Skip to main content

Video Games Live orchestral show lives on at Gamescom

video games live gamescom vglheader
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Gamescom is already the largest video game trade event in the world, with more than 335,000 attendees at last year’s exposition in Cologne, Germany, but the festivities will be getting a little bit louder this year. Video Games Live, the orchestral show from composer Tommy Tallarico, will be playing for three straight days, and seats are only available to Gamescom ticket holders.

Video Games Live will perform on the last three days of Gamescom — August 7, 8, and 9 — and will include “an orchestra, a light show, interactive games and solo appearances.” The show is famous for its eclectic selection of music, and these shows look to continue this, with everything from Monkey Island to Skyrim and Earthworm Jim being tapped for tunes.

Unlike other orchestral “pops” shows, Video Games Live is unapologetically contemporary. Cinematics and key gameplay moments flash on screens behind the musicians throughout each song, and Tommy Tallarico doesn’t conduct the group; instead, he shreds along on his guitar through songs from Halo and even Castlevania. Tallarico and his team have been touring almost nonstop for 10 years, and most recently embarked on an international tour that brought shows to Brazil, Finland, England, China, and Belgium.

If Tallarico’s name sounds familiar to you, it might be because he also hosted the game review show Judgment Day with Canadian journalist Victor Lucas back in the early 2000s. The show stills airs in the Great White North under the name Reviews on the Run, although Tallarico’s commitments to Video Games Live has limited him to only a few guest appearances in the last several years. Last year, he wrapped up a Kickstarter campaign for Video Games Live: Level 4, an album featuring music from League of Legends, Cave Story, and Donkey Kong Country. If you’re attending Gamescom (and can fake your way through some German), tickets from the shows are available here.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
In a sea of live service games, I miss the days of regular old multiplayer modes
A team of Spartans transports the enemy flag in Halo Infinite.

While I once enjoyed jumping into a few matches of Halo or Street Fighter, lately I almost never engage with multiplayer titles. Where we once enjoyed a game's multiplayer component for what it was and for as long as we found it fun, an ongoing industry push toward "live services" wants those titles to be our only games.

Gone are the days of jumping in and playing a round or two of capture the flag or team deathmatch for a quick burst of fun before turning the game off. Games like Fortnite, Call of Duty Warzone, and Destiny 2 all immediately put you on the treadmill of battle passes, daily and weekly challenges, and login bonuses upon starting, with the hope that you will stick around indefinitely rather than have your fun and move on.

Read more
The best video game remakes of all time
Leon parries a chainsaw villager in Resident Evil 4.

There are so many classic games from the past that have become difficult for new players to experience. The farther away in time we get from these games' releases, the more difficult it can get to not only get the game itself but also the extra hardware needed to play them. That alone is a major barrier that turns people away from playing games many consider to be some of the greatest of all time. And that's not even taking into account dated graphics, controls, and mechanics.

Remakes offer a new generation a chance to experience some of the most influential games of the past, as well as give fans of the originals a brand new way to play them all over again. The best remakes take what made a game so great before and modernize it for the current audience without losing that magical spark. It isn't an easy process, but here are the games that managed to pull it off.

Read more
CES 2024: Your Samsung TV is getting its own video game controller
The PDP Replay Controller Designed for Samsung Gaming Hub.

Samsung Gaming Hub is a feature on newer Samsung TVs that gathers cloud gaming apps like Amazon Luna and Xbox Game Pass all into one place. Ahead of CES 2024, Samsung revealed that it's going a step further and starting up a "Designed for Samsung Gaming Hub" program that relates to gaming accessories directly made for the service.

The first product that will bear this name is a new controller from PDP. Called the Replay Wireless Controller, this "Midnight Blue" device looks similar to an Xbox controller, but features a home button that can immediately launch Samsung Gaming Hub, as well as volume and power buttons for the TV.

Read more