Thursday's two-hour Gamescom Opening Night event brought gaming fans news, worldwide reveals and updates on upcoming titles across multiple platforms and dozens of developers.
From next-gen exclusives to days-away releases, Gamescom brought it, and the event gave us a fresh look at what's coming for some of the biggest games on the market right now as well. Here are our highlights from the show.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War campaign details revealed
After an immersive in-game event in Call of Duty: Warzone on Wednesday, Activision put more of the pieces together for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in another trailer Thursday.
The story-focused trailer, set in 1981, centers on Jason Hudson, Alex Mason, Frank Woods and series newbie , Russel Adler briefing President Ronald Reagan on a potential threat to the U.S. The subject of the meeting: Perseus, a Russian spy who stole Manhattan Project intelligence in 1943 and resurfaced during the Vietnam War in 1968, when he led a group of Vietnamese soldiers in attempting to steal a nuclear bomb from a U.S. base.
It appears the Cold War campaign will focus on you stopping Perseus, the "single largest threat to the free world," as Hudson says. Reagan, of course, gives the go-ahead for the team to do whatever they have to in order to stop Perseus, which will likely include lots of explosions. For now, though, the most excitement we get is an inspirational speech.
-- Sean Morrison
Yes, Dragon Age 4 is definitely still happening
Bioware provided an extremely brief glimpse of Dragon Age 4, the next installment in their epic fantasy series, including concept art, animation tests and a look at the only thing any real Bioware fan actually cares about: characters.
Solas (voiced by Gareth David-Lloyd), the secret antagonist of Dragon Age: Inquisition, is looking as Dread Wolfish as ever, while Jee Young Han and Ike Amadi voice as-yet unseen characters named Bellara and Davrin. Keen-eyed Bioware fans will remember Amadi from his star turn as Javik, a standoffish Prothean from Mass Effect 3, although he seems to be playing a passionate Grey Warden this time around.
No release date yet for Dragon Age 4, but given it's been almost six years since Inquisition's release, any look at the game is welcome.
-- Joe DeMartino
Fall Guys tumble onward toward Season 2
It's tough to believe that overnight phenomenon Fall Guys has been around long enough for its second season to be so close, but it's coming in a little more than a month.
Developer Mediatonic and publisher Devolver Digital revealed a medieval theme for Season 2 of Fall Guys, with dragon, witch, wizard, Viking, paladin and knight costumes shown in the demo as well as a new game mode where players must build stairs to get over tall obstacles and reach the finish line. In what appears to be another new game mode, the Hoopsie Daisy team game combined with the new movable obstacle mechanic to create another platform for the yellow team to be absolutely dunked on.
Other maps will also take on more of a Middle Ages aesthetic with different coloration, new obstacles and new surfaces for players to romp around on. Season 2 is scheduled to release in October.
RT if we totally just dropped a sneak preview of
— Fall Guys 👑 (@FallGuysGame) August 27, 2020
FALL GUYS SEASON 2 🌶️🔥 pic.twitter.com/MeDtRIHA5l
-- Morrison
Blizzard shows off World of Warcraft Shadowlands expansion
Blizzard released a trailer for their next World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands. First announced at BlizzCon in November 2019, Shadowlands will release on October 27, 2020. Consisting of four zones, Shadowlands will allow players to traverse World of Warcraft's afterlife and assist different "Covenants" -- factions which they can choose to ally with in order to advance the story. Speaking of the story, Blizzard also put out a trailer featuring a familiar face to long-time WoW heads: Uther the Lightbringer.
-- DeMartino
Star Wars: Squadrons unveils single-player preview
We've gotten a look at Star Wars: Squadrons' gameplay -- and some of us might be ordering HOTAS controllers in preparation -- but EA released a look at the game's single player campaign Thursday. Set shortly after the destruction of the second Death Star, the game allows players to control both sides of the conflict, playing as two pilots on opposing sides of the war between Empire and New Republic. A short section from an Imperial mission played during the reveal, in which the players' Titan Squadron has to take down a Republic base. Star Wars: Squadrons is scheduled to release Oct. 2.
-- DeMartino
New Stasis subclass spotlighted for Destiny 2: Beyond Light
Bungie's upcoming expansion for the Destiny universe turns the Darkness from an antagonist to part of your playable character's repertoire, and Gamescom gave viewers a bit of a better sense of what that means for new and old Guardians alike.
Stasis abilities seem to center on freezing foes and then shattering them with other skills or weaponry. Some class abilities, like the Warlock's Rift and the Titan's Barricade, seem to have adapted to the new skill tree as well: The Warlock's Rift froze enemies that entered it, and the Titan's barrier shot out horizontally from a wall during the trailer and was also scalable. All of it comes at you pretty fast, but the Stasis skill trees seem to mix and match current skills, such as the Code of the Missile for the Titan, with different effects like the freeze-and-shatter mechanic.
Each of the classes also got a name in this trailer. The Warlocks will wield the Shadebinder skill line with an icy trident, with the Hunters chucking frozen axes in the Revenant skill line and Titans throwing frost-covered hands as the Behemoth subclass.
The Destiny 2: Beyond Light expansion is scheduled for release Nov. 10.
-- Morrison