Gamescom 2023 live coverage

So yes, let's kick this all off shall we! In the lead up to ONL and the other Gamescom events, we'll be rounding up all the rumours and info that's out there. 

Stick with me - Sam! - and let's give it a rundown shall we?

First up, let's talk about ONL itself. Gamescom: Opening Night Live is the show that kicks off Gamescom entirely. Geoff Keighley is our host, and he'll be running us through a show containing new trailers, gameplay reveals, dev and creator talks, and more. 

Interestingly, Keighley himself has been keen to stress not to expect too many major reveals at ONL this year. Back on August 19, he tweeted that although there are "lots of great games on stage", the show is "primarily focused on announced titles". 

"Like ONL in past years, this is not a show with surprise announcements or 'one more things'," he added. 

Keighley has also followed that up with a reminder today, saying that "much of tonight’s program has been pre-announced so you know what to expect". 

Honestly, with the schedule for new games launching before the end of the year, I'm not sure the GR+ team - or our wallets - could cope with many more new games or release date reveals this side of the holidays. 

By that he means that a lot of the games that will appear in tonight's ONL event have already been teased on Keighley's own Twitter feed (sorry, I'm not calling it X). They include a great number of highly-anticipated upcoming PS5 games, upcoming Xbox Series X games, and upcoming PC games. 

Let's start with Alan Wake 2.  We'll be getting a look at Alan Wake's side of the story later today, having learned more about Saga's perspective back at Summer Game Fest. Alan's been stuck in the Dark Place for 13 years, so it's going to be quite a different experience from Bright Falls. 

You can read my Alan Wake 2 preview from back in June to learn more about this detective side of Remedy's next game. 

Assassin's Creed Mirage is also going to be at ONL. All we know is that we're going to be offered a "new look" at the game, but any more specific details aren't being offered up. We got a hearty look at the game at Ubisoft's June press conference, and with the release date moved up to October 5, I'm kinda hoping we don't see too much today. 

Black Myth Wukong is another sure fire for ONL later on. Again, nothing is know about what exactly is going to be shown tonight, but the game does look epic. First revealed back in 2020, it's set for a summer 2024 launch and IGN recently got the first hands-on preview of the game. Lucky devils. 

We'll also be seeing fresh Crimson Desert gameplay. It's another game that's been pretty quiet since its original reveal back in 2020, so I'm definitely excited to see more of this medieval fantasy action-RPG.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 only just got revealed and we're going to get more of it later today. At ONL we're getting the world gameplay premiere for the next Call of Duty game, which is always a visually impressive treat. 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is also on the ONL docket. We'll be getting a brand new gameplay trailer for the highly anticipated DLC. 

Interestingly, developer CD Projekt Red is also hosting a REDStream for the game on Thursday, August 24 at 7AM PT / 10AM ET / 3PM BST / 4PM CEST. Here we due to see the developers "discuss several features that come with the next major update and the Phantom Liberty expansion! Gameplay included." 

It's a huge week for Cyberpunk fans!

Lords of the Fallen is getting a new story trailer later on too. It's due to drop on October 13, so we're not far away now! 

This just in from Heather, Josh, and Jasmine who have headed over to Gamescom for 12DOVE! They made it folks!

Shifting tack entirely from the last few games we've talked about, Sonic Superstars is also getting a slot in ONL. We're hoping that we'll get a release date for this stunning-looking adventure, with the rumors suggesting it's somewhere around the Super Mario Wonder date of October 20. 

Like I said, I don't think we need anymore game releases that week to be quite honest... But the Blue Blur gotta blue.

Zenless Zone Zero is also making an appearance. The game's been pretty quiet, and we still don't have an idea of the release date, so perhaps that's what we'll see today. 

Mortal Kombat 1 is also confirmed for ONL, and Ed Boon has confirmed that there's going to be a gameplay trailer and a reveal of two more fighters and two more Kameos. 

Geoff's teasing us now 

And here he is earlier with a lil' video just re-re-re-affirming the lack of big surprises

Tekken 8 is also going to be at ONL - again no word on what with though. But the main man Katsuhiro Harada is in attendance. 

