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What Was Worth A Damn About Summer Game Fest 2026?

Yeah, it’s Keighley o’clock again. I won’t do the whole spiel about Geoff Keighley or the games presentations associated with him - they’re vapid, bloated productions run by gaming PR’s favourite host, but you know that already (OR you know that now). Other folks have better, more entertaining material poking fun at the whole farce of the thing, whereas my aim is simply to find the potential gems amid the middling fare. This year’s Summer Game Fest was definitely among the more underwhelming and anemic in my experience, but I still managed to find some noteworthy titles, my reactions to which I have presented below. Have a look and see if anything strikes your fancy. Star Wars: Zero Company Developed by Bit Company and Respawn Entertainment Published by Electronic Arts Releasing August 27, 2026 for Windows PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The initial reveal for this game gave a strong impression that the central idea for this game was “What if XCOM, but with Star Wars stuff?” What they sh...
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PSYCHONAUTS 2 Review

"I am the crushed one. It crushes my heart to see you not doing your best." Release Date: August 25, 2021 Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X Note: writer contributed to 2015/2016 Fig campaign funding the game's development  In an age where sequels and reboots are in abundance, particularly where video games are concerned, sixteen years is a hell of a gap. Yes, it can help cultivate a nostalgic longing for the return of something beloved from a bygone era... but it can't be helped that in that time, everything from the basics of design priorities through to the greater-scope concerns of the world around us has shifted more than once in inescapable, inevitable fashion. So it's an interesting position for Double Fine's latest work Psychonauts 2 to find itself. It needs to not only stand on its own merits but also ride the line between honoring its cult classic predecessor and growing beyond its roots, while also reckoning with the reality t...
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Review: SQUIDLIT (linked article)

Yes, I have indeed begun reviewing for QueueTimes.  First up: my take on the delightful retro platformer Squidlit.   Read on...
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Review: RUSTY LAKE PARADISE

Developer: Rusty Lake Publisher: Rusty Lake Release Date: January 11, 2018 Version Played: PC Copy purchased for review When talking of horror media, the concept of fearing the unknown is key. It’s not exactly a novel sentiment, but I nonetheless maintain that it’s vital to understanding why a given work - film, literature, video game, et cetera - works at provoking a terrified response. For many, there’s an innate impulse to draw back and flee when faced with grotesque and incomprehensible imagery; we retreat to safety in a bid to keep calm whilst trying to make sense of our observations. This feels pertinent since, on top of everything else, Rusty Lake Paradise is remarkably adept in its usage of horror iconography to evoke fear in the audience. It’s unsettling in mood, slow-burning in narrative progression, and quite effectively builds in suspense up to its finale. For the uninitiated: Paradise represents the latest work in the Rusty Lake series, sharing its name with t...
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Review: MIND PORTAL

Release Date: January 12th, 2018 Developer: Daniil Titner Publisher: Daniil Titner Version Reviewed: PC Copy Purchased There's a saying in certain circles that you can make a good movie out of anything, but to do it sometimes you have to rip out the source material's guts.  The intent of that saying is, I feel, quite clear in its central focus - highlighting how some projects have to work harder than others to hammer competency out of flawed material - but I think the sentiment can also apply to other mediums, like gaming. Take, for example, the first-person platformer, a sub-genre which exists primarily as an extension of the first-person shooter genre being so prevalent for sooooo long.  Make no mistake, I like works like Mirror's Edge (or, say, Jumping Flash ) for at least trying to offer something different from the gun-toting norm, but the execution of such works tends to leave a lot to be desired (no matter how much time, energy and money is thrown at the d...
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Outlast Review

Thanks to my Patreon supporter and friend, Mark Aguirre, who is currently donating $5 to aid in the production of this and other written works by me. If you'd like to see more from the KURT OF CAMBRIDGE brand, please consider contributing to my Patreon yourself. I’ll be upfront in saying if someone came up and pitched Outlast to me, I’d be more than a little weary. See, while horror in gaming has seen years of experimentation and development enough to be given the benefit of the doubt, the idea of exploitative horror - i.e. horror stories predicated on using existing social issues or prejudices as an excuse to engage in wanton scenes of violence, bloodletting and other “extreme” concepts - is not as well-developed or as ingrained into game canon. Thus, a game where the core pitch seems to be “Let’s throw players into an asylum gone mad, sprinkle in some torture porn and inhumane experiments, and see what happens” is one that would catch me off-guard, to say the least. For...
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