Gamescom Opening Night, PS5 Pre-order Chance

Gamescom 2020 Opening Night Live

Geoff Keighley is hosting the Gamescom 2020 Opening Night Live showcase tonight, featuring announcements and updates.

Gamescom is the world’s biggest games show, and is usually hosted in Cologne, Germany. Thanks to everyone’s favorite microbe, the show has moved online this year and will be a three-day digital event. The Opening Night Live broadcast begins today at 11:00 PT / 14:00 ET / 19:00 BST / 20:00 CEST.

Opening Night Live stream links

• Twitch
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Facebook

Expect announcements from all major publishers during tonight’s show, including: 2K Games, Activision, Bandai Namco, Bethesda Softworks, Blizzard Entertainment, Bungie, Deep Silver, Devolver Digital, Electronic Arts, Frontier Developments, Focus Home Interactive, Gearbox Software, Headup Games, PlayStation, Warner Bros. Games, Xbox Game Studios and more.

Who was the first actor to play Geralt?

1. Michał Żebrowski
2. Doug Cockle
3. Jacek Rozenek
4. Andrzej Sapkowski

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Billy Hatcher is Sonic with eggs

Sonic Team’s Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is remarkably similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, which is not that surprising considering the developer. But really, the game is practically a Sonic game in disguise.

The four main characters are Billy, Chick Poacher, Bantam Scrambled and Rolly Roll. Pay attention to their quirks and mannerisms, and you will reach the inevitable conclusion that Billy is like Sonic, Chick Poacher is Tails, Bantam Scrambled is Knuckles and Rolly Roll is Amy. They even have similar colour schemes and poses! Oh, and the box art is pretty similar to Sonic Adventure 2.

Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.

Halo Waypoint news summary

A lot has happened with Halo recently, from the release of the Master Chief Collection to the slightly unfortunate Halo Infinite reveal.

The post also debunks rumours and fake leaks, such as the claims that Halo Infinite will be delayed until 2022 and will not appear on Xbox One.

Halo Infinite

• Delayed until 2021
• Multiplayer is free-to-play for all
• Supports 120Hz

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

• Halo 3: ODST flight testing extended until August 31st
• More invites sent out to Halo Insiders

The post also mentions the Halo eSports scene and the MCC Pro Series for Halo 3. There will be an open tournament on September 5th, while the professional tournaments are on August 29th and September 12th.

There will also be more news about Halo 5: Guardian and Halo Wars 2 in September. Oh, and you can finally help fight the Flood, er, COVID-19 with your own Halo-branded face mask.

Cold War gets hot on November 13th

Activision has finally unveiled Treyarch’s Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, and we have some juicy intel for you.

Secret and illegal covert operations is the name of the game, spanning the hunt for the Soviet agent Perseus across the Vietnam war and the Reagan presidency and stopping the Communists from taking away our freedom, liberty and burgers.

Cross-COD: The PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions are launching on November 13th, and will feature cross-generation multiplayer, meaning that Xbox One and Xbox Series X, or PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 players can play together.

There will also be cross-platform multiplayer like in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, so PC and consoles can duke it out. The multiplayer will be revealed on September 9th, and if you pre-order the PlayStation 4 version you can access the open beta.

Multiplayer reveal: The fate of the free world is in your hands, and only shooting the baddies and letting your buddies open doors for you can save the American empire. Go forth and gun!

Super Blood Hockey takes to the ice with Switch Premium Edition

Premium Edition Games have announced that their first release is available to pre-order. Super Blood Hockey for Switch is a “violent, retro, arcade-style ice hockey RPG” where you lead a team of inmates competing in a dystopian bloodsport where failure means execution.

There’s 4-player local multiplayer in addition to singleplayer challenges and scenarios, and the game is delivered in a standard cartridge case with a glossy slipcover designed by Mortal Kombat artist Paul E. Niemeyer. The premium edition also includes a logo sticker, a numbered trading card, a double-sided insert and a full colour manual.

The premium edition will set you back $39.95, and pre-orders are open on Premium Edition Games online store until September 22nd.

Modders add VR to Risk of Rain 2

One of the big benefits of the Unity engine is its VR support: Pretty much any game built in Unity can be made to run in VR. For example, Outer Wilds works brilliantly in VR and it looks like Risk of Rain 2 will work just as nicely.

Mod creator Brian Tate says the stylized graphics helps avoid motion sickness, despite Risk of Rain 2 being the very definition of twitchy and fast-paced. The only real drawback is that you can’t navigate the game’s menus in VR, but otherwise the game is fully functional. Check out this guide and get lootin’ and shootin’ in VR!

Black Mesa brought to life in VR

A dedicated fan has recreated the second and third chapters of the original Half-Life for Half-Life: Alyx. The mod reuses assets from Half-Life, but that doesn’t mean it’s a simple hack job: Each NPC in a level needs to be customized and there are no doubts changes required to weapons and other interactive elements. Here’s a walkthrough of both chapters so you can see what it would be like if VR existed in 1998.

Medal of Honor trailer debuting tonight

It has been almost a year since Respawn Entertainment and Oculus Studios announced Medal of Honor VR revival Above and Beyond, and that means it’s time for a new trailer. The story trailer will premiere at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event, while Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is scheduled to launch for Oculus this holiday season.

• Warframe DLC Heart of Deimos is going live on Switch today “around 11 AM ET” and will include hotfixes
• There is more Streets of Rage 4 on the way but “there is no ETA” yet as Dotemu wants “to do things right”
• Play with your food in the aptly named Nour: Play With Your Food, an ”interactive exploration” game for PlayStation 5
• You need to register online to have a chance to pre-order the PlayStation 5 since there will be limited availability and only 1 unit will be allowed per PlayStation Network ID
• The Witcher: Monster Slayer coming to iOS and Android featuring location-based Witchering

Who was the first actor to play Geralt?

Answer: Michał Żebrowski!

Unless you’re Polish, you probably have no idea how popular The Witcher was in its country of origin.

The first adaptation was not the 2007 game that put CD Projekt on the map, but a 2001 film called Hexer starring Michał Żebrowski, which was followed by a TV series.

Marcin Kamiński described the movie as a glorified trailer for the show, and it perhaps tries a bit too ambitiously to condense the key plot elements from 12 episodes of the TV show into feature length. There was some praise for the casting, such as Żebrowski as Geralt.

He might not exactly have gone down in history as the definitive witcher from Rivia, but it’s safe to assume that both Doug Cockle and Henry Cavill studied his performance before delivering their own.

Today’s issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Christian Vaz, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey.