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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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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.

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