We've got two Mikes and one Brian in Cologne, Germany this week for Gamescom, the ever-expanding video game showcase that makes E3 look tiny and introduced the PS3 Slim to the world last year. We'll be covering some big events live. Bookmark this.
Cologne is six hours ahead of my time zone (East Coast) and eight hours ahead of Kotaku's posting time (Mountain time). Today, Monday, there is no Gamescom.
On Tuesday, there will be some major pre-Gamescom events:
-12:30pm Gamescom Time (6:30am ET/ 3:30 am PT): Microsoft's showcase begins.
-4pm Gamescom Time (10am ET / 7am PT): EA press conference (streamed at EA)
-6pm Gamescom Time (noon ET / 9am PT): Sony press conference
You can expect liveblogs of those events, our Internet connections willing.
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On Wednesday, Gamescom opens to the press. Wednesday will kick off three days of show coverage. Our guys in Germany will meet with everyone from Valve to Blizzard to Ubisoft, with a dash of Infamous 2 and Final Fantasy XIV thrown in. You can expect stories, photos and — if bandwidth can be found — video from the show all of those days.
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From my spot in New York, I can also vouch for upcoming Gamescom-dated impressions of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Dance Central, Rock Band 3, and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. I got an early opportunity to check out Gamescom builds of those games and will be permitted by the games' publishers to write about them in the coming days.
So look for the liveblogs on Tuesday and more news from this mega-show all week long. Gamescom isn't just for the European crowd. Expect some news that we can all care about. Plus, we'll find out if Mike Fahey was able to creep into Gamescom's tent city, an adventure in its own right.