If you missed out on this year’s Gamescom, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. There were a lot of exciting reveals with loads of games and hardware being shown off. Here’s a list of the what was presented at Gamescom:
Nvidia
Announced the new $800 GeForce RTX 2080ti.
- The card has been in the making for 10 years.
- The new card set boasts 18.9 billion transistors.
- “[The RTX 2080ti] is the second largest chip the world has ever made, the first largest chip is the V100, which powers supercomputers all over the world.”
- The new RTX creates immensely more complex lighting for various environments. For the longest time, game shadows have been dark and without much variety to gradation. With this chip, it’s now possible to create dynamic shadows that are softer and more natural. In addition, there’s more complex reflections for surfaces as well.
- For a visual look, take a look at GamersPrey’s video on the Nvidia’s Gamescom.
Microsoft
The FPS monster hunting game Hunt Showdown is coming to Xbox Game Preview.
- The game has PvE and PvP. It also features a sandbox style map where players hunt monsters for gold.
Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds is leaving Xbox One Game Preview. The game is to be released on September 4.
- It will feature a new War Mode, custom games, the new map Sanhok, which is already on PC, and all the enhancements the developers have made along the way.
- The game will also get a limited edition controller
Battlefield V releases on October 19 for the standard edition, Oct 11 for EA Access members, and October 16 for the Battlefield V Deluxe Edition.
- Each class (recon, assault, medic, support) is given unique abilities and specified enhancements to weapon and vehicle performance. These are organized in loadouts called the Combat Roles. This gives more options to each class in how they can be used.
- Soldiers and weapons can now be visually customized from top to bottom.
State of Decay 2’s Daybreak Pack releases September 12.
- Daybreak is an entirely new mode with new unlockables.
- Play as a Elite-Red-Talon Soldier and defend Red Talon Tech against waves of zombies that get increasingly more difficult.
- There will be a range of new weapons and gear.
- 9 new range weapons
- 6 new melee weapons
- 6 new consumables
- New explosives
- Mines
- The mode introduces the new Blood Plague Juggernaut special Freak enemy.
- Each round is about a 45 minute experience.
- Prestige is the in game currency that will be earned through play.
- The mode plays up to 4 players in drop-in/drop-out cooperative play.
- Players can also play single player with 2 NPCs.
Sea of Thieves has some new content coming soon as well.
- The Forsaken Shores expansion releases September 19.
- In the Land of Volcanoes, some will be dormant; others won’t be.
- The expansion will include rowboats, raining rocks, and geysers.
- Players may load rowboats up with loot but can also fill them with traps like explosives.
- A new merchant quest called Cargo Runners will be made available. Players will have to fulfill special requests in transporting cargo like not getting expensive cloths wet or keeping fragile bottles of rum safe.
- If they do not use a rowboat, players can get cooked alive by heated water around the volcanic island.
The Fallout 76 beta will come in October, coming to Xbox first. A preorder of the game is required to play the beta.
- An Xbox One X and Fallout 76 bundle will be released on November 14.
- Features camps that will function like Fallout 4’s settlements. Players will have to scavenge raw materials or mine for them. They can construct a home and move it whenever desired. They can also craft handmade ordinance and sell them.
- There’s more freedom than ever as to where you can place a camp.
- Multiple players can build a single camp.
- Moving camps will cost caps.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps will introduce the new Spirit Trials game mode.
- The aim for players in the new mode is to complete levels as fast as possible for in-game rewards and leaderboard positions.
Metro Exodus will debut a new level called the Taiga.
- The game will feature animal encounters, which includes bears and mutated wolves.
- It will release on February 22, 2019 and is available for preorder.
A few other games saw some announcements as well:
- Recore: Definitive Edition, Super Lucky’s Tale, Disney Land Adventures, Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure and Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection will all soon be available on Steam and PC disc.
- Life is Strange 2’s first of five episodes releases on September 27.
- Devil May Cry 5 is set to release on March 8, 2019.<
- Sable, a 1980s-European-comic style game, is projected to release in late 2019.
