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 ...
Fifty minutes or so, out of a live stream that went on for over two hours. Yeah, sure, there's been more strenuous ways to justify churning out several hundred words about an assortment of game previews.
(The 1hr5 mark, for those looking to cut to the chase.)
FINAL FANTASY XVI
I am entirely convinced from this trailer that the background for this game's development was that someone at Square got really into Game of Thrones a decade ago (oh god...) and made the connection that it could work for Final Fantasy. I certainly buy that it'd take them approximately that long to move this game down the development pipeline, both because game dev is a messy and uncertain process and because Square Enix.
That said, as "Japanese takes on moderately-grim Europeon medieval fantasy" go, this doesn't look half bad. XVI seems to be carrying over the quasi-real time combat system that worked for Final Fantasy XV, and the choice of high-fantasy aesthetic and setting after several entries of science-fantasy blending is a pleasant change of pace.
SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES
The main takeaway here was how familiar, yet nonetheless distinctive the Miles Morales expansion seems to be. Miles himself possesses a power set that echoes that of Peter Parker's but with some interesting differences - chief among them being his camouflage and electric-defense powers.
Narratively, this seems to be setting up a "city under siege" plotline but with the catch that more than one faction is in play; there's a vigilante tech-heavy group lead by a female incarnation of the Tinkerer, opposed (at least so far) by Roxxon Energy Co.'s in-house security force. I suspect the possibility of a later-in-plot complication that ties the Tinkerer's forces to Roxxon more concretely.
HOGWARTS: LEGACY
Fuck you, Joanne.
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS COLD WAR
I've resigned myself to being "the Call of Duty guy" in my given friend/associate groups, and so felt obliged by that (self-imposed and admittedly very silly) responsibility to find something of value to say about the Cold War footage. Besides the obvious observation that it was indeed a Call of Duty trailer and what else do you expect from this franchise and oh god I'm tired.
Anyway, besides being entirely familiar in its action beats to the point of being rote - right down to "clearly foolproof plan that immediately goes awry and sets off a frantic chase sequences" - the main (non-discomfort-over-Treyarch-being-very-enthusiastic-about-fixating-on-far-right-conspiracy-theories-related) takeaway was how odd it was not to hear Sam Worthington as Alex Mason. That's an odd decision - perhaps part of a move towards a reboot angle on Treyarch/Activision's part? Certainly a prevailing theory of mine.
RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE
Okay, yes, this was the exact kind of weird and silly yet undeniably unsettling feel I'd been waiting for in a trailer for this game. The storybook aspect and the old woman's narration did it for me. Bring it on.
DEATHLOOP
I'm interested but also faintly concerned about the various spinning plates on display here. You've got the central time loop keeping the assassin protagonist locked in a single day, what appears to be an intricate range of cause-and-effect variables as to what targeted people end up where, a blend of Dishonored and Wolfenstein-esque mechanics *and* a rival assassin also aware of the time loop.
It's also still not precisely clear to me how returning to the start of the loop is supposed to work - is it merely narrative pretense and the game's actually structured as individual levels/areas with normal saving and loading? Is the idea for players to actually get through a single run of the allotted time, going back to square one every time they die? If it's the latter, that feels like a bold move but also a potentially divisive one, though I'd at least respect Arkane for committing to it.
DEVIL MAY CRY 5 SPECIAL EDITION
They put Vergil in this time - no, like the actual Vergil, not... wait, does that constitute a spoiler? It's been a year. Anyway, yeah, sure, I liked 5.
ODDWORLD SOULSTORM
Abe is great, the last one of these remasters was delightful, and this looks like a fitting escalation.
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S SECURITY BREACH
I could've sworn that this ended a while ago...
Anyway, the neon-heavy indoor amusement park setting seems within the purview of the series, though whether that means it's a period work set in the 1980s or just evoking the sense memory of the decade is unclear. The trailer seems to imply the protagonist (and possibly a robotic companion?) hiding from whatever this instalment's version of the murder bots happen to be. And the SHODAN-esque robot voice calling out is certainly a thing.
DEMON'S SOULS
I have the distinct impression that the game feel on this one is going to throw fans of the original (and just Souls series fans in general) for a loop. It looks like the core gameplay has experienced quite the overhaul in terms of smoothness of animation and slickness of action. Still, for a moderately enigmatic and obtuse medieval fantasy action-RPG, this remake is shaping up quite impressively.
THE PLAYSTATION PLUS COLLECTION
This seems to be Sony's bid to match Microsoft's surprisingly impressive (if not quite comprehensive) efforts in offering a curated digital games service while also keeping backwards compatibility in play. Whatever the actual motive, it's a good move. We'll see if they actually stay committed to the promise.
IN CLOSING
PS5 at $500/PS5 Digital at $400 USD is more reasonable than I'd anticipated, but still strikes me as a bit much (ESPECIALLY UNDER CURRENT ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES). God of War teaser, nodding to the promise of Ragnarok. Fortnite coming to PS5 because of course it is, our toasters will have Fortnite before long.
-FIN-
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