Not-E3: Gaming News Season

[Zevox]

So, E3 may be dead, but end of spring/early summer is still video games announcement season. Figure a thread to discuss all of the impending news might be warranted.

Sony kicked things off with their over-an-hour-long "Playstation Showcase" today. With it being that long there's no way in hell I can summarize everything from it, so, just going to mention the things that interested me.

Top of the list has to be Spider-Man 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrPZSq5YXqc), which didn't just get a trailer, but a whole ten straight, uncut minutes of the damn game shown off at the end. And it certainly looks good. The big surprise is that we've got Peter in the symbiote suit in this one - they teased that Venom would be involved in the game in its original announcement trailer, but I did not figure that meant playable symbiote suite Spider-Man with unique Venom-esque moves, and dang that looks cool. I wonder how long into the game it'll be before we have to get that thing off him? Halfway, so they can set up Venom as the final boss? Or are we going all the way with it, only ditching it near the end, maybe having an obligatory single encounter with it after it's off Peter, but otherwise saving Venom himself to be the big villain of Spider-Man 3? Very interesting development that. And it's coming this Fall, so not super long to wait for it.

Other than that, let's see, Phantom Blade 0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZr1HXkEahs&t=18s) was one early in the show that looked cool. Kind of like a Sekiro-ish game, but more over-the-top, which I am always up for. No release window given though, so this could be far out yet.

Dragon's Dogma 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_aDKIkGxog) having a real trailer was quite a surprise. Which, yeah, that sure looks like a more modern Dragon's Dogma - almost too much so, in some ways. I mean, they still have the scene of the Dragon eating someone's heart, like at the start of the first game; are they really just going with that same plot hook again? Lots of very familiar-looking creatures there, too, though a couple of new ones - I don't recall the first game having a Sphinx or Medusa in it, unless those were added in Dark Arisen, which I haven't played. Looks like pawns must be back too, sadly, given the stone; oh well, guess dropping that was too much to hope for. Still, cool to see a real trailer for it already, I was figuring it'd be a while yet. Unsurprisingly, no release information for that one.

I may or may not be interested in grabbing Granblue Fantasy: Relink (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSLN1rqXs1k). The fighting game version, Granblue Fantasy Versus, introduced me to the series, and this looks like a decent action game for it. The co-op stuff makes me a bit skeptical though, as if it turns out to be a live service game thing, my interest will end basically immediately. If it's just that co-op is optional and it's entirely playable single-player though, yeah, might give it a go. That one has a release window of Winter this year.

There was also Cat Quest: Pirates of the Purribean (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mutaN47LDV0), which is a cartoony, goofy, old-style adventure game, maybe comparable to the 2D-era Zelda titles from what they showed. Not super excited for it, but I might grab it. Supposedly releasing 2024 sometime.

Weird honorable mention for me: Foamstars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD_XuyEgfOY), a totally-not-Splatoon-we-swear game by Square-Enix. There's all kinds of reasons I probably won't play it - it's a shooter, it's a team-based multiplayer-focused game, it's probably a live services game; and yet despite all of that, it was a weird, goofy charm to it that almost makes me want to play it anyway. More so than Splatoon ever has, personally. Again, one with no release window mentioned.

Of course, there were trailers for a couple of things that are coming out really soon that I'm already planning on getting, Street Fighter 6 and Final Fantasy 16, but nothing really new there, which makes sense given how close to release they are. But there was plenty more; to name a few that might interest people, there was something new for Destiny 2, Resident Evil 4 is getting a VR mode, a Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, and tons of others.

Anybody else watch the showcase? What's the rest of the Playground interested in from this?

[Lord Raziere]

oh cool a third Cat Quest is coming out, I'll definitely play that.

haven't looked at the showcase myself though.

[Zevox]

oh cool a third Cat Quest is coming out, I'll definitely play that.

haven't looked at the showcase myself though.
:smallconfused: There's already two of those? I was not aware of this. What are they like? 2D Zelda-esque, as I gathered from the new one?

