GamesCom 2015: The best bits

4 months ago

It’s been a busy week of button-bashing in Cologne as the varying characters that populate the video games industry got together to see what’s coming up.

Some of the biggest names in the industry held press briefings that gave us sneak peeks at the likes of Star Wars Battlefront, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and Halo 5: Guardians.

The conference

It’s been busy week for many, and come Friday those who were in Germany were starting to feel a little jaded.

The strange Sims 4 party led by a flashmob that took place in the middle of the EA event was perhaps a tipping point for technology keynotes into the toe-curlingly surreal. But lucky they had some good trailers to go with it, none more so than the first look at multiplayer dogfights in Star Wars Battlefront.

The Games

Being a conference based in Europe, EA also gave a lot of time to FIFA 16, including a very good performance from Sky Sports pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher as they introduced the new Ultimate Team Draft.

There was also more from perennial rival Pro Evolution Soccer, whose 2016 instalment is already attracting whispers of being a FIFA-killer.

Also a stand out during the week was Crackdown 3, whose impressive use of tech meant that 100% of the city environment in the game was destructible. So the panorama at the beginning of the trailer below; everything single thing in that can be blown up.

Impressive stuff. Much like the re-booted Need for Speed franchise, which looks like it is coming together very nicely; a smart mix of live action and stunning visual effects.

Speaking of hybrids – one of the big things flagged up before the conference began was the hopes of seeing more of Quantum Break, the new game and TV show experience first revealed at GamesCom too years ago, but not heard from since. But, to much excitement, that changed during Xbox’s event.

Though not shown at an live show, there was also a further look at one of the biggest franchises in video games; Metal Gear Solid.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was given a whole 30 minutes of demo time, complete with a voiceover walkthrough from the guys at Konami.

The People

Of course, queuing to actually play some of these games took some real dedication on the part of some.

On the subject of dedication, GamesCom had some impressive cosplay on show – as fans got dressed up in support of their favourite characters.

Yep, GamesCom had pretty next everything.