Gamescom 2012: Day 1

Today was the official start of Gamescom, even though a bunch of stuff happened yesterday (Day 0?). Once again, Verge/Polygon has a continuously-updating news post here that is a good source for news as it happens.

A few things caught my eye today, and I'll definitely be keeping track of these games over the next few months.

• Command and Conquer goes F2P - http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/08/command-conquer-series-pivots-into-a-free-to-play-future/
  I've never played C&C, which probably makes me a terrible person. I've dabbled in RTS stuff in the past, but Starcraft 2 got me into the genre in a big way. You can sign up for the upcoming beta test here.
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon F2P - http://ghost-recon.ubi.com/ghost-recon-online/en-US/home/
  F2P shooters are almost universally terrible - the gunplay never feels right to me. Even bigger name freebies like BF:Heroes and TF2 were a letdown. I don't have a lot of faith in this one, but considering I haven't spent more than 1-2 months with a shooter since CoD4, I'm trying to remain optimistic.
• Anno Online introduces F2P game - http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/15/3244159/anno-online-announced-from-ubisoft
  Apparently today was F2P day. As with C&C, I've never played an Anno game, though I almost bought Anno 2070 during the Steam sale. I'm still extremely cautious about F2P games since most of them are more pay-to-win than free-to-play, so we'll see what happens.
• SC2: Heart of the Swarm Beta incoming - http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/15/3244544/starcraft-2-heart-of-the-swarm-beta-invites/in/3005796
  After the disaster that was Brink I swore that I'd never preorder another game, ever. I still preordered HotS. While SC2 and I have had an on-again-off-again relationship over the past couple of years, I keep coming back every few months. It's the only game on the horizon that I feel confident enough to pay full price to play.