Table of Contents

State of Play
Summer Game Fest
Ball x Pit: The Kenny Sun Story
IO Interactive Showcase
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox Games Showcase
PC Gaming Show

Xbox Games Showcase & The Outer Worlds 2 Direct

Today’s showcases began with the Xbox Games Showcase. Now, I’m not much of an Xbox person, but sometimes they have some great third-party surprises, so I was hoping for some exciting announcements. They started out with The Outer Worlds 2, which will be out on October 29. I enjoyed the first one, so I’m interested in this.

(I’m not $80 worth of interested, though, which is the price it seems to be set at.)

High on Life is getting a sequel, which I didn’t expect, and there’s a third game in the Plague Tale series called Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. They spent some time showing off the ROG Ally, which I might not have mentioned at all except that it including the tiniest Silksong tease.

There was also a new trailer for The Blood of Dawnwalker, a vampire game that looks interesting, although I’m not sure if it’s my sort of thing. Super Meat Boy 3D was announced as well.

And Ninja Gaiden 4 continues to look pretty cool. It’s coming out in October as well.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is getting DLC, but the next big surprise was from… Game Freak?? And it doesn’t look anything like previous Game Freak games. I’m pretty curious about this one.

Steampunk game Clockwork Revolution looks like it could be interesting, a sequel to Grounded was announced, and Bloober Team was there with a new trailer for Cronos: The New Dawn. I’m definitely keeping my eye on that one.

After that, new stuff was announced for The Elder Scrolls Online, and Dontnod announced a new science fiction game that looks interesting called Aphelion.

I’m also somewhat curious about the musical adventure game There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, although I’m not sure if I’d enjoy the gameplay or not.

The next announcements were a new expansion for Age of Mythology, a stealth action game called Mudang: Two Hearts, Planet of Lana II (I’m not familiar with the first one), and new content coming for Fallout 76. I was almost interested in Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive despite its odd title, but it seems it’s at least related to a gacha game, so we’ll see.

Animo and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4 didn’t especially interest me, but the sidescrolling game At Fate’s End might be interesting. It’s from the team that made Spiritfarer.

Then it was time for the remaster of Gears of War, Gears of War Reloaded, and (much more interesting for me), the long-rumored Persona 4 remake, Persona 4 Revival. Now, I’m on team “Persona 4 is fine and doesn’t need a remake,” but I have to admit the short teaser trailer looks good.

And that was the highlight for me. They followed that with new content for Sea of Thieves, an Invincible fighting game, the announcement of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and Final Fantasy XVI coming to Xbox, a game from Double Fine called Keeper that admittedly looks interesting, and then the final announcement of the show was Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

After the showcase, they went into more detail about The Outer Worlds 2 and Grounded 2.

Then it was time for the PC Gaming Show!

PC Gaming Show

Lots of games are covered in the PC Gaming Show, so I’ll stick to the highlights here again.

The first game that caught my attention was Fresh Tracks, a rhythm game where you’ll be fighting the enemies you face to the beat of the song. The Rogue Prince of Persia is also leaving early access in August.

Mandrake also caught my attention, because even though it’s a life sim/farming game, it’s from the developers of Sunless Sea.

Demonschool continues to look interesting, too.

Meanwhile, I’m not sure if I’d enjoy DarkSwitch, but the cosmic horror elements at least got my attention. Likewise, I’m not sure I’d enjoy playing Hell Clock, but I like the trailer’s style enough that I’m sharing it anyway.

Blippo+ also stood out to me, because I watched the whole trailer and read the description on its Steam page and I’m still confused.

Overall, there wasn’t a whole lot that stood out to me this year, but maybe I overlooked some gems. If a game especially caught your attention, let me know.

That’s it for the showcases! What did you enjoy the most from today’s events? Here’s hoping we get a Nintendo Direct soon to round it out.

Table of Contents

State of Play
Summer Game Fest
Ball x Pit: The Kenny Sun Story
IO Interactive Showcase
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox Games Showcase
PC Gaming Show

Wholesome Direct

Today’s showcases kicked off with the Wholesome Direct, always a good source of cute games and other interesting indie game ideas. They always show a ton of them, so this year I’m going to focus on the personal highlights for me. Check out the full showcase if you want to see the rest.

Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar was featured early on, and not only was it a surprise to see a somewhat big-name game there, it also looks really cute and interesting to me. I haven’t really gotten into the Story of Seasons series, but I really like how this one looks.

I’ve also never played Luma Island, but it’s getting a new pirate-themed update that looks interesting.

The next game that really stood out to me was Ambroise Niflette & the Gleaned Bell, a miniature detective game inspired by stop-motion animation. It currently has a Kickstarter campaign, so I’ll definitely check that out.

Squeakross: Home Squeak Home looks like a cute combination of puzzles and home decoration, and I was surprised by the announcement of Monument Valley III. I played a little bit of the first Monument Valley, but never much more. Still, it’s a series I’d like to try again someday.

Then there was Big Hops, a 3D platformer starring a little frog. It also is currently on Kickstarter, so I’ll take a look at that one too.

Little Kitty, Big City is getting new content, and I have to admit that Tales of the Shire is starting to look nice even though I was skeptical about it when it was announced. The “cozy horror” game Haunted Paws also looks like it could be fun.

Another big surprise came in the form of Milano’s Odd Job Collection. Besides it being another title from Marvelous, what makes this so surprising? It’s actually an unlocalized game from 1999, now being brought to modern platforms and translated for the first time!

The foraging adventure game Out and About looks interesting, especially since it teaches you about real plants, and Muri: Wildwoods seems like it could be fun, too.

Overall, there were some nice games and unexpected surprises in this year’s Wholesome Direct. Which games stood out to you the most?