It’s day one of Geoff Keighly’s Birthday, and if you’ve not been keeping up, the consistent layoffs, closures, and industry downswing in video games has made even the press tour up to the Summer Game Fest dark and a little dire. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the stream live, we’ve got full coverage of day one below.
Kicking off this year’s Summer Game Fest was Geoff himself with an oddly prescient speech about how the gaming industry is currently in a death spiral of closures and layoffs. This sombre opening would certainly set the tone for a show that lacked in the way of surprises, and even titles shown that weren’t yet announced failed to really shock or awe. Still, let’s get on with the showcase of titles from Day 1.
Lego Horizon Adventures
Developer: Guerrilla
Release Date: Holiday 2024
Platforms: PS5, Switch, Steam, Epic
Marcy: The first announcement for the embattled gaming season is… a Lego tie-in to Sony’s Horizon franchise. While it looks colorful and fun (nice shout to show off the walker, which has quite a very nice physical Lego set that I quite enjoyed building), the combo of Lego and Horizon is a pretty hard sell if you care about neither of these things. The most interesting part is that it will hit Nintendo, and has couch co-op, which is nice because it’s getting exhausting to have every single co-op game require 2 copies of a 70 dollar game, a 70+ online subscription, and etc.
Jonathan: This Aloy sounds like the Disney Experience employee version of the character they have leading you around the theme park.
No More Room in Hell 2
Developer: Torn Banner Studio
Release Date: Early Access 2024
Platforms: Steam and Epic
Marcy: Chivalry II’s devs showed off an 8 player co-op zombie shooter, No More Room in Hell 2, promising things like permadeath for your characters and a replayable map (I feel like it was supposed to say map, but not sure). While the trailer looks nice, there’s not a lot of information as to what sets this apart from any other similar zombie shooter / survival co-op game, but with only an announcement of Early Access, we’ll have to see if we get more details later that helps this stand apart.
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions
Developer: Warner Bros. Games
Release Date: September 3rd 2024
Platform: Lists just “Playstation” and “Xbox”, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Epic
Marcy: Our third trailer was another game set in the universe of leading transphobic activist JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, this time allowing players to take on the role of a Quidditch player in a game that looks like it should probably have come out a decade ago. The CG parts of this trailer look like they’re from a generation ago, and there’s no actual gameplay shown, which is maybe even worse considering it launches in September. PS, if you still like HP at this point, you’re cringe.
Jonathan: This thing can fuck off.
Cuffbust
Developer:Two Star Games
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: Steam (Wishlist Available Now)
Marcy: A colorful and frantic jailbreak game where players are tasked to help “Jailiens” escape from prison, Cuffbust promises up to 20 player lobbies in a very silly looking game. Choo-Choo Charles was the previous title from Two Star, which surprised people with how fun that ended up being, so Cuffbust has a decent pedigree in that regard. How 20 player lobbies will function or whether Cuffbust has enough steam to last after an initial wave of playing will have to wait to be seen, though, as it looks very likely to be a ‘fun a few times’ style of game with friends. I expect to see this one heavily make rounds on collaboration streams next year for a month.
Jonathan: “Koala Minions killing a bunch of correctional officers while doing a prison break” is some kind of a premise. Problem is I don’t like multiplayer games. Watch the trailer though; some huge joints at the end.
Star Wars Outlaws
Developer: Ubisoft
Release Date: August 30th
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, Epic
Marcy: Having made some waves when it was announced last year(?), this year’s Star Wars Outlaws trailer gave quite a bit more “in game” footage, promising a fuller trailer on June 10th and an August release date. We’ll have more info when Ubisoft presents the game on June 10th, so stay tuned or keep your eyes here.
Jonathan: We’ll see if Ubisoft’s open world lineage still has the juice. Trailer’s pretty good at least.
Neva
Developer: Nomada Studio
Release Date: 2024
Platforms: Switch, PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S
Marcy: From the developer of Gris, Neva promises some of the aesthetically beautiful 2D indie platformer with a melancholic story gameplay that perhaps we’ve come to expect over the last decade or so. It looks quite pretty, but what it does different or offers to set itself apart waits to be seen. Gris is a good pedigree, but there’s very little else shown or told here about what we can even expect from Neva as a game.
