The global gathering of computer games professionals, media and fans is over for another year, but the awesomeness that was Gamescom 2013 will stick in our memories for a long time to come.
340,000+ visitors descended upon Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany to get hands-on and catch a first glimpse of the hottest properties in the gaming world including GTA V, Battlefield 4, Saints Row, XBox One, PlayStation 4, Black Flag, Watch Dogs, The Crew, Destiny, Titan Fall and many more.
SNES cult classic Killer Instinct resurrected in glorious NextGen high definition, exclusively for on XBox One, was a pleasant surprise and turned out to be one of the best we saw games at Gamescom 2013. It’s stayed true to it’s roots and looks incredible powered by a NextGen gaming engine, it’s pacing and ease of play makes it a raucous and thrilling fighting game experience that anyone can pickup and play – well perhaps one of the best first impressions we’ve seen since Tekken 3.
Some of the expected show-stars Titan Fall, AC IV: Black Flag, COD: Ghosts, Watch Dogs, The Division, Infinite Crisis, and Dead Rising 3 seem to be shaping up to match the hype and attention they’ve been courting – with most of them making use of the “second screen” trend. Dead Rising 3 can actually link to your phone and alert you with mission objectives which is as awesome as it is creepy.
I was quite disappointed, or rather just unimpressed by the sports titles on show, particularly NBA 2K14, WWE 14 and FIFA 14 could all be significantly better and don’t look or feel like they’re running on NextGen consoles. NBA 2K14 looks choppy and it’s nearly impossible to tackle your opponent without giving away fouls, it was frustrating at best.
WWE14 has an incredible lineup, but it suffers from the issue nearly all wrestling games have suffered from since they ventured into 3D ring territory – they’re too rigid and lack the zip and fun of Entertainment Wrestling. It feels part simulator, part rush-job – it could and should be better. Whilst FIFA 14 was just too much of the same old, no doubt fans will enjoy the marginally improved graphics and physics but if you’re not already a fan, this latest version won’t convert you.
The Crew was another slight disappointment, it was fun, kinda, but driving around chasing an impossibly indestructible rival car or endlessly street racing and out foxing suped-up cops felt a bit samey, and that was after only 20 minutes and two missions. I look forward to giving this a second chance when we get hold of it, but after being wowed by The Crew’s Ubisoft presser reveal during this year’s E3, I wasn’t as impressed as I’d hoped to be.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to get around to see everything on show from the 600+ exhibitors who attended Gamescom, but checkout the pics of some of the bits that caught our eyes – below.
