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Gamescom begins later this week in Germany, with the city of Cologne once again hosting the video games show that gives fans the chance to play the latest and upcoming games.
Activision, EA and 2K are among the big studios who will be at Gamescom with games available for fans to play. Here’s a look at the things most likely to make the headlines.
Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare is due in November, the next instalment in the blockbuster combat series. This time things are going galactic with the game set over a hundred years in the future and a large portion of it taking place in space.
Publisher Activision will be at Gamescom, hopefully with some more news on the game – the first in-game viewing of Kit Harington as the villain perhaps? The Multiplayer reveal is being saved for the game’s XP world championships in September, so anything that is showcased at Gamescom is likely to centre around the story mode.
Activision’s other AAA title has a huge expansion coming out in September – Rise Of Iron. This contains an entirely new campaign, new missions and of course lots of new weapons and other gear for Guardians that players will be able to get their hands on.
For many, Gamescom will offer the chance to see a lot of these new features for the first time, as well as perhaps see more details from Activision and developer Bungie on what to expect.
EA Sports’ two biggest franchises are both close to coming out with their 2017 editions. Naturally in Europe, FIFA 17 will get a lot of attention at Gamescom, where the first look at this year’s Ultimate Team set-up is expected.
As for Madden, EA’s live event is believed to be featuring an interview with Madden NFL 17 executive producer Sean Gaddy, as well as potentially more details on the improved AI system that’s coming in this year, as well as improvements to online features too.
The big difference at Gamescom compared to the other big international show – E3 – is this is an event that is very much open to the public. Not only does this mean lots of excited fans queuing to get hands-on time with games for the first time, but it also means lots of cosplay.
Gamescom is notorious for it, and expect 2016 to be no different, but perhaps scaled back slightly.
The reason it might be scaled back is increased security. Organisers in Cologne have already said that imitation weapons – a part of a surprising number of cosplay outfits – are banned from this year’s event.
German authorities are on high alert following a string of incidents in the country and across Europe in recent months, some terrorism-related, but others not. Either way, visitors are also being discouraged from bringing bags because of increased security checks that will be in place.
As well as a lot of games, virtual reality should lead the way in terms of hardware at the show. Many will have the opportunity to try PlayStation VR for the first time, while Oculus are also expected to be in attendance.
There’s hope that Arkham VR – the virtual reality Batman game first seen at E3 in June – will also be back and more broadly playable.
The Xbox One S is in the wild now, so attention is beginning to turn to the next generation of consoles: Microsoft’s Project Scorpio, PlayStation Neo and Nintendo’s NX.
However, don’t expect to see or hear anything about any of them at Gamescom. Scorpio is still over a year away, while Sony is choosing to host a separate event in early September to talk about the Neo. As for Nintendo, the NX is still shrouded in large amounts of mystery and few are expecting that to change this week.
