In the rich tradition of standing on a stage to show commercials, salesman and Dorito Pope Geoff Keighley kicked off Gamescom 2022 with the Opening Night Live event. If you’re anything like me and can’t grind your life to a screeching halt to sit through 2 hours of advertisement, cutscenes, and footage-not-finals, then cheer up. We’ve got you covered here at The Pixels!
Here’s every game featured at last night’s show.
Everywhere All At Once
A new IP from developer Rocket Boy Games, Everywhere will bring multiple planes of existence together for an open-world adventure. The trailer shows off several colorful and diverse settings from a lush sunlit forest to a vast desert of buttes to a spicy volcanic wasteland.
Baron It All
Following the nerdy hype train of Villeneuve’s HBO Max Dune, Funcom announced more Dune game on the horizon. Dune: Awakening beta registration is open for this upcoming open world survival MMO. Just remember to walk without rhythm.
Zombies… In… SPAAAAAAAACE!
A new gameplay trailer took the stage for The Callisto Protocol by Striking Distance Studios. If blowing bodies into meat grinders and dismembering limbs with bullets never gets old for you, this survival horror title may be a love letter to your tastebuds.
Elden Lords of the Fallen
Everything comes full circle. The Lord of the Rings meets Souls in The Lords of the Fallen, the epic trailer showing up Amazon’s Rings of Power and Elden Ring in one fell blow, jarring music choice and all. Ok, that’s generous but Hexworks Studio’s Souls-like is due 2023, so we’ll have to find out then. Speaking of circles, I bet a game like this is making Tolkien roll in his Catholic urn.
Moving Out Again
Briskly paced, the Moving Out 2 trailer brought a dash of cutesy to the grimdark of Gamescom Opening Night Live. It’s a sequel to the 2020 title in which characters take on various moving jobs, not a game in which you leave your parents’ house for a second time in your thirties.
Bibbity Bobbity Uh Oh
Are we allowed to talk about Harry Potter still?. Hogwarts Legacy will bring players some magical nostalgia with this story-driven trailer. The immersive, open-world action RPG is flying in next February.
Telltale tales
The new Tales from the Borderlands game, cleverly titled New Tales from the Borderlands, has received its official reveal trailer full of customary Telltale personality and humoresque. If it ain’t broke! The game is right around the corner, hitting shelves this October.
Blinded by the Dying Light
Carnage Hall (not Carnegie Hall, get it?) swings open for Dying Light 2. The Bloody Ties DLC expansion, the game’s first major story expansion, will be available in October.
Tortuga is Spanish for Turtle
Mysterious pirate game Tortuga: A Pirate’s Tale was announced with a surprise trailer. Feature hexagonal naval battles (that’s battles with ships, not belly buttons), the strategy yohoho simulator is currently in development by Gaming Minds Studios and set to publish in 2023 courtesy of Kalypso.
What is best in life?
Marauders is coming to EA! Not EA Games. Early Access. The tactical FPS will be there to spray bullets, raid, loot, and listen to the lamentations of your enemies this October.
The Legend of Sonic: Leaks in the Wild
Not even Sonic is fast enough to stop the leaks, but Sonic Team took it in stride and showed off a new trailer. Whether this will be received as one of the good ones or the bad ones (the trailer and the game) remains to be seen from the Sonic community, but the game is due to speed into stores in November.
Darling, it’s better down where it’s wetter
A new IP called Under the Waves takes us on an exploratory adventure under the sea, courtesy of Quantic Dream and Parallel Studio. This looks like a somber, story-heavy game, atmospheric and not at all for someone with thalassophobia.
No Animals Were Harmed
Goat Simulator 3 makes no effort to disguise the fact its a game about extra-dimensional virtual superbeings disguised as boneless goats. All the wackiness the series is known for (with none of the tedious realistic simulating of other simulators) was on display in this first look at the game’s gameplay.
Return to Moon Logic
For the silverbacks in the audience, Return to Monkey Island got a characteristically over-the-top trailer ahead of its September 19th release date, which, as you know, happens to be “International Talk Like A Pirate Day”. There are preorder bonuses and cosmetics to suss out, but really, I’m just here for the LucasArts insanity.
In the Grim Darkness of the Near Future…
Unknown Worlds revealed Moonbreaker, a digital tabletop strategy game not unlike exactly what it makes you think of: Warhammer 40,000 but with actual colors other than gray and grimdark. Paint and battle your miniatures without having to send all your money to Gamesworkshop! The colorful tabletop-like looks takes aim at Early Access this fall.
Friends Don’t Let Friends
Friends vs Friends mashes up first-person shooters with card deck mechanics in a brightly animated trailer that may leave you with more questions than answers. Less anime than Neon White but striking other similarities, Raw Fury neglected to offer a firm release date for the card shooter, err… FPS deckbuilder.
You’re Not a French Historian
I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending like I know or you know or anybody knows what the hell “Belle Epoque” means. All you need to know is Lies of P is a Souls-like Pinocchio game that looks more like Bloodborne than Disney’s animated classic. You’ll buy it because you like Souls-like, maybe because you like Pinocchio, not because you’re a French historian.
Harvest the Moons
The “planet survival sim” Stranded: Alien Dawn showcased lifelike actors, detailed surfaces of not-so-alien worlds, and something like a cross between a tower defense and a farm sim? It was a short but sweet reveal. Better to be left guessing than fall asleep bored. Thanks, Frontier Foundry and Haemimont Games!
I Don’t Like Sand.
Tired of shooting things with guns? Try sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere, including inside Deck 13’s new game, Atlas Fallen. It looks like Monster Hunter meets Dune!
