E3 is dead?for this year. Long Live Summer Game Fest, the Geoff Keighley led series of digital showcases that he started collecting like infinity gems after he eschewed his partnership with the ESA. While there are many shows affiliated with the initiative, only one show will be hosted by our Canadian gaming gatekeeper and that aired today on June 9th 2022. In azure hued set at an undisclosed location, spend roughly two hours of world premieres, new trailers from games that we?ll hopefully see soon.
Street Fighter 6 flash kicks things off with a character reveal in the form of everyone?s favorite member of the US Air Force, Guile. Sporting a goatee and a light blue flight suit, the sonic boomer will be turtling his way into your heart in the sixth entry of Capcom?s premier fighting title. Hopefully his marriage and family will be intact unlike Ken?s when the game comes out in 2023.
The next trailer takes us to a darkened industrial environment where a soldier recounts a recent operation gone wrong. After finding a strange biomass, the soldiers who mind you are carrying some heavy firepower set their sights on what?s stalking them and turn tail. It?s then revealed that the figure was a xenomorph and I guess you can?t blame them. The platoon gets wiped out and we return to our interrogation where the interrogators are dead and the xenomorphs are looking to finish off the last man. Aliens: Dark Descent is what this trailer was introducing and you wouldn?t know that it?s an isometric shooter set in the Aliens universe if a short (and we?re talking sub 30 seconds) clip of gameplay didn?t play in the background.
The Callisto Protocol already showed up at Sony?s State of Play so what else could that show? Well Glen Schofield of Striking Distance Studios offered up a gorier trailer and boy did they deliver. I?m not going to transcribe the details, you can experience it first hand here. Next we get a glimpse of a skirmish on an oil rig in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. The fight continues as an unexpected sequel for Flashback is revealed, taking the very original name Flashback 2 which will be coming out 2022. Five years ago Geoff had the honor of revealing Witchfire at the Game Awards, today we saw an in depth trailer, which gave me Darkwatch vibes. The game is going to be entering Early Access soon. Troy Baker and Roger Clark will voice characters in a horror title set in space named Fort Solis. The duo of veteran voice actors joined Geoff on stage to speak about how they signed up to work on the title. If you?ve liked all the spooky games that?s been showcased, here?s one more featuring robots named Routine featuring music from Mick Gordon who?s gamers will be familiar with due to his work on the recent Doom Titles. This pretty lackluster showcase attempted to spice things up with an appearance of a shirtless Dwayne ?The Rock? Johnson, who shilled his new energy drink and showed a snippet of the Dark Adam trailer?which only served for me to focus on looking at my twitter timeline. Somehow an even more underwhelming segment was next, as a trailer played for Outriders Worldslayer expansion, if you pre-order you can access the update 48 hours early, you might as well visit your preferred digital and plunk some money down because this slog continues.
Frost Giant, a studio composed of ex-Blizzard devs announce Stormgate, a free to play RTS. Perhaps it?s a glimpse of our climate disaster future, Highwater tasks you to survive in a flooded world. American Arcadia feels like Truman Show the game as you are tasked to escape the artificially manufactured town of Arcadia as the world watches. Goat Simulator 3 (yes?there?s no 2)?s announce trailer pretty much cribs Dead Island 2?s trailer. The Midnight Suns encounter some corrupted heroes in a new trailer. The Delicious Last Course has a dual meaning as Studio MDHR?s COO Maja Moldenhauer showcases Cuphead?s next DLC. Neon White, the stylish speedrunning parkour title which features the damned competing for a chance to be redemption, will leave the starting line on June 16th.
Midnight Fight Express will be coming out August 23rd and if you want a taste the game will have a demo available at next week?s Steam Next Fest. The inexplicably popular Warframe teased a gameplay reveal of their next expansion, the Duviri Paradox which will debut at Tenno Con on July 16th. A double whammy from HoyoVerse as we seen new trailers for Honkai Star Rail and it?s new urban action IP Zenless Zone Zero. Tribute Games and Dotemu are finally giving people what they want when they revealed the hockey mask clad vigilante Casey Jones will be a playable character in TMNT: Shredder?s Revenge and title will sport six player simultaneous play locally and online. Also the wait to get your hands on the title will end soon as it will hit consoles and PC on June 16th!
