Gamescom Opening Night Live: Updates from the showcase including Final Fantasy and Gears of War previews

Let's get this thing started! This year's Gamescom starts in earnest tomorrow and runs through Sunday August 30, but the biggest gaming headlines usually come from Opening Night Live (ONL). What are we expecting?

We know that Microsoft will show off Persona 4 Revival on its Xbox broadcast tomorrow, but I'm still holding out hope we'll see a little more of the remake during ONL.

Happy Gamescom, all! One reveal is confirmed, at least: a Final Fantasy VII Revelation... something. That one's just for you, Mat.

It's how they keep me watchin', Jessica.

I'm so intrigued by the new Witcher 3 DLC. It's mind-boggling that we're getting more W3 stuff, but I am certainly not mad.

Calling it Songs of the Past, too. Bit meta.

Cloud's new hair textures aside, I'm stoked to see the first live-action gameplay trailer for Fable, a title that is somehow, thankfully, still in production at Xbox. It's been in development hell for around a decade (since the time of Fable: Legends, technically), and it's being handled by Playground Games. Playground is one of a few studios that Xbox didn't shut down in its round of mass layoffs this summer, and Fable is still due out on February 23, 2027, last we checked.

I should play Witcher, huh?

I mean, it's a CDPR thing. So it's a long adventure. I wonder how much I'll like it post-Baldur's Gate 3, though. 

I blame Avowed for reigniting my love of fantasy RPGs, so maybe now's my time to dive in. BG3 can't be beat, though.

Any thoughts on the new DnD game, Warlock? 

I mean, besides the existence of an Eldritch Blast. We don't know a lot....

All I know about Warlock is that the teaser trailer uses Tool to great effect 🤘 Also, I like the protagonist's purple eyeball.

That said, I'm pretty into it.

This year's ONL is sold-out. Brace yourselves, for there will be whooping.

It's such an amazing time for horror media, so I know we're gonna get some good spooks at ONL. Silent Hill: Townfall and Pony Island 2: Panda Circus are both on the docket, which is a great sign already. Townfall is due out next month, on September 23, and I can't wait to explore its foggy seaside village. I recall you enjoyed the demo, Mat!

Yeah, Townfall looks fun/terrifying. It also looks like a time portal back to the early '90s UK. 

Pony Island 2 is a different beast altogether. It comes from Inscryption developer Daniel Mullins, and it features his brand of dark, mind-melting humor in a mystical world of mixed mechanics and dueling genres. Whatever it is, Pony Island 2 is not a game about ponies, Mullins warns. 

There's no release date for it yet, so maybe that'll come in tonight's show? Apparently, the new trailer will feature some guy that everyone is going to freak out over, so that's cool.

Any bets on who the special guest will be? Our hint is: 

"Pandas, crazy clowns, underworld lords, souls, and the guy from G- ...yeah I am not finishing that."

Green Day? G-Dragon? God of War? GODZILLA??

That seems like God Of War. I mean, we have the new actor. 

Dad Bautista.

I'd also love to see all that Xbox-IKEA furniture sometime, too. But that'll probably be on Microsoft's own stream. Boo. 

Agreed, I swear I saw a dinner plate shaped like an Elite D-pad, and I'm kind of obsessed.

We are into the pre-show; Kyle Bosman is Geoff's hypeman.

Is this... Worms?

Yep. A blast from the past. Literally. *looks to camera*

Worms: Galactic Tactics, coming next year.

Sup, Worms.

Just to be clear: There will be no 🙅 GTA VI 🙅 trailers today. That's coming Thursday at 3PM ET, exclusively on Netflix for a total of six hours for some strange and likely very expensive reason.

The expensive reason is accurate. (But we're definitely going to mention it at least five more times.)

Trains, rollercoasters... we'll call this ONL pre-show bit the Simulator Sessions.

Surfing otters, monster battles, a lil' litigious a premise. It's Aniimo.

Yeah, those Palworld lawyers are seething.

Shh, the horror games are starting.

I don't like horror games when you can see the characters blinking... 

It's impressive that they managed to fully digitize my living room and where I'm liveblogging ONL from...

That first-person blinking sim was perceptum, coming spring 2027.

Mat... I have some bad news.

You're the main character in an indie horror game. I'm so sorry.

Please tell me it's at least AA. At least AA!

Valor Mortis: Zombies, 19th-century soldiers and creepy mysteries abound. 

