The summer of gaming news is fading into the fall of new releases, and Gamescom Opening Night Live has aired to herald the end. Today, we got a whole lot of news, trailers, reveals, and more to set the stage ahead for 2024, 2025, and beyond.
The Game Awards showrunner Geoff Keighley took the stage again, accompanied by long-time esports host Eefje “sjokz” Depoortere, to run the festivities as dozens of news and announcements aired. Some were essentially just trailers for games that are already out, or coming out soon, so we won’t cover those here.
But even the Kyle Bosman-led pre-show had some fun tidbits, from Dave the Diver getting crossovers with Balatro, Potion Craft, and mxmtoon to some more Terry footage from Street Fighter 6 and a look at the next Dark Pictures horror adventure Directive 8020.
Here’s all the big news and announcements from the main show at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024.
Everything shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024
- We open with a bang. Borderlands 4 is very real, and arriving sometime in 2025. There’s not too much we can scrounge from this trailer, except for some SHIFT codes probably, but that’s something for fans of the series to look forward to after a rough showing on the silver screen.
- Activision showed off some Call of Duty Black Ops 6 campaign footage, which starts out a bit surprisingly, with alternative routes and not a lot of shooting. Don’t worry; once the big plan goes bad, the bullets start flying, and it starts looking familiar. Early access kicks off on August 30 for that, with an open beta due soon after.
- In one of the stranger trailers of the show, a bunch of game parodies lead into the reveal of Goat Simulator Remastered, arriving sometime in 2024. Looks like a good time to be a baaaaa-d goat? (Don’t boo me, I’m trying.)
- Persona 3′s Episode Aigis DLC is arriving soon, bringing The Answer to Atlus’ remake. And now it looks like some challenge battles are in tow too, alongside an appearance from Persona 5‘s Joker. That’s out on September 10.
- Dying Light: The Beast was going to be Dying Light 2 DLC, until Techland apparently spun it out into its own standalone game, starring DL1‘s Kyle Crane. It’s neat to see the series still chugging along. No date for this, but owners of the big content pass for Dying Light 2 won’t have to shell out for it.
- Lynked: Banner of the Spark is a mixture of town-building and roguelite elements, and it sure is colorful too. You can read more in our writeup here, and keep an eye out for the Early Access launch on October 22, 2024.
- Love creepy mysteries, teen angst, and a little bit of ’90s nostalgia? Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, the latest from Don’t Nod, looks to have it all. Read more in our hands-on preview here, as it’s quickly becoming one of my more anticipated games going into 2025.
- The zombie-slaying No More Room in Hell 2 is certainly on its way, with some co-op permadeath action in store. But frankly, I just can’t get over how the guy in this trailer sounds like Plankton from SpongeBob. Once you hear it, you won’t be able to un-hear it.
- Arc Raiders is a game that surprised me a while ago, mostly because it seemed to involve giant, bouncing, destructive orbs. There may be more happening, but today’s trailer mostly teased that sign-ups are live now.
- Around the Destructoid water cooler, Infinity Nikki has come up more than a few times. If you’re not familiar with the Nikki series, you might not know how popular this series can be, but today’s trailer certainly makes a case for its adorable open-world adventures. Closed beta sign-ups are also going live for Infinity Nikki.
- Paragon successor Predecessor (say that five times fast) is officially launching, and it celebrated as much during today’s Opening Night Live stream. Hopefully the path ahead goes better for them than it did for Paragon.
- Dungeon-crawling action-RPG Path of Exile 2 hits Early Access on November 15, so get those loot bags ready and build-crafting spreadsheets open. At least, that’s what I imagine ARPG sickos go in for, anyways.
- We got a look at some Dune Awakening gameplay, which lets you live out your dream of being a random wanderer on the planet of Arrakis. Worms, sun stroke, and enemies are all there to kill you, but maybe you can learn to survive and even thrive? Or get griefed by a dude named “Chimothée Talamet.” That’s set for PC in early 2025.
- Tarsier Studios, creators of Little Nightmares 1 and 2, unveiled their new project today: the very Little Nightmares-esque Reanimal, which is all about being little fellas running from giant creepy animals. It looks hauntingly gorgeous, and will head to PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC.
- Have you been wanting to play Genshin Impact, but only own an Xbox? Well, today, that specific crowd gets their prayers answered. Hoyoverse’s massive action-RPG is coming to Microsoft’s box on November 20. Also, there’s a new region on the way!
- Monster Hunter Wilds showed off some monster hunting today, focusing on an especially creepy fight with a giant spider boss. I cannot wait to see what kind of armor and equipment we’ll craft from this thing. Wilds is looking fantastic, and like an easy contender for one of 2025’s biggest early hits.
- Lara Croft is coming to Naraka Bladepoint. That’s all I really have to say on the matter. Congratulations to Naraka Bladepoint.
