GamesCom 2013: What We Want

Tom Orry, Editorial Director

GamesCom 2013 is all about next-gen for me. Having pretty much decided that I'm sitting out on the next-gen party until next year, I'm hoping for a few announcements that will make me want a new machine in the New Year. From Microsoft a shiny new Crackdown would work wonders, and hopefully make up for the massive disappointment that was Crackdown 2. I've more or less given up on seeing a new PGR title now, but I can still dream, right?

Sony, in my opinion, still needs to show it's got games worth caring about. Outside of the visually strong Killzone (a series I've never been able to get excited about), the PS4's exclusive launch line-up feels weaker than the Xbox One's and 2014 early bird inFamous: Second Son does absolutely nothing for me. The one beacon of hope is Evolution's DriveClub. Despite a fairly lacklustre showing at E3 (where the game looked pretty ugly to be honest), surely Sony wouldn't allow its showpiece PS4 racer to come out of the gates in November so far behind Forza 5 visually?

Speaking of Forza 5, can we see some new footage please Microsoft.

Simon Miller, Editor-In-Chief

There's only one thing I want from GamesCom this year, and it's something I'm obviously not going to get: Gears Of War 4. Microsoft would have announced it months ago if Epic Games' awesome series was due to be revived at launch of the Xbox One, and the fact Judgement has only been out a short while means I'm probably not getting any COG-fix till 2014 at the earliest.

As there's nothing next-gen that gets me truly excited, then - although Dead Rising 3 could be brilliant - it's the last few current-gen titles I hope to find out about, especially Batman: Arkham Origins. From what I've seen it's just more of the same (which is what I wanted) and even the multiplayer is half-decent.

I will also make it my goal to play Octodad: Dadliest Catch. It's very important...

David Scammell, Deputy News Editor

Though Microsoft has kept relatively quiet about its plans for GamesCom, the platform holder really needs to take the bull by the horns if it's to win back some of the momentum it's lost to Sony so far in the next-gen war. A confident display of its Xbox One launch titles could go some way to win back faith, and I'd like to see Microsoft offer the first look at its second wave, whether it's Lionhead's next project, a new Crackdown or Gears of War 4 for early next year. Whatever it does though, I don't want Microsoft to announce a Kinect-less Xbox One SKU. I'm not all that interested in next-gen Kinect, but any further policy reversals would only do more damage to an already befuddled platform.

Elsewhere, I'd like to see how far DriveClub has come since its underwhelming display at E3, and how other launch titles have progressed (or indeed regressed) now that developers have final devkits in their hands. The difference between Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4 on PS4 & Xbox One seems fairly significant right now, but I'd also be interested in seeing how games like Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed 4 perform on final-spec hardware.

The dream? GTA 5 on PS4 and Xbox One. But it's too early to start talking about that, right?

Steve Burns, Reviews and Features Editor

In an ideal world I'd like for GTA 5 PC to be announced, at which point I'd quietly withdraw from the conference, the event, and probably this job, and never be seen again.

With the likelihood of that happening slimmer than Microsoft sticking to anything it's said about Xbox One, I'm really looking forward to, um, speaking to people about Xbox One. Because can you imagine what it's like to be a developer right now? 'Sorry, DICE, it's bad news from MS. It's not a console anymore. It's now a fridge. Can you still get that milestone done?'

Apart from that, I'm also interested in seeing more of EA's UFC game. EA MMA was excellent, and this could be even better, although the facial expressions are now so realistic I may actually feel bad for punching these dudes. And for a man with a digital rap sheet that would make every dictator from pre-history to 3000 AD say 'that's my boy', that's saying something.