Was that Bob Mortimer's voice in the trailer for Murals? Sure sounded like it.

(Oh, hi, don't mind me. I'm quietly gatecrashing this party.)

Disney is backing the painting adventure game Murals, which definitely is not Epic Mickey.

Hi, Kris! And hi, Bob, I guess!

We've arguably heard plenty about the new Onimusha at this point, but hey, there's a new expanded demo!

That's the magic of Gamescom.

Mariachi Legends has an incredible art style. And a cooking mini game! Hell yeah. It's coming April 2027 from Halberd Studios.

Tis time for the real show. Almost.

Hi, Geoff! Let's start ONL.

RIP to Geoff's dad, a real one. That was a nice tribute.

Square Enix's Naoki Hamaguchi will be on stage to share more about Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. I'm listening.

I have a fluffy blanket, a fresh Liquid Death, and I'm sat.

A new Hoyoverse game is coming. And it looks gorgeous. 

And gory. Lots of executions. Yikes. It's called Nodus Fall.

It looks like a co-op action title with big demonic baddies. I dig it.

I did not have the makers of Genshin Impact doing their best FromSoftware impression on my bingo card.

Sjokz! She's a League of Legends legend, such a great host. I always love to see her show up at these things.

Today, Sjokz is here with an X-COM-style Rainbow 6: Siege game. Rainbow 6: Tactics, coming 2027.

Gears of War E-Day is the first big game we're taking a look at. Xbox exclusive, coming this October.

Here's that Monster Hunter MMO brand new IP from Hoyoverse in action:

(All due respect to R6, of course!)

I have fond memories of playing Gears of War back in the day, but I can't say I've thought about the franchise much in recent years. Can E-Day reignite the series?

It feels like a big enough title to mark Xbox's 25th anniversary, at least.

Ananta looks suitably silly, but it's hard to fully discern enough about gameplay just yet. (Love the parody touches, though; was that a Gatsby pose?)

And here's the new XCOM Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 Tactics trailer:

(I promise we won't do this bit for every trailer.)

I'd love to know how much of this trailer will be accessible in the actual game, yeah. Ananta is coming January 15, 2027.

Not enough Cranberries songs being used in game trailers.

Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the yodeling over here.

Watch the Gears of War: E-Day trailer that just premiered at Gamescom Opening Night Live:

Stop the yodeling. It's time to get scared by a remote Scottish isle!

Which brings us, of course, to Silent Hill: Townfall. Cuddle up, folks.

Yep, it still looks good and spooky.

Not nearly enough cursing for a Silent Hill game set in Scotland.

This is a cover of another older pop song. (Sorry I should focus on the games!) 

Depeche Mode!  (The band, not the game)

That was for Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. We've entered the "these are just ads" portion of ONL.

And now I have Depeche Mode stuck in my head. Thanks, Geoff.

Not to be confused with Control Resonant. That's coming soon, too. 

Tides of Annihilation features a fantastical version of London... and low framerates, according to that trailer. Surely that was just a video issue rather than a gameplay feature, though.

Here's Ananta, presented roughly five minutes after our conversation about it:

Yeah, I clocked that too, Jess. Sometimes lots of jump cuts are there to hide a lot of sins.

This feels like a Jess-or-Aaron kind of game. 

OK, this Italian guy's game looks great. It's called Lofsöng.

(Called it!)

You called it, Mat. I'm going to play the hell out of Lofsöng.

Devil may cry (at the frame rates in this Tides of Annihilation trailer):

Mega-Man Dual Overide is coming in 2027 too.

(As if you could make an actual Mega-Man in this economy! With these RAM prices?)

Mega Man: Dual Override is coming in 2027, but in more important news, there's a Mega Man skin hitting Pragmata this year.

Macarena-themed Rayman levels were not on my bingo card...

But here it is. With... Italian food?

Rayman is making me hungry.

Rayman jumping on the hands of a luchador doing the Macarena just sold me on Legends Retold.

Ohhh. "Heyyyy, macaroni!"

The musical levels in Rayman Legends are some of my favorites but it's odd seeing one in 4K UHD with a dynamic swoopy camera. Am I just old?

I'm very much looking forward to the Mewgenics musical interlude.

Once again, ads! Refresh your drinks.

Here is a very earnest very European man presenting his game Lofsong, which seems lovely:

Control Resonant is almost here. Very fun, according to the multiple demos I've played so far. It lands September 24.

Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall... September is looking delicious.

Very happy that gaming has moved beyond its Imagine Dragons era into The Prodigy bangers in random trailers:

We're now taking a longer look at Game Of Thrones: War of Westeros. (A GoT tactical sim should have been made years ago!)

Sjokz is back and I'm locked in.

The war comes 2027.

Let the music begin.

The lights went out at the venue. Technical hitch? Nope, intentional shenanigans.

Oh, not time for music. Time for another start to the show? With Sjokz? OK.

I'll never fully understand German culture.

DUST: Origins is the new game from Airship Syndicate, which previously worked on Darksiders Genesis, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and the League of Legends spinoff Ruined King. If you're a fan of top-down shooters and are sad Housemarque has gone all 3D with its latest games, it's one to get excited about:

This dude talking to an octopus in the current trailer is giving me The Boys flashbacks, and I'm not sure that's intended.

Octopus mech! I repeat: Octopus mech!

Exodus is the octopus mech game, as I now know it. Coming April 7, 2027.

Lady Dimitrescu herself! What an honor.

Here's the release date trailer for Exodus, which we can't embed because those octopus mechs are for mature audiences only.

Maggie Robertson is here to talk Warlock: Dungeons and Dragons.

All right, Maggie Robertson alone has sold me on Warlock.

Looks like full-on Ursula trickery.

We've been hearing about Exodus for years, so it's nice to see that finally getting a release date. Wild that we'll have Matthew McConaughey and octopus mechs in the same game.

That's what I love about these octopodes, man.

If an octopus loses half its arms, it might just be all right, all right, all right.

Octopodes or Octopuses, Jess. It's a proud Greek word.

Boo, Kris. Boooooo.

Interesting to see how Warlock makes DnD moves and skills work in real-time. (Of all the people, I'm bringing us back on track.)

I'm dead, Kris. Beautiful.

OK but Warlock looks sick as hell? Gothic, dramatic, action-packed. I like the mechanics, magic and melee.

It's great to see so much gameplay of any game, let alone one we were so curious about.

More gameplay, please, Gamescom. More '90s song bangers wouldn't go amiss either.

This is definitely Avowed-esque, with some Soulslike flair. Nice.

1001 Threads of Mizan is the latest game debut at ONL, and it looks lush.

Here's that big Warlock reveal:

1001 Threads of Mizan also has a ten-minute gameplay footage video on YouTube, which is pretty bold for a game that was just announced.

After a stint in VR, the Ukranian team at 4A Games is back with Metro 2039, a mainline entry in the series. We're getting a look at the new trailer now.

Here's the gameplay trailer for METRO 2039, which can't be embedded due to its many guns and much blood, rather than tentacles.

It's been a tough development process marred by war, as noted by 4A Games on-stage.

Metro 2039 looks incredibly polished, as expected from the series.

More Snoop. 

This year, Snoop Dogg is in Hitman World of Assassination.

He's the latest elusive target for Hitman's World of Assassination contracts.

If I got all that correctly, this DLC is called:

Hitman World of Assassination The Herbalist ft. rap legend Snoop Dogg.

I've had that strain.

It all looks very fun:

Feels like another ad break is upon us. Though it really is hard to tell sometimes.

The whole world's an ad, and the exclusive trailers merely players.

Wake up, folks, it's Mewgenics dance break time.

That's one hungry kitty! This rules.

This is very reminiscent of a London bar I spent most of my 20s in.

I imagine half the attendees are utterly confused.

"Confused in a London bar" is my preferred aesthetic.

This is more for a Berlin crowd, TBH.

The fiddle! The breathwork! The fur! What's not to love?

Mewgenics is coming to PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S on September 8. Hot.

Here's the Mewgenics OST by Ridiculon, btw.

Mewgenics, you did not have to have your console release in perhaps the most packed month for games in living memory. 

More cats? Witches? Magic? This looks fun. 

A touch of Dishonored to this. 1666 Amsterdam.

I like the look of this. Yakuza x Dishonored x Saints Row.

Showa American Story is the name, retro-pop RPG is the game.

Intrigued to hear more about that. "The player assumes the role of the stuntwoman Choko Chigusa, who resurrects from the dead and navigates post-apocalyptic Showa America." And it was first announced four years ago. 

More music time! The rhythm game revival is nigh.

