I thought Sonic Frontiers was less Breath Of The Wild and more Super Mario Odyssey after I'd given it whirl in LA at Summer Geoff Fest. Despite its rough edges, Frontier's open-ish world was a joy to blitz around as a hedgehog renowned for going particularly fast. But there was one thing I couldn't talk about – Cyberspace stages: Bite-sized levels à la classic Sonic. And here's why it might've been one of the best bits of the demo.
]]>I was in LA for Summer Geoff Fest and I played a whole bunch of games. No, not lots of blockbusters – mainly because there weren't too many of those about - but lots of indies, instead. In fact, out of all the games I saw or played or glanced at while I dashed between appointments, it was the indies that really stood out.
]]>The blue hedgehog is back! He goes very fast in his latest instalment, Sonic Frontiers! And lots of fans – naturally – think it looks terrible! The scepticism is understandable. But having gone hands-on with it at Summer Geoff Fest, I'd like to pose a counter argument: the game needs to be played. Just seeing it with your eyeballs doesn't do it justice. Yes, it's a weird departure for Sonic, but I am here for it.
]]>Nightingale is an upcoming PvE open-world survival craft 'em up by Inflexion Games, a studio led by former BioWare boss Aaryn Flynn. Imogen (RPS in peace) spoke with him earlier this year about the game's gaslamp fantasy setting and why they chose to enter the survival genre gauntlet, among many other things. At this year's Summer Geoff Fest, I caught up with Flynn for another quick chat. This time, we dug into the game's recently revealed card crafting and realm-hopping features, as well as the choices you might make along the way.
]]>Your boy was in LA for Summer Geoff Fest 2022 and had the opportunity to sit down with Dead Space co-creator Glen Schofield, who's now director of Striking Distance Studios and their upcoming sci-fi horror fest The Callisto Protocol. We touched on the game's "beta paths", its gore system, upgrades, and batteries. There was a lot of chat about batteries. Forgot to ask if they were AA or AAA, though.
]]>Square Enix and People Can Fly have unveiled more details of the endgame for Worldslayer, the upcoming first paid expansion to their online co-op action RPG Outriders. Outriders’ creative director Bartek Kmita says there’s “hundreds of hours of meaningful progression” in Worldslayer’s endgame, which sounds like a lot, but the focus is mostly on the replayable big new Trial of Tarya Gratar dungeon. Check out the full broadcast below for some shooty footage.
]]>As part of the Summer Game Fest's adjacent livestream events, Epic Games did it's own thing to show off this year, and first on the docket was the reveal of a Lord Of The Rings Game that, as a lapsed fan, I'm actually interested in. The Lord Of The Rings: Return To Moria is a multiplayer action survival game about the Dwarves trying to reclaim the most cursed mine in all of fantasy canon. It's due out in Spring 2023 and will, of course, be an Epic Games Store exclusive.
]]>What is building a PC but piecing together an elaborate, electronic jigsaw? Equally, what is building a jigsaw but piecing together an analogue cardboard PC you can't do anything with after it's finished? These similarities are why building a PC isn't as strange a subject for a videogame as it first appears.
If you like your electric jigsaws, then good news: there's now an open beta available for PC Building Simulator 2.
]]>Videogame publishers look at animated series like I look at air fryers: everyone else seems to have one, so I want one too. I assume that's why BioWare are working with Netflix to produce Dragon Age: Absolution, a new animated series coming this December.
]]>One time in the office (so, a hundred years ago) a hypothetical was posed: if you were given the chance to go to the moon, with a guarantee that nothing would go wrong, would you take it? "No," I said. "No way. Not a chance. I wouldn't like it." People were shocked at my refusal. "But nothing will go wrong!" they exclaimed. This misses the universal truth that even - and indeed, especially - when it is guaranteed nothing will go wrong, something will always go wrong in space.
Honestly, who can say that they've played a video game set on a space station and not encountered at least one deserted corridor plunged into darkness, but with one spotlight tipped over onto its side to cast ominous shadows? Raise your hands. Terror in space has never gone out of fashion, really, but the source of the terror does seem to go in cycles. In the 2010s a lot of the danger came from an AI gone a bit sinister and funny. As we saw at last night's Summer Game Fest, though, the monsters are back, baby.
]]>Well, isn't this a lovely surprise? Arguably the highlight from Devolver's Countdown To Marketing stream this evening, The Plucky Squire is the next game from the creator of Swords Of Ditto - and it looks an absolute peach. See what I mean in the reveal trailer below.
