Skip to main content

The Post-E3 Games Showcase Era, Summer 2024 Highlights: Part I

In the ashes of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, amid the bloat and pretense of the games industry, always must there be a presentation... always must there be game trailers... and always must there be those who commentate. So it is we find ourselves in the aftermath of this year's collected summer showcases, a cavalcade of announcements and information to parse in its wake. For my part, I set forth to once again note the games (and, occasionally, people or moments) that stood out - for good or ill. Today, we tackle that which was displayed at Sony's State of Play, the OTK Games Expo, and the Summer Game Fest... Sony State of Play The High Point: Astro Bot Is it nakedly playing off of lingering nostalgia for various Sony properties, current and forgotten? Yes.  Is it unmistakably taking cues from other more successful platformer series? Absolutely. Nevertheless, the team at Sony seem to have nailed the charm when it comes to their robot mascot, which is half the battle for cr...
Post a Comment

Trailer Thoughts: The Castlevania Series on Netflix


Looks alright.

Per the trailer, it appears we're getting an anime-esque variant of the usual "Belmont goes to face Dracula and his minions" narrative. Visually, it's certainly in line with the style and direction of the games post-Symphony of the Night as defined by long-time series artist Ayami Kojima.


I'm a bit mixed on the look if I'm being honest. I appreciate how this particular take on dark fantasy iconography has come to define the Castlevania series (at least in part), and it's possible that in motion the style really works, but I'm more drawn to the classic "80s animation by way of Gothic and Universal horror" approach that was present in the earliest games' artwork. That style, after all, gave us the glorious beefcake barbarian badass that was Simon Belmont.

Still, as a tease of things to come, it works. I'm intrigued to see what they're gonna do with the material, I get a sense that they really do care about the games and their history (if the intro with the NES cartridge and the selection screen are any indication), and the implication that we're in for a particularly bloody and brutal Castlevania experience is promising.

Castlevania, the first of two planned seasons, is due to release on July 7th.

-

Special thanks to Mark Aguirre for his support as friend of the blog and Patron. If you too would like to see more articles and updates like this, please consider sharing this on social media and contributing to my Patreon fund. 

 Thank you.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From the Archives: Squidlit Review

Still have some newer writing in the works, but for now enjoy this trip down memory lane with another review from the archives. This time: the delightful throwback platformer about a cartoon squid... Developed by Alex Barrett & Samantha Davenport (Squidlit Ink. LLC) Released on March 2nd, 2018 Version Played: Windows PC (also available for Nintendo Switch)   So I’m a fairly easy lay for the mascot platformer – partially of because the child-like whimsy it evokes in me, partially because these tend to be rather interesting games on multiple levels. Mechanically there’s various divergences that have come about in the post-Super Mario Bros space, from exploration-centric “Metroidvania” games to those works which toy with more specific gimmicks (like Sonic the Hedgehog’s speed or Sparkster’s rocket pack). And then there’s the variation in aesthetics, sound design, graphical detail, presence of an overarching narrative or themes… in short there's a lot to love there. But they also ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Critical Round-up Volume II: An Assortment of Films

It's been a hot minute since I've had cause to discuss and critique films on here. Granted, my bread and butter tends to be writing about video games, so that's where my focus tends to gravitate. But that doesn't mean I don't view my fair share of movies OR that I lack things to say about them. So, to keep things varied around these parts, let's take a look back at some films I've had cause to view as of late...   Thor: Love and Thunder The Basic Premise Some time after Avengers Endgame , Thor has set out in search of a new purpose while continuing to aid various worlds in his own unique way. He soon discovers a new threat in the form of Gorr the God Butcher, a malicious figure who (as the name suggests) has set about murdering all the gods in the known cosmos. When Gorr successfully carries out a bold attack - and child abduction - on the colony of New Asgard, Thor sets out on a rescue mission alongside Asgard's new king Valkyrie, his old rock-based fr...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Obligatory (Not) E3 2023 Round-Up, Part 2: Sifting through the Slop

Alright, it's been a while but we're back again to cover the PC Gaming Show, the Xbox Showcase and the Ubisoft Forward. After this, that's it, that's all, we're done here. PC Gaming Show The Most Questionable Stuff 3. Road to Vostok (???) Choosing to look down on a game for overt familiarity from the word ‘go’, even if all it has done at this point is have its existence announced to the world, is not inherently an act to be proud of. Much of gaming iterates and builds upon what came before, much of the medium as it stands (for good or ill) exists because someone looked at a past work and were inspired to develop their own take on the material. How many excellent games would cease to be if people decided that “it’s just a clone of X” was a valid argument in itself? I establish this now to make it clear that I do not roll my eyes at Road to Vostok for taking the form of a sparsely-populated shooter set in a post-apocalyptic wilderness area… but rather because it loo...
Post a Comment
Read more