B1 Intermediate · 282 words · 2 min read

Gamescom in Cologne Reveals New Witcher, Alien and Fable Games

The BBC's Laura Cress attended the world's largest in-person gaming event for the sixth time.

Gamescom, the largest in-person gaming event in the world, was held again this week at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany. Last year over 350,000 people attended, and this year the number of visitors is expected to have been even bigger. Xbox and Sega showed games to the public alongside indie studios with only one or two developers.

One of the biggest surprises was a new expansion for The Witcher 3, announced by CD Projekt Red, 11 years after the original action role-playing game was released. The expansion, Songs of the Past, follows the character Geralt as he learns more about the past of his close friend Dandelion. A free upgrade to the original game was also announced. Doug Cockle, who voices Geralt, said returning to the role was a "thrill".

Alien: Isolation 2, the sequel to Creative Assembly's 2014 survival-horror game, was also shown. Players take the role of Blake, a chief executive of the Weyland-Yutani corporation, and must avoid the Alien in spaceship corridors and in larger open-air spaces. The game's Project Art Director, Anastasia Sopikova, said open spaces would not always feel safe. "Suddenly you realise you're really vulnerable," she said.

Ralph Fulton, the founder of Leamington Spa-based Playground Games, said the 2027 reboot of Fable had "two tonal pillars": "Britishness" and "fairy tales". The team wanted to avoid generic English accents, he said, because accents in the UK change every 15 to 20 miles.

Elsewhere at the expo, players took part in Games Done Quick, an event where people try to finish a game as quickly as possible. According to business director Ashley Farkas, its charity marathons have raised "62 million dollars for charities in the last 16 years".

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