]]>Skate Story has been grinding along for a couple of years, promising a skateboarding game set in an ephemeral world of ghostly corridors and unending paths. The last we saw of it was back in 2020. It resurfaced tonight during Devolver's not-E3 showcase, and dang: it's transformed into one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen.
]]>Anger Foot. It’s angry and there are certainly plenty of feet. From Free Lives, the creators of Broforce and Genital Jousting, it’s so aggressively kicky that I don’t feel like going near doors anytime soon. They describe it as a “lightning fast hard bass blast of kicking down doors and kicking ass”. Good grief. Keep an eye on the threatening tootsies in the trailer below.
]]>I rarely feel as conflicted about a game as I do about Honkai: Star Rail. It's a turn-based RPG and I like those; but it's a JRPG and I dislike those. It's got a spacefaring train in it, which I always think is cute; but also it's got anime waifus in it and those make me cringe. Its new trailer, which you'll find below, is dynamic and exciting and well-edited; but... it's got cringy anime waifus in it.
Watch it and make up your own mind.
]]>Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo brought some more fighty footage of their sci-fi online third-person action RPG Zenless Zone Zero to today’s Summer Game Fest presentation. It’s as snazzy as you’d expect from the Shanghai-based studio. Avoid multiple fancy blows while perusing the trailer below.
]]>Geoff-Fest, Keigh3, or just regular old E3 week (but not really) - whatever you want to call it, announcement season is here. Summer Game Fest 2022 has now wrapped up and there were plenty of trailers and world premieres to gawk at. If you couldn’t keep up with Keighley’s Summer Game Fest onslaught, or just need a reminder of what happened, we’ve got every new trailer from Summer Games Fest 2022 right here.
]]>A studio founded by former Blizzard folks today announced their free-to-play real-time strategy game, Stormgate. It's about the remnants of humanity hopping into mechs to beat back demonic-lookin' alien invaders, and will have a campaign with co-op support as well as competitive multiplayer. Check out these fightbots in the announcement trailer from the Summer Game Fest, below.
]]>Nightingale, the upcoming PvE open-world survival craft 'em up from former BioWare boss Aaryn Flynn's new studio, is getting into the card game business, according to its latest gameplay trailer shown at tonight's Summer Game Fest. Its freshly flaunted Realm Cards will be your ticket to navigating its mysterious portal network, although naturally you'll need to craft them by pulping different resources together first. Anyone spot a paper press in the new trailer below?
]]>Offering a veritable open buffet of updates, retro beat 'em up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge confirmed its release next week on June 16th, showed off Casey Jones (real name Arnold) as a playable character, and revealed some six-player online and local multiplayer all in one go. This wasn't part of anything, and was instead a random and unexpected announcement. Only kidding! It was one of many things shown at Summer Game Fest tonight.
]]>Midnight Fight Express features brutal violence and people in animal masks, prompting unflattering comparisons to the streamlined and propulsive Hotline Miami. Look past that comparison and I think there's more to like about it on its own terms, however. Check out the new trailer below, which also delivers news of its release date and a playable demo.
]]>Day Of The Devs is probably my favourite part of the summer games jamboree every year because it does wonders for the visibility of indie games and their developers. Slotting in snugly right after Geoff regaled us with the Summer Game Fest stream, this year’s Day Of The Devs showcase marked the tenth anniversary. Tim Schafer and friends revealed more about some stonking looking indies from places as far apart as the Netherlands, Japan and Argentina. It was lovely to see some solo devs featured too, such as Madison Karrh with Birth, a point-and-click puzzler about loneliness, and Billy Basso’s beautiful pixel-art Metroidvania Animal Well.
]]>Revealed tonight at Summer Game Fest, you can whet your appetite for the new Saints Row game by making your boss character right now. Described as "the ultimate body shop", Boss Factory is a free standalone demo you can access in The Epic Game Store (or by following a series of links through SaintsRow.com). In it you can have a ride on the character creator before the game comes out in August, and save your favourite and most bizarre looks. This was revealed with a trailer with all explosions and montages and that.
]]>Na-na-na-na-na-Nightwing! See, who misses Batman anymore? Not former ward and sidekick Dick Grayson, who was happily kicking faces and twirling about like the aerial gymnast he is at tonight’s Summer Game Fest, live from Gotham City. Oh wait, that was new footage from Gotham Knights? Okay then, well, you better watch the trailer to find out more.
]]>The Last Of Us: Part One is heading to PC. The news leaked out earlier this evening but was then officially announced as part of the Summer Games Fest. The good news is that our favoured platform will receive the same fancified version as is being developed for PlayStation 5; the bad news is that while the PlayStation 5 version has a September 2nd release date, there's no confirmed date for the PC version yet.