[Lord Raziere]

:smallconfused: There's already two of those? I was not aware of this. What are they like? 2D Zelda-esque, as I gathered from the new one?

I dunno about 2D Zelda-esque, never played those, they're like.....you mostly just a cat hero traveling around an overworld killing things, with like equipment that determines whether your more magey, more roguey or more warrior-y, combat is simple but fun, and they're just light-hearted games that are light on story full of cat puns. like there are dungeons, but I don't remember how much of a puzzle they have, if they do, they're definitely not as puzzle-y as Zelda, I think you avoid obstacles in dungeons maybe in the second game?

like they're nothing complex, they're just be cat hero, acquire equipment, kill monsters you see, find secrets the devs put in to get cool stuff, things like that. they're not real serious. like you dodge roll to avoid enemy attacks but again, real simple, not hard games, just fun. Catquest is the original, Catquest II has a dog that works together with a cat, they're both fun.

[Rynjin]

Dragon's Dogma 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_aDKIkGxog) having a real trailer was quite a surprise. Which, yeah, that sure looks like a more modern Dragon's Dogma - almost too much so, in some ways. I mean, they still have the scene of the Dragon eating someone's heart, like at the start of the first game; are they really just going with that same plot hook again? Lots of very familiar-looking creatures there, too, though a couple of new ones - I don't recall the first game having a Sphinx or Medusa in it, unless those were added in Dark Arisen, which I haven't played. Looks like pawns must be back too, sadly, given the stone; oh well, guess dropping that was too much to hope for. Still, cool to see a real trailer for it already, I was figuring it'd be a while yet. Unsurprisingly, no release information for that one.



I mean, the entire plot of the first game is that the world exists in an endless cycle of Dragons eating the hearts of mortals, creating Arisen, who fight, rise, and kill the dragon as part of an endless test to see who is worthy to become Seneschal (read: god); those who fail become Dragons who make Arisen, etc.

Each Seneschal eventually tries to find a successor, and the cycle continues.

[Zevox]

I dunno about 2D Zelda-esque, never played those, they're like.....you mostly just a cat hero traveling around an overworld killing things, with like equipment that determines whether your more magey, more roguey or more warrior-y, combat is simple but fun, and they're just light-hearted games that are light on story full of cat puns. like there are dungeons, but I don't remember how much of a puzzle they have, if they do, they're definitely not as puzzle-y as Zelda, I think you avoid obstacles in dungeons maybe in the second game?

like they're nothing complex, they're just be cat hero, acquire equipment, kill monsters you see, find secrets the devs put in to get cool stuff, things like that. they're not real serious. like you dodge roll to avoid enemy attacks but again, real simple, not hard games, just fun. Catquest is the original, Catquest II has a dog that works together with a cat, they're both fun.
Aside from the cat puns, dodge roll, and kind of class system thing, that does sound like 2D Zelda to me. Neat, might need to check out the existing ones at some point, then.


I mean, the entire plot of the first game is that the world exists in an endless cycle of Dragons eating the hearts of mortals, creating Arisen, who fight, rise, and kill the dragon as part of an endless test to see who is worthy to become Seneschal (read: god); those who fail become Dragons who make Arisen, etc.

Each Seneschal eventually tries to find a successor, and the cycle continues.
Sure, but the first game also ended with the Arisen breaking that cycle by killing themself after becoming Seneschal. So reusing that same plot in the sequel strikes me as questionable, personally. I mean, not that the story of the first one was anything special that needs to have that ending respected, but by the same token it's not really good enough to make reusing it sound like a good idea either.

[MinimanMidget]

:smallconfused: There's already two of those? I was not aware of this. What are they like? 2D Zelda-esque, as I gathered from the new one?

They're not particularly Zelda-ish. In terms of gameplay the closest thing I can think of is pawrobably Bastion.

[thethird]

I am honestly exited about Alan wake 2. I don't upgrade a console generation until there are 3 games I really really want to play but I couldn't on my current system. And I might be buying a ps5 after all... Hopefully we get news on a ps5 slim or something...

Other than that, spider man was a really pleasant surprise. And I am looking forward to that one.

