First up in our Not-E3 sequence of showcases is the Guerrilla Collective live stream. Like last year, I’ll be focused on the games that stood out to me the most, so be sure to check out the full showcase if you’d like to see the rest.
I didn’t have to wait long to see a game that got my attention. A Yooka-Laylee remaster would have been pretty low on my list of predictions, but Yooka-Replaylee was announced. I still haven’t played my copy of Yooka-Laylee, so I can’t help but wonder if existing copies will have an upgrade path or if it’s an entirely new purchase only.
Neon Blood, a cyberpunk 2.5D turn-based RPG also seems like something I should keep an eye on.
There also was another 3D platformer called Project Tides announced that looks… interesting? I don’t really understand what I saw in that trailer, but it’s intriguing at least.
The boss rush action game Light Odyssey also looks cool.
Soon it was time for a horror segment, with a look at Clock Tower: Rewind, a new trailer for Post Trauma (which we discussed a couple years ago when it was shown at the Game Awards), a new Five Nights at Freddy’s Game called Into the Pit, and a trailer for Hollowbody, which looks fantastic and is one I definitely want to keep an eye on.
Tactical RPG Demonschool continues to look intriguing, and Urban Myth Dissolution Center looks like a game for me.
An action platformer called Double Shake and a cute-looking platformer RPG called The Secret of Crystal Mountain also caught my attention, and so did a classic JRPG style game called Beloved Rapture.
New trailers were shown for Sky Oceans and Escape From Ever After, both of which we discussed yesterday. I’m also curious about Aethermancer, Slime Heroes, and Grifford Academy.
Overall, while there were several games that didn’t appeal to me as much, there were still a lot of gems in this first showcase of “Not-E3.” Stay tuned for tomorrow, when we’ve got the much-anticipated Summer Game Fest show!
It’s that time of year again – the time of year when, even if E3 isn’t actually a thing anymore, everyone pretends it is anyway and all the conferences and showcases happen at once. Technically it’s already started; we had two showcases last week and two indie showcases yesterday.
But the real “Not-E3” period will run over the next few days, so let’s take a look at what’s lined up for us this year.
Not-E3 2024 Schedule
June 6
Guerrilla Collective 2024 – 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
June 7
Summer Game Fest 2024 – 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET
Devolver Direct 2024 – 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET
June 8
Wholesome Direct 2024 – 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET
Future Games Show: Summer Showcase 2024 – 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET
June 9
Xbox Games Showcase 2024 – 10 AM ET / 1 PM PT
PC Gaming Show 2024 – 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET
June 10
Ubisoft Forward 2024 – 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET
There will also be a Nintendo Direct sometime this month, as they confirmed a June Direct, but its specific date hasn’t been revealed yet. If they announce it soon and it fits into the “Not-E3” period, I’ll add it to the list. (E3 tradition would suggest June 11, but who knows?) There are also some smaller presentations, which I’ll cover any highlights from in a miscellaneous section at the end.
Not-E3 2024 Hopes
Capcom might not have their own showcase this year, but they’ll have announcements during the Summer Game Fest presentation, and I’m on my hands and knees begging for a new Ace Attorney game. It’s been so long! At least it feels like we got a new game in 2021, since The Great Ace Attorney hadn’t been localized before, but as for an actual all-new release, it’s been 7 years.
But the series is selling like crazy, the release of the Apollo Justice Trilogy has bridged the gap for a new audience to play Ace Attorney 7, and we are long overdue for an announcement. I’d be more optimistic if Capcom was having its own showcase, but I’ve still got my hopes pinned on Ace Attorney.
Now, let’s take a look back and see which of my “pipe dream” hopes are still left standing. Since last year, we’ve knocked another one off the list – a Persona 3 remake. That leaves us with:
Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization
Tales of Symphonia prequel
Xenosaga HD
A classic-style Paper Mario (a new one, so I’m not counting the Thousand-Year Door remake)
World of Final Fantasy 2
Mother 3 localization
Untranslated Tales games
Like a Dragon Kenzan and Kurohyo
And I’m going to add one more, a Xenoblade Chronicles X remaster. I doubt we’ll ever get an X sequel if the original remains a Wii U exclusive, so I’m tossing that hope into the ring!
What games are you hoping to see at this year’s Not-E3 2024 showcases? And do you think we’ll get an Ace Attorney announcement, or will Van Zieks be toasting my future career in the circus?
