Gamescom may have been reduced in terms of announcements, yet it''s been quietly excellent for discovering interesting games. From demos of Creative Assembly''s new thing Hyenas and Glen Schofield''s Dead Space-alike The Callisto Protocol, to a nice chat with Sonic boss Takashi Iizuka, and a chat with Obsidian''s darkly brilliant Pentiment, and a look at Warhammer 40K: Darktide''s meaty gunplay.
There are more games out there than just these big, obvious ones coming soon, and they absolutely deserve your attention, so here''s a list of all the other clever, inventive, or just generally interesting curios we enjoyed from the series.
The Great War: Western Front
2023''s release date
PC Platforms
The Great War: Western Front''s, a realistic RTS, might sound well-known, but it comes from Petroglyph, the creators of the original Star Wars: Empire at War, and much more recently the very well-received Command and Conquer remake. This makes it a game of "marginal victories," as the developers said. This makes it a game of "marginal victories," where it''s as much about conserving resources - or draining your adversary.
Petroglyph is producing for realism, as you''d expect from the genre, with impressive features, from rolling smokescreens to undermining tunnels below enemy structures. An extensive supply of options for combat, from heavy emphasis on trench warfare, visibility, and movement, we saw enormous enemy charges mowed down because they were poorly thought-out, while strategic maneuvers to cover progress with smoke and flank a dug-in opponent worked well. Music to the ears of spooky RTS history nerds everywhere.
Dordogne
2023''s release date
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Switch
In a video game, Frenchness is - envisioned in the best possible way. Dordogne is a tiny urban development community set in rural France, presumably at the soporific end of summertime. You play as a woman who returns to her grandmother''s house after her death, and flash back to her childhood there, with the aim being to explore the house and its surrounding area for words, sounds, and pictures, though this is quite permissible. And its natural, calming beauty, beauty, and
Vikings on Trampolines
TBC''s release date is Friday, November 13.
Platforms: PC, PS4, and Xbox
The Owlboy, conceived with one of the D-Pad''s little sisters in mind, was then able to play it with a single button. There are a few modes, some cooperative, where you can dodge enemies to pick up the bosses, but others are more of a free-for-all. A great party game, although a simple, straightforward premise.
Isonzo
The date of publication for the 13 September and 2022 calendar has been announced.
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS4, and Xbox
Isonzo is the third in a first World War shooter trilogy from BlackMill Games, based on 2015''s Verdun and Tannenberg. These have a good reputation with the hardcore, alternating between the more addictive Battlefield tone and the actual hardcore direction of Hell Let Loose. This time, emphasis has been placed on changing spawns so that people can charge as more of a single, epic push.
With the game set in the Italian mountains, it reveals some significant realism, including many things like significant destruction (you can blow up bridges) and nicely detailed environments. But you will play through things called offensives, with 1-3 maps per offensive and 2-6 sectors per map, essentially like a massive, ongoing game of Battlefield''s Rush mode, if that''s your poison. The hardcore will focus on incremental tweaks to things like the gunplay, with automatic mantling and a smoother experience overall
Deliver Us Mars
Release date for the 2nd of February, 2023
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS4, and Xbox
Shoulders have always been the subject of the double-A game, but they remain in Deliver Us Mars, a brilliantly QWOP-y gameplay. This is accomplished by a very small team, but it provides some extra features on its predecessor, Deliver Us the Moon (the team at Keoken Interactive insists that you will not have to have played that before) the climbing is simple, as well as a bit of rub-your-stomach, tap-your-head coordination across holding and release two triggers. Better
Miasma Chronicles
The date of the release of the series is 2023.
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Miasma Chronicles is a real-time tactical hybrid - in other words, you jump around the world with your party on your side in the style of a CRPG like Divinity: Original Sin, and then move into a turn-based tac game developed by the team behind Mutant Year Zero, which used the same technique and seems to be a natural successor. It''s also a good deal, with a surprising effect at that.
The main protagonist of Miasma appears to be from the Jedi Fallen Order school of freckled American whippersnappers, but the rest of the cast on show are greatly inventive, as developer Bearded Ladies has shown a knack for in the past. Specifically, they''ll spend your visits blowing up enormous humanoid toads from behind half and full cover. They''ll return to the process of exploring, fighting, upgrading, and repeating. It''s a pleasant surprise,
The Last Worker
The release date for the United Kingdom of Europe is 19 October and 2022.
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch, and Oculust Quest (VR)
The Last Worker is a bleak satire of hyper consumerism and mega corporations, aimed at the deistic leaders of Silicon Valley technology firms and American oligopolies. However, no company has captured the essence of automated mass alienation quite like Amazon, and therefore it''s no surprise that a specific company is most prominently seen in The Last Worker''s sights. You''ll play as a "Jungle" branded version of Jeff Bezos'' famous fulfilment centres.
The Last Worker''s pitch is good enough - writer-director-producer Jorg Tittel, who is as aggressive in person as he is through the game''s back door, is also well-connected; Oliver Kraus, who has worked on a number of Hollywood films and with musicians like Adele, is responsible for the score. Jason Isaacs leads a dazzling cast.
"I really don''t see the point of comedy unless there''s something underneath it," said the writer. Chris Morris believes satire is not about being "slapped on the back by the orthodox elite," it is about wanting to "change something." pic.twitter.com/3GcUpwQwq
With a grab pistol and a companion who tempts you into revolt, you''ll be able to play through this infinite tat. That brings the likes of Portal to mind - especially when combined with the kind of workplace motivational poster banter Portal introduced to games. However, whether The Last Worker lands will depend far less on its already impressive pedigree - and more on how smartly it can use that lance.
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
TBC''s release date is announced.
Platforms: PC, others TBC
In Bulwark, Thomas Sala is reimagining the fictional Falconeer Chronicles, which he describes as "mattering" rather than "tightening" the game. In this early state, Sala demonstrated the building in action, describing what it involves, and how curiously hands-off it is.
It''s all contextual, according to Sala, that waterfront areas will be more ramshackle, while higher towers are more impressive, reflects the needs of the wealthy. The possibility that different resources may be open for trade, giant, wonder-like zones discovered out at the ocean and skirmishes from enemy factions. All of this happens without much, if any, of a UI. So there is no certainty about how much wood or stone you might have, but there''s no specificity to what
Floodland
The release date for the 15th of November, 2022, has been changed.
Platforms: PC
Unlike any other medium, video games must certainly have the highest number of artwork inspired by garbage. Floodland is another - a clever, and somewhat entertaining approach to the "society builder" genre that sees you rebuilding civilisation as a result of a climate catastrophe. Be that picking strawberries or finding drinkable water, or, perhaps, harvesting trash, which becomes a key building material. Slowly your recycled society grows, and so you''ll need to develop more sophisticated technology and explore and expand further
It''s not the best at explaining itself; however, we, and a few others around us, soon discovered things coming to an end as resource income plummeted. It turned out, however, we had missed a load of starter deposits on the early game island that didn''t exactly make themselves known, and so momentum was almost impossible to build. This shift in the survival scales, along with a more progressive approach to the old explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate mix, makes for an enjoyable modern approach to an