Jonathan: They’re really leaning on “developer of Gris” being an auto-buy combined with the vibes here. And Gris was good enough that I don’t think that’s a miscalculation.
Civilization VII
Developer: Firaxis Games
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: VR2
Marcy: Celebrating 30 years of Civilization, Sid Meier popped up to let us know that we’ll see a longer trailer soon, and to expect the game next year, and that was basically it.
Jonathan: Grim stuff. Both Sid and his namesaked franchise.
Black Myth Wukong
Developer: Game Science
Release: August 20, 2024
Platforms: PS5, Steam, Epic, WeGame
Marcy: Showing no actual gameplay but giving a release date, Black Myth Wukong made another appearance promising lots of pre-order bonuses and little else. The game’s controversial developer comments about gender clouded much of the conversation last time, and while a release date and some physical goodies for pre-ordering is nice, we also saw literally nothing about the game itself.
Once Human
Developer: NetEase
Release Date: July 9th, 2024
Platforms: Steam and Epic
Marcy: Explaining very little about what the game actually is but seemingly showing off a multiplayer shooter angle, Once Human also wins the award for “awkwardly horny shot” of the show with a woman chained to pillars with the camera focused entirely on her ass, so take that what you will in your decision to wishlist this before it’s release in July of this year.
Space Marine 2
Developer: Focus Entertainment
Release Date: September 9th, 2024
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC
Marcy: On the heels of Warhammer Skulls comes another trailer for Space Marine II; showing very little new but introducing the game to people who may not have seen Skulls, listing the release date. Focus Entertainment teased a longer reveal on June 20th for another trailer, as well as showing off some editions of the game you can pre-order before the September 9th release date.
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Developer: Studio 0 / Atlus
Release Date: October 11th, 2024
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC
Marcy: Bringing a new trailer from the Persona team’s newest RPG, the Metaphor team spoke to the audience for a bit about “Archetypes”, the jobs that the characters in Metaphor are able to transform into and utilize during battle. Metaphor is likely to succeed off of the history of the team’s work, carrying with it a lot of the legacy of the modern Persona games, but the game has so far shown off a very unique and interesting aesthetic of its own, which may help it stand out from the legacy and shadow of Persona.
Batman: Arkham Shadow
Developer: Camouflaj / Oculus Studios
Release Date: Late 2024
Platforms: Meta Quest 3
Marcy: Featuring some insane rat slander (rats are cute), the narrative trailer for this Batman game promised a new return to Arkham, and no gameplay, but frankly almost all VR trailers look the same when it comes to gameplay. It is kind of sad this is the first true Batman game in quite a while, but maybe there’ll be more in the future.
Jonathan: Going from “Nirvana – Something in the Way” as a leitmotif to “Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with Butterfly Wings” as a leitmotif is a real downgrade. But that’s what you get if you build a game around…the Rat King?
Street Fighter 6 Year 2
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 2024 – 2025
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Epic
Marcy: Riding high on the success of Street Fighter 6, the second year of new characters and support from Capcom’s flagship fighting game revealed 2 guest characters, Fatal Fury’s Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui, as well as returning Street Fighter characters Elena and M. Bison. Bison is promised in Summer 2024, and the roadmap is quite long, with Mai not releasing until Winter 2025.
Jonathan: Really respect Bison looking like Homeless Magneto here, but the big draw is Terry.
Tears of Metal
Developer: Paper Cult Games
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: Steam (Wishlist Available)
Marcy: Featuring a very unique and chunky aesthetic, Tears of Metal has players taking the role of rebellious Scots following the crash of some sort of meteor. The trailer shows large scale combat, similar to Musou style games, as well as character development, touting itself as a “roguelike co-op hack and slash,” so this could be a possible hit if it executes even half of those well.
Jonathan: Interesting art style, at least.
Dragonball Sparking! Zero
Developer: Bandai Namco
Release Date: October 11, 2024
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Steam
Marcy: The newest in the Budokai Tenkaichi series, Dragonball Sparking! Zero has had a lot of hype surrounding it for a return to that gameplay style. The trailer shows off some great looking visuals of key moments from Dragonball Z’s history, so graphically things look pretty amazing so far. Hopefully the gameplay will be equally fun, giving fans a chance to live out their favorite moments again.