GR+'s Heather is currently in the queue for ONL and has been 100% BRANDED folks

Keighley's actually confirmed another game appearing this evening and that's Nightingale. We'll be getting a brand new trailer for the game there, before the public attending Gamescom will be able to play it for themselves.

Oh, in case you're not dialled in - there's a Destiny 2 event happening right now. 

Aaaaaaaaaaaand the Tekken 8 release date just leaked ahead of its showing in ONL!

Let's try that again shall we - no-one saw that last post right? Here's the trailer the Season of the Witch 

Just a reminder of timings for later:

OPENING NIGHT LIVE PRE-SHOW
10.30AM PT / 1.30PM ET / 6.30PM BST / 7.30PM CEST

OPENING NIGHT LIVE (ONL)
11AM PT / 2PM ET / 7PM BST/ 8PM CEST

Watch them both on:

YOUTUBE
TWITCH
TWITTER

I tell you what the Gamescom FOMO is real seeing some of these booths 

Pre-show should be starting in about 15-20 mins

ONL rep Heather is seated and ready to go!

YouTube stream is here if you'd like to join me

The pre-show starts now folks! I wonder what this will be compared to the main show?

So this guy just vibing in his living room then eh? Could have tidied up a bit Kyle

Trailer for Streets of Rogue 2 up first!

I love the cute GTA vibes to this.

Trailer for hack 'n' slash Mandragona now. Pretty stylish!

It's okay Geoff, we get it. No surprises.

Bulletstorm VR? Oh hello

New trailer for fairytale farming sim Fae Farm too. 

I'm going to spare you how cringe the inbetween segments are of this pre-show. I just can't do it to you.

New trailer for The 7th Guest VR here - it's a remake of an old FMV where they're doing cool things with live action camera stuff work in VR.

Another spooky-ass game trailer to give me nightmares. This one is for Post Trauma, coming Spring 2024. 

There was also promise of a cat. There is no cat yet. 

Here's that Streets of Rogue 2 trailer btw! Look how cool

A new trailer for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin - aka the game with the longest name. And a good-looking RTS too. 

This is Delta Force apparently - I must admit I missed the opening gambit. 

Homeworld 3 looks badass.

Geoff, I'll give it to you, you look snazzy

We're kicking off with a performance of some of the Starfield music from composer Inon Zur, performed live on piano!

Heather had a pretty good view for that one

Is it me, or are live action trailers a bit... lame?

OMG STAGE CRASHERS

I can't believe that happened again!

Phew, let's lighten the mood with Todd Howard from Bethesda Game Studios!

A look at some of the characters you'll discover in Starfield now.

Including some very strong mustaches. 

Gamescom Starfield demo is showing off the opening of the game apparently. 

Starfield opening:
Starts with mining, and then character creation, before you join Constellation. 

Geoff said there were no surprises. And YET

Bandai Namco up now with the third entry in a series from Supermassive Games. 

OMG Is it Little Nightmares 3?

That certainly looks like Six in her little yellow raincoat behind that beaky mask.

Oh yes, Little Nightmares 3! Coming 2024. 

There's online and local co-op, and there's even a Little Nightmares podcast coming too. 

Black Myth Wukong up next! 

Brand new look at gameplay for this action RPG from Action Science.

The music skills on this headless man. Impressive.

Oh wow, looks like you're going to battling some huge-ass foes in this. I'm seeing scorpian guys, tiger guys, bull-headed guys, and even bug-headed ones. But they're all massive.

That genuinely looked amazing. But also bet it's super hard!

Body horror happening now with head drilling, chests being ripped open and some poor chap having various bits of his body replaced. It's Killing Floor 3 though!

Black Myth Wukong screenshots for you!

Reminder that Age of Empires 4 is coming to Game Pass today on Xbox!

Zack Synder here now to talk about Rebel Moon, which is coming soon to Netflix (December 22 officially). 

There's a Rebel Moon video game coming too, which will tell the story after the two movies. Being made by Super Evil Megacorp.  

