Skip to main content

What Was Worth A Damn About Gamescom 2025?

We’re back again to take a look at the highlights of a gaming showcase. This time, we turn our attention to Gamescom, the gaming trade show in Germany whose “ Opening Night Live ” presentation happens to be hosted by Geoff Keighley . Can’t so much as walk five paces without bumping into a show that that man is hosting. Anyway, same principle as before - just the good-looking and interesting projects, keeping the pessimism and negativity to a minimum. Bubsy 4D Developed by: Fabraz Someone made the call to stick this in the pre-show before the main presentation, and that’s baffling to me because it’s one of the most interesting nostalgia revivals I’ve seen in a while. Immediate takeaway: Fabraz seems to be leaning hard on self-aware and self-deprecating comedy here. An understandable creative choice, given both Bubsy’s wisecracking persona and the series’ charms having been overshadowed for three decades by this game’s infamous predecessor Bubsy 3D. The jokes in the trailer are amusi...
Post a Comment

What Was Worth a Damn About Sony's June 2025 State of Play?

It's been a minute, hasn't it?

Promo image for game Bloodstained The Scarlet Engagement, depicting two feminine characters standing in what appears to be the inside of a Gothic era church littered with old scaffolding and overgrowth. The person closer to the left is adorned in black and gold armor, while the person towards the center of the image is wearing white and silver. Both people have white hair.

Like clockwork, Sony showed up in this, the season of What Was Once E3 Time, to offer up a selection of trailers and teases of forthcoming video games. And like clockwork, I am here to pick through their offerings to find that which is worth monitoring in the coming months.

This will not be an overview of the whole presentation (it was fine, mostly trailers with a bit of developer and producer commentary to bridge the spaces between, nothing outside the box), nor will it be an excuse to bash certain games, individuals or studios. We're just taking a look at the titles that stood out as compelling, interesting or both - and yes, I am pulling from my Bluesky notes here, because I can.

Promo image from game Romeo is a Dead Man, showing a man in a gold jacket and white pants wielding a sword, charging at a rotund human-shaped creature with oversized darkened hands.

Romeo is a Deadman

Developed by: Grasshopper Manufacture

Looks like a hack-and-slash game (of that "character action" variety) pulling from a few different directions - multiple animation styles employed, a mix of body-horror and sci-fi to the overall aesthetic. I am not at all surprised to see Goichi Suda attached.

Promo image from game Silent Hill f, showing the high school student protagonist walking toward stairs in a Japanese village. At the top of the stairs stands a human-shaped figure.

Silent Hill f

Developed by: NeoBards Entertainment

Still curious if the jump from "broadly drawn Middle American town" to "abandoned Japanese village" will work, but aesthetically what's being done is interesting. Lot of emphasis on floral growth imagery.

In the trailer, the way bodies hang like marionettes (and then their limbs SNAP whenever someone gets close) is unsettling, feels of a kind with earlier games. School drama angle to the characters (some kind of "betrayal"?). There's promise here.

Promo image from game Bloodstained The Scarlet Engagement. Depicts a tall bearded man wearing black armour with gold accents, standing next to a shorter white-haired person wearing a dark outfit with bronze armour pieces. Behind the two people is a staircase covered in snow and ice.

Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement

Developed by: ArtPlay

It's about damn time. The not-quite-CASTLEVANIA-but-also-quite-clearly-pulling-from-the-same-well art style is still great, the subtle outlines on characters lets them stand out amid the detailed environments. It's a prequel this time (set 200 years before RITUAL).

Promo image from Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles, showing various pixel-art depictions of characters in combat along the side of a mountain, next to a waterfall. In the foreground are various gameplay statistics such as health and magic points listed for two characters, as well as their individual portraits.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Developed by: Square Enix Creative Studio III

The second I heard the VA say "Ivalice", I knew a whole bunch of folks were going to be OVER THE MOON with joy. Remastered visuals seem to be averting the usual pixel-art fumbles with Square, and it's nice to see the original visuals included as an option.

Promo image for game Baby Steps. Depicts a shaggy haired man wearing a blue onesie, his arms outstretched to either side, right leg raised as if about to take a step. He is standing on a slanted plane, possibly the side of a mountain. In the sky is a bright orange sun, while in the background behind the man is a house tilted on its side, possibly in the middle of sinking into the earth.

Baby Steps

Developed by: Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy

So it's QWOP, but as a 3D platformer of sorts and you control a reclusive (literal?) man-baby. Yeah, okay, sufficiently weird AND it's being published by Devolver. I might keep an eye on this one.

Promo image for game Hirogami, depicting a distant shot of a person walking through a stone gateway that is surrounded by pine trees. Everything in the image is made to look constructed from folded paper.