[MCerberus]

Considering how much influence Helldivers 2 is taking from a certain Verhoeven movie, I will make the assertion that I'd buy that for a dollar!

[Zevox]

So today was Summer Game Fest, along with some smaller game streams. And Summer Game Fest itself was somehow even longer than the Playstation showcase, at almost two hours. Stuff that caught my eye personally:

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmX7a_e65uU). Aside from the Sands of Time remake that seems to have vanished into the ether, it's been forever since we saw a Prince of Persia game, and this looks pretty good. Surprising to see it be a 2D platformer, but I really like what I'm seeing nonetheless. Could do without the rap music, but eh, personal taste there. Coming January 18th, 2024.

Mortal Kombat 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnVTPkCWzcI) (yes, that's seriously the title, if you hadn't heard...) had its gameplay reveal, along with a number of incidental character reveals (though the only surprise is Kenshi), and is looking good. Kameo characters seem to do more than just be team-game-style assists, they're also your combo breakers, and can participate in fatalities, which is pretty neat. I just wish they had made the game a full-blown team game at this point, but oh well. Definitely also a big increase in air combo potential compared to previous games, which I like to see. Outside of the trailer Ed Boon also confirmed that playable characters can also be used as Kameo characters, so just because you see a character as a Kameo doesn't mean they're not playable, and on a story note confirmed that Sub-Zero and Scorpion are now brothers in the new timeline. Though also on a story note, I have to say, it's a little weird that Raiden is doing all his usual lightning stuff despite no longer being a god. Guess they didn't have any great ideas for how to re-imagine his fighting style. We already knew, but release is September 19th of this year.

Sonic Superstars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3g-62NNoUs) was a surprise: a new 2D Sonic game hearkening back to the old days, but not doing the old sprite-based visuals like Mania did. There's at least four playable characters (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy), and while there's plenty of the old stuff in there (like the bonus zones you go through to earn Chaos Emeralds), there's some new stuff too, including power-ups that do things like turn your body into water to allow you to travel up waterfalls, which is kind of neat. Also, it teases the return of a really old, obscure villain: Knack the Weasel. Who I literally only recognize from the old Archie comics because I never played the game he was in. Weird choice, but eh, I'll take it. Coming fall of this year.

Spider-Man 2 didn't have new footage, but notable announcements. One, Venom himself is a part of the game - some art was shown off showing him fighting Peter and Miles - so Peter won't be wearing the symbiote suit forever there. Not a huge surprise, but news nonetheless. They made a point of not saying who is Venom in this case though, other than that it isn't Eddie Brock. Also, gave the actual release date for the game: October 20th. I'm guess the organizers of this one offered Sony some money to let them be the ones to reveal at least that much of the game, hence the vague "fall" release window from the Playstation event.

And they ended the show on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkD8BCCYsS0), probably the biggest of them all for me. There is a lot of curious stuff in there story-wise, and a lot of good-looking gameplay. Tag-team attacks between party members definitely appears to be a thing this time, which is awesome, and we got our first glimpse of Red XIII in action. After FF7R I am easily looking forward to this more than any other Final Fantasy game ever. Coming early 2024.

There were also release dates for Lies of P and Alan Wake 2, for those of you into those - August 1st and October 17th, respectively. Just not my things personally.

Edit: YEEES! Apparently accidentally, Atlus uploaded the trailer for Persona 3 Reload (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVtpsOHGF7o) early! It's real! A full remake of Persona 3, looking a lot more modern, and coming early next year! Sorry FF7 Rebirth, you're now only my second most anticipated early 2024 game. (Now to cross my fingers that includes the female MC route as well, so it's actually a definitive best version of the game...)

Edit 2: And apparently also another P5 spinoff got revealed early by accident" Persona 5 Tactica (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GctC7Mrj6mc), a, well, tactical RPG spinoff. Very chibi art style, reminiscent of the Persona Q games. Neat, definitely one I'll pick up. Releasing November 17th.

[Psyren]

Prince of Persia looks awesome, though given the barrage of traps I'm hoping there's still a rewind mechanic.