- In a great throwback trailer, SNK confirms one of its most recognizable fighters Mai Shiranui will appear in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, due out on April 24 ,2025.
- Monument Valley 3 looks absolutely pleasant to puzzle through, and it’s coming to Netflix very soon – on December 10, 2024. Sadly, it’s a Netflix exclusive. But if you check out the app, the other two Monument Valley games are also making their way there, too.
- Civilization 7 seems poised to take one more turn from you, over and over again. Firaxis has locked in a release date of February 11, 2025, and it’s hard to imagine any PC owner not excited for this one.
- Holy crap, Starfield is finally getting a freaking car. The REV-8 is your very own Mass Effect Mako, carting you and your companion around the vast, open terrains of planets, and it’s out today. Plus, the Shattered Space DLC is set to arrive on September 30, 2024.
- Marvel Rivals seems well-poised to make a dent in the packed hero shooter genre, and its latest trailer reaffirms it. Captain America and the Winter Soldier are both due up for the Rivals roster, with Bucky looking like a fast, mobile assassin and Cap bringing some potent shielding power to teams. NetEase’s answer to Overwatch arrives on December 6, and promises to have all heroes unlocked and free-to-play, at launch and beyond.
- A sizzle reel for Amazon’s anthology adaptation series Secret Level plans to bring many different franchises to the streaming side, and- wait, is that Mega Man?! You know what, I’d get a little emotional too if I was bringing the Blue Bomber back. The show premieres on December 10.
- Stoic’s Towerborne, a side-scrolling action game that gives me faint Castle Crashers vibes, is set to hit Steam Early Access on September 10. Looks neat!
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 seems sharp, surprising, and definitely taking its period piece framing seriously. I love all the roaming around the countryside, though I’m maybe a little less keen on first-person swordplay. We’ll have to see how it pans out when the sequel arrives on February 11, 2025. A gameplay premiere is set for August 21, 2024.
- Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai Star Rail both have new characters and content on the way. I’m not caught up enough on either to know the specifics, but the final teaser for Star Rail says a Fate/Stay Night crossover is due for Q3 2025, and that I cannot wait for. I hope it somehow leads to Geoff Keighley talking about Saber and Shirou Emiya on the Game Awards stage.
- “Da bat” is here, with the Meta Quest-exclusive Batman: Arkham Shadow, arriving in October. I wish it looked a bit weightier, but some of the character models and story scenes look pretty cool.
- Oh hey, it’s Little Nightmares 3. It ‘s got that two-player horror adventure set-up that will look familiar to fans of the first two. Supermassive is heading this one up, as Tarsier works on Reanimal, so I’m curious to see how both turn out and where this burgeoning genre of “Nightmare-alikes” goes from here.
- Herdlings looks like a pleasant game from the makers of FAR: Lone Sails, tasking you with herding mystical animals. Seems neat!
- Good lord, that’s Peter Molyneux. He’s on the stage, talking about Masters of Albion, a new game that he frames as a homecoming to PC and console development. I’m assuming there won’t be any cubes in this one. In fact, it seems like a god game in a style we haven’t seen in a while. We’ll see how it turns out?
- Meanwhile, the latest Squid Game spin-off to completely miss the point has arrived. Squid Game: Unleashed looks like a comical, Fall Guys-esque interpretation of the death-game bloodsport shown in Netflix’s series. I’m normally down for a little bit of dark comedy in adaptations, but when you start doing the Terminator thumbs-up from a lava pit, you’ve entered brand-trying-to-meme territory. If none of that backs you away, it’s out soon on the Netflix app.
- Blizzard’s Johanna Faries takes the stage to show off a Sylvanas skin for Widowmaker and promote the upcoming launch of World of Warcraft: The War Within, as well as the upcoming Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred. The latter showed off some mercenary companions, which seems neat. WoW‘s next expansion hits on August 22 in early access, and Vessel of Hatred is due out on October 8.
- You know, The First Berserker: Khazan is looking kinda sick? It’s set for an early 2025 debut, and I dig the action and raw fury we’re seeing here. It’s very, well, Berserk, even though it’s drawing from the Dungeon & Fighter universe. It’s on my radar now, though.
- Floatopia is a new chill life sim from NetEase, and looks like an Animal Crossing competitor. Not much in the way of news, but keep an eye out for that one.
- We get a confirmed date for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, hitting Xbox Series consoles and PC on December 9, 2024. Plus, we got immediate confirmation that Indy will head to PlayStation 5 in Spring 2025. Interesting to see, considering Xbox’s move to put more games on other consoles.
- One last thing: It’s Mafia. Yes, a new Mafia is on the way, in the form of Mafia: The Old Country. Hangar 13 is taking it all back to the roots, in a very Godfather Part 2 trailer. Not much more in the way of news here, but you know what? I’m very, very intrigued.
Published: Aug 20, 2024 04:37 pm