There may be no E3 this year, but that means we get to be extra hyped about SUMMER GAME FEST, hosted by Geoff Keighley. While SUMMER GAME FEST and IGN’s Summer of Gaming are happening throughout the next couple of weeks (or months), in the form of different events, first looks, previews and more, yesterday’s SUMMER GAME FEST was supposed to be THE MAIN EVENT!
So what did we see? More updates on upcoming games we’ve already heard of and seen before, some current game updates, and some brand new World Premieres. Before the event Geoff mentioned there would be mostly games we’ve seen or heard of before, however most of the trailers were still titled “World Premiere.” The whole showcase lasted roughly two hours, so I mainly wanted to go over a few that I was excited about:
SUMMER GAME FEST: A Summary
Geoff is back on that futuristic Mandalorian HD soundstage in his shiny, fancy jacket and his comfy athletic shoes. Good choice on the shoes since he was standing for a while now. The first announcement was more on Street Fighter 6, and a good look at Guile (America’s Hero) and his goofy hair style. The visuals of SF6 look like some kind of futuristic battle anime. I’m sure we’ll see more throughout the Summer of Gaming events and beyond.
Aliens: Dark Descent
This new Aliens: Dark Descent trailer was a cinematic trailer, so we didn’t see any gameplay. From the trailer alone, I was thinking it was another Aliens: Fireteam Elite type game, but it’s not that at all. Aliens: Dark Descent is a real-time, squad-based tactical combat game. I can’t wait to see how the gameplay actually looks.
The Alien video game franchise has been doing something very cool throughout the past few years. We’ve seen a survival horror game (Alien: Isolation), a third-person shooter (Aliens: Fireteam Elite), and now a real-time tactical combat game (Aliens: Dark Descent). When it comes to games based on existing franchises (film, tv, books) I love seeing brand new, original stories based in these familiar worlds. It’s always better to see an original story in an existing universe over a retelling of the exact same movie, show or book you’ve already consumed.
Aliens: Dark Descent is set to release on PC and PlayStation & Xbox consoles in 2023.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 + The Callisto Protocol
Next, we saw two games that we recently received brand new trailers for: The Callisto Protocol and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Last week, during the PlayStation State of Play we saw a trailer for The Callisto Protocol, a spooky space game full of blood, gore and nasty monsters. This time we actually got to see some gameplay of the third-person survival horror game. In the gameplay footage we watched the main character use his advanced, future pistol in an attempt to take out these relentless zombies. It all ended with a very gruesome death, which I’m sure will be a big part of this game if I end up playing it.
Yesterday, a trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 dropped. This new entry in the Call of Duty series features some well-known characters as well as some brand new ones.
Back in the day, I used to play every Call of Duty campaign. That all ended about ten years ago. The Call of Duty teams have always created great cinematic missions with fantastic storytelling — I think I’m just a bit over the military games for now. The franchise began with games that took place during World War I and II, and it wasn’t until later on that they jumped into modern, and later advanced, combat stories.
I’ve continued to keep up with the series through Call of Duty: Warzone (it’s free-to-play, Battle Royale mode), and downloading any alphas or betas as they come available. I will say that as far as First-Person Shooter (FPS) games go, Call of Duty games have always been buttery smooth and at the top of the list.
The developers mentioned Warzone 2.0. It’s kind of crazy to think that Call of Duty: Warzone has continued to evolve with each new entry in the Call of Duty franchise. Every time a new game is released, they have to change up Warzone as well.
The Callisto Protocol will release on December 2, 2022, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on October 28, 2022. Both games will come to PC and Xbox & PlayStation consoles.
Fort Solis
I will follow Troy Baker into any video game world. Listening to those first lines of dialogue in the trailer, I knew it was Troy. He’s just an amazing talent and even if Fort Solis might spook the hell out of me, I’m still down to at least give it a try. From the trailer I felt like this game is some sort of spooky space station Firewatch, where Troy’s character is stuck on the space station while Roger Clark’s (Red Dead Redemption II) character talks to him from Earth.
Troy’s description was Dead Space meets the Duncan Jones film, Moon. This game seems to be a fast-paced, action-packed, tight thriller full of exploration, discovery and a great big story.
Fort Solis has only been announced for PC with no release date yet.
Routine
Is this Summer Game Fest or Spooky Game Fest, because more than half of the game trailers and premieres so far have been pretty scary. In Routine you explore an abandoned world, or maybe another space station searching for ghosts, robots or spooky ghost robots with your paranormal tracker (That’s my uneducated guess as to what is happening in this trailer).
Routine could either be a game with tons of jump scares and creepy moments, or a mostly quiet game that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. After being announced a decade ago, Routine will release on Xbox and PC.
Highwater
Up until this point in the showcase, most of the games were very heavy on the high quality visuals. Highwater is a low poly adventure, where you travel through a flooded world on a little dingy boat. It’s amazing how we can watch trailers for these super graphically intense games followed by a game with a very simple, yet stunning art style, and be just as excited for both.
Highwater is an adventure strategy game that focuses on extreme climate change coming in 2022.
Replaced
Replaced is a game that was recently delayed due to the developers being based in Ukraine. Although they weren’t able to bring new footage to Summer Game Fest as planned, I wanted to share their gamescom teaser to remind people how great this game looked.