Why is the open world dress-up gacha(?) game so pretty??
Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024 is at an end, and the contest winners have been notified! Thank you for participating!
It’s almost Not-E3 season, and while we were still talking about mystery games, May 30 saw a State of Play, a showcase from Marvelous, and a new Silent Hill presentation.
Frustratingly, the State of Play and Marvelous Game Showcase were at the exact same time, so I did what any reasonable person would do and opened them in two separate tabs to watch them simultaneously.
The State of Play made this easy at first, since they went on for over 10 minutes about a multiplayer shooter game called Concord that I couldn’t care less about, which gave me plenty of time to start with Marvelous’s show!
Marvelous began with a look at a game they’d announced last year called Project Magia, now revealed with the official title Farmagia. I’d guess this means it has farming elements, but I don’t actually know, because they showed the opening video and introduced the characters without saying anything about gameplay. So while Farmagia looks nice enough, I don’t even know what sort of game it is.
Then they showed the next Story of Seasons game and emphasized the improved graphics. I’ve seen a lot of fans criticizing their choice to focus on that aspect, but all I can say is that it’s really pretty. I especially like the fireworks.
They moved on to talk about mobile and arcade games, which worked out well for me since the State of Play had finally gotten past Concord.
…to announce that God of War Ragnarok is coming to PC, but then after that it was time for a new announcement, a new Dynasty Warriors game called Dynasty Warriors: Origins.
I’ve never played Dynasty Warriors, but it’s one of those series I have a mild passing interest in.
The next trailer was for Infinity Nikki, and I’ve never been more impressed and tempted by a game I might not enjoy at all. Just look at it! It’s gorgeous!
Infinity Nikki is an “open world dress-up game” in which you use costumes to get different skills that let you traverse the world and solve puzzles and stuff. That sounds so neat it’s almost enough to make me look past my open world aversion, but it’s actually the 5th game in a series and the others were gacha games, so there’s a good chance this one will be as well. Their information about signing up for the PS5 beta tests specifies that the beta test won’t have in-app purchases, so that likely means the full game will.
The next game in the State of Play was an action RPG called Ballad of Antara, which looks pretty cool. It’s apparently free-to-play, though, which also has me wondering if it will involve gacha or some other monetization scheme.
They moved on from there to VR games and a Marvel game I don’t care about, so it was back to the Marvelous Game Showcase for me! Marvelous showed some indie games, including the cute-looking Moonlight Peaks, a life sim / farming game where you play a vampire.
The State of Play went on to open world action RPG Where Winds Meet, the Until Dawn remake, and Path of Exile while Marvelous talked about Rune Factory, so I stayed with Marvelous to watch the new footage from the upcoming Rune Factory spin-off, Rune Factory: Project Dragon.
Now I could have sworn I blogged about this when it was announced, but I must be misremembering. Anyway, this new Rune Factory spin-off looks beautiful to me. Apparently you use the power of dance to connect with the Earth instead of the power of farming, so that’s an interesting change. I’m pretty excited to learn more about this one.
Marvelous closed its showcase with a new teaser for the upcoming Daemon x Machina sequel, Titanic Scion.
Next, from the State of Play, we got a new trailer for the Silent Hill 2 remake, as well as a release date – October 8. The Silent Hill Transmission live stream after the State of Play largely focused on Silent Hill 2 as well, with a lengthier gameplay video, so I’ll discuss both at once.
Discourse has gone absolutely crazy, with what appears to be people who haven’t even played the original getting on it (if you’re going to post comparison shots, at least make sure you get the right game), so I’ll just summarize my impressions by saying I think Angela looks fine, the gameplay has me cautiously optimistic, and I’m concerned about Maria’s redesign. Maria looking so different has me a little nervous about whether or not they grasped her role in the story. Also, I’m glad they improved James’s face from the first model we saw.
The State of Play didn’t end with Silent Hill, however, as they next showed off the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds. I’ve never gotten into the Monster Hunter series, so I’m not especially interested in that one.
But they closed with a game that looks right up my alley! I know they’ve had a few shorter Astro Bot games, but now they’re making a full-length 3D platformer just called Astro Bot, and it looks great!
So while the events might not have been stacked with must-play games for me, there were still some great ones in there. Which games from the State of Play and Marvelous Game Showcase stood out to you the most?
