Watch: BBC’s Laura Cress on the floor at Gamescom in Cologne
ByLaura CressTechnology reporter
Gamescom is the largest in-person gaming event in the world, and this year it lived up to expectations with big games on show from The Witcher 3’s new expansion, to Alien: Isolation 2.
Last year over 350,000 people flocked to the halls of the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany to get a chance to see and play the most hotly anticipated games.
This year that number of attendees is expected to have been even bigger, with the likes of Xbox and Sega showcasing games to the public alongside indie studios with only one or two developers.
This was my sixth time attending Gamescom, which never fails to make me excited about the games industry. Here are a few of the big things I got to check out this week.
Image source, CD Projekt Red/Fool’s TheoryGamers will once again play as the gruff-voiced Geralt of Rivera in the new The Witcher 3 expansion
When CD Projekt Red announced it was making a new expansion for the hugely popular action-role playing game The Witcher 3, it came as a shock.
The original, after all, came out 11 years ago.
Yet it was clear sitting in the crowd for Opening Night Live on Tuesday that there’s still a lot of love for the older game. There were gasps and audible shouts of joy when the team announced they were providing a free upgrade to the original.
As for the expansion, Songs of the Past will follow the gruff-voiced protagonist Geralt in an adventure discovering more about the past of his close friend Dandelion.
Doug Cockle, who voices Geralt, told me it was a “thrill” to return as The Witcher.
“I love this character so much…it’s like slipping into a warm bath, or putting on an old pair of shoes,” he said.
Doug Cockle, who plays Geralt, out of his Witcher uniform, alongside Laura Cress
From what I got to see, it’s clear choice will once again be front and centre of the player’s experience, with lots of options to choose from in how to react to people.
For those hoping to take their time tossing a coin to their Witcher, the head of co-developer Fool’s Theory Jakub Rokosz told me this expansion would be “on par with the size” of previous additions such as Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone.
Alien: Isolation 2 is the long-awaited sequel to Horsham-based Creative Assembly’s 2014 survival-horror game.
One of the things that made the original Alien: Isolation so terrifying was its seemingly intelligent Xenomorph, which appeared to learn from your behaviour and adapt to it.
Considering I physically jumped out of my seat at one point playing the demo when avoiding the Alien, it’s safe to say Creative Assembly will once again be ratcheting up the tension with the sequel.
This time rather than playing as the daughter of Ellen Ripley, you play as Blake, a chief executive of the infamous Weyland-Yutani corporation.
Image source, Creative Assembly/SegaThe Alien is as horrifying as ever
As well as claustrophobic spaceship corridors, in the sequel you will also be avoiding the Alien in bigger, open air spaces.
But the game’s Project Art Director Anastasia Sopikova said that did not mean you would always feel safer.
“You step outside. And you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m relieved, I’m outside,” she said.
“And then the rain picks up and it gets foggier, and you hear something nearby and you’re like, ‘Oh, okay.’ Suddenly you realise you’re really vulnerable. You’re really exposed.”
Ralph Fulton, the founder of Leamington Spa-based Playground Games, told me the 2027 reboot of the role-playing classic Fable had “two tonal pillars” – “Britishness” and “fairy tales”.
Fulton said the team was keen to avoid the generic English accents often heard in fantasy games, pointing out that “accent is such an identifier in the UK, where accents change every 15 to 20 miles”.
Instead, Fable features voices from across the UK, and a voice cast of over 100 actors.
“I want to hear people from Newcastle, from Edinburgh, from Cardiff, you know? And we’ve done that and it brings this incredible sense of Britishness, and also this incredible sense of humour,” he said.
The game is deliberately not a continuation of the original trilogy’s timeline, but it will have some of its quirks, taking players into a new open-world version of Albion – the game’s fairy-tale version of medieval Britain.
Lara Croft has been exploring ancient ruins and culling the local wildlife for nearly 30 years now (the original Tomb Raider came out in 1996).
Legacy of Atlantis revisits Lara’s original adventure, including her journey through Peru.
It’s not the first time the classic game has been remade, but Jeff Adams, experience director at co-developers Crystal Dynamics, told me reimagining it was still a “very delicate formula”.
“You have to be very intentful with where you make modifications, but you do so in the attempt to kind of bring it into a modern gameplay space.”
As for why after 30 years people still want to play as the twin-pistoled adventurer, Michał Kuk, Creative Director at Flying Wild Hog, said it was not just about her athletic ability.
“It’s also about the attitude, the energy, the self-confidence,” he added.
They went all out with the Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis booth this year
Elsewhere at the expo, over three days some got to take part in an event called Games Done Quick (GDQ), where people try to finish a game as quickly as possible.
Its previous events are often watched by hundreds of thousands of people online, with GDQ’s charity marathons having raised “62 million dollars for charities in the last 16 years”, according to business director Ashley Farkas.
“Anybody can be a part of this community, anybody can be a speedrunner, and it is just like a giant hug from gamers of like, hey, we want you to come, hang out and do fun stuff and raise money for charity,” she said.
Silent Hill, the psychological survival horror franchise from Japanese studio Konami, has for the most part been set in America, although the most recent excursion – Silent Hill f – was based in Japan in the 1960s era.
Now in Silent Hill Townfall, made by the Glasgow-based team Screen Burn, that location is in an entirely new place – Scotland, albeit a fictional part of it – St Amelia.
Silent Hill’s director says the game’s setting is very Scottish
Scotland was initially going to be more of an influence than a setting, but the team ultimately decided to embrace it fully.
Director Jon McKellan told me that approach felt “more natural and kind of authentic”, with the game filled with recognisably Scottish shops and signage.
“It’s very, very Scottish,” he said.
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