- A new Halo arcade game called Halo: Fireteam Raven is a shooting gallery type game that will appear in arcades such as Dave & Buster’s.
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection is coming to Xbox Games Pass on September 1 along with updates, which include better online connectivity and offline LAN.
- DayZ will be coming to Xbox One on August 29.
- The Division 2 will have two collector’s editions and will be available March 15, 2019.
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider releases September 14, and it will release with Warrior’s Trial, a harder and deadlier tomb.
- The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is the start of a new horror video game anthology that will release in 2019. The choices players make determine the stories that the players receive.
There will be new Xbox One X Bundles for:
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Forza Horizon 4
- Battlefield V
- Fallout 76
New Camouflage and Shadow color options will become available for Xbox’s Controller Design Lab.
Blizzard
New Overwatch content is on the way.
- A new map called Busan, a D.Va-themed map, will be arriving soon.
- "Travel to Busan, South Korea and battle for control across three distinct locales within one map: Sanctuary, Downtown, and MEKA Base," says the level’s description in the trailer.
- Also, a teaser for upcoming Lego sets based off of the Overwatch characters and possibly also select maps was shown.
New content for World of Warcraft was shown briefly.
- The Battle for Azeroth expansion had an animated short.
- Tychus Findlay was shown off as a Co-op Commander in StarCraft II.
- Tychus is a new playable commander in Starcraft II’s cooperative mode.
- Users recruit outlaws (who are hero units) to help him fight
- When an outlaw dies, he can be recruited again from Joey Ray’s Bar, a special building for Tychus that’s similar to other special buildings like Stukov’s infested colony with how the player starts with it at the beginning of the co-op mission.
- Players can only recruit 4 outlaws at a time though.
- Tychus can call down the Odin (basically a huge version of the Thor unit) from the Wings of Liberty Campaign.
Diablo 3 gameplay was featured on the Switch.
Heroes of the Storm has the redesigned map Hanamura.
The Good:
To get this out of the way, the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080ti looks astounding. While the cost of the chip is $800, this marks a new era for graphics in the future console generations. Seeing lighting/shadow gradation in action is simply unbelievable.
Microsoft had a strong presence at Gamescom. The Master Chief Collection update announcement was some of the best news for Halo in quite some time considering that the game had an immensely dysfunctional launch roughly four years ago. The game has been in desperate need for a fix with the map selection in multiplayer and overall online functionality. In addition, Sea of Thieves also received attention for its new volcanic DLC, which means that Rare is still making improvements to the game, and will be much more appealing down the road.
Blizzard’s announcements, while small, were fairly positive and they made sure to show something for each of their games. Fans of Wings of Liberty will finally get Tychus, who is a fan favorite character in StarCraft II, back into action.
The Bad
The only two sour notes on the Microsoft’s presentation. First, the organization of Microsoft’s announcement of game bundles with the Xbox One X. Just after each included game’s information was discussed, there just had to be an exclusive segment for the bundle for each game. It was starting to get irritating as a viewer to have to sit through each and every deal for the Xbox One X after each game announcement. This could have easily been summarized in one three-minute segment.
The other sour note is more about how wise an exclusive arcade cabinet is. I’m not sure why a Halo arcade cabinet (Halo: Fireteam Raven) needed its own 10-minute-miniature documentary. Don’t misunderstand; it’s a fantastic new avenue that Halo is getting its own arcade game for something that you will see in a Dave & Buster’s, but it’s just not something to get terribly excited over. Sure, the shooting gallery games were fun back in the days when arcade cabinets were the main source for video games, but now it’s so… dated. It’s not something to go out of the way for when the chain isn’t the most convenient for most people in this country considering there are roughly 10 states without a Dave & Buster’s and with some states only having one Dave & Buster’s location. Not only that, but their “Eat & Play Combo” is $18 minimum. Sorry, but going all-in for a new Halo announcement for an arcade cabinet was a bad decision.
Sources: IGN
Image: Serial Gamer