Stage Tour comes from RedOctane Games, founded by veterans of the rhythm gaming scene. It's coming December 10, 2026! Rock on.

Bad Religion always gets me pumped.

More Crazy Taxi World Tour updates. Crazy Taxi's return features multiplayer, naturally. It's still on track for launch next year.

And I'm not even talking about Stage Tour anymore! This is Crazy Taxi World Tour, with a great soundtrack already.

We are all very excited about the Crazy Taxi revival until it turned out AI was part of the development process. Sega claims it was only used for 'background assets' and we'll have to wait and see how it all turns out I guess. 

I missed a couple of trailers while I was trying to figure out if I have enough space in my apartment for the Stage Tour drums. Might just have to ditch my couch.

Same, Kris. It'll be worth it.

Dog Astronauts! I'm locked in. 

Gravhounds looks silly and fun, but it might make me too sad if my dogs lose.

It's called Gravhounds, and there will be lampshade collars.

Lego Skylines?! That's dope.

Lego Skylines is coming from Cities Skylines publisher Paradox Interactive and it looks like Town to City, but with even more detail. Or it looks like Cities Skylines, but with way more block pieces (obviously). Paradox describes it as a "cozy city-builder."

Here's Crazy Taxi: World Tour

And here's Gravhounds!

Path of Exile 2's 1.0 release is coming on December 11, btw!

The Games Done Quick folks are fabulous, so this is a cool partnership.

Back to the games! This is NOT Cyberpunk 2077 DLC; it's No Law.

We're barrelling through, next!

Just like Ariana taught us.

And now it's Cinder City, a cinematic third-person shooter in near-future Seoul.

Frictional Games, the team behind Soma, is back with a new sci-fi horror situation, and it looks supremely eerie and slightly grotesque. Exactly how we like it, in fact. Ontos is the name and it's coming 2027.

A man's brain uploaded to a pack of rats? Cool. I'm not nervously itching my legs, you are.

Pony Island 2: Panda Circus looks deranged and I absolutely love it. It's coming April 27, 2027.

Okay, I'm on board with Pony Island 2.

Well, Zoopunk looks like a trip.

Double light-saber rabbit character! Squirrel! Rhino! And more!

There are no Ghosts at the Grand has been on my list for a while now, so I'll be checking that one out when it hits early access in December.

All of these animal games and Ubisoft trailers have got me thinking about Beyond Good and Evil 2. Maybe we'll see that again at ONL 2030. 

I played an early demo of There Are No Ghosts at The Grand. It's a renovation/clean-up puzzler with musical reveries throughout. It ain't bad.

Oh Kris. I was the last Engadget editor to see BG&E2, and if it's anything like Silksong, give it another five years. I've got The Game Delay Curse.

Here's the crazy trailer for Pony Island 2: Panda Circus:

It's true. Mat's a witch.

Like or Die is a fantastic name for a dystopian battle game.

FF7R's Hamaguchi has taken to the stage to reveal a new trailer, focused on the Weapons. The big guardian monsters that protect the planet in FF7. 

Now we're onto a game called Final Fantasy.

Meanwhile, in Jess' head: Because I am Cloud / my hair defies all gravity...

Oh! We'll be seeing Ruby, Emerald and Ultimate Weapons at some point. And Barret in a parachute.

Technically, this soundtrack counts as a '90s bop. FF7 came out in that decade. So there.

Here's the trailer for Like or Die, a new "team-based survival FPS" from NC 

Witcher 3 time. Witcher 3 Remastered will be a free upgrade coming on September 29. We're seeing improved traversal abilities, enhanced monster behaviors and even new finishers. And that new expansion? 

The new Witcher 3 content looks epic, as usual. Is it enough to pull me in? I don't know, we've seen some great-looking fantasy RPGs today...

The DLC Songs of the Past will arrive next year.

And that's that for ONL 2026. What a fun show with a fabulous musical break. Viva Ridiculon!

It sounds like a substantial free upgrade, and you'll be able to play the first two DLC campaigns of Witcher 3 for free, too.

I'll leave you with the latest Final Fantasy trailer:

Before we forget, The Game Awards will be held on December 10 this year.

Thanks for reading along, expect to hear more from Gamescom here at Engadget later this week! 

Those Xbox-IKEA pillows aren't going to write about themselves.

And I'll leave you with "Guillotina" live on the ONL stage.

Thanks everyone!