Hard to follow that, but thankfully Super People had that dubious distinction with it?s bland character designs and zero indications of what the title is about?but hey a final beta will be held starting August 17th, so maybe someone can clue me in as to what the game is about. Historical 4X title promises you can change history in Humankind as it will be coming to consoles while it?s PC forebearer will be getting an LatinX heavy expansion in the form of Humankind: Cultures of Latin America. Did Geoff Keighley mispronounce Monkey D. Luffy as Monkey D?Luffy?yes he did. One Piece Odyssey will see the Strawhat crew stranded on a mysterious island and like most anime games do, find a way to shoehorn other characters from the series into the adventure as the parting voiceover in the trailer declares ?This is a world created from your memories?. Atlus? Soul Hackers 2 debuts it?s english voice cast today in a new trailer and pre-orders start for the title including a very price collector?s edition sold exclusively at the publisher?s webstore that will debut on June 10th. Capcom?s a la carte Arcade Stadium series gets a 2nd volume with some titles that I?ve enjoyed dearly like Saturday Night Slam Masters and Knights of the Round. As an enticement to check out the compilation series, SonSon will be made available for free to download. Rhythm Games mashed together with other genres isn?t a new phenomenon, but Metal Hellsinger looks to add Metal and First Person Shooting. The trailer had a slew of nordic looking names so you know the rock will be heavy. A demo is currently available for those who are prepared to rock!
Ted Raimi got some work on his own as the younger brother of film director Sam Raimi (Spider-man, Dr. Strange: MoM) appears to be one of the many recognizable actors in The Quarry, the latest choice based thriller from Supermassive Games. Other notable actors include Justice Smith from the Detective Pikachu movie, and Brenda Song from the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Make Life or Death choices for this cast when the game comes out tomorrow. Crisscross dimensions using portals whose destinations are generated by cards you craft in Nightingale. It?s an out there premise, but the action looks decent. While it eschewed most of it?s old setting and lore, the new Saints Row is bringing back something from the past, specifically early access to it?s character builder. Now dubbed ?Boss Factory?, players can now pre-build the person they want to be before getting a chance to set foot in Santo Ileso. It appears the tool is robust enough to build someone that should resemble yourself or anything your heart desires. During the quick montage I managed to spot a creation that looks remarkably like former series mainstay Johnny Gat! The Boss Factory tool is available to download now on various digital storefronts and the rebooted Saints Row will cause mayhem August 23rd.
Oil up those chainsaw swords as Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will have you and 3 others completing missions for the Inquisition. The game will be out September 13th. Sometimes naming your sequel consists of adding a ?s? at the end of the old title and that?s the approach Bloober Team took with their latest Layers of Fears. I?m sure this will be in Benny Roses? wheelhouse, so perhaps we might get a review out of him when this one comes out sometime in early 2023. We get a closer look at Robin in a new trailer for Gotham Knights, from WB Games Montreal, who is hoping to finally step out of Rocksteady?s shadow with their own Non-Arkham Bat-family title. We get to see Dick with his near comic look as well as some variant looks such as one where he has a flat top and one where he has a top knot (This title has customization, so before I remembered it was actually jarring to see that flat top).
?The Druck? is out closer for this year?s Summer Game Fest as Geoff catches up with the prolific co-president of Naughty Dog, Neil Druckmann. The conversation begins with talks regarding The Last of Us HBO series which saw Neil direct an episode. We also learned that the voice actors of Joel and Ellie, Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson will have a substantial role in the live action series despite the fact they will not be able to reprise the roles from the game. Then we officially learned about The Last of Us Part 1, a PS5 remake of the first title done from the ground up to incorporate new rendering techniques and refined controls and mechanics. Neil also hinted that he is working on a new game project, but it?s still too early to discuss further. Geoff then closed off the show by thanking all those who participated and announced that next year Summer Game Fest will be a Digital AND in person event, which means after eating E3?s lunch, he?s now set to lick the plant clean, get?em Geoff!
So that?s it for the main Summer Game Fest showcase. The first hour wasn?t quite the needle mover for me, but there were some gems.
Summer Game Fest: Official Livestream, Today! (11a PT/2p ET/6p GMT) – Modern Warfare 2 + More:
Join Geoff Keighley for a spectacular showcase of what’s next in video games with world premieres, first looks, gameplay demos and more! Plus Day of the Devs!
Featuring Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, The Callisto Protocol, Cuphead, One Piece Odyssey, Gotham Knights, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and so much more!