Author: Matan Basteker
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Xsolla’s Rosh Hashanah Event in Tel Aviv Proved Why Physical Gaming Events Still Matter
A Smaller Room, but a Much Bigger Opportunity On September 9, I attended Xsolla’s Rosh Hashanah event in Tel Aviv, and for me the most interesting part actually started before the larger evening celebration. The first part took place at Xsolla Club TLV and was deliberately small, bringing together a focused group of people who…
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Crazy Taxi: World Tour Hands-On at Gamescom 2026: The Childhood Chaos I Have Been Waiting to Drive Again
A Childhood Memory Came Back to Life There are games I remember because they were good, and then there are games that somehow became part of my life outside the screen. Crazy Taxi belongs firmly in the second category. I loved the series as a kid, but one of my strongest memories has almost nothing…
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Honkai: Nexus Anima at Gamescom 2026: HoYoverse’s Creature Collecting World Is More Interesting Than It First Appears
A World Built Around Bonds, Not Just Creatures Going into my meeting with HoYoverse during Gamescom 2026, Honkai: Nexus Anima was one of those games I thought I understood before I actually spent enough time looking at it. On the surface, the description is simple enough: this is a creature-collecting adventure strategy game set within…
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Petit Planet at Gamescom 2026: HoYoverse’s Cozy Galaxy Made Me Want to Slow Down
A Different Kind of HoYoverse Game Walking into my meeting with HoYoverse at Gamescom 2026, Petit Planet immediately felt different from almost everything I normally associate with the company. There are no enormous battles demanding perfect timing, no constant pressure to optimize a character build, and no feeling that the game is trying to push…
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Daedalic at Gamescom 2026: Ghost Haunting, Hordeguard and Star Trek’s Q Trials
Ghost Haunting Brings Classic Point and Click Design Back to Life During our meeting with Daedalic at Gamescom 2026, the first game presented to us was Ghost Haunting, a handcrafted 2D point and click adventure developed by Cologne based studio Creative Monkeys. We did not play the game ourselves during the meeting, but the presentation…
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ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE Hands-On at Gamescom 2026: A Childhood Aviation Dream Finally Takes Flight
Gamescom is full of games that I want to play, but ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE was different for me from the moment I walked into the meeting. Aviation has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My father served in the Air Force for close to 30 years…
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Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 at Gamescom 2026: Warcore, Massive Battles and My First Look at the Future of Total War
Going into my Gamescom 2026 meeting for Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000, I had a very different level of curiosity than I normally have before a strategy game presentation. I have been playing Total War with my brother for years, and during the last couple of years we have also fallen deep into the Warhammer 40,000…
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Asetek Virtual Button Box Hands On at Gamescom 2026: The Touchscreen Feature That Made Sim Racing Feel More Natural
Gamescom is usually full of products fighting for attention with bigger screens, stronger motors and increasingly complicated specifications, but one of the sim racing ideas that stayed with me after Gamescom 2026 was surprisingly simple. During my time with Asetek Racing, I had the opportunity to experience its Virtual Button Box as part of a…
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Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.5 Brings a Summer Trip to Astropolis on August 26
A New Stop in Astropolis Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.5, titled To Roll the Stars in Astropolis, launches on August 26, 2026, taking the Trailblazer away from Planarcadia and into Astropolis, one of the Interastral Peace Corporation’s major strongholds. Following the appearance of the Voracity and the new crisis threatening Planarcadia, the story will focus…
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Business Resilience in the Gaming Industry: How Ukraine Keeps Building, Working and Showing Up
Two years ago, direct flights from Israel to Gamescom were canceled. My team and I found ourselves checking bizarre airlines, looking for boats, and eventually flying to Cyprus. We slept there for a night and caught a flight to Germany the next day. It was expensive. It was mentally exhausting. When we finally reached the…