Hirogami

Developed by: Bandai Namco Studios Singapore & Malaysia

Looks like a fantasy platformer, mix of side-scroller segments and 3D platforming, some flight sequences. Whole world being made of folded paper is a neat look, animated almost akin to stop-motion. The main character can apparently transform into multiple animal forms? Cool.

Promo image for game Everybody's Golf Hot Shots, depicting a cartoon-like girl with auburn hair, a sleeveless white top, and a blue skirt. She is preparing to take a swing with a golf club. Surrounding the girl are various video game interface details relating to the girl's golf score, the type of club used, the potential power of her swing, and so on. In the far distance, past the golf course, is a large mountain that appears to be Japan's Mount Fuji.

Everybody's Golf Hot Shots

Developed by: HYDE

Glad to see this still kicking around, I like when sports sims AREN'T all trying for realism at the expense of fun. Mostly caught my attention because of Pac-Man as a playable character - everything is better with mascots! Give the man his due, he's been at this for 45 years (oh god...).

Promo image from game collection Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, depicting a moment from one of the games featured in the collection. It is a fight between hero character Liu Kang, wearing red pants, and villain character Shang Tsung, adored in a yellow and black outfit. Liu Kang appears to be performing his signature bicycle kick move on Shang Tsung.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection

Collection developed by: Digital Eclipse

Mortal Kombat originally developed by Midway Games

Digital Eclipse is tackling this, and they have a hell of a track record on remasters and compilations. Unifying various versions of the first four (five, if you count Ultimate MK3 as a distinct entry) is great, pairing that with behind-the-scenes materials is INCREDIBLE. Looks good.

Promo image from game Sea of Remnants, depicting a large ship with white sails that is sailing around a small island with a large protruding rock formation.

Sea of Remnants

Developed by: Joker Studio

Kinda curious about the juxtaposition of naturalistic seaside locales with puppet-like character design - interesting choice, if nothing else. Seems like they're going for a multiplayer pirate thing, a la SEA OF THIEVES?

Yes, I saw the giant enemy crab. If you know, you know...

Screenshot from game Deus Ex The Conspiracy, depicting first-person view of a small box-shaped room with a large burn mark in the floor. Also visible are chunks of organic matter that may be the remains of a corpse.

Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (and the rest of the PlayStation Classics Update)

RESIDENT EVIL 2 and 3 are always nice to see, glad they're getting their due of late. MYST and RIVEN are unexpected, but not unappreciated. 

DEUS EX on PS2 is a legitimate curveball. I had thought history forgot that even existed.

Promo image for game 007 First Light, showing James Bond from behind as he walks along a woman. They are walking between rows of desks, in an advanced lab with various scientists working or talking with one another.

First Light

Developed by: IO Interactive

Cautiously hopeful about this one. IO Interactive knows their way around elegant, playful level design, and the hint of gadgetry and explosive set-pieces "feels" Bond-like.

Not 100% sold on doing another "Origin of Bond" story, though, especially given that damn near half of that last run of films basically was "How Bond Got His Groove" AND how well-established as a pop-culture figure Bond is in general. We know this guy, we know his deal - kinda feels tiresome to go through the motions of explaining again, y'know?

-FIN-

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: MIND PORTAL

Release Date: January 12th, 2018 Developer: Daniil Titner Publisher: Daniil Titner Version Reviewed: PC Copy Purchased There's a saying in certain circles that you can make a good movie out of anything, but to do it sometimes you have to rip out the source material's guts.  The intent of that saying is, I feel, quite clear in its central focus - highlighting how some projects have to work harder than others to hammer competency out of flawed material - but I think the sentiment can also apply to other mediums, like gaming. Take, for example, the first-person platformer, a sub-genre which exists primarily as an extension of the first-person shooter genre being so prevalent for sooooo long.  Make no mistake, I like works like Mirror's Edge (or, say, Jumping Flash ) for at least trying to offer something different from the gun-toting norm, but the execution of such works tends to leave a lot to be desired (no matter how much time, energy and money is thrown at the d...
Post a Comment
Read more

2023 in Gaming: The Five Least Promising Games

New year, new chance to hope against hope for good things before being crushed by the inevitable heartbreak of video games being a mess right now. In all seriousness, despite how easy it is to be cynical about the state of the industry, I still find value in examining the forthcoming slate of titles and offering my perspective on how much - or little - they have to offer. For today I have elected to pinpoint the five games whose marketing leaves much to be desired. Time will tell if I prove correct in my predictions here, but at this moment these are my feelings as to how entirely not enticing these games appear.  The FIFTH LEAST PROMISING: Dead Space Releases January 27th The Basic Premise: It's the future, everyone's miserable and doing contract work like cracking planets for minerals. One such ship, the Ishimura, goes dark and eventually worries people enough to send a rescue crew to try to fix the situation. Enter the Necromorphs, space zombies of maybe supernatural origin...
Post a Comment
Read more