We’re covering everything shown off at the annual Summer Games Fest, which is more or less the new E3 in terms of what it means for gamers. In this article we’re covering everything shown off at the Tribeca Game Showcase during day 4 of the event. If you missed coverage of day 1-3, you can find our coverage of day 1 here and here, day 2 here, and day 3 here.
The second part of Day 4 at Summer Game Fest was the PC Gamer PC Gaming Show, which featured a slew of new- and soon-to-be-released titles exclusively or primarily developed with PC gaming in mind. The showcase is always a little bit of an oddball, and this year was no exception, but seems to have found it’s footing in a fun and silly way that didn’t feel unbearable to watch. So, kudos, PC Gamer, keep it up next year!
As for the games shown, the breadth of PC gaming was certainly on display with games of all shapes and sizes, from small farming sims to massive RPGs and everything in between. Some of the games featured here have appeared in other Showcases so far (such as Lords of the Fallen), so for our round up we’ll be focusing on games shown here first that caught our eye or otherwise stood out!
My Friendly Neighborhood
John and Evan Szymanski
Platforms: PC
Release Date: July 18th, 2023
“Dark Muppets” is a genre that’s always been somewhat hit or miss, but there haven’t been many games that have tried to take advantage of that particular inversion, so this shooter from the Szymanskis caught my eye during the show. The demo is out on steam if you’d like to try it here, which was a big reason for my including it in the list: the demo was pretty fun and gave me a decent idea of what to expect from the main game without turning me off from the concept or gameplay. At first I thought this was a straight-up horde shooter of some sort, but the game is actually more of a survival horror style game, where you’ll solve puzzles in between fighting off the puppets that something has mysteriously changed. Also, I kind of liked the aspect that there’s no “gore” in the game, while it also becoming mechanically relevant that you’re fighting, well, felt puppets, meaning they can, and will, get back up sometimes.
The Invincible
Steward Industries
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5
Release Date: 2023
The trailer for The Invincible showed up last year during Summer Game Fest 2022, so seeing an updated trailer re-piqued my interest in the game. Retro-future space is always a fun genre to explore, where the technology is just advanced enough to allow for space travel but not advanced enough to be functionally magic. There’s an unsettling aura to The Invincible, which makes it seem like there’s a good chance for atmospheric horror in such a unique setting. There’s a demo available, although it doesn’t quite give too much of an impression either way; that said, I enjoyed what I played of it, and you’d like to try the demo as well, you can find it here. I’m quite excited to try out the full game and see what mystery the game has to reveal to me, and I am very curious to see how player choices affect the actual outcome of the game in the end.
Nova Roma
Lion Shield
Platforms: PC
Release Date: 2024
I’ve always been a fan of city builders and other sim games, and I’m also a big sucker for Roman history, so this little gem of a game caught my eye during one of the show’s segments. It seems exceptionally colorful and relaxing, in the way simulator games can be, so I’m very excited to see what the full game will reveal. The trailer and store page promise more than just building, with civic duties (laws, supply issues), gods to deal with, and natural disasters, so hopefully there will be some fun and challenging mechanics in store as well. At the very least, I have to admit that it’s fun to see a Rome themed game that isn’t about tactical warfare, so I’ll take it!
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin
Frontier Developments
Platforms: PC
Release Date: TBA
That’s right, Space Marine II isn’t the only Warhammer game on the menu this year, and honestly, Realms of Ruin surprised me with how interesting it looked. An RTS game set in the Age of Sigmar universe seems like a no-brainer, and honestly I’ll give the hot take that I’m ready to see Sigmar take the lead in ‘fantasy’ Warhammer over games that constantly return to the Old World. The gameplay in the trailer shows some attacks and abilities using cones and AOE, so I am interested to see how the RTS aspects of this pays off. The game mentions 4 factions and shows Stormcast Eternals and Kruleboyz, so what the other 2 factions are remains to be seen, but I’m going to assume it will likely be some form of Undead and Chaos, since, I mean, let’s be real here. Frontier Developments mentioned an upcoming beta, so keep your eyes peeled if this game seems up your alley and you’d like to try it out.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Larian Studios
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5, MacOS
Release Date: August 31 2023 (Xbox TBA)
Baldur’s Gate 3 is here! What do you mean you’ve already been playing it? No, no, the ACTUAL full game is coming soon, like in two months! I know, it feels a little silly to hype it up perhaps, but so far I enjoyed what I got to experience in Baldur’s Gate 3’s Early Access so far, and am excited to see the full narrative options available to me in the full game. If you’ve never played Baldur’s Gate before in your life, this is a great place to start; while some of the characters and names are given a little bit of an in-game nod, previous knowledge isn’t required, so if you enjoy RPGs like Divinity or Dragon Age, you might want to check out Baldur’s Gate 3 when it arrives in less than 2 months; you’ll likely find a lot to enjoy, and hopefully for a very long time!
Dune Awakening
Funcom
Platforms: PC
Release Date: TBA
This might be one of the most dubious picks on the list. All things in the trailer seemed to point to an action game set in the Dune universe, but the reality is that Dune Awakening is apparently an MMO of some sort, tagged also as a survival game, meaning that there really are going to be two options for this game on release: the Dune experience people have thought they wanted for ages, or a complete crash and burn we’ll all forget about. Either way, it is nice to see Dune getting some love thanks to the revived interest of the movie franchise, but I’d be lying if I said I’m mostly curious for how this MMO angle shakes out than the actual universe license itself. Still, maybe we’ll get to ride a sandworm, which could be fun?
Macabre
Weforge Studios
Platforms: PC
Release Date: TBA
Multiplayer horror games are an increasingly popular genre, from games like Dead by Daylight to Outlast Trials tasking groups of players to get scared and try to survive together, so I wasn’t exactly surprised to see a new game in that genre pop-up during the showcase. There’s a lot of interesting angles to take with these styles of games, whether it be limiting what players can do or fight back, to the type of horror the game wants to experiment with. Macabre’s hook is that it features some level of timeline shenanigans and heavy sci-fi influenced horror, but one of the most unique promises that caught my eye is that these timelines can include “other players”, but so far doesn’t expand on what that could mean. In the end, it could mean nothing, but I really would love a game that messes with co-op in interesting ways, so I’m curious about this one.
Wrap-Up and Other Games to Check Out
Like many of the showcases, there are far more games than feasible to cover in a quick recap, so if you are curious about any of them, PC Gamer has a Steam page where you can check out all of the titles shown which you can see here. I’m personally curious to see how Vampire Survivors, Miasma Chronicles, and Island of Insight shake out. Quite a few of the games have demos as well, which is nice to see more of lately.
Tomorrow: More Coverage!
That’s right, there’s even more stuff coming up! Ubisoft and Capcom has some things to reveal, and Tuesday will also bring expansive coverage of the Xbox showcase including games that weren’t premiered. We’ll keep you covered with anything you might have missed. And as always, if you have any questions or feedback, or if you have any games you’re excited about, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