]]>A new trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide fresh out of the Summer Game Fest gives another look at the heretic-smashing cooperative shooter from the makers of Warhammer: Vermintide and yup, it looks like Vermintide in 40K. And that's fine. I'm good with that. That's great, really. Vermintide is fun but I've no affinity for Warhammer Fantasy so yes, give me bolters and Inquisitors and Ogryns and sci-fi Gothic cathedrals. See for yourself below.
]]>As the Summer Game Fest machine churns ever onward, we got an extended look at Witchfire. I'm afraid I am now of the opinion that "dark fantasy first-person shooter" is one of the most underwhelming word combinations in the English language. But hey, it's a video, the game could be bananas good when it comes out, and I'm duty bound to tell you all about it in case you get really excited for it - and if you do, then good news, 'cos the video confirms it's coming to early access on the Epic Games Store soon (aiming for Q4 2022).
]]>First came Golf Club Wasteland, a post-apocalyptic sports game from Demagog Studios where the world's remaining elite jetted around golf courses on the ruined surface of Earth. Then, earlier this year, they announced The Cub, a side-scrolling platformer telling a parallel story of one of the poor souls left behind on our home planet while the rest of humanity buggered off to Mars. Now, Demagog seem to be expanding their Wasteland-verse with a third entry: Highwater. It's not clear how this one relates to the others just yet, but it does feature a rather lovely yellow lifeboat in a flooded cityscape. Check out the reveal trailer below.
]]>Out Of The Blue’s retro-styled dystopian puzzle game American Arcadia shared a little more footage of its creepily camera-laden city at tonight’s Summer Game Fest showcase. The Seventies aesthetic and Milton Keynes-esque, city-of-the-future feel shown in previous looks at the game are still very much in evidence – those massive swan statues are boss, and nobody hates monorails, right? Take a Logan’s Run at it yourself by watching the new trailer.
]]>Goat Simulator 3 was announced this evening during Geoff Keigh-3's Summer Game Fest. Yes, that's 3, despite there never being a Goat Simulator 2. The announcement trailer doesn't show anything in-game, but suggests it'll still be about causing havoc as a goat, only now with co-op and Epic Games Store exclusivity.
]]>Summer Game Fest just got scary with the announcement of psychological horror Layers Of Fears, the next instalment in Bloober Team’s jump-fest series that might really be a remaster, sort of? Bloober say it's the "psychedelic experience fans know and love" and has "an expanded plotline", so this doesn't sound like an entirely new game. The freshly revealed Layers Of Fears is being built in Unreal Engine 5. As such, the trailer makes for pleasantly unpleasant viewing.
]]>In a very short and technically not at all sweet teaser trailer at the Summer Game Fest this year, we saw that terrible things are afoot in isolated space station Fort Solis. Honestly, why does anyone bother building isolated space stations? It's like getting married at Christmas in Albert Square at this point. Geoff was joined on stage by Roger Clark (who you will know from being Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption) and Troy Baker (who you will know from, I dunno, throw a dart, you'll hit one) to briefly talk more about their characters and what the hap is heckening in this horror adventure game.
]]>Humankind is adding six new cultures to its historical strategy roster with the arrival of its second paid DLC pack, Amplitude Studios have announced at tonight's Summer Game Fest. It's also getting another major patch in the form of the "Bolivar Patch", that's focused on community features. But first, the DLC. This will explore the heritage of Latin America, letting players progress from the ancient era Caralans through to the Nazca, Taíno, Inca and contemporary Argentinians and Cubans. You needn't wait to dig in, either, as the Latin America pack is out right now on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
]]>Crikey, one thing I never expected to see at tonight’s Summer Game Fest was a sequel to Delphine Software and U.S. Gold’s cinematic sci-fi platformer Flashback, but there it was. Flashback 2 is coming from long-established French studio Microids, developers of the Syberia series. It’s been 30 years now since the original game released on PC, and Geoff Keighley was very excited to re-announce the sequel. Check out the trailer below.
]]>Chance has always been an integral part of Firaxis’ turn-based tactics games. Just ask the many thousands of players who missed a shot with a 90% success chance in one of their XCOM reboots. Marvel’s Midnight Suns, however, could be the Civilization studio’s biggest gamble yet. Not only is it their first game to mix substantial RPG elements into its tactical combat, but there’s nary a hit percentage in sight. In the four hours I spent playing the opening of Midnight Suns last week, I saw precisely one scenario that had any kind of per cent number attached to it – and that was booting a goon (100%) or Venom, one of the newly confirmed villains of the game (0%), off a rooftop. All your other attacks, represented here as a deck of cards, are guaranteed hits.
