Gamescom 2011: What we're most excited about

What we want to see and hear about in Germany next week.

Gamescom isn't quite the year-defining event that E3 is, but it's become a big deal in the video game calendar. This year it'll host demos of all the biggest games and hopefully bring a few big announcements. Here's what we're most excited about.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

You know how many hours we've poured into Oblivion? No, neither do we, but it's definitely a triple-figure number. As we currently muddle our way through the summer drought, our cravings for a game with a sense of scale as epic as Oblivion intensify. We want a game that will engulf us, one that we can lose whole days playing (although hopefully not all of us at once); strolling through forests and caves, looting villages and scrapping with dragons. 2011 has been a great year for games so far, but most the big games have been very tightly controlled experiences, carefully choreographed with little in the way of exploration. We want a world to get lost in, and Skyrim will be the perfect place to do that.

Uncharted 3

Uncharted 2 was something else, wasn't it? Naughty Dog raised the benchmark for script writing, voice acting and camera work to such a height, that every action adventure title since has simply paled in comparison. Enslaved came close, but it failed to match the spectacle of Nathan Drake's globe-trotting adventures. Uncharted 3 could be the only game able to match (or exceed) that quality, which puts a horrendous amount of pressure on the game. Still, it's hard to be anything but excited, and going by all the footage we've seen of the game so far, we doubt anyone will be disappointed.