There are times when I feel I’m getting too old for video games. Sure, I’m getting up there in the years so my reflexes and reaction times are slowing down. I also have less time to play as I have more responsibilities as well. But that’s not the reason why sometimes I think that. It’s more of my interest in games has been waning. I guess my passion for gaming ebbs and flows now and then but, lately, I have been feeling the doldrums much more frequently. And I think a good reason why is I don’t really see any video games that I really want to play lately.

Hopefully, my attitude will change after I go see this year’s Opening Night Live at Gamescom.

Now, Opening Night Live is pretty much the only press conference-type show for the entire Gamescom. It’s reminiscent of the recent Summer Games Fest hosted by Geoff Keighley as it’s not focused on one developer or publisher. It’s a mishmash of different companies trying to show off what they have coming out soon, which is neat for me because I do want to see something that will blow my mind.

Before I do go into the Opening Night Live show proper, I do have to say Geoff Keighley must be cursed or something as, just like with last year’s Game Awards, there had to be some jerk who wants their fifteen minutes of fame by trying to jump up on stage and interrupt a gaming focused event. I will want to give props to Geoff Keighley for handling the situation with some grace. You can tell he wanted to scream as there was another guy who rushed the stage to try to derail his show. But he kept his cool and just expressed “disappointment” with the whole thing. Still, I hope Geoff Keighley gets better security for the upcoming Game Awards. I don’t want this to become a meme for the guy.

I will say there were a bunch of games that really impressed me but a whole lot of stuff which didn’t. I won’t be talking about the latter because, well, if those things didn’t impress me, why should I bother talking about them? Oh, I will talk about one thing from the “I didn’t care” pile later on because it reminded me of good old E3 cringe. But first, let’s talk about the games I did care for.

Blank Myth: Wukong is shaping up to be a stunner of an action game. It’s another Souls-like game but more in the realm of Sekiro thanks to its Eastern flavor as it is based on the classic Journey to the West epic. The gameplay trailer was indeed spectacular and the gameplay had enough flourishes to more than catch my eye.

Crimson Desert, developed by South Korea’s Pearl Abyss, definitely made an impact for me. There wasn’t a long speech by a representative or anything like that. They just let the trailer speak for itself. And what a trailer it was! Although I will say the use of a non-fixed “shaky” camera during some fights is definitely a weird choice as even I felt some motion sickness while watching the battles, it does seem like there’s a ton of things to do in Crimson Desert. I’m going to be checking this game out for updates for sure.

I’m really glad that horror games are in vogue once again as we’re getting indie games like Fort Solis in the future. This was a game I didn’t even know that existed before Opening Night Live but, after seeing the trailer, I did research a bit more on the game as it was released when the Gamescom trailer was released. I did figure out Fort Solis isn’t exactly a horror game but more of a walking sim. Walking sims aren’t exactly my cup of tea but if it does genuinely have an engaging story and if the price is right, I just might buy it. Even if I’m less excited about Fort Solis after learning more about it, I’m mentioning it here because, hey, the Opening Night Live trailer did get me wanting to learn more about it.

Opening Night Live went somewhat heavy with fighting game content this year as we both got more information on the upcoming Tekken 8 and Mortal Kombat 1. Ed Boon and the people at NetherRealm Studios have been consistently releasing stunning trailers, slowly leaking out new characters. This time, we got to see General Shao Khan, Sindel and Rayden in action. Honestly, I only dabble in Mortal Kombat and I skipped the last two entries. However, I’m pretty much sold on this version, mostly because the fighting looks really dynamic and the story mode looks like it’s going to be epic, especially with this new timeline.

I can’t forget about Tekken 8 as, while their trailer wasn’t as epic as the Mortal Kombat 1 was, we did get a good idea of the complete roster now. The Gamescom Opening Night Live trailer gave us our first glimpses of Dragunov, Shaheen, Kuma, Steve Fox, Leo and Yoshimitsu. And this isn’t even the complete roster as Tekken 8 will have 32 fighters at launch! That’s a ton of characters for a base roster! The character customization is also returning, enabling you to dress up for favorite fighters in cool and/or weird outfits. I never bothered with this all that much as I was never good at character customization but it’s nice to have the option.

The weirdest thing I do have to talk about that was shown in the Tekken 8 trailer was the new Arcade Quest mode. No real details were given about this but I can’t help but imagine Harada-san went out drinking with the Street Fighter 6 dev team and one person from the Capcom staff let it slip they were doing the Battle Hub mode as Arcade Quest looks a lot like that mode. Still, I’ll wait for more details before I say it’s a direct copy.

After watching the trailer, I am kind of confused about the direction of Alan Wake II. The trailer was a mix of live-action, in-game cinematics and a little gameplay sprinkled in for good measure. Normally, I would say to just ignore the live-action elements as those bits aren’t going to be in the game. But the trailer was edited in such a way that they just might be an integral part. I’m more curious about if I’m correct or not so I have to include this here because I do want to find out.

Of course, the biggest announcement of the night was Starfield. Sure, Alan Wake II closed out the show as they had a brand spanking new trailer. Like Alan Wake II, the Starfield trailer did include some live-action elements but these were obviously not going to be a part of the game and these scenes were done mostly for promotion.

However, they did get Todd Howard to go on stage to hype up the game but he basically talked about the stuff they already revealed about the game. Even the gameplay they showed seemed so familiar because they essentially re-used gameplay footage! Still, I’m really hoping Starfield will be able to deliver on its promise of being “Fallout in space” so I have to include it here.

While there were a lot of games shown off that I liked, there were a lot I didn’t really care for. I’m not going to talk about all of them because that would take too long. But I do want to highlight the biggest cringe moment of Opening Night Live and that would be Zach Snyder going on stage to promote his upcoming Netflix movie. Oh, you’re a gamer, Zach Snyder? Is it the same way M. Night Shymalan is a huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender? And you can say you’re making a game based on your upcoming movie all you want. Show us the game, not the movie the game is going to be based on!

Overall, I will say I did like Gamescom’s Opening Night Live because they did show me some games I might want to play in the future. I could’ve done away with the jerk trying to steal the spotlight by jumping on the stage and Zack Snyder hawking his non-game thing. Still, it did its job and that’s all I can ask for.

What did you think of this year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live show? Let me know in the comments section below!