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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 sh...

MojoPlays Review - Crackdown 3 (link attached)

Yep, 'tis another work of mine - a video review of Crackdown 3 scripted and with captured footage by yours truly.

Wee Bit of a Content Round-up (links in post)

So! I've been a busy fellow, it seems. Yes, in addition to continuing to work on QueueTimes pieces behind the scenes (one's coming up soon, keep your eyes open) I've also been asked to join the Review team for MojoPlays , an off-shoot of WatchMojo.com .  My first review , for the first episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Final Season: And review number two , for the indie puzzle-platformer Planet Alpha:

Review: SQUIDLIT (linked article)

Yes, I have indeed begun reviewing for QueueTimes.  First up: my take on the delightful retro platformer Squidlit.   Read on...

Thoughts on... STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Some Background, First Much like a lot of folks I know, and I imagine a significant portion of the populace, I grew up with Star Wars. I distinctly recall being in the theatre as a toddler, back in 1999, seeing The Phantom Menace for the first time. I also remember being woken up in the car by my mother, having (apparently) fallen asleep while watching The Phantom Menace, soooooo… yeah. The prospect of a Sequel Trilogy excited and thrilled me in a way I’d not felt in a long while - seeing that first teaser of The Force Awakens, where the Millenium Falcon comes swooping into frame over the deserts of Jakku, was nothing short of breathtaking. I’d loved the Original Trilogy, I had a certain abiding fondness for the Prequels, I adored the games, I liked the spin-off books I’d read (Tales of the Bounty Hunters and the early Rogue Squadron books, primarily). Point is, I cheer at the mere thought of new Star Wars.  The Force Awakens was quite pleasant, all told; not quite EMPIRE-leve...

REFLECTING ON... Dark Forces (a link ahead)

Not exactly the usual content for this blog o' mine, for sure. This is a piece I'd been working on for a while and felt would serve well as my inaugural article for QueueTimes. DARK FORCES TALK AHEAD Incidentally: go check out the lovely videos and articles on their site (no I was not paid to say that, this is of my own free will, et cetera, et cetera). I'd recommend starting with Zach Murphy's ongoing Treasure Trove series , aimed at highlighting what he feels to be the underappreciated or forgotten games of days passed. It's a fun series, and he's got a solid voice and interesting perspective on what constitutes a "hidden gem".

Kurt's E3 2018 Round-up Spectacular! Part 4

Nintendo Rather Interesting - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Don't care if it's "just" all the old fighters in a new package (which, as the footage made clear, it isn't). Don't care if it's functionally a high-definition port of previously-showcased Smash Bros maps, items and game mechanics. It's the biggest in scale, the largest in roster, and potentially the most ambitious in terms of detail and design. And can we just appreciate for one goddamn second that every fighter in Smash history is coming back for this game! No question, this is awesome. Runner-up - Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee GAH! Your starter Pokemon follows your player character outside of its Pokeball. You catch wild Pokemon not by battling it, but with luring it and carefully tossing Pokeballs a la Pokemon Go. All of the original 150 Pokemon, rendered as 3D models, in what appears to be a lovely recreation of the Kanto region. Okay, I dig where this is goin...

Kurt's E3 2018 Round-Up Spectacular! Part 3

PC Gaming Rather Interesting - Maneater You're a shark in this one, you eat people. It's the reversal on Jaws I never expected nor thought I needed in my life, yet cannot imagine a world without. Silly malarkey, but of a breed that I appreciate thoroughly. Runner-up - Sable Drawing upon much more offbeat influences than many in the post-apocalypse genre (Belgian comics and Studio Ghibli films were specifically name-checked), the unorthodox look of Sable's world   makes me positively eager to see more of it in action. Has Potential - Two Point Hospital My biggest hang-up here is not having familiarity with Two Point Hospital 's spiritual predecessor, Theme Hospital . Beyond that, everything I've seen and heard tells me this'll be a quirky and charming hospital sim with a lot of fun scenarios to play through. Runner-up - The Walking Dead: The Final Season Not having followed up with Telltale's run of Walking Dead titles since Season 2 , I fi...