Gamescom 2021 recap: All the big news, must-see trailers and major reveals

The Saints Row reboot and Marvel's Midnight Suns are among the biggest reveals so far, and it was also interesting to see a brand new football game called UFL being announced - of course, only time will tell if UFL can really rival EA's FIFA 22 and Konami's eFootball.

The most surprising celeb appearance came at the Future Games Show, where Jeff Goldblum stopped by to talk about Jurassic World Evolution 2 - you can watch that clip on YouTube, and we've also got an exclusive interview with the game's director where he talks about Goldblum's "amazing force of personality."

If you've been looking for a handy summary of all the major news and must-see trailers from Gamescom 2021, read on for our full rundown of what you need to know from the show.

Gamescom 2021 recap (Thursday 26th August)

Thursday, the third day of Gamescom 2021, was a slightly smaller affair than the previous two days - there was an Awesome Indies Showcase, the Future Games Show, and a Dying 2 Know stream all about Dying Light 2. Let's dig into them below!

Awesome Indies, Future Games Show and Dying 2 Know - Gamescom Day 3 recap

You can click any of these links to rewatch the Awesome Indies Showcase, the Future Games Show and the Dying 2 Know live streams. Or if you don't have the time, these brief bullet points should bring you up to speed on the core points:

• As well as the Goldblum-starring Jurassic World Evolution 2 trailer, the Future Games Show also gave us new looks at Life is Strange: True Colours, Jurassic World Aftermath 2, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and many more - all the trailers from that presentation are on GamesRadar's YouTube channel (it is their show, after all).
• The Dying 2 Know Stream gave us a new Dying Light 2 gameplay video all about parkour and combat.
• The Awesome Indies Showcase opened with a trailer for Blasphemous: Wounds of Eventide, and it ended with a trailer for Oaken - many other games were featured, with the beaver-based building game called Diluvian Winds looking particularly interesting.

Gamescom 2021 recap (Wednesday 25th August)

Gamescom stepped it up a notch on Wednesday, with its Opening Night Live event providing some big reveals and surprises, as gaming industry fave Geoff Keighley once again called the shots. Check out our handy recap of the Opening Night Live stream below.

• For the latest news and expert tips on getting the best deals this year, take a look at our Black Friday 2021 and Cyber Monday 2021 guides.

Opening Night Live - Gamescom Day 2 recap

If you didn't follow along on YouTube yourself, we've summed up the key points from the biggest games at Gamescom 2021 Opening Night Live right here:

• Opening Night Live began with the reveal trailer for Saints Row, and gave us some gameplay footage, confirming a 22nd February release date.
• The first trailer was revealed for UFL, the new football game from Strikerz Inc.
• A new Marvel game was unveiled! Wolverine, Doctor Strange and many more heroes popped up in the reveal trailer for Marvel's Midnight Suns, a tactical RPG from 2K coming March 2022.
• The Horizon Forbidden West release date was confirmed for 18th February 2022, with pre-orders starting on 2nd September.
• Far Cry 6 also got a new trailer, focusing on Giancarlo Esposito's character.
• Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga got a new trailer and reaffirmed its Spring 2022 release window.
• Microsoft dropped a surprise new trailer for Halo Infinite, and confirmed 8th December as the new release date - plus, there will be limited edition Halo Infinite versions of the Xbox Series X console and Xbox Elite Wireless Controller 2.
• We got an extended look at Call of Duty: Vanguard, with Laura Bailey stopping by to introduce her character from the campaign.
• Hideo Kojima shared a new deep-dive video for Death Stranding: Director's Cut, revealing new gameplay features and locations.

There were so many other games that showed up to surprise us during the event, as well, and these are some of the other moments - beyond the AAA blockbusters - that we wanted to shout about:

• The new trailer for Jurassic World Evolution 2 confirmed its 9th November 2021 release date.
• Marvel Future Revolution got a new trailer to mark its release on mobile devices today.
• The Jungle Book content is coming to Fall Guys, a new trailer revealed.
• Jumanji: The Curse Returns got a new trailer.
• Genshin Impact fans got a new trailer for the Horizon Zero Dawn/Aloy content in the game.
• Ubisoft shared a new trailer for Rider's Republic, which launches a free beta today.
• There was a new trailer shown for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge.
• Amazon's New World MMO game shared a new trailer and revealed its next beta dates (9th-12th September).
• Tales of Luminara and the Tales of Arise mobile game both shared new trailers.
• A few indie games and smaller titles got given some time to shine, with trailers shown for SIFU, Midnight Fight Express, Cult of the Lamb, Splitgate, Super Monkey Ball, and more.
• The pre-show, hosted by Kyle Bosman, featured new trailers for King of Fighters 15, The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, Bus Simulator 21, Soundfall, Dolmen, Nine to Five, Nobody Saves the World and more.

