20 Things We Learned From Gamescom 2016

By Scott Tailford / August 27, 2016

Gamescom has been and gone, and amongst the cavalcade of trade shows you need to really pay attention to, it's quickly surpassing E3 as the go-to for tons of gameplay footage.

Where the L.A.-based conference tends to fall back on announcements and CG trailers, only a few months between the two allows publishers and developers to rock up with extended playable demos - publicly accessible ones at that - amongst a bevy of surprises for good measure.

To that end, we actually attended Gamescom for the first time in 2016 (you can find all our video coverage here), and from the ceiling-scratching Ubisoft booth to the hour-long queue for Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham VR, here's everything we learned from the event.

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20. Konami Did Exactly What We Thought They Would

Following months of 'new Metal Gear' only relating to a few Japanese-only pachinko machines, Konami unveiled the 'next instalment' in the canon as... 'Metal Gear Survive', a co-op focussed zombie survival shooter.

Because of course they did.

Both zombie games and co-op shooters have routinely been a staple of Steam's Early Access offerings, and although everyone seemed to roundly despise Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps, it hasn't stopped Konami following suit. The 'story' goes that Big Boss left one soldier behind after the attack on Mother Base in MGS V: Ground Zeroes, resulting in a trans-dimensional wormhole opening up (yes, really) that sucks him and a few other soldiers through to a land of braindead enemies.

Needless to say, it's got about as much to do with Metal Gear as Donald Trump does a decent human being, but in the pantheon of nanomachines, scantily clad skin-breathing snipers and perverted photo modes, I don't know about you, but I've built up quite the tolerance for crazy Metal Gear-related nonsense.

In fairness, following MGS V we know the game will play exquisitely well, but as for that concept and Konami's money-hungry intentions?

Damn.