Table of Contents

Summer Game Fest 2021
Koch Primetime
IGN Expo Livestream
Guerrilla Collective Day 2
Wholesome Direct 2021
Ubisoft Forward
Devolver Forwarder
Gearbox Entertainment
Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase
Square Enix Presents
PC Gaming Show
Future Games Show
Limited Run Games
Capcom
Nintendo Direct

PC Gaming Show

The PC Gaming Show began with no audio. Off to a good start.

Fortunately, we finally got sound. The jokes about the show going off without a hitch and a bot scanning to confirm there were no hitches made me wonder if perhaps the lack of audio was intentional, as a joke.

Anyway, they showed a lot of games… mostly games that didn’t particularly interest me, so let’s take a look at some highlights instead of going through them one by one!

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong sounds like it could be interesting, although the trailer told me pretty much nothing about the game itself.

Soulstice, however, looks pretty cool! I’ll be keeping my eye on that one.

The next one that caught my attention was SacriFire, an RPG currently on Kickstarter. I don’t know if I’ll back it, but I’ll certainly keep it in mind. Songs of Conquest also looks interesting, although I’m not sure it’s my sort of game.

Future Games Show

As soon as the PC Gaming Show ended, the Future Games Show began. I was mainly interested in checking it out to see what Xseed’s announcements would be. Once again, it was filled with a lot of games, so I’ll go through the highlights.

Grow: Song of the Evertree looks pretty, although I might not like it, since it’s a sandbox. A Tale of Paper is a platformer that also looks pretty interesting, and Beacon Pines looks really cute.

We got to see a new trailer for Eldest Souls, which I remember being announced, and I liked it… although I’m not crazy about it being a boss rush game.

A game called Harold Halibut looks neat, especially because they made all of the models physically and scanned them for the game. The next game shown after that was Happy Game, which was absolutely horrifying.

Tails of Iron, which is described as an “RPG-lite,” had a pretty interesting trailer.

Lust From Beyond is also getting an M-rated edition, which is coming to consoles as well. I reviewed the definitely-not-safe-for-work edition for MonsterVine, and I’d say it’s worth checking out.

Xseed was featured with Akiba’s Trip, Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, Rune Factory 4 Special, and Rune Factory 5. So… their new announcements turned out to just be ports of Story of Seasons and Rune Factory 4, which disappointed me a bit.

Detective thriller Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View looks intriguing, and so does Immortality, the game they ended on.

And that was the end of the Future Games Show, as well as the end of today’s E3 events! We’ve still got a couple of smaller events tomorrow, followed by the final two on Tuesday to finish things off. What are your thoughts on E3 so far?

Table of Contents

Summer Game Fest 2021
Koch Primetime
IGN Expo Livestream
Guerrilla Collective Day 2
Wholesome Direct 2021
Ubisoft Forward
Devolver Forwarder
Gearbox Entertainment
Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase
Square Enix Presents
PC Gaming Show
Future Games Show
Limited Run Games
Capcom
Nintendo Direct

Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase

It’s strange having Xbox and Bethesda in together now that Microsoft bought Bethesda, and their joint show kicked off with Starfield… which leaked shortly before the show started. The trailer told me pretty much nothing, and it won’t be out until November 2022, so it’s quite a ways off.

Then they showed a really long trailer for Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl, which is coming out in April 2022. I’ve never played the first Stalker, but maybe I’ll try it sometime.

They showed Back4Blood, then a trailer for a new game called Contraband that showed basically nothing, but doesn’t sound like my sort of game (although the trailer music was good), and then a Pirates of the Caribbean crossover with Sea of Thieves called Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life. Gotta say, I didn’t see that coming.

Yakuza showed up briefly, but only because Yakuza: Like a Dragon is coming to Game Pass. They showed Battlefield 2042 and another look at the time loop game for Twelve Minutes.

Then, one of my hopes came true with a new trailer and August 25 release date for Psychonauts 2! It looks so good, and I can’t wait! (Although of course, it’s coming out right in the middle of all the other games I can’t wait for.)

More Bethesda games are coming to Game Pass, and they tried really hard to hype up new content coming to Fallout 76. They showed new content for The Elder Scrolls Online, too.

After that was Party Animals, which I don’t particularly care for, and a reminder that Hades is coming to Xbox. They also showed a game called Somerville, which looks pretty creepy. It definitely gave me Limbo/Inside vibes, and apparently the studio was co-founded by someone who worked on those games.

I was hoping to see more from Halo Infinite, and although they spent a good deal of time showing the multiplayer side (which will be free), they also showed a trailer for the campaign. I’m kind of interested in the story, although I never did catch up on Halo 5.

The next game they showed was Diablo II: Resurrected, but then they announced A Plague Tale: Requiem. That’s another where I haven’t played the original yet, but I’m intrigued. Maybe I should give it a try.

Far Cry 6 was featured again, and then the next announcement was Slime Rancher 2. I didn’t play the first one of those either, but it looks pretty cute.

New trailers for Shredders and Atomic Heart were next, and then a pretty cool-looking platformer called Replaced.

They announced a new update for Grounded, talked about Among Us, and then featured… Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and it’s town-building spin-off Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (which might be the first time it got a name). Unfortunately, Eiyuden Chronicle now has a release year of 2023, which disappointed me a little.

I didn’t care too much for our looks at The Ascent or Age of Empires IV, but they followed those with a hilariously self-aware trailer that turned out to be for The Outer Worlds 2! I was hoping that would get a sequel, and I’m definitely going to play it!

The show concluded with Microsoft Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 5, and the rumored vampire game from Arkane, Redfall. It’s an open world co-op shooter, though, so it’s not really my thing.

Still, this was a pretty good show all around. Now let’s see what Square Enix has for us in the next show!