Last night was the opening night of Gamescom 2020 and boy did they show a truckload of games. As usual, you can find the whole two and a half hour stream above and, if you don’t fancy wading through that, we’ve got coverage of individual games below. Let’s get to it!

Scarlet Nexus

Starting off the show is a high-energy trailer for Bandai Namco’s upcoming anime-style action RPG Scarlet Nexus. Described as “brain punk” the game mixes sci-fi technology and psychic abilities into the action along with some awesome monster designs that wouldn’t be out of place in Nier. Scarlet Nexus is coming for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X.

Dirt 5

Dirt 5 itself is something we’ve known about, and covered, for quite a while but we still got a surprise in the form of Playgrounds; a mode where you can place ramps and obstacles and create your own playgrounds with drift rings, jumps, loops, and all manner of fun things to drive a car around. A brief tease for something called “vampire” also looks like it’ll be some kind of chase mode.

Call of Duty: Cold War

David Vondrak, creative director at Raven Software, introduced Call of Duty: Cold War. The latest entry will be a direct sequel to Black Ops and will feature Woods, Mason, and Hudson in the 1980s at the height of Cold War paranoia. Vondrak goes on to elaborate that the game will have more player choice and freedom and even allow you to create your own character for the campaign including name and military background. He also says that player choices will shape the narrative and ending of the campaign.

Moving on to the actual trailer, we open with historical footage of nuclear testing and are told that an operative called Perseus attempted to steal a nuclear weapon during Vietnam. The rest of the CG trailer is pretty much just banter but Ronald Regan makes an appearance so there’s that. Of more interest is some of the footage playing in the background while David is talking; we see a huge almost pyramid-shaped facility, what’s almost certainly East Germany, and the requisite scene of a helicopter getting shot down.

Unknown 9: Awakening

Reflector Entertainment showed off Unknown 9, an action adventure game, with a short CG trailer showing off the Indian main character Haroona tapping into her supernatural abilities to avoid being hit by a boy with a bit of rebar. There’s also a podcast, novel, and comics over on the game’s official site. Unknown 9 is releasing for PC and next-gen consoles.

Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part One

Upcoming campaign expansion for Doom Eternal, The Ancient Gods, got a full minute and a half of footage showing the Doom Slayer wreaking havoc across a gigantic oil rig facility and new areas of hell. We also get to see him wielding some new weapons and facing new enemies including a ghost-like one that possesses enemies. The Ancient Gods Part One is releasing on 20 October 2020.

Dragon Age 4

Casey Hudson introduced a behind the scenes look at their return to fan-favourite RPG series Dragon Age. Various staff talk up the game without really revealing any information other than some pretty looking concept art and a couple of panning shots of areas in development. That’s about it from Bioware, fingers crossed we won’t see another Anthem repeat.

Surgeon Simulator 2

Christopher Lloyd himself made an appearance as well-loved character Doc Brown to announce that Surgeon Simulator 2 is now out on the Epic Games Store. What does Back To The Future have to do with Surgeon Simulator 2? Who knows. Christopher Lloyd is awesome though.

Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead

Clock Stone and Headup revealed a new entry for the Bridge Constructor series that features The Walking Dead’s titular brain munchers. There’s not much in the live action trailer but the title of the game pretty much says it all – you’ll be building bridges and presumably engineering them to collapse under the weight of a zombie horde.

Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual

Sam & Max make a return with a new virtual reality game that puts players in the role of working alongside the titular crime fighting duo. The trailer doesn’t show much gameplay, and what it does show is pretty much just standing around doing nothing but it looks like the game will be your typical throw stuff and shoot stuff VR experience with a dose of Sam & Max brand humour sprinkled on top. Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual is releasing in 2021.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground

Gasket Games and Focus Home Interactive revealed a new Warhammer fantasy game with a fancy narrated CG trailer that introduces the Stormcast Eternals. To borrow a line from the Age of Sigmar wiki: The Stormcast Eternals are god Sigmar’s wrath made manifest. We have no idea what type of game it’ll be but we do know it’s coming in 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

After a bit of live-action shenanigans with someone in the Crash mascot suit wandering around Cologne we’re introduced to Lou Studdert, Producer at developer Toys For Bob. Lou tells us about “flashback tape levels,” difficult challenge levels that take place before the original Crash Bandicoot while Neo Cortex was experimenting on the bandicoots. To even access the levels, players must reach an item in the regular levels without dying.

