Gamescom 2025: these are the games that turned our heads so far

Gamescom 2025, baby. Once again a crack team has lured all the best upcoming games in the industry to one great big building in Cologne and trapped them there, for global examination. And once again, the subsequent news to come out of the conference is too voluminous to digest with any particular ease.

TG has taken its fine toothcomb – in fact little more than an RSS feed and a big stack of caffeinated beverages – to the Gamescom announcement pile and picked out, for your delectation, the bits worth paying attention to at this stage.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

Life can be gruelling, and sometimes you just want to come home, lock the door, push down the day’s ritual humiliations, and be Batman. TT Games knows this universal truism about the human condition, and has made this game accordingly.

The LEGO games have always had a knack for blending knowing movie references with slapstick humour and, lately, genuinely great storytelling and a deep but family-friendly gameplay approach. What that means for this latest superhero title is an experience that looks actually quite a bit like Rocksteady’s venerable Batman: Arkham games, but with more eyebrow-waggling and explicit nods to the Nolan movie scenes. Your young kids will toddle over, pick up a pad, join in via drop-in co-op, and quickly outshadow your skill level.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2, too. 

Road Kings

Road Kings looks like a sort of… American truck simulator. And that might be a problem, what with the existence of American Truck Simulator, except that Saber Interactive’s take on that very specific topic is actually very different.

The Gamescom trailer suggests a narrative-led experience, with NPCs to talk to and a focus on the experience of being on the road. Not unlike our recent indie favourite Keep Driving, except you’re behind the wheel of an articulated lorry. And also running an entire logistics company, in a sort of player-manager role. Intriguing.

This one’s due in 2026, and it’s coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV

Hearing that there’s a new real-time strategy game in the works is akin to getting a press release that they’re bringing velociraptors back – this genre once ruled the lands of PC gaming, but – and we’re aware this is where the raptor simile really falls apart – they’re increasingly rare today.

The Dawn of War series has been among the highest profile and highest quality RTS output in recent decades so it’s a big deal that number IV has been revealed at Gamescom. That’s in spite of our reservations that original studio Relic isn’t involved, because although this game’s developer King Art doesn’t have priors in the series, it did make the excellent Iron Harvest in the same genre.

It’s coming “soon” to PC.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword

It takes a lot to discern oneself from the writhing morass of similar Soulslike games that are announced at every major games industry event, but Onimusha’s done it.

It helps a lot that its enemy designs are just so strange. The Gamescom trailer looks like someone taking a samurai sword to David Cronenberg’s cheese dreams.

There’s a moody, darkly inviting and distinctly drawn world to explore here when the game releases on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2026.

Death By Scrolling

The first and most important thing you need to know about this game is that it’s being made by Ron Gilbert, the legendary creator of some of gaming’s all-time great adventure games. Monkey Island? Gilbert. Maniac Mansion? Him too. With a portfolio as weighty as his, it’s safe to say this guy can yawn something more entertaining than the average game.

However, a yawn-fest Death by Scrolling is not. It’s actually a roguelike where you fight enemies, collect gold, dodge the grim reaper’s advances and battle against a constantly vertically scrolling screen until you have enough gold together to pay the ferryman to take you to the afterlife. It’s a PC-only affair, and it’s coming “soon”.

Hollow Knight Silksong

We’re conflicted about this one. On one hand, it generated the most buzz of any game at the conference, in part because it was AWOL for so long after announcing itself back in 2019 (!) so there’s a sense of collective delight and relief that the project’s still alive, looks strong, and is coming out shockingly soon on 4 September to… well, basically every platform. The list’s so long we can’t even fit it into this list but you can grab all the info in its Gamescom release trailer.

On the other hand, we know from bitter experience how challenging this series of gothic side-scrolling Metroidvania games are. There will be tears.