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The highs and lows of Gamescom 2016
Gamescom is over. The publishers have packed away their booths, and the lingering smell of sweaty, Kölsch-fueled gamers (and sweaty, coffee-fueled journalists) has finally started to dissipate. In the closing hours of our trip to Cologne, Germany, the "team" (Nick Summers and I) sat down to chat about our time at the video game show. Talking points include the lack of press conferences this year; the myriad ways I made a fool of myself in VR; Outreach's fresh take on space exploration; Sea of Thieves actually looking pretty good; Metal Gear Survive really not looking good and Titanfall 2's new focus on plot. That's a wrap on our Gamescom coverage this year -- if you missed any of our stories, you can find them all here.
'Star Citizen' presentation hints the game is coming together
We won't blame you if you're skeptical that Star Citizen will ever be a finished, shipping title. Even now, it's not so much a game as a collection of modules: you can explore space and get into gun battles on foot, but not much more. However, Roberts Space Industries just gave an indication that things might be coming along. The studio has shown a 52-minute presentation at Gamescom that illustrates a truly cohesive (if still imperfect) experience coming with the 3.0 alpha. You can board your ship at a space station, fly between planets, pick up missions and touch down on strange new worlds without transitions. It's all modeled as one seamless universe.
This forklift simulator is basically 'Shenmue' VR
Shenmue's forklift truck sequence was effectively my first job. I was 15 when Sega's open-world adventure came out and truly captivated by the game. After two discs of mystery, adventure and capsule toys, I can still remember dropping disc three into my Dreamcast, full of anticipation. Infamously, the third and final disc of Shenmue involves the protagonist, Ryo, getting a job at the docks as a forklift truck driver. After the first day of moving crates around, I expected we'd soon be uncovering information about the gang Ryo was tracking down. Instead... I went back to work the next day. And the next. And the next. Moving crates was just part of life now. The story does unfold along the way, and you're eventually treated to perhaps the game's best fight sequence. Jumping forward some 16 years, while at Gamescom I spotted a strange machine in the corner of one of the business centers. It was Sanlab's SimPro 3, a hydraulic platform with controls of several real-world construction vehicles including... a forklift. I had to try it. With only my Shenmue experience and some brief explanations on how the controls work from a Sanlab representative, I donned an HTC Vive and got started.
'#SkiJump' is an exhausting, but fun VR game
As embarrassing as it is to play, #SkiJump is a lot of fun. It's a VR game in which you move your body in order to ski down a mountain, and playing it feels like you're embodying the unnamed protagonist of SkiFree (that one skiing game that everyone had on Windows 95). It was created by VRUnicorns, the loose team of game jammers that released the HTC Vive launch title #SelfieTennis and seemingly have around 17 projects they're working on at any given moment.
How did Microsoft fare at Gamescom this year?
Microsoft has a ton of Xbox exclusives in the pipeline. Gears of War 4, ReCore, Dead Rising 4, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 3 -- the list goes on. Here at Gamescom, we've been speaking to the developers behind each title, listening to their pitches and, in some instances, going hands-on. So what impressed us and what didn't? I took 10 minutes with Engadget Senior Editor Aaron Souppouris to break it all down. (Hint: I really liked Scalebound...)
'Resident Evil 7' took just 15 minutes to creep me out
Resident Evil 6 was a bad video game, and Capcom knows it. To save its zombie franchise, the publisher has taken a radically different approach for Resident Evil 7, throwing out the loud explosions and over the top combat for smaller, more atmospheric scares. First shown at E3, the game is unusual because it takes place from a first-person perspective -- most of the core Resident Evil games are third-person -- and is compatible with PlayStation VR. The tone is radically different too, with a new set of characters to discover and a rundown plantation as its setting.
'Outreach' is a space adventure game set in the Cold War
A renewed interest in spaceflight has sparked a wave of video games looking at the harsh realities of living in space. We've had Adrift, a near-future survival epic similar to the film Gravity, and soon Tacoma, a story-driven exploration game set inside a space station in 2088. Now, you can add another title to that list: Outreach, the first game from independent developer Pixel Spill. Whereas Adrift and Tacoma are set in the distant future, Outreach looks to the past, exploring the tail-end of the pivotal "space race" between the US and the Soviet Union.
'Oh... Sir!' is our favorite insult-em-up
Officially, it's day two of Gamescom here in Cologne, Germany. For us, though, it's day four of Nick Summers and I marching up and down a vast convention center, visiting developers to find out more about their games. It's been a stressful 100 hours or so, working together without a break, but we finally got to let off some steam today with Oh Sir. It's a game that let us sling abuse at one another in a way that wouldn't involve a call to HR in the morning.
Blizzard built a 'World of Warcraft' cafe
World of Warcraft is an institution. After 12 years, Blizzard's seminal MMO is still running, and although player counts have fallen since its 2010 peak, there were still 5.5 million active accounts last September. Germany has always been a key market for the company, consistently ranking among the top five countries, and to celebrate the game's sixth expansion, Legion, Blizzard has given players a treat. In the heart of Cologne, Germany, home to the annual Gamescom convention, the developer has transformed the 14th century festival hall Gürzenich into a WoW locale. At the venue's launch event on Wednesday, fans were invited to wander around a recreation of "The Fel Hammer," a starting zone in the new expansion. Inside, they were treated to heavy metal renditions of WoW music, face painting, photo booths, and WoW-themed food and drink (including Alliance and Horde cocktails, of course). Cosplayers were everywhere, and there was even a quest giver with an exclamation point above their head, who directed attendees to another "NPC" with a question mark who gave out free prizes. As well as being great PR for Blizzard, it's a nice way to give something back to the fans that pay the bills.
'Battlefield 1' will challenge your preconceptions of WWI
Battlefield 1 is shaping up to be a return to form for DICE, the EA-owned development studio behind the famous first-person-shooter series. After handing the franchise keys to Visceral Games for Battlefield Hardline, the studio is back at the helm, and returning to historical warfare with its first game set in World War I. The announcement was met with mostly positive reactions, especially in the face of Activision's continued focus on jetpacks and other future tech with the Call of Duty series. I'm not a massive fan of either of the big FPS franchises. I don't look down on Call of Duty or Battlefield games: They're expertly crafted multiplayer experiences that millions of gamers love. They're just not for everyone. My colleague Timothy Seppala, a long-time Battlefield fan, spent most of E3 explaining to me just how impressed he was with what he'd seen so far. "I haven't loved a Battlefield game since 2010's Bad Company 2," he wrote back in June, "but during a single round of Conquest set on a map in northern France, I caught a glimpse of the game that had me smitten five years ago."
Duel your friends 'Tron'-style in 'Project Arena' VR
Project Arena is a full-body VR game that pits two players against each other in a Tron-esque light-disc battle. It was born from Icelandic developer CCP's "VR Labs," an initiative of experimentation and iteration in which teams are free to create lots of working concepts before working out which can become full games. Project Arena has already passed the first test -- it morphed into the "project" phase this year from the concept phase last year (when it was called Disc Arena).
Crafting a story for 'Titanfall 2'
Titanfall 2 represents a huge opportunity for Respawn Entertainment. When the first game launched in 2014, the Xbox One was still in its infancy, and struggling from Microsoft's disastrous messaging. Titanfall received plenty of accolades for its human-versus-robot combat, but never found an audience befitting a veteran Call of Duty developer. The follow-up could be different, however, because it's headed to the PlayStation 4 in addition to the Xbox One and PC. The game will also feature a full-blown campaign -- a first for the franchise and something the original was criticized for not having.
Tricking out your dragon in 'Scalebound'
Scalebound is one of my most anticipated Xbox One games. It's a classic Platinum title, mixing over-the-top, combo-heavy combat with a gargantuan dragon that's willing to help you out in a pinch. Throw in a strange, luscious new world and some enormous, fantastical enemies, and you have a game that oozes both style and substance. Last year at Gamescom, Platinum founder Hideki Kamiya teased that players would be able to customize their dragons over the course of the campaign. Now, he's explained exactly how that will work. And, oh boy, am I excited.
'Gears of War 4' writers are striving for a deeper story
Gears of War has never been known for its deep, imaginative storytelling. Each game is a popcorn-friendly thrill ride, pitting muscular soldiers against an army of bloodthirsty monsters. It's a simple concept: Grab an assault rifle, dive behind some cover and empty your clip until it's safe to move forward. Rinse and repeat. Gears of War 4, the first entry by a new developer called the Coalition, is trying to break that tradition. It's still a brutal shoot-'em-up, but the characters and plot are more complex this time around. More nuanced. So much so, in fact, that for people who have cooled on the franchise, it might be enough to reel them back in.
Microsoft says this might be the last console generation
Earlier today I sat down with Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft's head of Xbox games marketing, to talk about Xbox One, Project Scorpio and the future of console gaming. Here are Greenberg's thoughts on three key topics.
'Gears of War 4' will require a monster machine to play in 4K
You might have been delighted to hear that Gears of War 4 will take full advantage of your PC, but you might not be quite so thrilled when you realize what it takes to run the game in its full 4K glory. On top of a 4K gameplay demo (below), Microsoft has outlined the Windows version's system requirements... and they're not exactly modest. While you can get by on mid-range 2014 hardware as a baseline, the "ideal" experience (effectively, 4K) demands both a high-end AMD FX or Intel Core i7 processor as well as one of the highest-end graphics cards in recent memory, such as a GeForce GTX 1080 or a Radeon R9 Fury X. You'd better have splurged on your system in recent months, in other words.
Microsoft will let you try Windows 10 games early
The Xbox Game Preview program is a nice way to try indie console games before they're finished, but what about PC gamers? Where's Microsoft's answer to Steam Early Access? At last, it's here. Microsoft has announced that Xbox Game Preview is coming to Windows 10, giving you a chance to play early desktop games and potentially influence their design. The company has only confirmed Rockfish Games' Everspace as one of the launch titles for the initiative, but it's vowing that there will be "many more to come."
'Destiny: Rise of Iron' PS4 exclusives include a new map
Sony has landed more than a few Destiny exclusives in hopes of selling more PlayStation 4 consoles, and it's stopping as Bungie's shooter/MMO hybrid celebrates its second birthday. When Rise of Iron arrives on September 20th, it'll have a handful of PS4-only extras in a bid to help undecided console buyers. There's a special Crucible map (Languid Sea, on Mercury) for multiplayer fans, a whole quest line ("Show of Strength," a look into the Devil Splicers) and a ship (the appropriately blue Timeless Tereshkova). These perks probably won't tip the balance if you're only thinking about getting Destiny as one of your new console's first games, but they're worth considering if you're dead set on the title and aren't otherwise leaning toward a particular platform.
World's largest game expo tightens security following violence
Germany has been hit by a string of mass violence as of late, and the effect of those tragedies is about to spill over to the gaming community. The organizers behind Gamescom, the world's largest gaming trade show, have introduced tighter security measures that will definitely be noticeable if you make it out to Cologne for the event. They're banning not only weapon replicas, but "weapon-like items" -- like it or not, your Deadpool or Harley Quinn cosplay will have to go without armaments. Even exhibitors will have to label any vaguely threatening props to avoid raising alarm bells.