Delta Force Hawk Ops
Developer: Team Jade
Release Date: September 6 2024
Platforms: Playstation, Xbox, Windows, Mac, Android
Marcy: A free to play FPS, I have to admit that the gunplay shown in this trailer looks… bad. Like, a headshot looked not only like it felt bad, but also like it had little impact (and also I am pretty sure the person missed). This one looked extremely rough to me, with little reason to want to play this. If anything, I think people are going to likely attempt discourse about the other part of this trailer, which promised a “playable interpretation of Black Hawk Down” as a “campaign” mode. All of this looked extremely skippable.
Jonathan: Kind of feel like I should be playing this on a Pentium II, and it should have Soldier of Fortune branding.
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Developer: SNK
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: PS 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, Epic
Marcy: A surprise second appearance of Fatal Fury at the SGF featured the reveal of 2 new characters for the game, returning character B. Jenet and new character Vox Reaper, as well as some footage of series favorites Terry Bogard and Rock Howard. It’s nice to see Fatal Fury back again, so we’ll have to see how this one shapes up as it approaches a 2025 release date.
Mecha Break
Developer: Amazing Seasun Games
Release Date: Closed Beta in August 2024
Platforms: PC, at least.
Marcy: Showing me really cool mecha designs and then also some cool mech combat with lots of lasers and such is a great way to get me interested. Not too much in the way of information, but there is a closed beta coming in August, so keep your eyes on that if you too like mechs slamming into one another.
Blumhouse Games Announcement
Perhaps a bit of a surprise, what seemed initially like a singular title reveal was instead a reveal that Blumhouse, the film studio, would be stepping into the role of game publishing, where they showed off a slew of titles that they were helping bring to market. Initially, I have to admit I was a little cynical about this, but once I realized that Blumhouse is acting as an intermediary and publisher for smaller developers and titles with a focus on horror, I came around on it. The industry sorely needs good and new investment, so this is a potentially great first step in that direction. You can watch the full segment below:
The titles mentioned were:
Crisol Theater of Idols
Grave Seasons
Sleek Awake
Fear the Spotlight
The Simulation
Project C
Marcy: With very little other information to go on, I will say that of these, Grave Seasons looked interesting as a hybrid of a farming sim and horror game. The others I’ll need to see more of; some seem very similar to other low-poly horror titles already on the market, or first-person games that are also similarly common to see. Still, I think this could be a great thing for the industry, assuming Blumhouse supports devs properly.
Jonathan: Most interesting thing here for me is the involvement of Brandon Croenenberg in one of these titles. We’ll see how this latest investment in budget gaming by screen media plays out.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita’s Rewind
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: Wishlist on Steam, No Other Platforms Listed
Marcy: Featuring some great looking pixel style art for beat-’em up sections and some truly, astonishingly badly drawn art for cutscenes, this trailer looked to promise a potentially great co-op beat ’em up using the MMPR property. There’s some interesting twists to that formula with scrolling levels from a semi-first person point of view and segments in which players will use the Megazord, so how this stands apart from being a retro beat ’em up remains to be seen. Truly a shame about that art, though. Yeesh.
Deer & Boy
Developer: Lifeline Games
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: Wishlistable on Steam (PC) at least.
Marcy: In my running notes I missed the name initially and just wrote “Sad Deer Game”, and well, that’s kind of what this seems to be. You’re a boy and you find a deer and the atmosphere is sad. Also there might be cosmic horror stuff involved. The usual.
Jonathan: Might be something here. At the very least we deserve a Bambi glowup title.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Developer: Warhorse Studios
Release Date: 2024 (TBA)
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Marcy: A follow up to the previous KCD, this trailer was somewhat painful to watch as it introduced us to the (I assume) protagonists of this story, a cocky noble and a smart-ass blacksmith. Quite a lot of this trailer summed up what I’m not a huge fan of in the KC series, which has a somewhat odd and bumpy history in their opinions on historical accuracy. Shout out to featuring sex, I guess? Weird trailer that gave me, at least, the vibe to continue staying away from this series.
Jonathan: So I guess there’s going to be a lot more of a fixed character perspective in this one. It’s a choice. Lots of jokes; I remember the first one of these being grimmer. At least they’re not ripping off Marvel films?
