Six Stories From Gamescom
August 13, 2014
Gamescom is Europe’s largest gaming convention, and sits alongside E3 and Tokyo Game Show as a vehicle for major announcements. This year’s Gamescom is no exception, with several stories coming out of Microsoft’s and Sony’s press events.
Here are the highlights from last night’s proceedings.
P.T., a horror game for which an “interactive teaser” released during Sony’s press conference, is actually a new Silent Hill game from Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth). This was discovered by Twitch streamer SoapyWarPig. This demo also revealed that Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) will be playing one of the game’s characters.
Rise of the Tomb Raider, originally announced during Microsoft’s E3 press conference, will now be an Xbox One exclusive. Darrell Gallagher, Crystal Dynamics’ Head of Studios, wrote in a company blog, “Today’s announcement with Microsoft is one step to help us put Tomb Raider on top of action adventure gaming. Our friends at Microsoft have always seen huge potential in Tomb Raider and have believed in our vision since our first unveil with them on their stage at E3 2011. We know they will get behind this game more than any support we have had from them in the past – we believe this will be a step to really forging the Tomb Raider brand as one of the biggest in gaming, with the help, belief and backing of a major partner like Microsoft.”
Ninja Theory, developer of DmC: Devil May Cry and Heavenly Sword, used Gamescom to unveil its new title, Hellblade. “Ninja Theory is defined by three things: ninja-class melee gameplay, strong character stories and a unique art vision,” the company said on the official Hellblade site, ”On Hellblade, we will double down on what we do best to give you a deeper character in a twisted world with brutal, uncompromising, combat.”
This came a day after Ninja Theory’s co-founder and chief creative Tameem Antoniades presented “The Independent AAA Proposition” at GDC Europe, where he talked about the company’s desire to produce AAA titles whilst retaining the IP for these games.
Michel Ancel, creator of Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil, used Sony’s press conference to announce Wild, the debut title from his newly founded Wild Sheep Studio. It will feature an open world as large as Europe, dynamic weather and seasons, and will allow players to control both humans and in-world animals.
Microsoft and Sony both announced significant firmware updates to their respective systems. The Xbox One will be receiving DLNA and USB playable support and compatibility with additional file formats such as MPEG2, GIFs and MKV files. The Playstation 4′s 2.0 firmware will introduce native YouTube support and will add Share Play; a feature that allows users to invite friends to their games even if the friend don’t own that title.
Some of the highlights amongst the other titles shown off and announced include Quantum Break, The Tomorrow Children, Ori and the Blind Forest, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Tearaway Unfolded.
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And that is six stories that came out of Gamescom 2014.
