Operation Backlog Completion 2024

Not-E3 2024 Part 6: Miscellaneous Highlights

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 122024
 

Table of Contents

Guerilla Collective
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Direct
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox Games Showcase
PC Gaming Show
Ubisoft Forward
Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous Highlights

It doesn’t look like the Nintendo Direct will be held this week after all, so despite waiting a day or two just in case they announced it, I’ve decided to move onto the miscellaneous highlights from other showcase held throughout the “E3” period this year.

Basically, there were some additional showcases that I didn’t cover like the others (although in retrospect, I probably should have) but still watched to pick out some highlights.

For example, the Day of the Devs showcase held after Summer Game Fest had a couple interesting games, such as the GBA-inspired slice-of-life game Petal Runner and a psychological thriller called Karma: The Dark World.

Then one of the best announcements for me came in the Future of Play Direct, which showed a trailer for 3D metroidvania Abyss x Zero.

It looks really great, so I’m looking forward to that.

Nova Hearts looks interesting, as does A Date With Death. They also showed an interesting cat game called Copycat, although the story premise makes me worry it will be depressing. Slay the Princess: Pristine Cut also caught my attention.

Next, there was the Latin American Games Showcase. The games shown there include Game Boy inspired action-adventure game Glory Hunters and an adorable hidden object game called Hidden in My Paradise.

Runa & the Chaikuru Legacy also looks like it could be great.

Another game shown was a horror game called Curilemu, which looks pretty cool, and a point-and-click detective game called The Midnight Crimes.

Digital Exorcist looks pretty neat, and Mariachi Legends has such a great visual style that it stood out to me as well.

Now after that showcase, there was a Women-Led Games Showcase, and that gave us yet another detective game to add to the list (another animal detective game, at that), Albert Wilde: Quantum P.I.

So at the start of this Not-E3 season, I looked over all the scheduled conferences and picked the ones I saw as the “major” showcases to cover, while the rest would be saved for the miscellaneous post. In retrospect, I probably should have included the Latin American Games Showcase as one of the main ones, since it had more highlights than half the shows we covered!

(Oh, and Visions of Mana got a release date of August 29 along with a new trailer. Why that wasn’t included in one of the showcases, I can’t imagine, since it would have been a great addition.)

The Nintendo Direct is rumored for next week, so I’m eagerly looking forward to that. In the meantime, did any of these games stand out to you? Let me know in the comments!

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Not-E3 2024 Part 5: PC Gaming and Ubisoft Forward Highlights

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 102024
 

Table of Contents

Guerilla Collective
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Direct
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox Games Showcase
PC Gaming Show
Ubisoft Forward

PC Gaming Show

After the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday, the PC Gaming show was held in the evening. I’ll be covering highlights for this one, since only a few games stood out to me across the two-hour show.

Wander Stars is a turn-based RPG in which you use words to fight, a unique enough idea that I’m intrigued.

Steel Seed had an interesting trailer, but it didn’t show enough for me to get an idea of what it was about. Meanwhile, the musical-based puzzle game Tempopo looks like it could be fun.

Action RPG Last Moon looks like it has potential, and every time I see another trailer for Demonschool, I get a little more interested in it. The rhythm-adventure game Unbeatable also looks interesting.

There was another trailer for Cat Quest III, too, and it’s adorable. That’s a series I definitely want to try.

Meanwhile, the latest trailer for Still Wakes the Deep looked interesting enough that I’m tempted to give it a chance after all. If it was from any other developer, I’d probably be talking about how I want to play it. It’s just that it’s from The Chinese Room, who previously made Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, neither of which I was exactly crazy about. I haven’t played any of their games after those. Will this be the one I finally take a chance on?

The fantasy farming yokai game Tales of Seikyu also got a new trailer here. It was in one of the other recent showcases, and I have to admit it looks intriguing even though I’m not the biggest farming game fan.

All in all, the show didn’t have a lot of great announcements for me, but there were still some nice games shown.

