Every game announcement from Gamescom Opening Night Live 2021
Release dates for Halo Infinite, Horizon Forbidden West, and the Saints Row reboot
The next big trailer bonanza hosted by everyone's pal Geoff Keighley has just come and gone. You can watch all of Gamescom Opening Night Live if you don't want to miss out on all the bants. If you just want to know who showed up with what, well we've got that list here for you.
Some of the announcements were already teased ahead of time, of course, but we did get some surprises in our Gamescom stockings. There were a decent amount of confirmed release dates on the table, and some open betas, which are always a welcome treat. Here's what you missed:
Saints Row - Reveal and release date
As Volition not at all subtly teased earlier in the week, they came out and introduced the next Saints Row game. The series reboot will feature new characters in a new city called Santo Ileso and yeah, it's just called Saints Row. Yup, you still have a custom character too. The reboot is backing off the superpowers but seems like it'll stay wacky in other ways. It'll launch on February 25, 2022. You can read a lot more about it in Alice B's Saints Row preview.
Marvel's Midnight Suns - Announcement trailer
Firaxis making a Marvel game? They sure are, because Midnight Suns is a tactical RPG with heroes like Ghost Rider, Blade, and Magik. You'll play as your own hero, a new one called The Hunter that Firaxis designed with Marvel. Marvel's Midnight Suns launches in March 2022, with an additional gameplay reveal planned for September 1.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard - Campaign gameplay
Activision showed off a video of a campaign mission for Vanguard featuring sniper Polina. She arms up while escaping a partially ruined building that's being searched by invading German soldiers. Polina does a bit of stealth to escape, some grabbing guns to trade fire with soldiers, and eventually escapes out onto the outer wall of the building. Eventually she snaps up a sniper rifle, her specialty, to take down enemies in the streets. It sure is Call Of Duty.
Halo Infinite - Release date
As we know, Halo Infinite is picking up the seasonal structure for its free-to-play multiplayer. 343 showed off a story trailer for the first season of multiplayer, introducing commander Agryna. 343 also officially announced Halo Infinite's release date for December 8th. Looks like Microsoft are also making a special Halo annniversary Xbox X/S controller (and a limited edition Infinite Xbox) if that's the kind of thing you're into.
Cult Of The Lamb - Announcement trailer
This one sure does have Devolver written all over it. Cult Of The Lamb is developed by Massive Monster and published by Devolver Digital. It'll cast you as a possessed lamb who has to repay the mysterious stranger (a baaad guy, perhaps?) who saved you from annihilation by developing a following in his name. There you have it, a lamb doing base building and dungeon crawling. Sounds rad, if totally strange. It'll be launching in early 2022, Devolver say.
Midnight Fight Express - New Trailer
Originally previewed at last year's Gamescom, Midnight Fight Express returns with a new trailer. It's a beat 'em up by a solo developer from Poland and sure does look like a fun punching and kicking romp. It announced a launch window for Summer 2022.
TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - Character reveal
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat 'em up Shreder's Revenge dropped in to Gamescom to reveal April O'Neil as a playable character. Catch her in action down here in the new trailer.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge World Premiere Trailer | Gamescom Opening Night Liv
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania - Morgana
Sega rolled into Gamescom to show off another character coming to Super Monkey Ball Mania. Morgana from the Persona series is dropping in as a post-launch DLC on November 2nd.
Splitgate - Season 0
The suddenly popular portaling FPS wound up deciding to stay in open beta after struggling to handle the number of players all jumping into its servers last month. That hasn't stopped the developers from carrying on while they work to scale up their infrastructure. They showed off a trailer for Season 0 of Splitgate. Season 0 kicks off today with a new map, new Infection game mode, and more. They get into the details in their patch notes.
Riders Republic - Open beta right now
Riders Republic recently got its release date bumped back just a bit to October 28th. You can still get your hands on the throttle next month though. After a closed beta period, Ubisoft have opened Riders Republic up to an open beta from now until August 28th. Even if you don't have time to catch it yourself, you can check out Colm's Riders Republic preivew from the beta.
Century: Age Of Ashes - Release date
Free-to-play dragon flying PvP game Century: Age Of Ashes was expected sometime this year. It's now landed a November 18, 2021 release date and another look at some of that high-flying combat.
UFL - Announcement trailer
Move over, footie games. Another contender is hitting the pitch. Strikers Inc don't have a ton to say about it yet, aside from it being a free to play and also "fair to play" online football simulation "where only your skills matter". UFL's current announcement says it's coming to "all major gaming consoles" which, doesn't include PC, perhaps. Well, keep an eye on that one, I suppose.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga - New trailer
The Skywalker Saga Lego game gets itself a comedic new story trailer. It appears to have gotten a delay as well. Originally marked for 2021, the end of the new trailer says it'll be launching in spring 2022. Ah well, a sky wizard's never late, right?
