It was quite an exciting weekend at the 2019 Gamescom in Cologne, Germany where we saw many updates to some of our favorite games and consoles. We saw Nintendo announce nearly 30 new games that would be making their way to their Switch console. Google added several games to its cloud streaming platform, including Cyberpunk 2077. And we also finally got a deeper dive into Square Enix’s Marvel’s Avengers, which looks pretty dope if you ask me. However, even with all of these incredible things mentioned, there were three things that stood well above the rest in my personal opinion: The Ray Tracing technology update, The gameplay of The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, and the additional detail we received on Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding.
3 – Ray Tracing (RTX)
For those of you who don’t already know, RTX is a rendering technique that can produce incredibly realistic lighting effects. According to TechRadar, it is essentially an algorithm that can trace the path of light, and then simulate the way that the light interacts with the virtual objects it ultimately hits in the computer-generated world. I think the Minecraft showcase showed just how stunning and game-changing this technology can be for the future of gaming (and technological lie in general). I was an avid Minecrafter back when my little brother was growing up. We would play for hours on end, and seeing what that world can now look like with RTX tech is absolutely insane. The shadows and reflections that now cast to every inch of the screen were mind-blowing, and in all honesty, it didn’t even look like Minecraft anymore! I am stoked for this technology and cannot wait to see what else is in store with it over the next few years.
2 – The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan
The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan was a game I knew extremely little about before this weekend. After the gameplay footage that was dropped, I can guarantee that this will be a game I buy the second it releases on the 30th. It will also be a series that I think has loads of potential if Man of Medan plays as well as it looks. I love the fact that this series is going to all be loosely based off of actual myths. For example, Man of Medan is based on the SS Ourang Medan, which was a sunken ship in the Dutch East Indies waters that many believed to be a ghost ship. The game also features a storyline that allows your actions to determine who lives and who dies, so you essentially could save the entire crew or watch your actions have them all killed. I think this game will be an amazing addition to the PlayStation network, especially at the $29.99 price tag it currently has.
1 – Death Stranding
Coming in as the most important release from Gamescom 2019 would be the new information Hideo Kojima gave us all on Death Stranding. Along with this, we got to see a little more gameplay through Sam’s eyes. We also found out that there is a peeing mechanic that grows mushrooms, and apparently there may be benefits that arise if multiple players pee in that same spot. Of course, Kojima didn’t give too much away, but he did give a little more insight as to what the goal of the game was. While playing as Sam, our mission will be to connect all of the cities from the east to the west coast of the UCA. Along with that, we finally got some more info on Mama and the BB, and Kojima mentioned that there are more cameo’s from real-life people that we don’t even know about too. That will be a nice little aspect to look forward too when the game is released in early November.
And there you have it, my three biggest takeaways from this weekend’s Gamescom. What were all of your favorite announcements from the weekend? So many awesome things were delved into, and I cannot wait to see how great it all turns out to be!