Here's the first trailer for Part 1 and Part 2 of Rebel Moon. 

Looks pretty epic, doesn't it?

Part 1 coming December 22, Part 2 coming April 19, 2024.

Crimson Desert from Pearl Abyss coming now with a gameplay update trailer. 

Oooh you can ride a little horsey in Crimson Desert. 

This game looks huge. You can carry sheep!

I'm getting serious Assassin's Creed / Witcher vibes from this. 

You can pat the dog and carry cats also. 

Ice T has a special mission in PayDay 3? Well that's unexpected.

Sorry, a special heist mission specifically. 

That looked good, but honestly so hyped for Crimson Desert 3.

Speaking of Assassin's, here comes Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Seems to be a story trailer - loving the fact all the voice acting is in Arabic here. 

Reminder that this game recently got its release date pulled forward to October 5. 

Some trailers for you:

Crimson Desert:

Assassin's Creed Mirage:

Tekken 8 here now

Tekken 8 will have 32 unique fighters!

Also showing off a new mode - a story mode that focuses on you as a player.

Sledgehammer Games here now to talk about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. 

New innovation in the campaign - Open Combat Missions. 

Player directed, allows you to play as you want. You can go in stealthy and complete the objectives without the enemy every knowing you were there. But can also go in full blast with everything you've got. 

Still epic cinematic missions. 

Here we go, it's Modern Warfare 3 gameplay time.

It's starting off underwater with a submarine, stealthily approaching a huge fort. 

Operation 627 in the Kostovian Sea - modern day timing.

Call of Duty is always so so pretty. 

As someone who loves Call of Duty campaigns and All Ghillied Up specifically as a standout mission, this looks right up my street. All stealth and subterfuge before going all out weapons free. 

Ooooh nice use of complete darkness with muzzle flashes there, before switching to night-vision goggles. 

The opening of the original MW2 was a gulag rescue to get Price. I wonder if this is leading to another surprise return?

Nightingale up now and we're getting the Early Access release date. 

February 22, 2024 for Early Access!

Granblue Fantasy Relink launches Feb 1 2024.

Immortals of Aveum launch trailer there now - comes out today!

Zenless Zone Zero developer here now and we've got a trailer showing off the urban environments and some of the dynamics of the game. 

Oh wow, this is literally a look at the urban environments ha. No lies detected. 

Little mini-games you can play at some kind of arcade?

Update on Honkai Star Rail's PS5 release now. 

Was that technical test happening tomorrow?! For Honkai on PS5? That was one hella quick flash frame. 

"PS5 technical test recruitment will start at 8/23 at 10am UTC+8"

Brand new story trailer for Lords of the Fallen now

Sonic Superstars providing quite the contrast from Lords of the Fallen here. 

There's that all important release date - October 17. Oh no, another game in October. SOB.

Final free update for Sonic Frontiers coming September 28 too. 

Inspiring cosplayers here now to talk about the Gamescom scene. 

Lords of the Fallen trailer here:

The First Descendant trailer now - a new looter shooter from Nexon. 

Quantic Dream published game up now - guessing this is Under the Waves.

Game's actually out on Monday! Looking forward to sobbing in my little submarine in that game about loss. 

Little Game Pass highlights real happening now. Lots of good games coming. 

Fort Solis crew up now - voice actors Troy Baker, Roger Clark and Julia Brown. The game is out today. 

Made by 10 people over two years with no delays. 

Launch trailer for Fort Solis dropping! Review embargo lifted a little over an hour ago, and sadly the scores ain't great. 

Expeditions: A Mudrunner game coming in 2024.

From trucks to speedy sportscars now

It's The Crew Motorfest and this is a cover car reveal. Free trial offering 5 hours of gameplay coming. 

Oh hello Cyberpunk 2077:  Phantom Liberty.

Time to go down to Dogtown!

Outlining a lot of new perks here that are dropping with the DLC. New vehicles too. 

Police are getting revamped, so that's going to put a dampener on those shiny new cars isn't it. 

A lot of that also coming to the base game as Update 2.0 for free too. 

