I had the pleasure of travelling to Cologne, Germany, for GamesCom last week. I believe that GamesCom now stands as the world’s largest videogames expo now that E3 is no more – and having spent two days traipsing around its various halls – I can confidently say that it is truly enormous. Developers and publishers from all across the world have demos and presentations set up, ranging from single humble indie PC stations to sprawling extravagant stages, props and sets for the next blockbuster releases. Every genre and platform you could conceive of was present – Nintendo, Xbox, Sony, Konami, Ubisoft, Square-Enix, CD Projekt Red, Kepler, Capcom, Embark, Tencent, Sega – the list goes on. I was, of course, there primarily to play upcoming games, but I have to say that simply wandering the halls and marveling at the production value and the spectacle of the show itself was a lot of fun.
GamesCom is the biggest celebration of the medium of video games that I have ever seen, with over 368,000 visitors from 131 countries descending upon Cologne to partake in festivities. Cosplayers paraded around as their favourite characters. Fans queued for upwards of 3 hours for a chance to play the next big titles. Avid speedrunners took part in Games Done Quick. Enthusiasts perused the countless merchandise and art stalls, celebrating their favourite medium. It was a stunning and resounding triumph for the medium of video games, and I felt very welcomed by the expo, and by Cologne at large.
I played a total of 14 different games across my two days at the convention, but below are my personal highlights and games that I have my eye on in particular.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse
Played on: PC // Developer: Evil Empire // Release Date: 15/10/2026
Just like a dormant vampire, Konami seem to have finally awoken after a decade-long slumber, and they have remembered that they are the rights-holders for some of the most iconic video game franchises of all time. The likes of Silent Hill, Metal Gear and Castlevania have all been resurrected after long hiatuses, being brought into the modern era of gaming, and, speaking for the latter, I am confident that they have nailed it.
Developed by Evil Empire, the studio behind 2018’s Dead Cells, Castlevania Belmont’s Curse is an incredibly slick and polished experience. Most Castlevania games, in particular the 2D titles, have opted to remain distinctly 16-bit, rarely straying from the look and feel established by Super Castlevania IV and Symphony of the Night, which is why Belmont’s Curse stands out so distinctly here. In place of low-resolution pixels is a stunning hand-drawn 2D style that relies on dark shadows, vibrant colours and buckets full of blood-red paint to bring 15th Century Paris to life. In addition to the visual uplift, though, is the gameplay feel. Combat is responsive and smooth, allowing the player to strike at skeletons, bats and all manner of traditional Castlevania foes in style, wall-kicking from surface to surface, sliding between the legs of larger foes, and even swinging from hooks with an intuitive grappling hook weapon. None of what I saw in my ~20 minutes with Belmont’s Curse is reinventing the wheel, but what I did see made me incredibly excited that Castlevania is back, and in such a beautiful and slick package. One final standout that struck me with this title was the soundtrack – we were given headphones to wear during the demo, and both the sound design and the music really drew me into the world and spurred me on to keep going after getting absolutely destroyed by a boss. This one’s out in October, and I’ll be day one on this for sure.
Orbitals
Played on: Switch 2 // Developer: ShapeFarm // Release Date: 03/09/26
Imagine a co-op title in the same lineage as a Hazelight Studios game, with the art style and animation of a Studio Ghibli film or Cowboy Bebop, and that’s Orbitals in a nutshell. I was able to play around 30 minutes of the game alongside my buddy Adam, and we had an absolute blast of a time in a low-stakes sci-fi environment playing as Maki and Omura, plucky teen engineers, prancing around our ship, competing in silly challenges and working together to solve a myriad of problems. Orbitals is exclusively a co-operative experience, requiring timing, communication and collaborative puzzle-solving abilities to progress through the game’s challenges. It was never truly punishing or truly head-scratching, but the challenges felt layered and complex enough that they were consistently satisfying to solve together. By far the most impressive element of this game to me though was its presentation. From the beautiful, lengthy, fully animated anime cutscenes, to the “2s” frame rate, film grain and colour palatte, the entire package commits fully to its inspirations and makes you feel like you are playing through a charming 1990s anime. It’s out in just a few weeks exclusively for the Switch 2, and I can’t wait to pick this up and play through it sat on the couch with a pal.