MK9 had tag mechanics but it was more swaps than assists. MK11 had "assists" but they were cheaply tied to Konsumables and limited to certain modes rather than being universal and having the character model show up. MK1 seems to be doing the best of both worlds.

Nack the Weasel / Fang the Sniper is originally from Sonic Triple Trouble on the Game Gear IIRC. Personally, while I enjoy 2D sonic games I think they're not doing enough to make Sonic work in 3D; either they lock you into extended autopilot sequences where the game plays itself, or they try to make you do precision platforming and direction at speed which is just frustrating. IMO, they should let 3D sonic handle like a racing game at high speeds, "gas pedal" and all, and be more about avoiding/boosting through simple obstacles than about traditional platforming.

I am beyond excited for FF7R, I have a huge soft spot for remakes that aren't afraid of trying to improve on the orginal.

[Zevox]

MK9 had tag mechanics but it was more swaps than assists. MK11 had "assists" but they were cheaply tied to Konsumables and limited to certain modes rather than being universal and having the character model show up. MK1 seems to be doing the best of both worlds.
MK9's tag mechanics were an optional mode and not particularly interesting due to how it worked (even when you called the other character to do a move instead of swap, it prevented you from acting while they did it, IIRC), and MK11's were in the Towers of Time mode only, which I hated. MK1 is built entirely around the mechanic from the word go - you always have a Kameo character no matter what mode you're in, and most of them don't stop you from acting aside from the forward throw (though there is at least one that we know of that does stop you, Kano's eye laser, so some will).

On the main subject though, if we're still going to use this thread, we did just get Nintendo's E3-ish Direct yesterday, and while a lot of it was games we already knew about (and farming sims, which have become strangely popular on the system), there was actually a lot of specifically Mario-related news:

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JStAYvbeSHc) is the biggest one, a new 2D Mario game that gets kind of weird and trippy, honestly. Multiple playable characters ala Mario 2 as well, including Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Daisy. I might try that out, though probably not on release, because it's releasing October 20th, the same day as Spider-Man 2.

Next biggest: Super Mario RPG Remake (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r5PJx7rlds&list=WL&index=4). Yeah, there's a shocker. Not only does Nintendo remember the game, they went through the trouble of working things out with Square-Enix to get something like this made. Not something I ever expected. Might need to pick this up, I've never played it, but I have a friend who considers it his favorite game of all time and swears up and down how amazing it is; and if nothing else it is basically the origin of the Paper Mario games, which I like. Releases November 17th... the same day as Persona 5 Tactica. So, yeah, probably another that won't be a day 1 for me due to that.

They also announced an enhanced port of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, and that Princess Peach is getting another game of her own at some point. Technically they both had tiny teaser footage, but they showed so little they're not even worth linking to - it's still completely unclear what the Princess Peach game will play like, for instance. Still, cool that they're doing that, and hopefully it's better than that weird Super Princess Peach game they did a while back. No information on when either one is coming though. And, pure speculation, but that combined with them barely teasing the Peach game in particular half makes me wonder if that one is being made for the Switch's successor system, which kind of has to be coming at this point with how old the Switch is now. We'll see though, maybe the Peach game will be the Switch's last hurrah instead.

And surprise non-Mario one for me personally: Penny's Big Breakaway (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hAgpRYM2M8&list=WL&index=5), a 3D platformer made by the team that did Sonic Mania. I haven't played Mania yet, but I've heard more than enough good things about it for that to be a selling point for me, and "3D platformer" is already such a rare thing to see that that alone would get my attention, even if it looks more like a "get through the stage" kind of game than the collectathon type I'd most like to see again. Appropriately cartoony and colorful, too. No release info though, so probably a ways off yet.

[SerTabris]

The one that really surprised me was Star Ocean: The Second Story R. Particularly since it's not a port of the more recent PSP remake (Second Evolution), but seems to be an HD-2D game starting from the PS1 original as a base. They've gone back closer to the original artstyle (which I'd say is a plus) and even use the original Japanese title font (blatantly taken from Star Trek TNG).