Gamescom is almost here! IGN is going to have comprehensive coverage coming straight from Germany all week long, including an extensive live show, hands-on impressions with all the hottest games, and plenty more. We're going to have new details on dozens of big games - this is just one of the 9 massive games of Gamescom:

The 30-minute demo Konami showcased at E3 2014 really surprised us on all fronts. Instead of focusing on ever-growing cinematic quality of the series, Kojima Productions walked us through a single, massively-open mission that brought back a lot of the humor and playfulness that made us fall in love with the series in the first place . Snake knocking on his prosthetic arm to lure enemies, smoking an electronic cigarette to advance the passage from day to night, and using Peace Walker’s awesome Fulton system to steal all manner of enemies, tanks, and livestock, and bring them back to your base.The second part of the demo dipped its toes into the creative side of Phantom Pain: the return of Mother Base. The various elements you gather in the field can all be brought back to your base, which is fully customizable and free for exploration. Enemies you capture will switch sides and be added to your ever-growing army of Diamond Dogs, iconic characters like Revolver Ocelot can be found gazing longingly into the horizon, and most importantly, that goat you absconded with back in the mission can be found just straight-up chilling.

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It’s less about what we want to ­see at Gamescom, and more what we want to ­play. At this point, Konami and Kojima Productions have already sold me on the core concepts and tenants of Phantom Pain. But while everything has looked fantastic through guided demos and trailers, it’s time for the controllers to be placed in our hands.I’m really curious to see just how open each of Phantom Pain’s missions can be. Ground Zeroes proved to be a fun playground with a nice number of diversions, distractions, and moving parts for players to express their creativity through gameplay. I’m interested to see if Kojima can take the variables in GZ’s relatively-small mission, and translate them into the exponentially larger world of Phantom Pain. I’m also still eager to find out the gameplay-to-cinematic ratio this time around. Snake Eater hit a nice balance of two, while Guns of the Patriots veered a bit too far into the passive zone. Here’s to hoping Phantom pain is more the former than it is the latter.You can watch all of the Gamescom 2014 Press Conferences on pretty much every connected device in your home or pocket. Here are some links to the apps (download them today!) and other places where you can watch the Gamescom 2014 live streams and IGN's show coverage as well. Watch the Gamescom 2014 press conference live stream on...Some of the biggest games we expect to learn more about at Gamescom include Destiny, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Quantum Break, Bayonetta 2, Battlefield: Hardline, Far Cry 4, and plenty more. Keep up with all the Gamescom hotness by bookmarking IGN's Gamescom hub