Gamescom 2022 diary: Day 2

Dear Diary,

Just as day one did, day two has come and gone, and brought with it lots of games to be excited about, merch to oogle, goodies to collect, lines to stand in, and people to meet. On Thursday the doors open to the public at large, allowing a veritable flood of people into the convention center. And come in droves they did, as I already witnessed security rerouting one of the main streams of people via the outside ramp to head to for the halls on the ground floor.

So as I sit here eager to get my bare minimum of sleep, let’s get into my second day at Gamescom.

At seven sharp the first of my many alarms springs to life jolting me awake. I set this one early to get the illusion of that extra bit of sleep. Snoozing for another half hour is what I’ll allow myself today and no more. After freshening up and eating two hearty sandwiches with a chocolate spread of a very nutty nomenclature and two glasses of orange juice I pack and get ready to leave. This time with a group of 7 friends in tow. Fast-forward a drive and train ride and we’re once again standing in front of the big convention center entrance. Wanting to stay with the group, I forgot the quick and direct route that is the press entrance, and move along with the stream of people herded towards various other ones.

Once inside I gave the group the briefest of rundowns of the layout of the halls, as well as where some big ticket game booths are. There was, however, no doubt on where we would go first as we were soon stood in front of the Genshin Impact booth in hall 8. Here we were treated to a spectacular musical performance while we queued to play some Genshin impact on all available platforms from phones to PC. A couple of in-game and real-life challenges later I had collected nearly the full assortment of their goodies. Since the group had already split at that point, I decided to try Planet of Lana, whose artwork caught my attention from a distance. It seems to be a very atmospheric 2D puzzle platformer where you play as both Lana and his animal companion as strange events unfold on your planet.

I had to cut that demo slightly short as I had an appointment with EPOS next. We sat down for about half an hour as we spoke about gaming peripherals that don’t wish to trade style for function or durability. EPOS as a brand branched off from the well-respected Senheizer with the goal of both continuing to improve on the quality of their sound and ease of use aimed at gamers. You also won’t find extravagant features on their designs such as RGB, but instead get very stylish-looking designs with features catering more to the gamer, than gaming alone. Think of a removable microphone, multiple audio channels to hear the game, and voice chat from different sources. Another thing that piqued my interest was the new webcam they plan to launch before too long. From my own experience, this looks like a great bit of kit for any budding streamer.

Upon walking away from that meeting, I saw in our group chat that they were hitting up the vendor area to score some of that sweet, sweet merch. I managed to find most of the group and browse hall 5.1 a bit before I had to dash again. For I had agreed to meet with our very own Robby to go check out Outcast 2 – A new beginning. The sequel to a classic is approaching steadily, and their take on immersive and emergent storytelling via a scarily detailed and interconnected world has me equal measures of excitement to play it and proud it’s a Belgian game. They were kind enough to provide me with a fast pass to play their demo tomorrow at their public booth with THQ NORDIC.

And thus the day started coming to a close, but Robby and I had other plans. Drop off our stuff. Grab a bite to eat. Head out to party. Who’s got deadlines anyway… (that would be all of us).

See you tomorrow!

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