It’s a strategic evolution I’ll talk about in a second, but this switch-up in approach isn’t the only part of Midnight Suns story that’s been subject to the whims of (mis)fortune. No sooner had Firaxis announced the game it was delayed in the snap of Thanos' fingers (from March to the second half of 2022, now confirmed as October 7th at tonight’s Summer Game Fest). But speaking to creative director Jake Solomon, the extra polishing time they set aside gave them an unexpected benefit. And it’s all down to a fish witch called Wanda.
]]>The final heroes and villains of Marvel's Midnight Suns have been revealed at tonight's Summer Game Fest bonanza. Spider-Man and Scarlet Witch will be joining previously announced goodies such as Iron Man, Blade and Captain Marvel, while err... Scarlet Witch, Hulk and Venom will repping the game's big bad demon mother Lilith. Man, if there's one Avenger I wouldn't want going all evil on me, it's Hulk. And Scarlet Witch, to be fair. Why have these heroes joined the dark side in Firaxis' new tactics RPG? Well, we'll be able to find out when the game launches on October 7th. Here's a new trailer to celebrate.
]]>The biggest surprise of the Summer Game Fest so far wasn't any WORLD PREMIERE or EXCLUSIVE ANNOUNCEMENT, it was a game we've been posting about on RPS since 2012. Routine is back, baby, and at some point we will finally get to explore its sprawling moonbase. Have a peek at its terrible happenings in the new trailer below.
]]>At tonight's Geoff Fest (which I understand is officially called Summer Game Fest) we were treated to a first little sliver of gameplay from upcoming space survival-horror The Callisto Protocol, and boy-howdy you shouldn't watch this if you don't like gore, or if you're sitting accross from someone currently eating a rare steak for humorous narrative metaphor purposes.
]]>After last night's official teaser trailer showing, the 2022 edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 got its first gameplay reveal this evening as part of Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest extravaganza. Taken from a very watery mission during the campaign, the trailer showed Task Force 141's Captain Price, Gaz, Soap et al skulking through an oil rig before raiding a fleeing boat during a storm. I guess there was a reason why Activision Blizzard unveiled the game on a boat deck after all... Get a load of all its fancy new water tech below.
]]>The Summer Game Fest has brought the announcement of a new game based on Aliens, this time taking HR Giger's glistening penetrators and James Cameron's gung-ho space marines into real-time squad action. Due to launch next year, Aliens: Dark Descent will see marines battling xenomorphs as well as those Weyland-Yutani scamps. Sounds like it might be interesting, with persistent upgrades and deaths across a campaign. Check out the announcement trailer below.
]]>It’s time for the third annual Summer Games Fest, the not-E3 live show hosted by Geoff Keighley (of ‘is Geoff Keighley’ fame). And what better way to enjoy an evening of game ads than together with RPS’s two most bass-voiced section editors? Myself and Ollie will be operating the liveblog levers as it all kicks off tonight, June 9th, from 7pm BST / 2pm ET / 11am PT.
]]>Summer Game Fest organiser Geoff Keighley has advised people tuning in to this Thursday’s showcase not to expect any “megaton shock” game announcements. The stunning revelation that maybe you shouldn’t expect too many brand-new AAA game reveals following a global pandemic came through an audio broadcast on Twitter Spaces over the weekend, transcribed by VGC. “We’ve got lots of good stuff to show you,” Keighley said, “but buyer beware of some of the crazy rumours I’m seeing out there in terms of things people expect to get announced.”
]]>One-man games industry Geoff Keighley has revealed that third-party publishers won’t be staging as many showcases of their own this summer. Keighley made the comments in a Twitter Spaces cast over the weekend, probably to everyone's great relief. Of course, he immediately followed up by explaining that the publishers with fewer games to show will be rolling their presentations into Keighley’s own Summer Game Fest, as well as first-party shows such as the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.
]]>Good news! Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest megamix is going to be a much more condensed affair than last year's months-long relay of game announcements, clocking in at just four days for the core event. Phew. We already knew the event was going to kick off on June 9th, but Keighley has now revealed that the bulk of the announcements will be done and dusted by Sunday June 12th. And breathe...
]]>Summer Game Fest have announced the show will be back for the third time on June 9th to beam Geoff Keighley straight into your peepholes. Proceedings kick off at 11am PST/2pm EST/7pm BST/8pm CEST and are streamed live from Los Angeles across YouTube, Twitch and other platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
]]>
