After spending a week away at Gamescom, it ironically feels like I have some catching up to do on all the happenings and announcements from the event. I’ve also got a mountain of previews to write up, videos to cobble together and noise-filled interviews to transcribe. So I’ll be having a working bank holiday weekend, it seems.
Well, maybe tomorrow. Today I’m going to take to relax, watch some telly, and maybe go out to enjoy some of the hot weather.
In the News This Week
With so much stuff coming out of Cologne, you’ll want to head here for all of the Gamescom headlines. For this round up, though, I’ve got a few of the highlights for you, some of which aren’t even from Gamescom.
- Here’s a 3D render of what the PlayStation 5 development kit might look like
- Sony has bought Insomniac Games
- The Uncharted movie has lost its director again, moves to PlayStation Productions
- Disintegration gets a full reveal at Gamescom from one of the creators of Halo
- Little Nightmares II brings the horror back in 2020 for PC and consoles
- The Yakuza Remastered Collection announced – Yakuza 3 out now for PS4
- Borderlands 3 adds Circle of Slaughter arenas and Proving Grounds to its endgame
- Destiny 2’s Season of the Undying begins this October, two new trailers revealed
- Kerbal Space Program 2 is looking to go further into the final frontier in 2020
- THQ Nordic reboot Comanche as a multiplayer game
- Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord marches to early access in 2020
- First person parkour game Ghostrunner is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
Games in Review
Just a handful of reviews this week, with one real standout for old souls with a PC to play Horace on..
- Horace – PC – 9/10
- Ancestors Legacy – PS4, XBO, PC – 7/10
- Grandia HD Collection – Switch, PC – 7/10
- Automachef – PC – 6/10
(Reviewed platform in bold)
This Week’s Features
On the whole it was a fairly light week for features, but I was able to get a couple of previews submitted while out at Gamescom. I went hands on with the Proving Grounds of Borderlands 3’s endgame, taking on a quick 30 minute challenge and coming away feeling that this might be the first game in the series to really grab me. There’s no such qualms over Watch Dogs Legion, which doing a great job at introducing some new thematic gameplay ideas into the mix.
Before heading over to Germany, though, I got to have an early look at The Witcher 3’s port to Nintendo Switch. It’s some seriously impressive stuff, even if you have to accept that there’s some big graphical sacrifices along the way.
Steve got to go hands on with Remnant: From the Ashes, describing it as a co-op Soulslike that’s coming from the creators of Darksiders, while Gamoc dove into No Man’s Sky Beyond with a PlayStation VR strapped to his face and was seriously impressed with how the game has been transformed.
Finally, What We Played featured Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Astral Chain and Control.
Trailer Park
Empire of Sin has a new Gamescom gameplay trailer
Need For Speed Heat first gameplay trailer shows the difference of night and day
The new trailer explores a day in Shenmue III (and awful dialogue)
Watch the mind bending Control launch trailer here
Meet Mama and Deadman, and check out new gameplay in the Death Stranding Gamescom trailers
Your Achievements
Just a couple of responses in What We Played this week:
MrYd has played No Man’s Sky in VR an awful lot, but has found that his other go-to VR games like Honor & Duty and Firewall Zero Hour have been sapped of players because of the space game’s allure.
Andrewww’s been on his holidays for the last two weeks, returning to the UK and getting some classic gaming in at the National Video game Museum in Sheffield. Once he got back home, it was a mix of Subnautica and Elite Dangerous.
And TSBonyman has also mainly been playing No Man’s Sky, with the only thing drawing him back out of VR being photo mode.
The Week Ahead
The last week of August is looking jam packed with big games:
- Control – PS4, XBO, PC – 27/08
- Crystar – PS4, PC – 27/08
- The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut – PS4, XBO, PC – 27/08
- World of Warcraft Classic – PC, Mac – 27/08
- Pokémon Masters – iOS, Android – 29/08
- Astral Chain – Switch – 30/08
- Blair Witch – XBO, PC – 30/08
- The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan – PS4, XBO, PC – 30/08
That’s it for this week, I’ll see you again soon!
