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 that 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 note the games that stood out among the pack. Today, we go over the high points of the Future Games Show , the Xbox Games Showcase , the PC Gaming Show and, yes , even the Ubisoft Forward . Heaven help us all... Future Games Show The High Point: Duck Detective: The Secret Salami The premise of “riffing on the hardboiled detective story with talking cartoon animals” would be a fine selling point for a game in itself. The choice to also lean into a sticker book aesthetic, complete with characters hobbling around as barely moving objects in a scene? Now that's a fun time ...
2018 proved a fascinating year for games that I largely appreciated from the sidelines, as someone whose purchasing habits tend to be on the supremely budgeted side. Smash Bros got a sequel, Red Dead Redemption got a sequel, Far Cry 5 happened, a whole lot of studios collapsed in on themselves due to mismanagement and the deeply ingrained toxicity of the games industry… to reiterate, I said “fascinating”, not “uniformly good and respectful of all involved”. But now it’s 2019 and, despite it being three months into the new year, I’ve got things to say regarding the upcoming game slate. There’s still a substantive number of games whose release dates are nebulous and undefined, so I figure it’s a good a time as any to spotlight the ones I feel are most promising. Please note that this is not a confirmation that these games will, in point of fact, turn out well - just that, at present, these are the ones which based on pre-release material seem to have their affair...