Bandai Namco seems to have grabbed many awards this year, unsurprisingly, with Elden Ring winning 4 out of 5 categories it was nominated in, and Park Beyond.

Here is the whole list of nominees and winners (with game synopsys and links).

The nominees for the gamescom awards 2021 have been determined: The jury, consisting of German and international games journalists as well as well-known content creators, selected from a large number of submissions. This year, winning titles will be awarded in a total of 22 categories. Partners and fans of gamescom (August 25 to 27, 2021) can look forward to see who will receive one of the wanted trophies. The first awards in the platform categories will already be presented on Wednesday during gamescom: Opening Night Live.

List of the winners:

• Best Action Adventure Game: Elden Ring (Bandai Namco)
• Best Action Game: Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft)
• Best Family Game: Super Dungeon Maker (Rokaplay)
• Best Indie Game: Lost In Random (Zoink Games/Thunderful, Electronic Arts)
• Best RPG: Elden Ring (Bandai Namco)
• Best Simulation: Park Beyond (Bandai Namco)
• Best Sports Game: Riders Republic (Ubisoft)
• Best Strategy Game: Age of Empires 4 (Microsoft)
• Best Multiplayer Game: Halo Infinite (Microsoft)
• Best Ongoing Game: Apex Legends (Electronic Arts)
• Most Original Game: Dice Legacy (Ravenscourt)
• Best Xbox Game: Halo Infinite (Microsoft)
• Best Switch Game: Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft)
• Best PlayStation Game: Elden Ring (Bandai Namco)
• Best PC Game: Syberia: The World Before (Microids)
• Best Announcement: Saints Row (Koch Media)
• Best Trailer: Saints Row (Koch Media)
• Best of Gamescom: Elden Ring (Bandai Namco)
• Best Line-up: Bandai Namco

TheCadWoman posted a video with all the Gamescom 2021 Opening Night trailers, including timestamps.

Timestamps:

• 00:00:00 Saints Row: Self Made - Reveal Trailer
• 00:03:34 Saints Row: Self Made - Gameplay Preview
• 00:03:52 Marvel Midnight Suns - Reveal Trailer
• 00:06:24 Call of Duty: Vanguard - Campaign Trailer
• 00:15:57 Halo Infinite - Multiplayer Trailer
• 00:18:22 Halo Infinite Limited Edition Xbox Controller
• 00:19:13 Hallo Infinite Limited Edition Xbox Console
• 00:20:26 Cult of the Lamb - Reveal Trailer
• 00:22:26 Midnight Fight Express
• 00:23:44 TMNT: Shredder‘s Revenge - April O‘Neil
• 00:24:53 Demon Slayer - The Hinokami Chronicles
• 00:25:22 Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania - Mini Games Trailer
• 00:26:43 Splitgate - Season 0 Trailer
• 00:27:42 Riders Republic - Beta Trailer
• 00:29:43 Century: Age of Ashes - Release Date Trailer
• 00:30:27 Strikers Inc. UFL - Reveal Trailer
• 00:31:02 Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
• 00:32:58 Synced: Off Planet - Reveal Trailer
• 00:33:58 The Outlast Trials
• 00:35:22 DokeV
• 00:39:07 Jurassic World Evolution 2 - Release Date Trailer
• 00:40:50 Far Cry 6 - Story Trailer
• 00:43:10 Blood Hunt - Faction Trailer
• 00:44:46 Park Beyond
• 00:46:35 Jett: The Far Shore
• 00:48:29 Horizon: Forbidden West - Dev Update
• 00:50:29 New World - Open Beta Trailer
• 00:52:22 Marvel Future Revolution - Launch Trailer
• 00:53:21 Tales of Luminaria - Reveal Trailer
• 00:54:16 Tales of Arise - Demo Trailer
• 00:54:46 Jumanji: The Curse Returns
• 00:55:16 Lost Judgment
• 00:55:48 Core
• 00:57:32 Fall Guys - King Louie Event
• 00:58:03 Replaced
• 00:58:49 Age of Empires IV - Campaign Trailer
• 01:00:17 Valheim - Hearth & Home Trailer
• 01:02:02 Crossfire
• 01:02:59 Genshin Impact - Aloy Trailer
• 01:03:46 Sifu - Release Date Trailer
• 01:04:40 Death Stranding: Director‘s Cut - Extended Demo
• 01:12:37 KOF XV - The King of Fighters
• 01:13:58 9-5 Nine to Five
• 01:14:38 Bus Simulator 21
• 01:15:37 House of Ashes
• 01:17:59 Dolmen
• 01:18:58 Nobody Saves the World
• 01:20:23 Soundfall
• 01:21:13 Dream Cycle

The nominees for gamescom award 2021 have been revealed.

gamescom award 2021: These are the nominees!

