Gamescom 2025 is happening right now in Cologne, Germany. The event kicked off with the second of Geoff Keighley’s “Big Three” yearly gaming showcases, Opening Night Live. First comes the mid-year Summer Game Fest, followed by Opening Night Live during Gamescom, and the year ends with The Game Awards. All three feature plenty of updates and World Premiers for what’s next in gaming — and a few celebrity cameos.

There’s usually a nice balance between Indie and Triple A titles. I’ve watched year-after-year and have seen each of these events continue to grow. Kudos to Keighley. He really cares about video games, which is what makes these showcases worth watching. Even after being called out for leaving out certain unsavory topics (like mass layoffs), he usually comes back to correct it the next time around.

I don’t want to spend this whole post talking about Geoff Keighley. Of course, I would love to be in Germany this week playing all of these games and interviewing developers, but instead I’ll just go over my TOP FIVE from what we saw yesterday.

1 | Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

Damn, how’d we get all the way to Black Ops 7? I’ve missed out on a lot of Call of Duty since Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare over ten years ago. Back then, I was a Call of Duty die hard, playing through each annual campaign, then sticking it out in online multiplayer.

Black Ops 7 features a co-op campaign mode, which can be enjoyed with up to four players. The game also takes place in a dream-like future world, straight out of Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010). The more sci-fi these games get, the more interested I am.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is set to release on November 14, 2025 with a dedicated presentation coming soon.

2 | LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

I played through most of LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham with my nephew when he was very young. I later played some LEGO Star Wars games, and I’ve seen the LEGO games get bigger and better. First, there was LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Later came LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which featured all nine Star Wars films (minus the spin-offs).

I love that this new LEGO Batman game is connected to the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight film trilogy — wow, more Christoper Nolan references, and his brother even came out during the show to talk about the next season of Fallout on Amazon Prime. They mentioned the game would cover not only the Dark Knight Trilogy, but also comics and shows. I did notice some villains that were not in the Nolan films.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is coming to PC and consoles in 2026.

3 | Death by Scrolling

Ron Gilbert is a name I’ve known for some time, without ever playing one of his games. I have been curious about the Monkey Island games, and plan to play the last game, Return to Monkey Island. It is currently downloaded on my PS5.

He’s known for his humorous storytelling and great game design. Death by Scrolling seems to be the perfect type of game for me. I love having rogue-likes that are quick to jump in and out of. I always have multiple “looping” games downloaded on my Nintendo Switch (now Switch 2). I have spent so many hours not beating so many of these games.

I may also have an obsession with games about death. I’ve been obsessed with games like Dead Cells, Hades, Cursed to Golf, and so many others over the years.

I hope to see Death by Scrolling out some time this year, but that’s just a wild guess.

4 | La Divina Commedia

Enotria: The Last Song is a game I was paying attention to, but I totally slept on. After seeing the trailer for the next game from Jyamma Games, La Divina Commedia, I am now interested in going back to Enotria: The Last Song and I’m also ready to play La Divina Commedia.

La Divina Commedia is an action-RPG inspired by Italian culture. This team knows how to create a dope trailer. In La Divina Commedia you play as a poet trapped in Hell. Nice, more death and Hell games to be excited about!

5 | Project Spectrum

The start of the Project Spectrum trailer made me think it was just a buttery smooth FPS. They started introducing some horror elements, which made me think this game may be too spooky for my taste. It was later revealed that the main character may also be the “monster,” which is a very cool idea and now I’m back on board.

I’m very curious to learn more about this one. If it was released tomorrow, I would get into it right away. I’m getting some Control and Stranger Things kind of vibes from this one.

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Honorable Mentions

My TOP FIVE list consists of brand new games that totally surprised me. Next, I’m going to mention a few anticipated games that I’ve been excited about for some time.

Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven

We’ve already spent over 200 hours on Cult of the Lamb — my partner and I. She was into farming, but together we would conquest and bring back new followers. Woolhaven seems to be a full expansion that will most likely bring us back to the cult.

Resident Evil: requiem

Every year, around Halloween time I try out some spooky games — usually some form of Resident Evil is involved. I never make it very far in these games. With Resident Evil: requiem coming out early in 2026, I think it may be time to go back to Resident Evil: Biohazard and finally try out Resident Evil: Village this year. I’ll report back in a couple of months.

Ghost of Yōtei

This is definitely one of my most anticipated upcoming games of the year. I recently played some Assassin’s Creed Shadows to gear up for this one, just to get a taste of that world. 

Ghost of Tsushima was definitely not what I expected after the Infamous series from Sucker Punch. I’d be happy even if Ghost of Yōtei was pretty much the same game set in a different time with a different protagonist, but I’m sure there will be many improvements. The first game was a PlayStation 4 release, so they can push it much further this time.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

We’ve all been waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong for years now. I was obsessed with Hollow Knight on my Nintendo Switch when I was playing it. I would even sketch Hollow Knight regularly. The thing is, I never beat the game. I went back recently and the game still holds up and feels amazing — better than some of the newer Metroidvanias I’ve played.

As much as I want Silksong to shadow drop during the presentation this Thursday, I can use a little more time to go back and try to beat the original game.

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There were plenty more games announced during the presentation, and even some non-games (like a Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice anime and the teaser trailer for Fallout Season 2 on Prime Video). The two-hour long showcase was filled with over forty game trailers, world premieres, and announcements and you can watch the whole thing right here: