KSP2

The orientation of Duna in this picture is all wrong
It should be shaded vertically, not horizontally

Some new titles were announced at Gamescom 2019, but the only one that stood out to me was Kerbal Space Program 2.  It's great that this spaceflight-sim is finally getting a sequel (even if it isn't the original design team that is working on the game).  Based on the limited information that is currently available it sounds like this will be truly sequential in that it will be adding new technological advancements, as well as expanding the scope to include interstellar exploration.  However, there are a few worrying inaccuracies in the trailer...and also some aspects of the game that remain unaddressed despite being vital components of the experience.  Let's start with the good stuff.

The thing that I think everyone will notice right off the bat is all the graphical enhancements made to the rendering engine.  I'm not talking about the trailer.  That is entirely made up of pre-rendered cutscenes.  Rather, what I'm talking about is the short clips that we've seen thus far of gameplay.  Surprisingly,  KSP2 is using Unity once again.  Considering the scale of the game though I wonder if the developers had to write a bunch of custom code in order to make the time and distance scales that the game deals in manageable.  Regardless, it's nice to see all the classic parts making a comeback, along with old Kerbonaut favorites like Bob and Valentine.  As for new things...wow...as far as I can tell there are some really impressive pieces of hardware such as the Project Orion and Daedalus spacecrafts, as well as a VASIMR drive.  It's a bit more sci-fi than the original game, but I like it because it feels like a natural evolution for KSP.  Now for the more troubling stuff.

Good on the developers for showing the rocket buring retrograde here
But I don't think a ringed world and moon could be that close  

Scott Manley very astutely pointed out a few scientific inaccuracies which I have relayed in the picture captions attached to this blogpost.  They aren't deal breakers, and for all I know they might have been done intentionally in order to create more spectacular visuals.  Either way though, I hope they are fixed by the time the game launches.  Those matters aside, the real make-or-break feature here is the way the development team decides to tackle research and missions.  Back when the original KSP was still in early access Squad (the original developers) introduced a "career mode" which utilized three currencies called science, funds and reputation.  It was a neat idea on paper, but in practice proved to be both boring and unrealistic (with regards to how space agencies actually operate).  When you get down to it all human endeavors involving outer space amount to three things:

• Advancement of Scientific Understanding
• Achievements in Human Spaceflight
• Improving Infrastructure for Profit

Any human designed mission is going to be one, two or all three of these things.  So, I don't see why it needs to be any different for Kerbals.  That might sound bland, but if done correctly I think it might be possible to provide players with a dynamic mission tree that fosters a compelling single-player campaign.  Whatever they end up doing though it shouldn't be reduced to the level of "get points so you can get more points."  If I wanted that kind of experience I would play a cookie clicker instead. Obviously, sandbox mode can still be an option in addition to being an excellent stepping stone into multiplayer (a feature already announced for KSP2).  I just hope sandbox mode isn't the only way to play the game at launch.  For a 60 dollar retail product, I expect there to be a bit more to this one the the original.