I look forward to seeing more from Replaced in the future. The game is now scheduled to release in 2023.
American Arcadia
American Arcadia had me thinking of The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey. Geoff’s description also made it sound like Meow Meow Beans: The Game (Community). I love the idea of this Utopian city with dark undertones.
The boxy characters with no noses (or sort of hidden noses) also goes well with the story. The art direction is kind of cute and simple, while also being creepy and unsettling. I also love the idea of having a friend “on the inside,” while being chased around by those in power.
American Arcadia is coming soon to PC and console.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
I’ve talked about Marvel’s Midnight Suns after the last few showcases the game has been featured on. I recently went back to try out XCOM 2 also by Firaxis, and couldn’t really get into it. I still think that the story behind this game could actually get me interested in this genre.
Again, this is sort of like the Aliens games, where they take a popular franchise or characters, and give us a whole new story. I know that the Midnight Suns series of comics exist, but I think that’s a great place to go for inspiration for a Marvel video game. It’s also more of an obscure series of Marvel comics that many don’t know about, so that’s another reason it’s a great story to use as the base for a game.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is coming to PC and consoles on October 7, 2022.
Cuphead in “The Delicious Last Course” (DLC)
Watching this new footage for Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course DLC reminded me that I never finished Cuphead. Now, I don’t know if I’d want to jump back into Cuphead where I left off on PC, or start over on console (now that the game is available on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation).
This DLC is said to be the largest island in Cuphead, it’s even supposed to feel like a brand new game. The footage reminded me of how much I love the animation of this game. It’s such a beautiful and frustrating game, all at the same time.
Maybe I’ll just stick to watching The Cuphead Show on Netflix. Tomorrow, we’re getting an exclusive look at Season 2 during “Netflix Geeked Week.” The DLC is coming to Cuphead on June 30, 2022.
Midnight Fight Express
Midnight Fight Express is a fast-paced action fighter shooter developed by one person in Poland, Jacob Dzwinel. I was excited when we first heard of this game last year. The game is full of brawls all over the city from speeding trains rides to dirty bathrooms and open warehouses and everywhere in between.
I’ve been waiting to play this game for some time and it is finally coming to PC and consoles on August 23, 2022.
TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge
Not only did this trailer announce another playable character, Casey Jones, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, but we also finally have a release date for this highly anticipated game.
For the past few months, I have been playing through a bunch of classic-style Beat ’em up games with my girlfriend to prepare for this game. What I learned is that these games are the most fun when played with at least one other person. The trailer also revealed that you can have up to six players, like playing on those classic arcade cabinets with four or more player stations (and playing with friends online is also a great addition).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is coming to PC and consoles on June 16, 2022.
The Quarry
With The Quarry releasing tomorrow on PC and consoles, this was the perfect timing to throw down one more trailer to show off this game’s all star cast. This team previously made Until Dawn, another choose your own adventure style horror movie game.
If I do get the chance to play this game, my plan is to see how far I can make it before I freak myself out.
Saints Row: Boss Factory
I’m excited that there is so much to customize on your Saints Row character. The problem is whenever I begin a new game that starts off with a large create-a-player suite, I usually quickly go through to get into the actual gameplay. What’s brilliant about this Saints Row: Boss Factory is that it allows you to work on your character now, for a couple of months before the full game releases.
The Saints Row: Boss Factory is available to download for FREE right now on PC and consoles. Tune into the Epic Games Showcase tomorrow for more on Saints Row, releasing on PC and consoles on August 23, 2022.
Gotham Knights
I’m happy to see that each Gotham Knights hero will receive their own short first look video to give us a closer look at each of them. Batman is dead, and it’s time to save Gotham with his faithful minions.
I loved teaming up with Nightwing in the Batman Arkham series of games, and I think it’s going to be great to play as him and the rest of the cast in Gotham Knights. Nightwing is a quick, fast and hard-hitting hero.
Gotham Knights will release on PC and consoles on October 25, 2022.
The Last of Us (Everything)
This last segment featured Neil Druckmann talking to Geoff about everything The Last of Us related. First, we have the HBO series coming soon. There was also a leaked image of The Last of Us: Part I remake online right before the showcase. Neil also mentioned a standalone The Last of Us universe multiplayer game, that takes place in a new city during that time (San Francisco?).
The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Part II are still two of my favorite stories in video games. The original taught me just how amazing, cinematic and powerful a video game story can be. The sequel went even further, showing off a different way to tell a story (I don’t want to go to in depth, in case someone hasn’t played The Last of Us: Part II yet).
When The Last of Us: Part II was coming out, I decided to play through the original once again. Now, with this remake of the original coming out, I may want to start with Part II, and do it backwards.
I didn’t include every game preview, trailer and reveal in my write up above, so here is the full SUMMER GAME FEST showcase for those who missed it.
Overall, I think we received some great announcements. Sure, there was a lot of stuff we already knew about, but we did get more exciting details about certain games. Maybe the showcase would have done better as a 90 minute thing instead.
Either way, we still have more to look forward to in the coming weeks. So, I think the short PlayStation State of Play was a good start, and this was a step up from there. Now, I’m just hoping we will also receive a new Nintendo Direct some time this month.
What was your favorite announcement from SUMMER GAME FEST? Let us know in the comments or tweet at @myVGBC on Twitter.
VIDEO GAME BOOK CLUB 
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