Outriders

People Can Fly and Square Enix upcoming RPG shooter Outriders got a new cinematic trailer that shows off some very cool monster designs and a little gameplay of the three classes turning said monsters into pink mist with a mix of guns and powers. Outriders is releasing in the Holiday 2020 period.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars

Another cinematic trailer, this time for Necromunda, introduces the three gangs of the underhive; hard as nails House Orlock, all-female House Escher, and savage House Goliath. Necromunda: Underhive Wars is releasing on 8 September 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Teardown

Tuxedo Labs showed off a minute and a half of gameplay from their upcoming voxel based heist game Teardown. In the game planning and destruction are key; you have to prepare a fast and efficient route to your objectives and escape point by destroying and moving things around so that when the alarms start ringing, you’re out of there lickety-split.

Little Nightmares 2

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Tarsier Studios Little Nightmares 2 but today we’ve got more gameplay from the puzzle platformer that shows off plenty of creepy environments and creatures you’ll be avoiding. Sure, there’s plenty of cliché horror stuff in there but there’s also a couple of genuinely freaky monsters too. Little Nightmares 2 is launching on 11 February 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One. A date for next-gen versions will be announced later.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds

Commentator Jerry “The King” Lawler appeared as part of the Gamescom trailer for WWE 2K Battlegrounds, an over the top arcade style wrestling game that will feature 70 WWE wrestlers from the past and present. WWE 2K Battlegrounds will be releasing on 18 September 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, and Stadia.

Star Wars Squadrons

Next up we have a new gameplay trailer for Star Wars Squadrons that takes a look at one of the single player missions. The trailer opens with a CG intro of Leia providing a rousing speech to recruit pilots to the Republic faction. The mission shown is an attack on a space station where players must extract a VIP and escort a shuttle to safety. We see gameplay from both the Empire and Republic including a bombing run on shipyards, an attack on a Star Destroyer, and a dogfight in space. Star Wars Squadrons is releasing on 2 October 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

The Sims 4: Star Wars Journey To Batuu

Even The Sims 4 is getting in on the Star Wars content with an expansion pack that transports the life sim to a galaxy far far away. It looks like it’ll be a considerable overhaul with tons of new items, decorations, and furniture shown off. Journey To Batuu is releasing on 8 September 2020.

Twelve Minutes

Annapurna Interactive’s time loop thriller Twelve Minutes also got a brief trailer introducing the all-star cast of the game including Daisy Ridley, James MacAvoy, and Willem DaFoe.

Godfall

Upcoming next-gen looter-slasher Godfall got an eleven minute segment taking a look at gameplay with CounterPlay games Director, Keith Lee providing more information. First he talks about Valor Plates, armour basically, explaining that they’re “weapon platforms” which are constellations which you can slot augments into. The way augments are arranged in the constellation can provide different effects and bonuses too. Players will have to gather Valor Plate Cores to craft new ones. There will be 12 Valor Plates in total and fall into three classes.

Lee also goes on to talk about Archon Modes, an ability that charges up as you defeat enemies. Each Valor Plate has their own Mode, giving the Silvermane plate’s ability to summon three allies as an example. Meeting certain requirements will trigger an escalation state that enhances the Archon ability too. He also talks about cooperative gameplay, namely a banner players can drop to trigger different effects for the whole team, giving an area of effect heal as an example.

Override 2: Super Mech League

Modus Games released a new trailer announcing Override 2: Super Mech League, a game that has a huge fish mech with a frying pan. Brief snippets of gameplay near the end of the trailer show a game that looks very similar to the original’s third person arena combat. Additionally, a crossover announcement is coming in September.

