll unravel a new story as you take the mantle of characters such as Super Sonic (Super Saiyan Sonic) and Dr Eggman (who is obviously not very Sonic-like).
The First Descendantcame next, with an action-packed trailer that shifts from cinematic to explosion-filled gameplay about 50 times per second. In the final 30 seconds of the trailer we got a look at a fair few oversized bosses to battle against in this upcoming next-gen looter shooter. It all looks very sleek and Destiny-esque to my eyes, with lots of flashy science-fantasy abilities being used to wipe out groups of enemies with a single button-press.
Troy Baker, Roger Clark, and Julia Brown got up onto the Keighley and introduced us toFort Solis, newly released right about now. A very claustrophobic and tense trailer of corridors and panicked voices ensued, leaving viewers in no doubt about what to expect from Fort Solis. Something in betweenDead Spaceand… something by Quantic Dream, I spose? Ah shit, that’s exactly what Edwin said in hisFort Solis review.
I’m the wrong person to be doing the write-up for this one. Whenever cars appear on-screen, my mind goes blank, and the only thought that ping-pongs through my mind is “ooh, shiny”. But that’s really what they were aiming for with this trailer forThe Crew Motorfest, Ubisoft’s incredibly shiny new racing game coming in mid-September.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty gave us another look at Dogtown in its new trailer, which also focused on the new ways to play when the expansion launches. We saw a slew of new weapons, including a particularly slick machete with a laser component and new arm-blades, before the player started shredding through an enemy base. They gutted baddies, they blasted people in the face with a chunky shotgun, and then they got gifted a new vehicle by their lovely guy-in-the-chair friend who was speaking over a radio.
This quickly moved into a section focused on the new vehicle combat mechanics coming in Phantom Liberty, in which we spied someWatch Dogs-esque hacking of vehicles and plenty of shootouts while barreling down a motorway. This also showed off the new police system, with MaxTec carriers deploying troops to chase down V, the player character, as they unleashed carnage from the safety of their car.
It’s a decade ago, andStarcraft 2is coming out soon! Except it’s not Starcraft 2, it’sStormgate- a spiritual successor which makes absolutely no attempt to hide its inspirations. This bite-sized developer-narrated trailer introduces a new faction: the Infernal Host. They operate using Shroud, fields of “dark magic” which spread across the map much like, oh, I don’t know… Zerg creep? Ahh who cares, Starcraft is excellent, more of that please.
Ben Brode is back with Geoff andincrediblyexcited - and for good reason! He announced thatMarvel Snaphas been rebuilt for PC, shedding the shoddy mobile-esque format that it’s been running since launch for a new, refined experience that’s suited for desktop. This is really awesome news, because Marvel Snap continues to be one of the best digital card games, but the old mobile UI made it really hard to show off to pals without them going “yikes, what is that”.
And, thankfully, we won’t need to wait any longer for this new Marvel Snap update, as it’s live right now on Steam! Best announcement of the show, right here.
A nebulous and explosive gameplay forArmored Core 6: Fires Of Rubiconcame next, showing off a whole hell of a lot of mech on mech action without very much context at all. Which is fine by me. FromSoftware’s stories are never frontloaded with information. They leave you to piece things together bit by bit, and this time around you’ll be doing it between pulse-pounding missions which are likely to fill the screen with missiles, laser blades, and explosions galore. Armored Core VI comes out later this week on 25th August.
Ed Boon strolled out to chat with Geoff next, ready to speak about upcoming fighting gameMortal Kombat 1. That’s the one with the FATALITIES, and Boon promised their “craziest trailer of all”. Well, the trailer absolutely delivered on that. It introduced some of the new characters coming to Outworld, before getting into some of its bloody battles featuring a General who enjoyed slamming a big axe into other iconic members of the Mortal Kombat roster.
A first look at the gameplay ofAra: History Untoldgave us a first idea of how ambitious this turn-based grand strategy game has become. Of course, grand scope is part and parcel of the grand strategy genre, but Ara: History Untold looks to focus heavily on changing Earth’s history as you see fit, from blank terrain all the way to a sprawling Manhattan megatropolis, with… Wait, is that the Eiffel Tower at its centre?
To close off the evening, Sam Lake, Creative Director at Remedy Entertainment, steps up onto the Keighley to present the latest look atAlan Wake 2, and specifically the character of Alan Wake and the sinister alternate dimension of the Dark Place. The creepy trailer that follows mixes live-action with gameplay, and leaves viewers in absolutely no doubt of the game’s horror roots.