Garbage Country
Played on: PC // Developer: Noio // Release Date: 2026
I was immediately charmed by Garbage Country’s lo-fi look; it’s a 3D third-person exploration game where players drive a buggy around an environment brought to life by pixelated low-resolution textures and simplistic geometry. There is a big emphasis here on movement and discovery, which is accentuated by the tight vehicle handling and the realistic physics that make driving around the towns and hills of the environments a joy. Drifting around tight corners, getting air time as you speed off a hill, or smashing through NO ENTRY gates all make the moment-to-moment experience enjoyable, and invite the player to fill out their map, collect scrap, collectibles and secrets. In addition to the more slow-paced and chilled out exploration, Garbage Country also contains more intense tower-defense style battles where the player controls a drone fighting off bots which have turned against humanity. It’s a unique, charming, beautiful and (mostly) low-stakes game that I will definitely be keeping an eye on.
Metro 2039
Played on: PC // Developer: 4A Games // Release Date: 02/2027
Polished, creepy and immersive are the three words I’d use to describe my time with Metro 2039. The fourth entry in the Metro series from 4A games returns to the more enclosed and claustrophobic environments of the earlier titles in the series, bringing with it the strengths of the studio’s dedicated engine and the improvements in lighting, interactivity and customisation from Exodus to bring the post-apocalypse world of Metro to life even more vividly than ever before. In my 30 minute demo, I was let loose across the radioactive wastes in a semi-open area, where I donned my gas mask and fought off mutants and humans alike, scavenging for extra canisters, ammo and salvage among the unfortunate dead littered around the ruins of the city. The world of Metro has never looked or sounded better than it does here – and I think that is what struck me most about this demo. My 30 minutes absolutely flew by because I was so captivated by the game. Excellent gunplay is complimented by a responsive world and meticulous detail, which made my final assault on a compound of foes incredibly satisfying to undertake. The brutality of the combat encourages stealth kills, silenced weapons, shutting off lights and remaining in shadow as much as possible, and after a few brazen moves that resulted in my untimely death, I was able to reach the end of the demo feeling like a true survivor of the radioactive wasteland. I’m a big fan of the previous Metro titles, and 2039 looks like it’s shaping up to build upon the excellent foundations of the other titles to create something incredible.
ReBlade: The Death Spiral
Played on: PC // Developer: ChillyRoom // Release Date: TBC
ReBlade: The Death Spiral is a beautiful and challenging roguelite from Chinese indie studio ChillyRoom. You play as a “condemned” synthetic, an artificial human tossed aside in husks of other broken frames, in a beautiful cyberpunk world that blends gritty industrial futuristic environments with Chinese mythology and historical inspirations. From what I understand, the game is a roguelite with a heavy emphasis on melee combat, with parrying, timing, special moves and weapon switching all integral elements to the gameplay loop. I chose to dual-wield a pair of swords, cutting my way through a few floors of what I can only assume is the game’s introduction. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see too much variety in what I played, but the weapons, enemies and environments I have seen in trailer material gives me hope that the final release will contain a lot more to mix up the experience. It’s fluid, engaging and very nice looking, reminding me of the likes of RUINER, Hades, Metal Eden and The Ascent. No release date for this yet, but one to keep an eye on for sure.
Dungeon Lurker
Played on: PC // Developer: 13AM Games // Release Date: Early 2027
Dungeon Lurker is an action beat-em-up dungeon crawler set in a dark fantasy world that feels like a relic of days gone by. Everything about its identity pulls from retro games of yore, taking inspiration from the likes of fantasy titles from the Sega Genesis and PlayStation 1. The developers themselves have also cited other recent retro-style titles such as TUNIC and Inscription as inspiration, and this all shines through in every inch of the game.
The station I was sat at to play this was set up like an arcade cabinet, and even the pause menu and in-game manual are flavoured as if you are playing on a CRT monitor in your bedroom at night, with a paper manual virtually folding out in front of you, complete with hand-drawn notes and annotations. It feels like a love letter to the era of gaming before the internet, before game guides and walkthroughs, where you were lit by the warm glow of the TV screen, facing down hordes of skeletons, monsters and ghouls with nothing but your sword and your courage. I was absolutely charmed by this game’s presentation and aura – so much so that I don’t think that the gameplay needs to do anything particularly revolutionary in order for me to be onboard for the ride. There’s a demo available on Steam at the time of writing, so give it a whirl if any of the above piqued your interest at all!
There were plenty more games I either got to play or to watch, and many, many more that I did not. GamesCom is a truly enormous expo, and I’d recommend you make the trip next year if you’re into gaming at all.
So – that’s all for this year’s GamesCom. Until then, it’s auf wiedersehen, und nis nächstes Jahr! ✌️
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