Gamescom 2021 recap (Tuesday 24th August)

The main highlights from the first day of Gamescom 2021 were the Destiny 2 Showcase and the Xbox live stream, each of which packed in plenty of exciting surprises. As the day progressed, we kept adding new information below to keep track of what happened:

Xbox Stream - Gamescom Day 1 recap

Microsoft was the second (and final) company to take to the virtual stage on the first day of Gamescom 2021, hosting an Xbox stream on YouTube and Twitch. Here's our recap of what was revealed during the stream:

• Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to Xbox consoles in the holiday season at the end of 2021, allowing you to jump into new games on your console without any downloads - check out the trailer here.
• Forza Horizon 5 showed a cover-revealing trailer, eight minutes of gameplay footage, and a very colourful custom Xbox controller.
• A fast-paced trailer revealed a number of Humble Games titles that will come to Xbox Game Pass on their day of release.
• We saw the reveal trailer for Into the Pit, one of those Humble Games titles, an 'Eldritch horror' experience across multiple gory dungeons.
• Sea of Thieves is getting a Borderlands-inspired Mayhem ship - you can unlock it through gameplay between 24th August and 7th September.
• Psychonauts 2, which comes out tomorrow, got a colourful launch trailer.
• An Age of Empires 4 developer interview used real-life footage to show off some sling-based trebuchet catapult mechanics.
• Cult of the Holy Detention DLC for Wasteland 3 got a trailer and release date (5th October 2021).
• There was a visually stunning trailer for The Gunk.
• A deep dive gameplay video was revealed for Dying Light 2: Stay Human.
• We saw the swordplay-heavy reveal trailer for Stray Blade, from Point Blank Games.
• State of Decay 2: Homecoming DLC got a new trailer ahead of its 1st September release date.
• The next-gen Xbox adaptation of Crusader Kings 3 got a trailer.
• Lots of reveals for Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox: the game will update soon with new satellite imagery for Germany, Switzerland and Austria; new aircraft, called 'local legends', are also being added; Reno Air Race content is coming in autumn 2021; plus, Top Gun: Maverick DLC is coming alongside the film, but it's firmly under wraps for now.

Destiny 2 Showcase - Gamescom Day 1 recap

Bungie was the first company to present at this year's virtual Gamescom, with the Destiny 2 Showcase lifting the lid on the game's next major DLC chapter - it's called The Witch Queen, and it's launching next year. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube, or check out our summary below:

• We got a reveal trailer and a gameplay trailer for The Witch Queen DLC.
• Crossplay goes live in Destiny 2 today, as does the Season of the Lost content.
• Weapon crafting is coming to Destiny 2, and there will be a new energy weapon called The Glaive.
• The Gjallarhorn weapon is making a comeback in Destiny 2, and a Nerf version is also coming in real life.
• Bungie confirmed that, after The Witch Queen and Lightfall, the final chapter in The Light and Dark Saga will be a DLC drop called The Final Shape - but Destiny 2 will continue beyond that point.
• 15 minutes before the main show, Bungie's Luke Smith and Jason Jones sat down for a chat about their history with gaming.
• Fans and content creators sent in short clips for the pre-show, summing up their favourite Bungie moments.
• Choral music played over eye-catching fan art during the pre-show, as Bungie did its bit to highlight the creativity of its fans.

Gamescom 2021 pre-conference recap

Before Gamescom 2021 properly began, the first nuggets of news started to appear online, as the gaming industry got itself ready for one of its biggest weeks of the year. Here are a couple of interesting pieces of information that arrived on the web before the event kicked off:

• Host Geoff Keighley shared a 'hype trailer' for Wednesday's Opening Night Live event.
• The official Gamescom website is running a series of 'quests' where you can sign up and earn rewards.

As more news breaks, we'll be sure to update this page all through Gamescom 2021. Feel free to bookmark this page and come back each day for more insights from the virtual conference.

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