WRUP: Gamescom, GDC Europe 2012 incoming

Team Joystiq will be bringing you the latest from the Game Developers Conference Europe and Gamescom in Cologne, Germany next week. Gamescom, the premier European gaming event, features crowds (for better and worse) that surpasses 275,000 people during the five-day show. Join us on Tuesday for liveblogs of EA and Sony's press conferences. We will also have nightly podcasts all week about the day's events, with guests. We'd tell you who they are, but it really boils down to who shows up in our hotel room. That's how we roll!

What's everyone playing?

• Alexander Sliwinski (@XanderSliwinski): Preparing my body for XCOM next week at Gamescom. I'm also deep into Dust: An Elysian Tail.

• Ben Gilbert (@RealBenGilbert): This is either a really elaborate LARP of Flight Control, or I'm headed to the airport and flying to Europe. I'm just gonna be straight up and say that the only game I wanna play at Gamescom is Assassin's Creed 3. I want to play it this minute.

• David Hinkle (@DaveHinkle): I'll be playing Hybrid this weekend, so if you get killed by some jerk jetpacking around like crazy with a rocket launcher, that was me. I'm going to be the only person using that strategy.

• JC Fletcher (@jcfletcher): [...]

• Jess Conditt (@JessConditt): I'm leaving on a jet plane -- and honey, I don't know when I'll be back again. Honestly, if Germany agrees with me, I may just stay. Sorry, sweetie. Tell Susie I love her.

• Jordan Mallory (@Jordan_Mallory): All video games have been replaced by Rosetta Stone's Japanese course as I prepare for the Tokyo Game Show in September. トイレはどこです！

• Ludwig Kietzmann (@LudwigK): I'm doing a lightning-fast trip to New York, so perhaps I'll get some time with Sound Shapes and Gravity Rush on the go. And when I return, I'll be in for another solid chunk of Darksiders 2.

• Mike Schramm (@MikeSchramm): I've been trying to play Mass Effect 3 for weeks now, but Fez keeps getting in the way. And I hear we're streaming some Sleeping Dogs too.

• Mike Suszek (@MikeSuszek): I recently started replaying Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (secretly the best game in the series), and I might finally start the first episode of The Walking Dead.

• Richard Mitchell (@TheRichardM): Jetting around and blasting fools in Hybrid. Pretending to be Damien in Lucius. Jonesing to play XCOM yet again at Gamescom.

• Steven Wong: Still blasting, burning, shredding, etc. orcs in Orcs Must Die! 2. I might be tempted to get in some time with the new Payday DLC too.

• Xav de Matos (@Xav): Sleeping Dogs. Review next week. Stay tuned for another live stream – with a chance to win a copy – this weekend!