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Gamescom 2010 in Cologne, Germany wrapped up yesterday, and has given gamers much to talk about in the coming months. Europe’s version of E3 saw exhibitions from all of the industry heavyweights and served up some updated builds of well-known upcoming games, along with a few surprises. Here’s a rundown of some of the biggest stories to come out of Gamescom this year.

Insomniac Games officially announced that Resistance 3 will be hitting the PlayStation 3 sometime in 2011. The game’s existence was the only detail anyone learned about the game, though; the crowd was only greeted with the announcement and a brief, live-action trailer.

A few more details about Diablo 3 were released from Activision Blizzard’s booth, namely the addition of an artisan system. NPCs who can craft items can be gained as allies in the game, and can be taught new and increasingly strong recipes to create gear and weapons. A new version of the game was not present as a demo, but Blizzard representatives strongly suggested that BlizzCon in late October would whet appetites much more effectively. Otherwise, there was the unsurprising announcement that no console version of the game was in the works, and that the game will feature a hardcore mode, wherein if the player character dies, the game is over, completely.

New looks at the recently announced sister games Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter were on display at Gamescom, giving onlookers more of an idea of how their favorite Street Fighter characters will look in a Tekken game, and vice versa. Increasingly, it looks like the games will be extended versions of Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6, for the most part, but the tantalizing prospect of pitting Ryu against Kazuya remains strong nonetheless.

Gran Turismo 5, coming out for the PlayStation 3 later this year, continues to look more and more impressive. In addition to almost 1,000 cars to choose from, an RPG-like mode called B-spec is being introduced, which will allow the player to manage an AI-controlled driver’s career, monitoring temperament, quality of car, and physiological status both during and in-between races. A course creator has also been added, as well as kart racing, which looks to be a lighter, more casual side of Gran Turismo 5.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s multiplayer mode is now more fleshed out. Games will involve one player being assigned to target another player, and that player being assigned a different target, and so on. The players will be amongst NPCs, and will look similar to some of those NPCs, so attention must be paid to behaviors that would set apart a player-controlled character from an NPC (like, say, sprinting full speed toward a potential victim and eviscerating him). The single-player mode was revealed to be focused around Ezio from Assassin’s Creed 2, who will need to recruit assassins to assist him in eliminating the Templars in Rome.

The Goldeneye 007 remake for the Wii from Activision is coming, and a few looks at the multiplayer were shown. Familiar characters and weapons are back, although the Pierce Brosnan James Bond is being replaced with the likeness of Daniel Craig, the current James Bond in the movies. Tweaks to the single-player and multiplayer modes, including an EXP system as part of the multiplayer, has many purists riled up, with some of the opinion that the game represents a cheap first-person shooter cashing in on the legendary game’s reputation. It remains to be seen if these concerns are warranted.

The next BioShock game has been announced, but it’s very doubtful anyone was expecting what was unveiled by Irrational Games, formerly 2K Boston, last week. Irrational Games is hesitant to call BioShock Infinite a sequel to the first two games in the series, and for good reason: anyone expecting to revisit the world of Rapture and Big Daddies and ADAM anytime soon needs to make new plans. BioShock Infinite takes place on the floating American city of Columbia, decades before the original BioShock. Columbia, as the developers tell us, was built to be an American marvel, a showcase of talent, technology and power that would would be the envy of the entire world. It seems it was, until a mysterious devastating international incident threw Columbia into chaos.

It is into this chaos that our hero, Booker DeWitt, a detective tasked with finding a missing woman, Elizabeth, must thrust himself into. Elizabeth has powers that, later in the game, prove to be of great use to DeWitt. The locals aren’t keen on letting her go so easily, though, and the player will find DeWitt attacked by all manners of townspeople, in ways that are very similar to the original games, minus the horrible deformations and mutations. Big Daddies seem to be back in a way, in the form of giant mechanized walkers with human heads and (visible) beating hearts.

Apparently, Columbia wasn’t built to be a showcase at all. The developers have described the floating city as a “Death Star,” fueled by an era of American imperialism and pride and peppered with disturbing hints of racism, extremist gun rights activism and xenophobia. This being Irrational Games’ first BioShock game since the original (BioShock 2 being developed by sister studio 2K Marin), it appears strongly familiar thematically, with references to hard-line libertarianism akin to Ayn Rand’s novels and the feeling of being an outsider in an unwelcoming, decaying world. Columbia is not the wreckage that was Rapture, but it is falling apart at the seams, structurally and socially.

Being that it is set in the early 1900s, well before BioShock or BioShock 2, it is possible that we could see some direct connection between Infinite and its predecessors, as a prequel, but creative director Ken Levine is being decidedly silent on that topic. From what has been seen in early demos, the gameplay is similar to the other games in the series, but with the added element of Elizabeth, whom it seems will accompany DeWitt through most of the game, though it will be up to the player whether or not to take advantage of the abilities she has to offer. So far, what has been shown is tantalizing. BioShock Infinite is projected to be released in 2012 on PlayStation 3, XBOX 360, and PC.