The Best, Worst, and Most WTF Moments

“A medieval dinosaur game” is already a strong elevator pitch, but Dinolords isn’t just Age of Empires in the Jurassic Period. During a hands-off live demo of the latest version of the game, we saw how it blends elements of action-RPGs and real-time strategy to deliver an experience that feels fresh even before you see your first dinosaur.

You control an 11th-Century English hero defending their land from Viking raiders. Rather than assuming an omnipotent, abstract commander role, you step into the shoes of your protagonist and get stuck in the chaos yourself. Everything your workers and armies can do, you can do too. Build up your walls, train your troops, and go out into the wilderness to tame dinosaurs. The ancient beasts have been brought over to England by Northmen who found them frozen in the icy tundra and now use them to conquer all who dare to oppose them.

During the demo, the developers at Northplay told Rolling Stone that they’ve opted for a quality over quantity approach, not wanting the large reptiles to feel like typically balanced real-time strategy units. Each has unique strengths that make them perfect for specific tasks. The T-rex will focus on tearing down castle walls to allow smaller units to flood in, velociraptors will jump up onto your battlements to eat your archers, and ankylosaurus decimate infantry by whipping their long, clubbed tails around. They’re tough to take down, they are armored dinosaurs after all.

It’s an utterly stupid idea that shouldn’t work half as well as it does, but video games can get away with ridiculous concepts like dinosaurs in medieval times. It’s so dumb it’s brilliant. Dinolords is coming to PC sometime in 2025. It’s being planned as an early-access experience, meaning players will be able to give the developers feedback and help shape the direction of this silly, amazing game.

Opening Night Live is the first real moment of Gamescom, a time to set the bar and get everyone hyped for the week to come. The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley took to the stage to excitedly reveal the first announcement of the night, and when it was over, you could hear a pin drop in the hall.

A teaser trailer for Borderlands 4 was shown and the ONL crowd was unmoved, remaining silent during the pause after the video that the show’s producers likely expected would be filled with raucous cheers. Most games at least get a polite round of scattered applause, but Borderlands 4 was left hanging like a friend wanting a high-five after telling a terrible joke.

The trailer itself was fine. A cracked moon careens through space and crashes into a crystallized sky, causing meteors to smash into the planet below. In one of the fiery impact craters, the series’ iconic gas mask is picked up out of the embers.

It’s been 15 years since the first Borderlands game came out, and it seems its time in the spotlight is well and truly over. Following the poor reception to the recently released film adaptation, the timing for the announcement couldn’t have been worse. Maybe the hope was this would distract people from the movie, but the world has moved on from the outdated mid-2000s schtick of Borderlands.

As we were in line for Mecha Break, an upcoming multiplayer robot fighting game that looks like Armored Core VI on steroids, we wondered if there was a Tomb Raider cosplay competition going on nearby due to all the women who looked like Lara Croft. It turns out, they weren’t cosplayers, but women hired to stand around the area in tight white tank tops and short black shorts; booth babes are back, baby.

Booth babes are exactly what they sound like: pretty women put into skimpy outfits cynically intended to attract gamer boys and their wallets. Originating from auto shows, it’s a cringey, archaic concept pulled right from the over-the-top days of E3, and it should have died with it. They hand out flyers and prizes, pose for pictures, and these days, remind us all of gaming’s deep-rooted misogyny. Many people in the queue, men and women alike, looked uncomfortable at this blast from the past. They also reveal an insecurity that the big ass robot adorning the walls of the booth and the massive screen showcasing the gameplay aren’t enough to attract gamers.

The booth babes certainly set the stage for what to expect within Mecha Break. Female pilots are all built with cartoonishly unrealistic body types. Their boobs and butts defy gravity and jiggle ridiculously as their mechs crash around — it puts Stellar Blade to shame. It’s unfortunate, because Mecha Break is otherwise a great time, combining frenetic robot combat with tense, tactical battles, but the decision to hire booth babes leaves a sour taste.

During a hands-on demo of Crimson Desert, an upcoming fantasy action RPG, we got our asses kicked. We stepped into the shoes of Kliff, a deadly Greymane with a complex set of combat moves at his disposal. He can drop kick enemies, sweep their legs out from under them, and cave their skulls in with devastating finishers.

We had to combine offense and defense as simply keeping his shield up caused his stamina to run out, staggering him and leaving him wide open for a vicious counter-attack. Timing is everything.

Enemies in Crimson Desert will surround Kliff, charging in all at once like the Agent Smith clones in The Matrix Reloaded. We had to have our wits about us at all times, as even these weaker enemies were deadly with numbers on their side.

The demo also thrust us into a devastatingly difficult boss rush. They range from nimble humans to rampaging horned apes to hulking, hill-like crabs. You can climb up them to expose weak spots for massive damage, and each fight we tried during the demo had multiple phases, meaning each battle is a wonderful spectacle, aided by the cinematic camera that sweeps around for dramatic effect while still keeping action centered. The difficulty is brutal, but overcoming your foes feels phenomenally rewarding.

Imagine Sekiro, The Witcher 3, and Shadow of the Colossus had an extremely violent baby. That’s Crimson Desert. It’s the most divisive game people have played at this year’s Gamescom, with everyone either loving or hating it, but we loved every frustrating second.

We wanted to get some hands-on time with Monster Hunter Wilds, but so did the rest of the 300,000 attendees. Once the doors opened to the general public on Thursday, the line to try a demo of the game was so chaotic we couldn’t even tell where it began, it stretched the entire length of the expo hall. By 11:30 a.m., there was an estimated 10-hour-long wait.

Console exclusivity has long been a staple of the video game industry. Xbox owners got Halo while PlayStation players had The Last of Us. But now, with development costs and times ballooning, it doesn’t make much business sense to limit a game’s audience. It’s no secret Xbox has been lagging behind PlayStation in terms of hardware sales, but it was still surprising to learn that this year’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would be making its way to PS5 after just a few months on Xbox considering it was originally touted as an Xbox exclusive — just this February Spencer implied neither Starfield nor Indiana Jones would be coming to PlayStation.

The latest trailer for Indy’s action-adventure game was the penultimate one of Gamescom Opening Night Live. A coveted spot, and one that Spencer was likely happy to see occupied by a game heavily touted for Xbox. However, once the announcement was made that it would be coming to PS5 in Spring 2025 and the cheers continued, Spencer had to keep his composure.

At its core, Gamescom is about community. For one week, thousands come from across the world descend upon Cologne to immerse themselves in something they’re passionate about: video games. Every step taken in the crowded halls of the Koelnmesse, we were surrounded by fans who love video games with all their heart. It’s a place where online friends can finally meet IRL and developers working all over the world can chill with their colleagues for a drink. It’s cute to see couples holding hands in matching costumes or devs getting excited about a cool feature in someone else’s game.

There’s something inspirational about cosplayers who don bulky, hand-crafted costumes and impeccable makeup that somehow doesn’t run even as temperatures creep into the eighties during the European summers. Air conditioning over here is awful, and the huge crowds make it even hotter. We also often saw them struggling to strip off intricate pieces and have a friend watch over them while they dash to the toilet.

As the days went on, people were weighed down with bags of merch that they’ve bought from stalls or been given as a freebie after waiting in line to play a demo. It makes gamers easy to spot in Cologne after the show.

With the downturn of in-person events, couch co-op being replaced by the rise of online lobbies, and remote work taking over the office, it’s easy to forget we’re part of a global community of players. Gamescom is a beautiful reminder of what makes games so special: the people who make and play them.