Slitterhead
Developer: Bokeh
Release Date: Nov. 8, 2024
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Steam, Epic
Marcy: Do you know the term “kusoge”? Usually reserved for games that are utter shit, sometimes it gets used to refer to a game that seems shockingly low quality in comparison to modern standards. I was initially really excited for Slitterhead considering the design pedigree, but the trailer looked… bad. The game looks slow and clunky, and while some of the concepts in this are cool–swapping bodies to solve puzzles and fight enemies–the trailer was very, very underwhelming. I’m holding out hope that it plays better than it looked. I love janky games and am all for it, but I guess I was hoping this looked… better.
Killer Bean
Developer: Killer Bean Studios LLC
Release Date: Early Access 2024
Platforms: PC (Wishlistable now)
Marcy: A trailer that was followed by Rob going “what the fuck is this” followed by me simply going “I don’t have time to explain”, you either know Killer Bean or you don’t, and that’s going to determine if this trailer made you interested or confused. This game is either for you because you know what Killer Bean is, or it is not.
Jonathan: I do not know what it is, but I am intrigued.
Cairn
Developer: The Game Bakers
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: PC (Wishlistable)
Marcy: Billed as a narrative adventure game from the developers of Furi and Haven, Cairn is ostensibly about climbing a mountain, and probably more than that. It looks quite interesting and frankly Furi is a favorite of mine, so I trust the Game Bakers to produce something engaging and unique, but there’s really not much to work with here yet to get overly excited about this save that it exists.
Wanderstop
Developer: Annapurna Interactive / Ivy Road
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: PS5 and PC.
Marcy: A trailer that shows main character Atla working in a tea shop she does not wish to be in, with a closing sentiment that mirrors the reality of trauma brain when the world stops moving for a moment, Wanderstop is very likely much, much more than just a tea shop simulation, as one would expect from the mind behind The Stanley Parable.
Jonathan: One of the more interesting games on the show.
Unknown 9: Awakening
Developer: Reflector
Release Date: Fall 2024
Platforms: PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PC (wishlistable)
Marcy: A sci-fi action game that seems to feature some form of either body swapping or possession mechanics, what was shown focused on the story and introducing players to main character Haroona. Certainly fits into the cinematic action style game genre, but there could be something fun and interesting here depending on how Haroona’s powers work and are implemented.
Enotria: The Last Song
Developer: Jyamma Games
Release Date: Sep. 18th, 2024
Platforms: PS5, Steam, Epic
Marcy: While it might be easy (and correct) to simply call this a Dark Souls-like and move on, I will say that the trailer, though showing no gameplay, does at least help give Enotria a unique vibe due to the Italian styling and focus on elaborate masks that will have some form of gameplay relevance. The demo is currently available if one wishes to check it out, which I plan to do later.
Jonathan: Extremely a fan of the guy with the crossguard spear with a recoilless rifle attached to the bottom that he used to rocket jump.
The First Descendant
Developer: Nexon
Release Date: July 2, 2024
Platforms: PS4/5, Xbox X/S, Xbox One, Steam
Marcy: Described as a “looter shooter” that has a grappling hook mechanic, this trailer proceeded to show… no actual gameplay of looting, shooting, or grappling, and the grappling hook itself doesn’t even really appear cinematically until the trailer is almost over. Like most Nexon games, the CG looks very nice and pretty–all the women are sexy, all the men are, uh, men–but that was really it. Considering it comes out in less than 30 days, that’s a little concerning.
Jonathan: You’re probably not gonna hear much about this thing past February next year. They spent a lot of time making the rabbit lady’s cyberarmor highlight her ass.
Outersloth
Marcy: The second such segment in the show, Innersloth, developers of Among Us, came out to talk about the launch of their new funding initiative Outersloth. The games in this trailer all look interesting and at least unique, but if anything, it signaled that the industry is in a pretty rough spot; some of these games are developed by people who made hit and successful games, so if they can’t make it without help, that’s probably a bad sign.
Sonic X Shadow Generations
Developer: Sonic Team
Release Date: October 24, 2024
Platforms: PS5/4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Steam, Epic
Marcy: Shadow the Hedgehog is once again back, and this trailer showed off more exciting content for the next game in the Generations series. I still advise against carelessly searching ‘Sonic X Shadow’ but as a non-joke comment this looks really good. Generations was fun and I’m excited to see what Shadow brings to the table because I, like all people with good taste, realize Shadow the Hedgehog rules.
