Gaming news is like buses. Nothing comes along for ages and then suddenly there are so many buses that the land is buses and the sky is buses and there is no hope of escape. We've rounded up some of the most significant happenings of day one into a quick roundup to save you from bus madness. Let's start with today's biggest announcement.
Mafia 3 was announced, and It’s set in New Orleans in 1968
You play Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam War veteran returning home to late ‘60s New Orleans to crack some heads, and in one brutal kill move, repeatedly stab a man in the face It’s the same Mafia ethos in recruiting gang members and growing a criminal empire, but with less fewer pin-stripe suits. See the debut Mafia 3 video and first screenshots.
We finally got a proper look at Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst
Mirror's Edge goes open world in Catalyst as Faith takes to the City of Glass. The pre-alpha Gamescom trailer shows just how aptly named that place is, with our parkour hero shattering glossy windows and mirrors into thousands of shiny shards by punching men through them. That’s the takeaway from this trailer: no longer is combat an awkward stand-up fist fight with tiny counter window. Now you conduct beat-downs in constant motion, using the force generated from wall-runs, slides, and flips to make your foes wish the City of Glass was called the City of Cushions.
Wes played Dark Souls 3, and it's pretty good
Wes braved the dynamically lit halls of Dark Souls 3 and returned with tales of a competent sequel that isn't doing too much to upset the Dark Souls formula. It's difficult to perceive the supposed increase in pace in combat, but there are important additions, like"battle art" attacks and enemies that change stance as you fight.
Jousting is coming to Hearthstone
The new joust ability draws a random card from each player’s deck. The player that has the highest value card wins, and exciting affects are applied to the game board. Find out more here, and start theorycrafting aggressive joust decks in preparation for the incoming expansion.
You can land on planets in Elite: Dangerous this year
We spoke to David Braben about the massive expansion that will let you wander around procedurally generated planetary landscapes. The terrain is created using algorithms that take scientific factors into account, so the surface geometry will be different if your planet has many moons, or is close to a sun. The expansion's due later this year, and you'll have to buy it if you want to make landfall.
The Sims 4 will expand again this year
The Get Together expansion will add new ways for your Sims to socialise in new locations. Swim in rivers, play foosball and frolic until your happiness meter is maxed out. Watch the Gamescom reveal trailer for more.
Star Wars Battlefront's dogfighting mode looks beautiful
It’s not quite space, but you can fly so high in Star Wars Battlefront’s dedicated aerial dogfighting mode, Fighter Squadron, that you can sort of pretend it is. The recent trailer shows off a thrilling battle over the volcanic planet of Sullest as Tie Fighters bob and weave away from the laser fire of tailing X-Wings and A-Wings. These ten-on-ten battles feature skybound heroes, just like in the ground wars. That means you can pilot Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon and laser Boba Fett’s Slave One to bits.
We got to know Assassin's Creed: Syndicate's assassins a little better
The latest Assassin’s Creed Syndicate trailer focuses on the interplay between protagonist siblings Jacob and Evie Frye, she posh and fond of science and progress, he more working class and keen on using a more hands-on approach (acrobatic violence) to spur society along. We’re calling it now: there’s going to be a fight between the two, and it’ll probably go down on top of a moving train.
You can craft, lay siege and play boardgames in Mount & Blade 2
TaleWorlds Entertainment are improving their freeform medieval combat game with variable seasons and weather; deployable siege weapons that let you fling rocks at people; and even playable board games. It looks like M&B 2 is staying true to the sim roots of the original, but expanding significantly in scope as well as visual fidelity. If modders take to it like they did to M&B 1, this could be fantastic.
Unravel is going to make people cry
We haven't checked to see if they're selling Yarny dolls yet because a purchase would surely follow. Today's trailer showed some gentle puzzles from this charming indie platformer, which seems to be carefully designed to tug at the heart strings (sorry). Yarny actually drowned to death live on stage during today's EA conference, but that didn't make it into this footage.
There's a new Metal Gear Solid 5 trailer
Now the release date has been moved forward to September 1, we can get even more excited about Kojima's final Metal Gear Solid game. Today's trailer sets an ominous tone and stars a couple of supernatural nasties that ought to be interesting to face—the series is famous for its unusual boss fights.
Fable Legends "isn't a ghetto PC port", we're told
Though originally pitched as an Xbox exclusive, game director David Eckelberry tells us that Legends will utilise the advantages of DirectX 12 to ensure that the PC version of the game will look tip-top.
We got a brief look at For Honor's combat system
Today's For Honor footage searches for the origins of the project. Spoiler alert: it was inside Jason VandenBerghe all along. The best bit happens four minutes into the video, when VandenBerghe lays out how the game actually controls—an oddly rare occurrence in developer videos.
Stay tuned for loads more news from the show floor as Gamescom continues! You can keep track of it all on our Gamescom 2015 news page.