Ubisoft Forward

Finally, our last showcase of Not-E3 2024 so far was Ubisoft Forward this afternoon. A pre-show began half an hour before the main show, but since its goal was to deliver updates on live service games, I didn’t watch.

I’m not the biggest Ubisoft fan, so once again I’m only going to cover the highlights. They began with an extended look at Star Wars Outlaws, and while I don’t think I’ll play it, I have to admit it looks good.

They also gave updates on the Prince of Persia series! Now as they were discussing DLC for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and new content for The Rogue Prince of Persia, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were going to mention the Sands of Time remake at all or if it’s effectively dead.

And they did! It’s not dead after all! …It’s now planned for 2026 and got a short teaser trailer that showed basically nothing, so it really sounds like they must have restarted the whole thing.

A considerable portion of time was also given to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Assassin’s Creed is one of those series where I find some aspects of it interesting but doubt I’d enjoy playing it, so I’ve never given them a try.

And that brings us to the end of Not-E3 2024, for now at least. I was hoping the Nintendo Direct would be tomorrow, but it looks like it won’t be. Of all the showcases so far, which have you enjoyed the most?

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Not-E3 2024 Part 4: Xbox Games Showcase

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 092024
 

Table of Contents

Guerilla Collective
Summer Game Fest
Devolver Direct
Wholesome Direct
Future Games Show
Xbox Games Showcase
PC Gaming Show
Ubisoft Forward

Xbox Games Showcase

One of the biggest showcases of this year’s Not-E3 is the Xbox Games Showcase this afternoon. They started off with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, a new Doom game called The Dark Ages, and State of Decay 3.

Then they showed a game I’ve been cautiously optimistic for, Dragon Age: The Veilguard (which used to be called Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, but they retitled it). And it looks… uh… well, let’s just say it did not restore any of my optimism. In fact, it diminished it. It doesn’t look bad exactly, but the tone doesn’t feel like Dragon Age to me.

I thought it was going to be a spin-off until the title appeared.

But maybe it’s just a trailer thing and it’ll look more promising the next time they show it. Anyway, from there we got to see new expansions for Starfield and Fallout 76, and then a surprise new game that ended up being my favorite announcement of the show.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 looks like an intriguing dark fantasy game, so I was already interested even before I saw it actually has turn-based combat. It looks really cool, so I can’t wait to see more from it.

The game South of Midnight, shown next, looks like it could be interesting as well.

They showed the next expansion for World of Warcraft, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (the remake), and new stuff for Sea of Theives. You know, Snake Eater looks pretty great, so maybe someday I’ll actually get into those games since I have a bunch in my backlog.

Next up was Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, Age of Mythology Retold, and the upcoming new Perfect Dark game. After that was a new Diablo IV expansion and then another look at the next Fable game, which actually looks a lot more interesting to me than when they showed it before.

They showed a game called Fragpunk, a cute (and possibly sad) mouse game called Winter Burrow, a game called Mixtape, and then Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

Then they announced a game that took me by surprise: a new Life is Strange game, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, but the real surprising part is that it’s about Max again! I did not expect them to make a sequel following Max, and the fact that this one is a murder mystery on top of that has me more interested in the series than I have been for years.

The upcoming Indiana Jones game looks like it could be cool, although I’m not crazy about the gameplay. A mech game called Mecha Break, which was in one of the showcases the other day, was shown here as well.

The action RPG Wuchang: Fallen Feathers also looks pretty cool.

That was the last game in the showcase that interested me, since the rest – Avowed, Atomfall, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Stalker 2, and Gears of War: E-Day – aren’t really my sort of thing. They followed that with a longer look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, but I didn’t tune in.

There were definitely some great announcements at the Xbox Games Showcase, but I’m already looking ahead to hope the Nintendo Direct is soon. But while that’s up in the air, we’ve still got the PC Gaming Show tonight and Ubisoft Forward tomorrow. Stay tuned!

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