Jonathan: Imagining Sonic and Shadow doing the scene from The Deer Hunter with Shadow’s gun.
Dune Awakening
Developer: Funcom
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: Steam (Wishlist available)
Marcy: Yes, this is for the Dune MMO that has made some very bizarre statements about the Dune universe, and yes, this is “survival” MMO like Conan. Gamescom will have gameplay trailers, but I don’t think you should get your hopes up for this one.
Battle Aces
Developer: Uncapped Games
Release Date: Coming Soon
Platforms: Steam
Marcy: I lost complete interest in this once the really cool animated trailer revealed this to be some sort of RTS game that kept talking about taking out the “tedious clicking” of RTS and only focusing on “the fun parts”. Not for me. It is listed as “free” on Steam, so that’s also probably something to be slightly wary of, as there is little indication of what is or is not “free.”
Jonathan: An RTS can hook me, but not a free one. I don’t trust that.
The Finals Season 3
Developer: Nexon
Release Date: June 13
Platforms: PC
Marcy: The Finals had some initial hype when it burst onto the scene as a possible new eSport contender, only to find itself kind of awkwardly wading into the market and getting embroiled in using AI voice acting and some other odd things. The game’s playerbase has since cratered from 260k to 12k, which is not a fantastic look ahead of a new season, and this trailer mostly seems to be about a few new game modes and cosmetics, and that’s about it.
Alan Wake II Expansions + Physical Editions
Developer: Remedy
Release Date: June 8th 2024 (so, right now).
Platforms: Epic, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Marcy: Alan Wake II is back, hot off the heels of winning a ton of awards, with Remedy promising upcoming physical editions that can be ordered, as well as a set of new DLC under the Night Springs header. There are three upcoming chapters in the DLC, each featuring familiar but slightly different versions of characters that Alan Wakeheads will know pretty well at this point. If you’ve never played Alan Wake II, you really should, and now’s not a bad time to go ahead and pull the trigger, especially if you were waiting for a physical edition.
Jonathan: The DLC is apparently out by the time you read this, which makes this my favorite game of the show even before me loving Alan Wake II comes into play.
New World Aeternum
Developer: Team Amazon Games
Release Date: October 15
Platforms: PS5, Xbox X/S, Steam
Marcy: Did you know New World was still going? Because frankly I didn’t. Anyway, it is still around and getting an expansion, so perhaps we can get an update to the hilarity of how New World’s economy completely collapsed, which was the most interesting thing I heard about it last time.
Honkai Star Rail (Update)
Developer: MiHoYo
Release Date: Out now.
Platforms: PS5, App Store, Google Play, Windows, Epic
Marcy: MiHoYo’s turn based RPG keeps on rolling with a lot of new story and game content after the Penacony updates. Stelle’s cowboy hat upgrade is hilarious, keeping up the trend of giving Stelle some of the funniest weapons an RPG protagonist can have (your first is literally just a baseball bat). HSR is a lot of fun and has great character designs, such as Firefly here, who puts on a Kamen Rider esque suit and does a literal Rider Kick. Also, March 7th looks absolutely adorable in whatever new alternate that teaser was at the end.
Dark and Darker
Developer: Iron Mace
Release Date: Out Now
Platforms: Steam
Marcy: Dark and Darker is back, or out, depending on how you want to look at it, after some periods of extended open and closed betas. A fairly hardcore dungeon crawling first person adventure game, players will find themselves up against enemy monsters and bosses, as well as other human players, as they attempt to explore the dungeons and then escape with their lives (and hopefully some loot). The game may look a little old fashioned and jank, but most of that is because this is a gameplay first, aesthetics second sort of game.
Kunitsu-Gami Path of the Goddess
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: July 19, 2024
Platforms: PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Xobox One, PC
Marcy: When first announced, this looked to be more in the character or third person action genre, but this trailer implies that Kunitsu-Gami is some sort of hyrbid RTS game, which I was not expecting. I also am not sure if that makes me less or more interested in it, so I think I’ll at least keep an eye out for how it does on release. Hybrid games in this nature really tend to live or die on just how they blend that recipe, and I’m going to be a bit more cautious in that regard myself, but if you like what you see, it releases in about a month for almost every platform but Switch.
Hyper Light Breaker
Developer: Arc Games
Release Date: Early Access Late Summer
Platforms: Steam
Marcy: Tagged as “set in the beloved Hyper Light universe”, Hyper Light Breaker looks… basically nothing like Hyper Light Drifter, which is fine, but also it really didn’t catch my attention that much. Co-op action games are becoming a lot more common, which is fine, but something about the action in this trailer did not leave me craving more. This will hit early access in late Summer, if you can’t wait to get your hands on it.
Party Animals (Update)
Developer: Recreate Games
Release Date: Out now, on sale June 27th on Steam
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Marcy: A game that haunted my Twitch watching habits for about a month, Party Animals is a team-based fighting game featuring cute animals and questionable physics. The trailer showed up a hint of some new content, specifically a kart racing mode, but otherwise Party Animals is already out. If you want to play it, I suggest getting some friends and teaming up while screaming on Discord for a good time for a little bit at a time.
Tim Robinson Thing? Oh It’s Just skate.
Developer: Team EA
Release Date: TBA, Playtest in Fall
Platforms: PC, likely PS5 and Xbox Series X/S
Marcy: The best part of this trailer was Tim Robinson, and then it was revealed this is actually for skate., and then I didn’t really care. Not that skate. and skateboarding games are not fun, but more because at this point skate. feels like it is vaporware that I am constantly being gaslit about actually becoming real.
Jonathan: Hiring a talented comedian to try to soften the blow that your dev team missed a third (fourth?) awards and press season in a row, and it possibly being the most expensive ad on the entire show, is something.
PalWorld Sakurajima
Developer: Team Asobi
Release Date: June 27, 2024
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One
Marcy: An update to the slightly notorious Pokemon + survival open world game is on the way, promising a new area to explore, new pals, and Xbox dedicated servers, which might be the actual biggest news in the trailer. Palworld never hit for me, but I know a lot of people really enjoyed it for a time, so if you really liked Palworld, get ready to return later this month.
Valorant Console Announcement
Developer: Riot
Release Date: Limited Beta Signups Now
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, (PC version already out)
Marcy: Riot’s hit 5v5 FPS shooter Valorant is coming to consoles, and that means two things: a larger player base, and console players mixing with PC players in a competitive shooter, which often leads to not great outcomes. Expanding your player base is always smart, though, and Valorant has already had huge success in the eSports world, so this will allow them to continue making Valorant a household name for competitive shooters. Now just stop nerfing Viper, and we can talk again, Riot.
Monster Hunter Wilds
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam
Marcy: We’re still very early in the information and news about Wilds, but this second trailer since the Playstation showcase helped give some more information about new monsters we’ll face, and also a bit of the narrative elements that this game will be following. What was also nice was official confirmation that Wilds IS coming to other platforms at launch and is not a PS5/PC exclusive, as there was some confusion about that after Playstation’s State of Play.
Phantom Blade 0
Developer: S-Game
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: PS5, Steam, Epic
Marcy: Teased at the last SGF, this year the trailer for Phantom Blade 0 showed off actual gameplay. It was hard not to get Sekiro vibes from the game, which is certainly not a bad thing. The combat looked fun, fast, and brutal, and like Sekiro, it seemed like a mixture of aggression and proper timing was required to get through the fights being shown. There’s no release date, however, meaning that while this showcase looked nice, it also didn’t give us any indication this game would be out this year.
Day of the Devs Segment
Following the main show was Tim Schafer’s yearly hour+ of segments devoted to indie games and developers. The VOD for the segment can be watched here:
Day of the Devs Summer Game Fest Edition 2024 Showcase (youtube.com)
While some of the games are interesting, this segment features a LOT of fluff, so if hearing indie developers talk and looking at small games interests you, I suggest watching it, but we’ll be moving on to the final showcase of the day, which is…
Devolver Direct: Volvy’s Birthday
As usual, Devolver’s showcase starts off with an unhinged skit, featuring a man obsessed with Volvy, their terrifying “mascot”. I’m sure nothing will go wrong during this segment as it is interspersed with trailers. If you’d like to see the full uncut segment, you can click the video above. Also if you didn’t know, they released a Volvy E-Pet on itch.io that you can mess around with.