The nominees for gamescom award 2021 have been set. The international jury comprised of German and international games experts, journalists, and content creators has nominated games in 22 categories.

[...]

Best PC Game

• Age of Empires IV, Microsoft
• Elden Ring, Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Syberia: The World Before, astragon Entertainment

[...]

Best Role Playing Game

• Elden Ring, Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Encased, Koch Media
• Tales of Arise, Bandai Namco Entertainment

This year we will be heading out to Gamescom again and we would like to learn from you, our visitors, who we should pay a visit and what questions you want to be asked.

Obviously there is just so much time, so the number of visits is limted, but we will make a selection using a healthy mix of personal interests and interests from our visitors.

Here is an article with a selection of the photographs I was able to take during Gamescom. They consist of images from the show, Cologne and the goodies that I received.

I'll be heading to Gamescom next week and at the moment I have appointments for the games listed below. If there is anything you would like to know, questions you feel I should ask or whatever, let me know.

• An unannounced open world Kung-Fu title
• Battletech
• Call of Cthulhu
• Deep Sky Derelicts
• Divinity: Original Sin 2
• Elex
• Fallof Light
• Gwent
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker
• Seven: The Days Long gone
• Shadows: Heretic Kingdom sequel
• Spellforce 3
• Starpoint Gemini franchise: Current developments and visions for the future
• Tyranny: Bastard's Wound
• Vampyr
• Warhammer 40.000: Inquisitor: Martyr

Just before 2016 is over the quick reporters from the Codex have penned the next part of their Gamescom 2016 report -> link.

I've learned that Bubbles and JarlFrank from RPGCodex have visited a total of 31 games on Gamescom. That is two and a half time more than I've visited, so I really get the massive amount of work it is to create articles for all those games.

As it was done last year, they have several articles about Gamescom and each article covers multiple games. In this first one The Technomancer, Pillars of Eternity: The White March and Kingdom Come: deliverance are covered.

Although I have not penned down what I have to tell about Kingdom Come: Deliverance I will give away that I can relate to this part about combat:

At the end, he talked a bit about the game's combat system, the most important gameplay element of Kingdom Come. He called it "the most authentic depiction of European Martial Arts today." I pondered this for a bit, and thought it sounded pretty cool. He invited us all to have a hands-on in the booth next door, and then started handing out four-packs of Kingdom Come-branded Kickstarter beer to everybody in attendance (full disclosure: I hate beer). As soon as the other attendants had received their beers, they skedaddled out of the booth, never to be seen again. In the end, it was up to the Codex to humour the poor presenter and to take our places in the combat presentation. To make a long and repetitive story short; it turns out that the most authentic depiction of European Martial Arts today boils down to looking at a large reticule in the middle of your screen and using your gamepad (or, alternatively, swishing your mouse around the screen) to activate directional combos. Top right, bottom left, top, might be “blind”, while middle left, bottom right, center stab might be “cripple”. That's how they fought in the Middle Ages. After a while, I decided to leave the combat arena and explore the game a bit further.

On Wednesday the 13th and Thursday the 14th of August I'm trotting of to Gamescom again to look at some demos and interview people. Besides that I also expect to be entertained big time and be paid in all sort of goods for writing about games. Then again I have that excpectation every year and somehow I never receive much. I simply cannot be bought!
That, or I am doing something wrong :)

To prevent me from looking like an idiot with nothing sensible to ask I reach out to you, our dear readers of this wonderful place, to help me out and provide me with some questions I could ask.

Here is what appointments I have at the moment:

• Interview with Larian Studios' Swen Vincke
• Blackguards 2: demo and interview with producer Kai Fiebig
• Ghost of a Tale: demo and interview with developer Seith
• Raven's Cry: demo and interview with CEO Tadeusz Zuber
• Interview with Ali Emek of Logic Artists (Expeditions: Conquistador)
• Dragon Fin Soup: demo and interview with Ash Monif
• The Witcher 3: demo and interview with someone (they never told me who)
• Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms, demo and interview with head of development Peter Nagy
• Jagged Alliance: Flashback, demo and interview with Thomas Hentschel Lund (Founder) and Andreas Jes Sørensen (Developer & Community Manager)
• Pillars of Eternity, demo and interview with ??
• Legends of Eisenwald, demo and interview with one of the devs

As I also want to spent some time checking out the show itself, that about fills my calendar.

So.... Do you have questions you want me to ask, or things I should do? Comment on this post and let me know the question(s) and for which game(s).

Alrik sent in a bunch of newsbits from PC Games.de relating to the upcoming GamesCom show.  Since my German is less than stellar, I'm just going to line list a handful of them for those interested:

• Deus Ex: HR to be shown in a "cinema"
• Dragon Age 2 playable
• Torchlight 2 playable
• ...and sales of Torchlight