Thoughts On Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024
August 21, 2024
Written by Jamie Galea
Gamescom, the world’s biggest game show, is currently underway, preceded by the now traditional pre-show hosted by the only person allowed to talk about video games on a stage, Geoff Keighley. In true Keighley fashion, it was a show that aimed to hit all possible demographics and tastes, with updates on existing games and all sorts of new reveals. As I’ve written previously, I’m very much not a fan of his work, but the guy does bring announcements, and this event felt less craven and blatantly an ad show than say, Summer Games Fest.
Of course, you could very easily watch Geoff Keighley on stage for two hours and take in the video game hype man in all his splendor, but allow me to save you some time and here’s some of the announcements I thought were worth half a damn.
Just to be clear, I didn’t wake up at 4am for this. You probably shouldn’t get up at stupid hours for these things!
Indiana Jones Gets a Release Date, Comes to Playstation
The fact that it took this long for Indiana Jones & The Great Circle to get a release date is baffling, but hey, it’s still very much on track for this year and might very well be one of the last big games of the year! December 9 if you have a Xbox or PC, which as someone still mostly keen to give it a go, is finally good to hear.
However, the actual news was that it’ll also be coming to Playstation 5 sometime next year. This was among one of the big rumours going into the event, and one of two Xbox exclusive games that people had been speculating would be released on Playstation (the other, and my hope, would’ve been Forza Horizon 5). I think it’s honestly a good move, if not a wholly expected one.
Truthfully can’t wait to get stuck into this one.
I want to spend several one more turns with Civilization VII
We knew about this ahead of time, thanks to its reveal at Geoff’s Summer Games Fest show, and admittedly most of the actual details were in a separate gameplay reveal, but on the outset the game looks like everything I’d want out of a new Civ game. I’m really vibing with the versus screen-esque negotiation screen, and it looks like weather and climate, something that was a big focus of the Gathering Storm expansion for Civ VI, will be a part of the core game now.
There’s a lot of big shifts with the game, with one of the more striking ones being that you’re not necessarily tied to a set leader and Civ now. The game is split into three specific ages and once a player reaches a new age , every player has to choose a new Civ to lead, allowing you to mix and match leaders and Civs, and governs what you can research and build. It now means some Civs can only be played during a specific age. If it’s a lot to wrap your head around, it is! It’s a fairly big change to the series and one that should make replayability a core part of the game.
Also, Gwendolyn Christie is the narrator! She’s got a good voice for it, so I’m keen to see how she stacks up in the grand pantheon of Civ narrators. Leonard Nimoy is still the all timer, but I cannot wait to see how she fares. February 2025 can’t come soon enough.
Borderlands 4 has been threatened
I’m sure if the Borderlands movie wasn’t such an abject failure commercially and critically, there would be more hype about this, but surprise, Borderlands 4 is a thing to be concerned about. It’s been long enough since the last mainline Borderlands game in 2019, and just the right amount of time after the Tiny Tina spinoff, so it makes sense that a new game should be coming. This opened the show, with Geoff bragging “IT DIDN’T GET LEAKED!”
The teaser trailer wasn’t much, just some quick visuals and a Psycho mask to let you know what it all is, but I think you can safely expect satisfying co-op shooting, zany characters, obnoxious writing, and striking enough character design to be a cosplayers favourite for years. So yeah, it’s a Borderlands game through and through.
It’s not for me, but I think there’s going to be a lot of people genuinely happy with this.
Monument Valley 3 is an actual thing!
Here’s a genuine surprise, a third entry in publisher/develop UsTwo’s MC Escher inspired minimalist puzzle series. I adored that first game, and never really got into the second, but regardless, happy to see it continue to be a thing.
Of course the reason why it’s being featured here is because it’s a Netflix published affair. While Netflix has secretly been curating arguably the best subscription gaming experience for mobile, thanks to funding some cool indie titles, exclusive ports and their own bespoke games, I’m not too sure if something like this being locked to owning a Netflix sub is the right play.
I get that without Netflix these games wouldn’t really be made or ported, and it’s not UsTwos first game to be like this (Assemble With Care, their last game, was an Apple Arcade exclusive for years). I just wish there was a way to not require a subscription, and I’m hoping there is a way to own this permanently later down the line.
I’m more excited for this than the Squid Game mobile game Netflix also brought to Opening Night Live. At the very least, Netflix is adding Monument Valley and its sequel to their service, which is pretty neat if you’ve never played them before.
Prime Video tells you how to access the Secret Level
In maybe one of the more left field announcements, Blur Studios, the creators of Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots (as well as many, many game trailers) have a new TV show! Secret Level, coming to Prime Video sometime in the near future. Much like Love, it’ll be an anthology series spanning 15 episodes, but this time with a massive list of actual video game franchises to pull from.
I’m not too sure how to feel about this, especially given it’s being pitched as “adult animation”. The vibe I always got from Love, Death + Robots was that it loved being really edgy in lieu of telling “mature” stories, and hearing anything pitched as adult animation gives me vibes of a lot of animated shows with incredibly similar artstyles just saying fuck repeatedly.
Yet at the same time, the list of games they’re pulling ranges from obvious hits to some surprising pulls. Armored Core getting some representation is cool! Hearing that Unreal Tournament is getting some representation in the year of our lord 2024 is genuinely shocking. I don’t know how Sifu or Spelunky will work out in this style, but I’m intrigued enough.
I want to be proven wrong though, and I’m hoping the show is worth a darn. I just don’t have particularly high expectations for it. I want to have the same level of emotion for it that Tim Miller has talking about the projects he’s involved in. Also not a fan of Capcom okaying Mega Man appearances and still not wanting to actually make a new game! They gotta stop that!
PETER MOLYNEUX ON STAGE IN 2024
“He’s BAAAACK” is literally how Geoff Keighley introduced former Bullfrog and Lionhead and 22cans founder Peter Molenuyx, and his new game Masters of Albion. On its surface, it looks like a throwback to the god games that his studios were famous for, and by rights, it doesn’t necessarily sound like a bad thing?
Except Masters of Albion shares more than a few similarities with another game he was involved in, Legacy, which is a game that was heavily tied to the blockchain. I don’t want to say it’s a reskin without the NFT crap, but it sure does look real, real similar. Good to see him doing well, at the very least, I guess?
GEOFF’S GOLDEN TICKET
This doesn’t have anything to do with the stream mind, but this tweet came across my timeline and it blew my mind. The cult of Geoff Keighley is such that he deemed 50 people worthy of an exclusive meet and greet with him and co-host Sjokz (pronounced Shocks). I suppose it’s fun and exciting to win something so exclusive, but a photo with Geoff Keighley is very low on my list of ideal ways to spend a Gamescom.
THE REST
- Goat Simulator Remastered may be pointless, but I got a giggle out of its trailer. Very on the nose, but it’s on brand I guess.
- If you love looking at CG renders of period furniture and weaponry, you’ll love the trailer for Mafia: The Old Country.
- KYLE CRANE IS BACK is a phrase I wasn’t expecting to hear come out of Geoff Keighley’s mouth, because who could remember the main character of Dying Light?
- Marvel Rivals making a point about all its characters being unlocked from the drop and future characters being free is the right thing to do.
- Lost Records: Bloom & Rage definitely looks like the game from the creators of Life is Strange alright.
- I nearly had to do a double take when seeing Reanimal, the latest game from Tarsier Studios, because I was genuinely convinced it was Little Nightmares III, having forgotten they were bought by Embracer Group. It doesn’t help that it looks real, real similar. It also doesn’t help that the actual Little Nightmares III had a trailer here too.
- If Blizzard can’t have a Blizzcon due to all the issues, I’m guessing taking up a surprisingly big chunk of ONL to talk about stuff coming to WoW and Overwatch, plus a Diablo IV trailer, counts as all their news for the year.