Mafia: Definitive Edition

Hangar 13 and 2K released a new story trailer for the remake of classic open world crime organized crime adventure Mafia: Definitive Edition.

Lemnis Gate

Lemnis Gate is a shooter that takes place in a 25 second time loop where players perform their actions and then study their opponent’s actions in order to influence the next loop. The trailer doesn’t tell us jack beyond this but thankfully we got a press release so we’re going to cheat and use that to tell you it’s a 1v1 and 2v2 PvP arena shooter. If you’re familiar with Quantum League, you get the idea.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

As the title suggests, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga re-imagines the entire nine movie saga with the Lego game treatment. Wacky family friendly humour abound. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is releasing in Spring 2021.

Struggling

Struggling is a physics platformer from Chasing Rats that’s already out on PC and Switch. The game features single-player and cooperative play and puts you in the role of a squishy abomination journeying through a deranged world by controlling its arms to swing and manipulate the world.

Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition

The well loved Age of Empires series has been getting HD remakes for a while and now it’s the third game’s turn to join the high definition era. Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition is releasing for PC on 15 October 2020 and will be in the PC Game Pass.

Project Cars 3

Slightly Mad Studios and Bandai Namco unveiled the launch trailer for Project Cars 3 which releases tomorrow 28 August 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. As usual, there’s little to no information in the trailer but it is a minute and a half of shiny cars going fast so if that’s your thing it’s definitely worth a watch.

Chorus

This brief trailer shows off some gameplay from the upcoming sentient space ship game Chorus which looks like it borrows heavily from the likes of Everspace judging by the footage alone. Chorus is releasing in 2021.

Fall Guys Season 2

Season 2 of Fall Guys is coming and will have a medieval theme with new levels, obstacles, and costumes. The trailer is just a sneak peek so expect more information about season 2 to appear over the next few days and weeks.

Wasteland 3

Wasteland 3 is launching today and this trailer takes a look at the post apocalyptic world from the viewpoint of disenfranchised psychopath Liberty who wants to take Colorado from its ruler, and her father, the Patriarch. Spoiler: He’s also a psychopath because that’s what happens in a post-nuclear wasteland apparently.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

The venerable Medal of Honor series has had some serious missteps in the last few years but now Respawn Entertainment are taking it through the jump to VR. The trailer shows a surprising amount of gameplay from braining a Nazi officer with a statue, manning a plane’s guns, and plenty of shooting Nazis in famous World War 2 battles in places like Omaha beach and the French countryside.

Game Director Peter Hirschmann, spent a little time explaining they took Medal of Honor back to its roots of putting players into the boots of a soldier in WW2. The player will be recruited into the CIA predecessor organization, the OSS. The story will feature working with the French resistance, D-Day and the fight to Berlin, and dealing with Nazi secret weapons programs like the Me-262 jet fighter and V2 ballistic missile. The game will also have a multiplayer mode, playable fully in VR.

Spellbreak

Spellbreak is a battle royale game that puts players in the role of a battlemage. As is usual with this type of game, you can play solo or with friends. Spellbreak is an Epic exclusive on PC but is also available on PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One. We’d love to give you a proper release date but Geoff Keighley says it’s out now, the trailer says 3 September 2020, and the Epic store says 31 December 2020 so unless you’re a time traveller it’s not clear.

That’s it for games coming to PC from the Gamescom opening night show. There was a trailer for a Turrican anthology for PlayStation 4 and Switch as well as a look at Ratched & Clank: Rift Apart, but as a PlayStation exclusive it’s outside our wheelhouse. Overall, we saw a preponderance of trailers that revealed little to nothing and only a couple of games even had segments providing more info. If it weren’t for the Facebookening of Oculus, we’d be saying Medal of Honor was the most interesting looking game at the show. Instead, we’re most eager to see more from Warhammer Age of Sigmar.