Warframe‘s update today introduces a new quest called The Lotus Eaters, which will serve as the prelude for the game’s hotly-anticipated winter update, Warframe 1999.

Announced last month at the game’s own convention, TennoCon, The Lotus Eaters is a short, solo-only quest following the events of Whispers in the Walls, last December’s epic addition to the main questline. Its official description warns that “The Man In The Wall does not sit idly by, Tenno.”

Representatives of Warframe developer Digital Extremes are currently at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany—the next stop on their “world tour” which will also take them to the Tokyo Game Show in Japan next month.

“Launching [The Lotus Eaters] update alongside our Tenno across Europe on the opening day of Gamescom is just wild,” said Creative Director Rebecca Ford. “Players have been clamoring for another taste of The Lotus in the story and this bite-sized quest might just offer a tad more insight into her role here.”

At the behest of the Lotus (or “Space Mom,” as she’s known in the Warframe community), players will “investigate a strange but familiar sound that is intrinsically tied to the monumental year of 1999,” before seeking out Albrecht Entrati in Warframe 1999‘s alternate vision of our own history later this year.

In addition to the quest, The Lotus Eaters update brings another revamped Warfame, Sevagoth Prime. After crafting this Warframe or unlocking it through the market, players can use his unique skillset to Reap the souls of the dead, Sow death seeds, or drill a well of Gloom. If all else fails, transform into his Exalted Shadow form to tear your opposition apart in melee.

Rounding out today’s update are the newest Prime companion, Nautilus Prime; the Epitaph Prime, a wrist-mounted sidearm; and plenty of new TennoGen cosmetic items for the “FashionFrame” community. These include a wave of cosmetics inspired by the Jade Shadows update, as well as a deluxe Ares skin for Styanax.

The Lotus Eaters may not be the only update before the long-running free-to-play game time travels back to 1999. Digital Extremes will pull back the curtain on another expansion, tentatively called the “Unannounced Fall 2024 Update,” in their showcase at Tokyo Game Show. Among its contents will be a host of quality-of-life updates and the next Prime Warframe, Caliban.

Then in Winter 2024, Warframe 1999 will take players back to the heyday of boy bands and dial-up internet to explore the Protoframes, the progenitors of many iconic Warframes. The expansion has a star-studded cast including Final Fantasy XVI‘s Ben Starr as Arthur “Exalibur” Nightingale, Cyberpunk 2099‘s Alpha Takahashi as Aoi, and Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Amelia Tyler.

Peter Molyneux appeared at Gamescom 2024’s Opening Night Live to reveal Masters of Albion, a project he’s been quietly working on for the last six years with a small team.

“After messing around on mobile — what the hell was I doing? — I thought to myself, ‘I need to come home to PC and console,” Molyneux explained.

Not only is he returning to consoles, but he’s also enlisted some veteran collaborators among the 20-person team behind Masters of Albion. Molyneux specifically mentioned Mark Healy, Russell Shaw, and Iain Wright, who worked with him on classics like Fable, Black & White, and Dungeon Keeper.

Monsters of Albion tasks players with building up a settlement called Oakridge. During the day, players will gather resources, earn money, and building the town up; during the night, they must defend it from monsters. In the process, players can design anything from the town’s buildings to the clothing and diets of the villagers, using a “god mode” hand.

“There is a strategy behind every creation,” Molyneux teased.

God mode isn’t the only way to play Masters of Albion. Characters can be “possessed,” changing the perspective to third-person so the monsters can be fought on the spot. Should that prove overwhelming, players can return to god mode and drop some divine fury.

From this brief overview, Masters of Albion seems to have the usual Molyneux humour and character. Through the design process, it’s possible to make swords out of bread, for example, while at one point, the god mode cursor picks up a random, hapless villager and drops them out of the sky for a laugh. There’s a little bit of everything from (the better part of) his corpus on display, right down to the god mode of Godus.

Time will tell where this new project leads, but for now, Molyneux is writing some modest cheques for Masters of Albion, which should prove easier to cash than some of the other projects he’s overhyped over the years. (And no, this does not immediately appear to be connected to the Fable games, which previously took place in a setting of the same name.)

Masters of Albion is available to wishlist on Steam now; a console version is also in development, with no release window named just yet.

Creative Director Ed Beach took to the stage at Gamescom 2024’s Opening Night Live to pull back the curtain on Civilization VII today, promising an ambitious new installment in the beloved strategy franchise. We also got some details on the launch, including a release date and platforms.

Previously announced (earlier than planned) at Summer Game Fest, Beach called Civilization VII the “biggest, most ambitious game Firaxis has ever made”—which is certainly a huge claim. This new installment offers a gorgeous new art style and new gameplay features “designed to immerse you in your own journey through history.”

Beach announced that Civilization VII will launch February 11, 2025 on all major platforms. This is huge news for fans of the series’ console iterations, as traditionally Civilization has been a PC-first franchise.

A first-look trailer celebrated the series’ roots with quick callbacks to previous games, including the 1991 original and (personal fave) Civilization IV. Narration from series creator Sid Meier recalls the premise that originally inspired them: “let’s put the entire history of the world into a game, and make it fun.”

From this first glance, Civilization VII promises all of the elements that fans will expect, showing glances at the various eras through early history to the nuclear age. The art style looks very classic, whether it’s the tiny buildings sprouting up and evolving, to tiny workers darting across a map, to the interpretations of Caesar and Cleopatra bickering.

After the tremendous success of Civilization VI, Firaxis certainly has big shoes to fill. The storied studio is hosting an additional gameplay showcase after Opening Night Live, where they will also announce the game’s new narrator—a prestigious role previously performed by Leonard Nemoy and Sean Bean.

Civilization VII will arrive February 11, 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

A new trailer for Infinity Nikki, the upcoming “whimsical open-world dress-up adventure” from Infold Games, was shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live—announcing that registration for its closed beta period is now open.

Originally debuted at PlayStation’s May State of Play, Infinity Nikki invites players to explore as the titular stylist and her feline sidekick Momo. Nikki can customize colourful outfits for each occasion that don’t only look stylish, but can be customized to enhance her abilities. There’s more to it than glamour, however, as it also offers cozy open-world exploration with platforming and puzzle-solving, overseen by The Legend of Zelda assistant director Kentaro Tominaga (who previously directed Breath of the Wild‘s Expansion Pass and sub-directed A Link Between Worlds and Twilight Princess).

To achieve her stylish ends, Nikki will harness the power of Whim, the source of all magic in the world of Miraland. Stylists use this power to style and craft sketches anytime, anywhere. These outfits include the Floating Outfit for leaping across ruins, or the Gliding Outfit for coasting over the landscape, while the Shrinking Outfit shrinks Nikki down so she can explore tiny, crystal-filled caverns.

The trailer showcased Infinity Nikki‘s cute side with a spritely musical number from the various adorable animals that live in Miraland. The world’s “coziest open-world game” also teased some of the grand adventures our heroine will embark upon, as she solves intricate puzzles and ward off the darkness the bubbles under the world’s adorable surface.

Registration for Infinity Nikki’s global Closed Beta Test and mobile pre-registration are open now. The official launch will feature text support for about a dozen languages and audio support for English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. The initial release is planned for PlayStation 5 and the Epic Game Store.

Meanwhile, mobile players can find Infinity Nikki on the App Store or Google Play to pre-register. Players will receive rewards upon the game’s launch depending on how many preregistrations it scores.