Geoff Keighly’s Eternal Birthday continues, with one of the last shows of the summer, Gamescom, kicking off with a large showcase of trailers and more. The Opening Night Live show had quite a lot less surprises than one might expect, but before we get into that, let’s recap the show itself.
The Summer Game Fest show was clouded by some odd discourse about the state of the industry, and since SGF, there have been more layoffs, delays, and other somewhat woeful news regarding AI and voice acting, which set an odd mood for Gamescom. As he attempted to do going into SGF, Keighly again took to Twitter to try and dampen some expectations from a community known for acting very normally, but in full respect to that… Gamescom was kind of a bad showing for what’s coming down the line in games. Let’s break down some of the big notes of what got shown.
Borderlands 4
Developer: Gearbox
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: Steam (ha), Epic, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Marcy: Hot on the tails of the biggest commercial film flop in recent memory, Borderlands is BACK baby, and the crowd goes…? The trailer showed absolutely no gameplay, no voiceover, and was filled with constant loud noises, so… about on par for what one would probably expect of a series that went both content and joke tone deaf. If I sound like I’m being overly harsh, it may be because I actually adored Borderlands 1 and 2, and the way the series was run into the ground and the general leadership of Gearbox was disappointing and depressing. I have absolutely no expectations for this to restore my faith in the series, but maybe once we get actual game details, we’ll see. Also, good to once again see Randy Pitchford eat his own foot in regards to Steam.
Jonathan: I see Take-Two has decided that they’re running a business, not a magic act, and they’re gonna get some value from the only thing modern day Gearbox has going for it after the Embracer Group debacle.
Mafia: The Old Country
Developer: 2K Interactive
Release Date: 2025(?)
Platform: Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Marcy: Mafia is BACK baby, and–oh god, this is really just where gaming is going too, huh. Endless revivals, sequels, requels, prequels… Anyway, Mafia: TOC promises to deliver an “authentic” vision of crime in 1900s Sicily that will hearken to the “roots” of the Mafia series. I really can’t recall what exactly that is supposed to mean, since none of the Mafia games save 3 were memorable, and I feel like they’re not talking about that one. We’ll have to wait for more details, as, much like many of today’s trailers, there really wasn’t a lot to attach any meaning or expectation to.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Release Date: December 9th for Xbox and PC, 2025 for PS5
Platforms: Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PS5
Marcy: Indy is coming home December 9th, unless you are playing it on PS5, in which case you get it next year. This trailer, showing off the mocap footage of Troy Baker acting out being… Harrison Ford 45+ years ago, showed off how the majority of the gameplay is first person. I’m not sure exactly why they forced the Harrison Ford aesthetic, but for the first time I am far less negative on this game than I was a few months ago. The footage of the first person gameplay and how the game actually plays does seem to offer the chance for this to be the true, actual Indiana Jones game that always seemed possible but just out of reach.
Jonathan: I guess Troy Baker is who you get for this, and he sounds better than the guy doing Indy on uh, what was that, Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb? But still.
Dying Light: The Beast
Developer: Techland
Release Date: 2025(?)
Platforms: Steam, Epic Store, Xbox, Playstation
Marcy: Parkour zombie franchise Dying Light provided something of a surprise with the announcement of The Beast, a new game that features the original game’s protagonist Kyle Crane. It feels as though the title is a reference to Kyle himself, freed from imprisonment and experimentation and looking for revenge, which sounds like a fine set up for the action that Dying Light games are truly known for. There’s not much other details available yet, but it is interesting that this is a standalone and not a numbered sequel.
Jonathan: Feels like they’re cribbing a move from the Far Cry franchise and reusing the assets from the big project to support a second, smaller project that retails for $10-20 less than full price, like Far Cry 4/Far Cry Primal and Far Cry 5/Far Cry New Dawn. Not the worst strategy for a project that maybe could use some double-dipping to even out its books.
Directive 8020
Developer: Supermassive Games
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: PS5
Marcy: Schlocky Choose Your Own Adventure horror series The Dark Pictures Anthology rolls on with a harder sci-fi title than previous installments, teasing a game starring Captain Marvel’s Lashana Lynch named Young. Like the other Dark Pictures games, this one seems to offer branching paths and multiple outcomes, so if you’re into those games, you’ll have something new to look forward to Soon(™).
Jonathan: Will wait on the returns from this one. Love these things in principle but in practice, the next one that lands for me will be the first.
Goat Simulator Remastered
Developer: Coffee Stain
Release: 2024
Platforms: Steam, Epic, Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5
Marcy: As a constant reminder of the march of time, Goat Simulator Remastered was announced to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the original game. The original was a lot of fun and a great way to kill some time and do a bunch of silly nonsense, so I’m actually kind of happy to see a newer updated version as a little bit of a celebration of it. I suppose it will matter how much it costs, but if the price point is right, I’ll probably give it a second play through and see what things have been updated or changed.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
Developer: Don’t Nod
Release Date: Tape 1 releases on Feb. 18 2025, Tape 2 on March 18 2025.
Platforms: Steam, Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5
Marcy: From Life is Strange studio Don’t Nod came the first gameplay trailer for Lost Records. Although not a series sequel, it certainly seems to be going for the CYOA vibe of Life is Strange, and that’s probably fine? Nothing in this trailer was groundbreaking or earth shattering, but it also at least seemed to be a game that wasn’t a military shooter, horror game, sequel, or throwaway trash, so… we take those.
Jonathan: This studio seems to be stuck making the basic same thing over and over again, but hey, we don’t get on anyone else’s case about that, and it keeps the lights on.
Honkai Star Rail 2.5 and Fate/Stay Night Crossover
Developer: MiHoYo
Release Date: 2.5 Update September 9th, Fate/Stay Night Crossover Q3 2025
Platforms: iOS, Google Play, PC, Epic Store, PS5
Marcy: I’m going to use the middle part of this report to level with you: At least for me, the trailer that got the most reaction from me was MiHoYo’s update teaser for Honkai Star Rail, which midway through became a teaser reveal for the announced Fate/Stay Night crossover coming next year. To expand more on why this kind of bugs me: the level of creativity in most trailers and the tone of most games is just… depressing. There’s so little color, adventure, or joy that after a while I can only get so excited for Shooting Game Sequel 6 in Black and Red and Brown. Anyway, just my two cents. Featuring references to the Fate/Stay Night story and using key dialogue references and sequences for Saber and Archer, it seems like this collaboration will be far larger in scope than just costumes. While that may be a weird lore-bending thing for the HSR game, it’s pretty fun to see, and hearing Junichi Suwabe’s famous voice reprising his role as Archer at the end of the trailer was great.
Infinity Nikki
Developer: Infold GAmes
Release Date: 2025(?)
Platforms: PS4, PS5, PC, Mobile Platforms
Marcy: Speaking of bright and colorful, though, we also got an updated trailer for open-world adventure platformer Infinity Nikki. I had some time to play the alpha, as did my partner, and both of us ended up falling in love with how fun and exciting it was to simply play a game that nails exactly what it wants to be. There’s a lot of fun little platforming puzzles and exploration to do, the costume mechanic is fun and engaging, and in the alpha, there was already an engaging narrative and secrets to uncover. The new trailer showed off more of that, and promised a closed beta coming soon for mobile platforms, so hopefully lots more will be in store for Infinity Nikki as it gets closer to an official release.
Jonathan: Once per event these days there’s a game like this, which looks like so much fun despite being so completely and totally not aimed at me. I rarely get too deep into them, though, because they’re almost all mobile, and this is no exception.
Reanimal
Developer: Tarsier Studios
Release Date: 2025(?)
Platforms: PS5 and PC
Marcy: Despite some of my doom and gloom, I’m pretty curious about this new horror title from Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios, because Little Nightmares ruled. Keeping in something of the vein of those games, Reanimal seems to task players with a co-op adventure that, once again, tries to focus on a sense of scale and scope, showing off huge, looming, scary environments that you and another player will have to navigate. Even if it is a little bit in line with what Little Nightmares did, it’s still a fairly original take on horror that builds a sense of helplessness that few other games manage to do.
Amazon Prime Video Reveals Secret Level
Marcy: Probably the biggest actual surprise at the show was Amazon Prime Video’s reveal of a new series, Secret Level, directed by the team behind Love and Robots. The series promises an anthology of episodes, each with a different game theme, with some of the shown properties including God of War, Armored Core (with Keanu Reeves, even), and… Warhammer, which was pretty shocking to see, and looked great; Warhammer’s style really fits animation, which allows it to lean into the odd proportions and scales. What the quality of this endeavor will be remains to be seen; I was never a huge LnR fan, but there’s some possibility for fun here for sure.
Jonathan: I’m not sure the Secret Level people understand that “movies that are like video game cutscenes” is deeply uncompelling for the exact same reason “video game cutscenes that are like movies” is compelling. Put another way: You’re going to spend all this time, money, and art on stories about chosen ones who are special because of the choices they make? In a medium without choice?
Masters of Albion
Developer: 22cans
Release Date: 2025(?)
Platforms: Steam
Marcy: As if things weren’t bad enough, suddenly Peter Molyneux is back. Great. The fact that he returned with a game that, politely, looks like a PS3 game from the launch era, Masters of Albion showed off a game in the vein of Molyneux’s ‘god simulator’ style, with lots of silly bits like… making a sandwich for a man to eat cartoonishly, or dropping a man from a great height as a disembodied hand. There was then some footage of some sort of combat that reminded me of when a TV show wants to show people playing a video game but not actually pay for a video game license.
Jonathan: This guy has the gall to show his face again on stage? This scammer? If you give this man money in 2024, you’re a rube who deserved to be parted from it.
Wrap-Up
Marcy: Unlike some of the other shows this year, there wasn’t a lot of extra news that really stood out as being announcement worthy in the individual sense. A new Monument Valley is on the way, Monument Valley 3, as is some update to a Squid Game game. Call of Duty Black Ops and Diablo 4 showed off trailers of upcoming game updates, and the Dune MMO continues to be a thing that is… a thing. Starfield promised new content, Marvel Rivals was given a release date of Dec. 6, and we saw a bit more footage of Monster Hunter Wilds.
The next likely big game show and set of reveals will be far later this year during the Game Awards, so perhaps we can look forward to a better picture of what the future of the gaming landscape will look like then. For now, it’s not looking so great, but depending on your tastes, there’s certainly some bright spots out there to be hopefully excited for in the coming months and into next year.
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