Ships… In… SPAAAAAAAACE!
There was no Nintendo at Gamescom (besides for the Pikachumobile), so Blackbird Interactive had to step up to the plate and over-explain gameplay this time around. Homeworld 3, the upcoming real-time strategy space shooter, looks elegant and serene, even as ships explode into fiery flowers in a vacuum.
Genshin Impact Trauma
Somebody woke up and decided successful Chinese ARPG Genshin Impact didn’t have enough characters yet and so a new region with a new colorful cast was shown off in this visually splendid trailer. Sumeru will welcome new players soon!
Honkai if you love Genshin Impact!
From the same developer as the aforementioned ARPG comes Honkai: Star Rail, a 3D tactical RPG that will be free-to-play. We’re still in the vague tease stage of our relationship with Honkai, so we’ll have to wait for more concrete information.
The Guns Kick Back and Talk Back
Even if you’ve never seen Rick and Morty (like me), you know what Rick and Morty is. Well, the Rick and Morty guy is making a game. High on Life looks positively surreal with its scatological weapons and scatological language, a unique spin on the classic video game formula of “shoot that guy”.
The Andromeda Strain
Telltale went up for a second round with a new trailer for The Expanse, focusing on the Massy Effecty game’s story and characters. Hope you like space, clowns!
H.G. Well’s It
Hey! You! Remember Killer Klowns from Outer Space? Probably vaguely. As the ’80s nostalgia train keeps churning out hits, the klowns are back in action for a 3-vs-7 title beaming down early 2023. If you liked the Friday the 13th: The Game game, you’ll wanna keep an eye peeled for this one.
Aliens… From… SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
In a sea of cinematic sci-fi trailers, Scars Above gets a cinematic sci-fi trailer. A dark one. An alien structure straight out of 2001 brings with it a host of extraterrestrial terrors, with some comparing the thing to Returnal and Metroid.
Something Wyrd This Way Comes
Through a long, slow list of white text over a black screen a la an acclaimed director revealing his next Oscar-winner (except the titles are Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Dragon Age), we’re treated to the next game by ex-Bethesda-ian Jeff Gardiner and new studio Something Wicked Games. The open-world RPG Wyrdsong got only a brief tease, but its imagery was striking.
Imperial Sims
Age of Empires 4 had a new expansion announced called Ottomans and Malians. You might’ve flunked that class in high school. No, an ottoman is not just a box you put your feet up on and store blankets in. Tactical and strategic fun takes the place of historical reverence here.
F**k Batman!
Harley Quinn and the Emancipation of Some Gotham Knights, officially titled Gotham Knights, is getting an early release in October. No delays for the Gotham group. New villains were shown off, including DC Comics’ new poster child, Harley Quinn. Lady Gaga be pleased. It remains to be seen if the game will be able to reach the heights that the Arkham series did before it.
Ghost of Tang Dynasty
Where Winds Meet, spawned from the loins of Everstone Games, brings medieval China to the open-world RPG format. From changing jobs to activities like hunting and horseback riding, this look’s like Everstone’s answer to Tsushima.
The Happiest Place on Earth
No, it’s not Roller Coaster Tycoon. It’s not Theme Park Simulator: Rollercoaster Paradise. It’s not even such pithy titles as Parkitect or Thrillville. It’s Park Beyond from Bandai Namco, coming 2023.
Phantom of the Chopera
Phantom Hellcat can’t make up its mind if it’s 2D or 3D. It’s both, screams new dev on the block Ironbird Creations. The stylish hack-n-slash proudly portrayed two different modes of gameplay via the movements of its heroine, Jolene, and the cursed theater she does her hacking and sometimes slashing in.
War… In… SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
Warhammer 40k: Darktide brings the ultraviolent, lore-heavy universe to life with its fully customizable characters and 4-player co-op and more blood and baddies than you can shake a chainsword at. Warhammer fans should rally around this one. It looks grittily authentic.
6-sided Sim City
Dorfromantik (bless you) is headed from Steam to Nintendo Switch. If you haven’t heard, the critics loved this city-building puzzle game by Toukana Interactive, with its hexagonal biomes and peaceful but strategy-oriented setting.
Be Careful What You Witch For
Witchcraft and Baba Yaga had their spot in the moonlight in the freakish mythical world of Blacktail. The Slavic saga looks positively salivating on screen, coming this winter.
Return to Oz 2
Outlast is getting a prequel, The Outlast Trials. In this full trailer, we’re assaulted by an array of disturbing and gory images, so you can rest assured it’s staying on brand. Speaking of, a closed beta will be ready in time for this Halloween.
I’d Like To Buy A Bowel
You might get so competitive you want to Smash your TV, but get ready anyway for a new “shooter wrapped in a game show” from the devs formerly known as those that worked on Battlefield. The Finals only got a small showing, but enough to show off some gun tricks and snapshots.
Zombies… All… Over… The… PLAAAAAAAAACE!
Dead Island 2 received a new trailer at Opening Night Live, confirming gameplay and a release date of February 2023. If you’re not sick of zombies yet, this game has more than you can shake a bazooka or a one-liner at.
And that’s Gamescom Opening Night Live! Kojima announced an English podcast, Pikachu got a car, Sony revealed a controller for PlayStation 5 (which may or may not exist, we cannot confirm), and Geoff survived another live event in which he did not fall asleep despite looking like he might at any moment. Get that man some coffee!
Any hits for you from this event or was it a string of misses? You know the drill. Look, I’m just another guy tryna generate some engagement off an industry event I had no part of. Happy gaming!
Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, director of content, lead writer, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves. It can be done, even in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.