Synced: Off-Planet - Story trailer
The story trailer for Synced: Off-Planet lets on that this is a post-apocalyptic future where robots have turned on humans. Not regular robots though, the nanobots, which seems even worse. The developers call it a PvPvE game where you'll "fight together against enemy teams and synchronize with Nano companion classes to deploy in combat".
Outlast Trials - Gameplay trailer
Co-op survival horror Outlast Trials showed up to give a gnarly look at some gameplay. You and your team of up to four are unwilling test subjects "thrust into a series of physical and mental ordeals, tormented by iconic characters, and challenged alone or in teams to survive with their sanity intact". Outlast Trials announced that it will launch in 2022.
Dokev - New trailer
The folks behind Black Desert showed up with a rather lengthy look at a very different online game. It takes place in a world where humans and creatures called Dokebi live alongside each other. It appears to be a creature collecting and action battler at its core but also has skating and gliding and mini cars and boats to get around with. Oh, and that song is pretty catchy.
Jurassic World Evolution 2 - Release date
Jurassic World Evolution 2 has snapped up a release date for itself on November 9, 2021. Today's new trailer has a bit of park building and a lot of close-ups on your dino pals.
Far Cry 6 - New story trailer
We've already got a release date in sight for Far Cry 6 on October 7th, but Ubisoft have turned up with another story trailer because they sure do like showing off Giancarlo Esposito. Not that I mind. They gave us another look at antagonist Anton Castillo and a bit more on his backstory.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt - early access
World Of Darkness battle royale 'em up Bloodhunt is landing quite soon. Sharkmod have shown up with a new trailer to announce that it'll be heading to early access on September 7th. You can catch more about what the unlikely mashup actually feels like in Alice Bee's Bloodhunt preview.
Park Beyond - Announcement trailer
This park simulation is from the folks behind the Tropico games. The announcement trailer is mostly a bit of story stuff, but you can spot some of its rather fantastical theme park rides partway through. This one is coming sometime in 2022.
Jett: The Far Shore - Release date
No Man's Sky-ish space exploration game by the folks behind Superbrothers has nabbed a release date. The new trailer hints at a bit of story and gives a good look at zipping around the surface of planets in your jett. It'll be launching on October 5, 2021.
Horizon Forbidden West - Release date
Horizon Forbidden West announced its release date for February 18, 2022. That's the PS4 and PS5 launch date, mind. Since the original Horizon eventually came to PC, it seems likely that the sequel will too. Almost certainly not on the same date though.
New World - Open beta dates
New World is expected to launch at last, for real this time, in September. It's been running closed betas up until now but announced an open beta with today's story trailer. You'll be able to get into the open beta from September 9-12 before its full launch on September 28.
Jumanji: The Curse Returns - Trailer
Jumanji: The Curse Returns is a digital board game based on yon cursed jungle game by Marmalade Game Studio. Today's trailer is pretty short, but you can expect Jumanji this September.
Ob3rhasl1 - Announcement trailer
Somehow, Deadmau5: the game - the concert venue is going to be a real thing. Electronic music artist Deadmou5 is pretty well known for also being a gamer. He's announced Ob3rhasl1, a "persistent fan hub and concert space" that's made inside of custom game sharing platform Core.
Fall Guys - Jungle Book crossover
Fall Guys is teaming up with Disney now, bringing Jungle Book skins to their jungle-themed season 5.
Replaced - New trailer
Action platformer Replaced got a pretty short new teaser trailer, but it did also release the rather thumping track from its trailer called "Void", which you can listen to in full over on its website.
Age Of Empires IV - New trailer
Age Of Empires IV showed up for the second day in a row. Less trebuchet talk today, fortunately. This time we get a look at all the in game action of different unit types and some reinforced buildings.
Valheim - Hearth & Home release date
Valheim's upcoming Hearth & Home update is officially arriving on September 16th. They announced the date with this animated trialer. Nothing in game to look at today, but we know so far that Hearth & Home will add new treasures and overhaul the food system and more.
Genshin Impact - Aloy trailer
As we knew, Aloy is joining the Genshin Impact cast. Mihoyo brought another look at Aloy's moveset in a new trailer. You can catch a breakdown on those moves from Genshin's update 2.1 special program.
Sifu - Release date
Action brawler Sifu looks stylish as all getout and we now know when we'll be going hand to hand, er hands on, with it. That'll be on February 22, 2022.
Death Stranding: Director's Cut - Preview video
Death Stranding gave a breakdown on some of the new bits coming in the Director's Cut on September 24th. Delivery man Sam will have a new cargo catapult, boot stabilizers for when you fall long distances, and motorcycle jump ramps. Sam can also get a piggyback ride from his Buddy Bot. Oh, and you can also do time attack races on a new race track. Why not?
