gamescom is currently underway in Cologne, Germany, which means gaming news is dominating on the pop culture front, with a bit of overlap into streaming TV.

Before we jump in, on the obituaries front, the world lost two television personalities and a voice acting veteran this week. South African maths educator William Smith, who was a familiar face on the Learning Channel for decades, passed aged 85 in Australia, while in the US, pioneering talk show host Phil Donahue, another afternoon TV legend, died at 88. Finally, in Japan, voice actress Atsuko Tanaka (61) died after fighting an undisclosed illness for a year. Tanaka brought dozens of characters to life, including Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, and Bayonetta’s sassy title character.

Gaming

As already mentioned, it’s gamescom week, and that means the traditional gamescom Opening Night Live showcase to kick off the festivities. You can watch the full 2024 presentation here, or, more conveniently, read about everything spotlighted. Our highlights, apart for the fact that Indiana Jones and the Golden Circle officially has a release date (9 December 2024), along with the Anya Chalotra-starring action adventure Unknown 9: Awakening (18 October 2024), are as follows:

Mobile puzzle game classic Monument Valley is getting a third installment, with Monument Valley 3 releasing on 10 December, exclusive to the Netflix Games service. Translation: If you are a Netflix subscriber you will have access to the game on compatible iOS and Android mobile devices.

Okomotive, the makers of the FAR adventures, are joining forces with Firewatch publisher Panic for Herdling, a new quiet, emotionally powerful adventure, where you lead a herd of Yak-like creatures through the mountains, overcoming obstacles along the way. Herdling is coming to PC and consoles in 2025. Wishlist it on Steam here.

The creators of Little Nightmares I & II have a new deeply unsettling adventure on the horizon. “Coming soon” to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, REANIMAL is a single, or co-op, adventure where you play siblings who set out to rescue their missing friends from a twisted island. It’s already undiluted nightmare fuel.

Finally, Supermassive Games revealed their next cinematic, choice-driven horror game (following The Dark Pictures Anthology, Until Dawn and The Quarry): the sci-fi themed Directive 8020, starring Captain Marvel and The Warrior King’s Lashana Lynch. In the game, the crew of exploratory spacecraft the Cassiopeia encounter a dangerous alien lifeform that can mimic their prey. In that context, who can you really trust?

Directive 8020 is out in 2025 for PC and all next-gen consoles.

Series

Like we said, there’s quite a lot of overlap between gaming and TV this week. During the gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, a new video game-themed animated anthology series for adults was revealed as coming to Prime Video on 10 December.

Secret Level comes from the creators of Love, Death + Robots, and each of the 15 episodes will be set in a different, celebrated gaming universe. These include Armored Core, Concord, Dungeons & Dragons, Mega Man, PAC-MAN, various PlayStation Studios games, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament and Warhammer 40,000.

It wasn’t tied to gamescom in any way, but Netflix dropped a fresh teaser for their upcoming anime, and game adaptation, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. From Powerhouse Animation, the makers of Masters of the Universe and Blood of Zeus, and featuring the voice of Hayley Atwell as the intrepid adventurer, the upcoming series will continue the story of Lara Croft as she appears in the most recent games under Crystal Dynamics’s direction.

The official synopsis: Following the events of the ‘Survivor ‘series, Lara Croft has abandoned her friends to embark on increasingly more perilous solo adventures. But she must return home when a dangerous and powerful Chinese artifact is stolen from Croft Manor by a thief with an uncanny personal connection. Her daring pursuit will take her on an adventure around the world and to the depths of forgotten tombs, where she will be forced to confront her true self, and decide just what kind of hero she wants to become.”

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft comes to Netflix on 10 October.

Finally, a couple of TV series tidbits:

  • Despite a cliff-hanger ending that sets up a second season, Disney has cancelled its latest big budget Star Wars series, The Acolyte. The Acolyte is notable for breaking free of the Skywalker Saga, and setting its mystery thriller a hundred years earlier in the franchise timeline, when the Jedi Order was at its height of power. The show divided viewers, and detractors were extremely vocal on social media.
  • If you were really hoping to see Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Kureha in Season 2 of Netflix’s live-action One Piece, we have some bad news for you. The part has been cast, and it’s not the Oscar-winning actress, despite her publicly expressed enthusiasm to be part of the series. The good news, though, is that the doc will be played by another fabulous comedic actress: Married With Children and Futurama’s Katey Sagal.