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 showcased at Summer Game Fest only hammered the point home: we are firmly in XCOM-a-like turn-based tactics territory here.

This is not to complain, to be clear – just because something’s rooted in familiar elements doesn’t mean it has to be bad at it. From the looks of it, the interface for giving commands to squad members on the field seems to be taking cues from the slick, coherent presentation of Firaxis’ XCOM titles. Zero Company also seems to be carrying over the prospect of growing emotionally attached to a custom group of oddballs and outcasts, whose lives and continued success on the battlefield depend on the player’s ability to not completely fumble in the command chair, from its genre cousins. Because isn’t suffering heartbreak due to your favourite squad member dying from a horrific combat injury the true mark of a game’s lasting power?

Among Us Story: On Guard

Developed and Published by Innersloth

Releasing for Windows PC, Mac OS, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2

I have never really cared for Among Us. I didn’t follow it when it launched (or during its spike of popularity in the middle of a global plague), I didn’t have friends who engaged with it and thus never got roped into any group sessions, and I’ve not had any particular desire to investigate it. No, not even to contextualize that animated series that just came out.

That said, this almost looks interesting enough to make me care about the property. The art style in this spin-off seems more akin to a picture book than the Newgrounds-influenced look of the original game. I’m also curious about what kind of narrative work they've done here, given that the whodunit murder mystery at the center of this game’s story seems to exist within the framing device of a training simulation.

Hot Wheels Infinite Rush

Developed and Published by Milestone S.r.l.

Releasing September 10, 2026 for Windows PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Even having not touched a Hot Wheels toy in actual decades, I’m delighted by what I saw here. Yes, fine, it looks like it’ll probably be an open-world racing game, so the quality of side activities and how well the game entices the player to engage in detours will make the difference here. But what’s caught my eye, more than anything, is the magnificent care taken in the LOOK of the game – the cars, the buildings, the roads all look appropriately shiny and constructed from metal or plastic, an aesthetic choice that makes the part of my heart that remains 12 years old cheer with unbridled joy.

Last Harbor

Developed and Published by tinyBuild

Releasing for Windows PC

Okay, even without the developers’ explicit acknowledgement that this game is based on the experience of living through COVID, it’d be pretty reasonable to come away thinking the fixation on isolation and surviving in an uncaring, monstrous world was a little on the nose for the times. Sure, most of the time the monstrousness is more metaphorical and not a case of literal zombies and monsters attempting to ruin your day, but still.

Anyway, this looks solid. One part fishing sim where you’re casting out a line seemingly at a whim, one part survival sim about scavenging ruins and abandoned buildings along the shoreline while trying not to be mauled by the undead. If the gameplay loop is compelling enough, I can see this finding a solid audience.

Mighty Cuphead Adventure

Developed and Published by Studio MDHR

Releasing for Sega Master System (yes really), PC and undisclosed modern consoles.

I respected Cuphead more than I loved it. While its visuals were an admirable recreation of the exaggerated character proportions and overall playfulness of early 20th century cartoons, I could never quite get past how truly unforgiving and demanding of precision the level design was. 

Mighty Cuphead Adventure, then, presents an opportunity for the studio to take another crack at the challenge of crafting a satisfying action-platformer within the framework of a different aesthetic. The choice to eschew the rubber-hose animation for a pixel-art style deliberately evoking side-scrollers of the late 80s and early 90s is unexpected, though by no means unwelcome.

Plus, hell yeah, they're doing a physical release of the game on an actual Sega Master System cartridge. Now THAT'S commitment to the bit.

gen Atlas

Developed by genDesign Co., Ltd.

Published by Epic Games Publishing

Releasing for Windows PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S

It’s still not abundantly clear what KIND of game this new project from the mind behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus will actually be; the trailer suggests third-person shooter action and piloting of an orb-shaped device will factor into the experience, but details remain scarce. It is definitely a departure for a creator whose past work has skewed more fantasy than weathered post-apocalyptic science-fiction, so at least for that reason this project has my attention.