Opening Night Live is the kick-off to this year’s gamescom which takes place entirely online and celebrates video games. The two-hour extravaganza, Gamescom Opening Night Live, was hosted by Canada’s very own Geoff Keighley. The show featured world premier content and announcements from some of the biggest names in the industry.
Let’s take a look at some of the top highlights from today’s event.
DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part One
Doom Eternal released earlier this year, and is one of my favourite first-person shooters of all time (read my review here). And, today, the details of the next chapter of Doom Eternal were revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live. Releasing October 20, 2020, Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part One is a new single-player DLC. As expected, you assume the role as the Doom Slayer once again and confront an ancient evil awoken.
For players who own Doom Eternal: Year One Pass they will be able to download The Ancient Gods Part One for free.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s about Time
Today we learned even more about our favourite marsiupial’s next game, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s about Time. Paying homage to its roots, the game will include “Flashback” levels, which gives you the ability to rewind time back to the 1990s. Additionally, these levels are designed to challenge players’ puzzle solving and technical performing abilities, so they won’t be easy.
As a result, through the collection of Flashback Tapes, players discover Crash and Coco’s origin story and experience Bandicoot training in Neo Cortex’s Test Chambers. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time launches October 2, 2020 on PS4 and Xbox One.
Twelve Minutes
From Annapurna Interactive comes Twelve Minutes, a fresh take on the thriller genre. In this game you play as a man whose romantic evening with his wife is interrupted by a violent home invasion. As a result, the man tries to stop the attacker and gets knocked out only to immediately find himself back to the start of the evening, stuck in a time loop of 12 minutes.
With this in mind, he must use the knowledge of what is about to happen to change the outcome and break the loop. Twelve Minutes launches this fall for Xbox Series X and Xbox One.
Scarlet Nexus
We first saw Scarlet Nexus back in May during a first-look at next-gen games on Xbox Series X. And, today, at Gamescom Opening Night Light we got another look at this game from Bandai Namco. This new trailer highlights the various forms of psychic abilities players can expect from Yuito and members of the OSF. And, new character art introduces these OSF members: Hanabi, Nagi, Fubuki, and Kasane.
Scarlet Nexus will be launching on Xbox Series X / Xbox One, PS4, and PS5.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PlayStation 5 Demo
Unquestionably, the star of the opening show for gamescom was Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PS5 demo. The slice of the game we saw takes place early in the game and is an extended look at what we saw in June. Ratchet and Clank find themselves at odds with their archnemesis, Dr. Nefarious. Who just so happens to be equipped with the Dimensionator, a device with the power to open portals to other dimensions.
As expected, Dr. Nefarious’ plan goes off the rails, and Ratchet and Clank go dimension hopping. We learned Insomniac is using the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers to make each weapon in the game feel unique and more powerful than ever.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a launch window game on PlayStation 5. Take a look at the 7 minute gameplay demo and let me know what you think.
Gamescom Opening Night Live 2020 was a thrilling event
While Gamescom Opening Night Live 2020 wasn’t full of surprises like last year’s show, there is plenty to be excited about. Correspondingly, I’m most excited about Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, I can’t wait to play this on my PlayStation 5.
Let me know in the comments section below what game you are excited for most that were shown at gamescom.
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