The Future Games Show at Gamescom promises Civ 7 deep dives and fresh Rings of Power news, here's how to watch it

(Image credit: Future)

It's late August, and you know what that means: Time for an absurdly lavish videogame industry event. No, not the Geoff Keighley one. Not the other Geoff Keighley one either. This time it's Gamescom (which, thanks to Opening Night Live, kind of is another Keighley event). That's when all the world's games press, publishers and devs cram themselves into a Cologne convention centre and show off what they're working on.

And that means it's time for another Future Games Show from our sister site GamesRadar. Coming at you on August 21 at 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET / 10 pm CEST via Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, GamesRadar, BiliBili and more, this one's gonna be a doozy.

Hosted by Alex McKenna (Red Dead Redemption 2's Sadie Adler, who remains that game's true deuteragonist in my heart), and Ned Luke (GTA 5's Michael de Santa), it's set to show off over 50 games from a bunch of devs and publishers.

We'll be getting two deep dives into Civilization 7 from the folks at Firaxis, a fresh look at planetary defence cannon sim PVKK, and a bit more insight into Greedfall 2. All that plus a bunch more, including new game announcements I'm not allowed to spoil here.

There's even a bit of non-videogame fun to be had, which I didn't even realise you could do at Gamescom. On top of all the gaming stuff, Prime Video will also be along to give us an exclusive look at The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2. I'm hoping for a cameo from Mozû the Blight.

It's gonna be spectacular, so if you're looking forward to the Gamescom festivities, pencil in some time to hang out with our pals this Wednesday.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.