Stormgate up now with a new faction called the Chainsmokers. 

Sorry there folks, my entire Chrome froze!! That was the Last Epoch

Marvel Snap is on PC now too!

Armored Core 6 trailer now ahead of its release on Friday. 

Warhaven trailer revealing a September 21 release date. 

Ed Boon on stage now with Mortal Kombat 1. 

"Probably the craziest trailer of all" coming for MK1 now.

Boon wasn't wrong, this is a badass trailer

We've got this new era's version of Shao, Sindel, and Motaro.

Oh that's a throat crush. OOFT

Once again showing a heavy emphasis on the story of Mortal Kombat 1 and how classic characters fit in. Notably, Raiden and Liu Kang have effectively swapped places.

Hair in the arm sockets there. Ooft. OOFT.

Nice trailer there for Ara: History Untold, which is dropping in 2024. 

Diablo 4 Season 2 trailer now!

Diablo 4 Season of Blood will feature five new bosses. 

Diablo 4 Season 2 coming in October. Gemma Chan voicing a new character!

trailer here friends

Dustborn up now! Fun fact, this was originally revealed at our very own Future Games Show. 

Coming early 2024. 

Yay! Sam Lake is here to talk Alan Wake 2 and take us to the Dark Place. 

The Dark Place is a dream reality and keeps drawing from Alan's mind - his dreams, his fears, his reality. The Dark Place takes the form of a nightmarish New York City because that's where Wake's books are set. 

Live action blended seamlessly into the Dark Place.

Wake has a double?!

This looks like the most Remedy game of all time. 

I also missed covering a fun-looking indie game back there called Thank Goodness You're Here. Look at this trailer: 

And that's a wrap! Opening Night Live is over!

Let's do a bit of a round-up up top shall we?

Stay tuned for more coverage from Gamescom 2023 tomorrow from 12DOVE.

Good morning! We're back for Gamescom Day 1, and the news is already flowing. A behind-closed-doors Starfield demo ended with a sneak peek of the upcoming Fallout TV show, with Todd Howard himself introducing a few vibe-setting details for the game.

Sadly, these clips will never see the light of day, as they're more proof-of-concept than anything else, but roving reporter Josh outlines some of what he saw in the article above. In particular, my attention's caught by mention of a wall of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers, and the always iconic moment in which the vault dweller steps out into the real world.

At the same event, Todd Howard paid tribute to Skyrim and Fallout, suggesting that Bethesda couldn't have made Starfield without the games that came before, and its years-long partnership with Xbox.

Catching up from last night, one of the breakout hits has proved to be Crimson Desert, a huge open-world affair from the developers of Black Desert Online

That trailer shows off a huge world, and means that Crimson Desert is giving off some serious Assassin's Creed and The Witcher vibes. As well as the sheer scope and variety of the game, viewers have been impressed by the level of detail that it seems to be showing off. Currently expected to launch next year, this is definitely one to watch.

Also revealed at Opening Night Live was Diablo 4 Season 2. The Season of Blood got a new tailer showing off its vampire-hunting theme, but fans have got something else to be excited about: Diablo 4 Season 2 will remove one of the game's worst grinds.

Renown has been a bit of a sticking point since Diablo 4 launched, due to it needing to be collected all over again with each season. Thankfully, that'll no longer be the case, but it does mean that the Renown grind will be sticking around until Season 2 arrives in October.

A surprising announcement, but a welcome one, is the reveal this morning that classic Star Wars FPS Dark Forces is getting a remaster. Originally released in 1995, Dark Forces puts players in Kyle Katarn's shoes, taking cues from Doom on its way to becoming one of the most beloved Star Wars games of the era. Expected to release later this year on all platforms, the remaster is being put together by Nightdive Studios, who're best known for their recent work on the System Shock and Quake 2 re-releases.

Another early Gamescom announcement is that Lord of the Rings survival game Return to Moria has a release date. While PS5 and PC players will be getting their hands on the game in October, Xbox players will be waiting a little longer for an 'early 2024' release.

