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...
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...