Cult of the Lamb: Unholy Alliance
Developer: Massive Monster
Release Date: August 12
Platforms: PS 4/5, Switch, Xbox Platforms, PC
Marcy: An update to the hit cult simulator and action game is on the way, bringing with it new content and more importantly, local co-op! Grab a friend and enjoy raising a cult together. Cult of the Lamb was a wild mix of animal crossing and action gameplay, and the idea of getting to play with another person adds some new fun elements to the game, or a great incentive to try it out if you haven’t yet.
Crush House
Developer: Nerial
Release Date: August 9th, 2024
Platforms: PC
Marcy: Described as a “thirst-person shooter”, Crush House evokes a very specific era of reality TV in which you are tasked with filming the ongoing drama of the house you help create by selecting the cast and steering events, while also perhaps uncovering dark secrets underneath. The game looks fun and goofy, regardless of if you remember The Real World or not.
Tenjutsu
Developer: Deepnight Games
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: PC and Consoles
Marcy: Starting your trailer with a butch woman wearing a suit in a Chinatown setting while bleeding from her forehead before she beats the hell out of more people is a way to get me, specifically, interested in your game, and also being developed by the Dead Cells team helps, I guess. The pixel beat-em up combat on show here looked dynamic and fun, so I am here for Tenjutsu and will eagerly look for more information whenever it’s available.
Talos Principle II Road to Elysium
Developer: Croteam
Release Date: Out Now, Expansion June 14th
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Marcy: The Talos Principle series is one of my favorites. I still sometimes think of the puzzles in both games and the setting and unique story, so I’m glad to see TPII getting extra content and new updates, and I’m also surprised at just how soon those updates are coming. If you really love puzzle games, considering giving the Talos Principle series a try; you could probably skip straight to II, but I actually kinda suggest you don’t.
Anger Foot
Developer: Free Lives
Release Date: July 11
Platforms: PC
Marcy: A “first-person kicker” from the team that made Broforce, Anger Foot looks like a hell of a fun time that I can’t wait to try out, where your character gains new powers and abilities based on the pair of shoes you’re wearing (including a pair of not-Crocs). It’s the exact sort of absurd action game that I love, and thankfully we don’t seem to have to wait long to get our grippers on this one.
Possessors
Developer: Heart Machine
Release Date: 2025
Platforms: PC and Consoles
Marcy: From the team that made Hyper Light Drifter (which is odd, considering the other game up there) comes Possessors, a stylish and beautiful looking side scrolling game. The action seems fast and complex, and the game also feels very atmospheric, so I’m excited to see how it blends the supernatural vibe with side scrolling gameplay.
Wrap Up of Day 1
Marcy: Frankly I think it is generous to say that the forewarnings about this year’s Summer Games Fest being a little less exciting were on the mark; this show was rough. There were a few interesting titles shown but very little that seemed to promise new, exciting, or unique experiences, and nothing that seemed to be genre or generation defining. Most of the biggest games like Monster Hunter Wilds are slated for next year, and most of the games coming up this year didn’t promise too much that we very likely weren’t expecting.
If anything, the big story of today’s SGF is that the industry is in trouble, and with companies like Blumhouse and Innersloth stepping in to help bridge, mediate, and publish titles, the lack of “big” company titles was also very noticeable, and many larger showings seemed to promise more information at Gamescom. There were still plenty of games shown off, but this Summer Game Fest is certainly on the mild side, with a good slew of interesting games coming from indie developers with unclear release dates.
Jonathan: Geoff Keighley’s response to grand mal industry layoffs, mismanagement and bullshit being to highlight single-dev games that he’s giving a platform as a sign that you, too, could just make your own game, spin the roulette wheel, and see what happens, is…very Geoff Keighley. Doesn’t piss off anyone in the industry; gets some easy points for elevating four guys (I think they were all guys) who are working real hard; makes you think maybe you can win the Vampire Survivors lottery, too. Also means he doesn’t ever have to discuss who gets health care.
Marcy: We’ll be here for the next few days as well, so feel free to check back and catch up if you aren’t able to watch the streams as they happen! Now if you’ll excuse me, my Volvy E-Pet is dying.