And if you want a physical copy? Good news - that'll drop just in time for Christmas.

It looks like you're going to have to put a fair bit of time aside for Starfield. Bethesda publishing boss Pete Hines says his current Starfield playthrough is nearing the 200-hour mark, and he's not even close to being done. What’s more, there’s “so much stuff” he has intentionally not done. Excellent news for those among us who plan to tootle around even after the main story has concluded. 

We have caught up with Diablo franchise lead Rod Ferguson, who tells us that D4 will feature more ambitious seasons than earlier games in the series because it's trying to appeal more to traditional RPG fans as well as action-RPG grinders. The secret? Alongside an evolution of what’s come before, expect significant story content.

Diablo 4 is making the endgame grind a bit more pleasant, as live service production director Chris Wilson tells us. Season 2 will make Uber Uniques easier to farm with its five new and returning bosses, which will each offer better drop rates for the game's rarest items.

Star Wars Eclipse developer Quantic Dream says that although this is "a different game than anything we've done before," its trademark artistic style remains unchanged. 

"The fact that it’s a franchise and a third-party IP doesn’t modify our approach. We are working on an original story in the world," CEO Guillaume de Fondaumière told us at Gamescom. 

Fans of classic point-and-click adventure games got a double shot of good news today, as Broken Sword is getting a full remake on top of a brand-new sequel. The remake, officially titled Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged, is due to be released in early 2024, and the sequel, Broken Sword: Parzival's Stone, is set to launch sometime after that.

If you're looking for a playing reference for Starfield, Xbox boss Phil Spencer tells IGN that the space RPG is "more Oblivion than Skyrim". Oh, and he's on his 15th playthrough. Brag about it a lil' more, eh?

We've played Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC, and, oh my, it isn't an expansion, it's a rebirth. 

"If Patch 1.5 carved a path toward redemption for the embattled RPG, then Phantom Liberty is the culmination of a years-long effort," Josh says. "A sprawling expansion which unlocks a new cityscape to explore, a spycraft story starring Hollywood royalty to survive, along with a suite of new abilities and gear to enable a near-total overhaul of your existing character build. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty isn't messing around."

We wouldn't expect to hear any news about an Xbox Series X mid-gen refresh anytime soon if we were you. Xbox boss Phil Spencer says there are no plans for a Series X mid-gen refresh right now as "we're at the end of the beginning". The important thing for Spencer, right now, is to let developers settle on the current hardware before advancing from there.

We got the chance to have an Assassin's Creed Jade hands-on preview, and now we're ready to take a leap of faith on a mobile stealth experience.

"When I first heard about Assassin's Creed Jade, I wasn't entirely sure how to feel," Heather says. "I'm not what you'd call a mobile player, and the thought of diving into a new stealthy experience on my iPhone didn't exactly appeal. After going hands-on with Jade for just shy of 30 minutes, though, I'm already impressed by its scope and just how quickly I took to the touch controls. 

"While I would still opt to play on console or PC if given the choice, the new adventure set in third century BC in China is not only treading new ground for the series as an exclusive mobile experience, but also with some of its features, too."

We've caught an exclusive Alan Wake 2 gameplay demo at Gamescom that descends into the Dark Place, the prison that has held Wake for 13 years. If you're keen on the survival horror parts of the upcoming game, this is where the shift is at its most stark. 

"What drew my attention was the sheer number of enemies on screen at times, where Alan's entire field of vision seemed to be filled with the silhouettes of potential danger," Josh says. "With ammunition and batteries now a scarce resource, and combat now heavier and more challenging than in the original game, I wondered how we'd ever make it through alive – and why only a handful of the shadowy figures (known this time around as Fade Outs, rather than 'Taken') actually took on a corporeal form to attack Wake."

The ex-Payday devs at 10 Chambers are "getting back on that heist shit" after their co-op horror game GTFO, and studio co-founder Simon Viklund has offered a few details on what to expect from the game. In short, it's another take on being a career criminal, but this time it's set in a futuristic "techno thriller" world where "the darkness comes from the late-stage capitalism."