Perhaps in lieu of the fact that E3 was canceled yet again this year, the past several days have been extra jam-packed with even more games showcases back to back, brimming with so many more announcements and even more titles to anticipate.
Tribeca Games Fest
The Tribeca Games Fest is part of the much bigger lineup of the annual Tribeca Festival, featuring programming that has been spanning across a whole week. The Fest has been steadily growing with a smattering of not only games demos, but films and workshops since the induction of games as a distinct, recognized category in Tribeca since 2021.
Interviewed by filmmaker Mike Flanagan, Sam Lake of Remedy Entertainment talked about the influences behind the upcoming Alan Wake 2, and the two shared their thoughts on horror as a storytelling medium.
Games like Chants of Sennaar, Despelote, Goodbye Volcano High, Stray Gods, and A Highland Song were exhibited at Tribeca with playable demos.
Telltale Games’ adaptation of The Expanse, serving as a sequel to the Amazon series, was accompanied by both an industry talk with some members of the team and a game demo as well.
And one of the big talks of Tribeca is a screening of Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds, a documentary on Hideo Kojima.
The Wholesome Games Direct
As usual, the Wholesale Games showcase delivers a vast catalog of titles that try to tap into something cute and comfy.
There were several titles have been already previously published, but are anticipating a wider console release, such as Button City and Witch Beam’s Unpacking.
There were games about being small, such as Frogsong, Smushi Come Home, and Garden Buddies. Frogsong is a roleplaying adventure game that puts you in the role of a frog, putting you out in a fantasy world filled with combat and creatures much bigger than you.
Meanwhile, there were other games about looking at the bigger picture, such as Flutter Away, The Guardian of Nature, and Let’s Revolution! Let’s Revolution! is a tactics-style, roguelite puzzle game that works similarly to a classic round of Minesweeper.
And lest we not forget whole influx of games where gardening and farming mechanics are at the heart of their narrative, such as further developments unveiled behind Fields of Mistria, Garden Witch Life, and even a shout-out to the upcoming Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, a remake of the Harvest Moon title of the same name. On top of some new cosmetic updates, Story of Seasons fans can anticipate this remake being the first game in the whole franchise that will allow same-sex marriage and broader gender options.
Ubisoft Forward
Ubisoft elaborated further on some titles already showcased during the Summer Games Fest, such as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. But the Forward presentation went on to debut some new things Ubisoft had up its own sleeve, such as gameplay footage of Star Wars Outlaws.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is set to be a first-person action shooter where players will be put in the role of a Na’vi.
An extended look was also given to Assassins’ Creed Mirage, as well as Nexus and Codename Jade, Ubisoft’s first foray into VR and mobile gamign respectively.
The PC Gaming Show
The PC Gaming Show featured mostly a slew of sequels and further expanses tied to large franchises.
Frostpunk, Path of Exile, Citizen Sleeper, and Brethedge are all getting sequels.
Vampire Survivors is getting an update, and the Pathfinder name is earning itself its own Vampire Survivors riff with Gallowspire Survivors. More gameplay footage was shown of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin. And further content was also introduced to Baldur’s Gate 3.
Some behind the scenes developments were shown with the ongoing progress of the Dune: Awakening MMORPG.
There was a significant huge round-up of new, original strategy titles, such as Fabledom, Nova Roma, Last Train Home, and Earthless.
With even many other original titles that were teased in the mix, we managed to get gameplay of Bloomtown, a dark RPG that subverts the initial facade of a wholesome life sim.
Most importantly, we got a glimpse of Ebenezer and the Invisible World, a Metroidvania set in some whacky interpretation of Charles Dickesn’ A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim has a dive kick.
Capcom Showcase
The Capcom showcase wasn’t a heap of new info, but we did get some new looks at games that we have seen before.
The new series Kunitsu-Gami got a gameplay trailer, showing the slick combat and fantastic art style. You’re seemingly tasked with removing curses from people and places, and having those freed people join you in your quest. No release date for it just yet, but it’ll be on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.
Megaman X Dive is a gacha game that is getting shut down in the coming months, but Capcom has decided to release an offline version to let people play the game without worry of its impending collapse. Most of the playable characters will be available as well as over 900 stages. No word on how character unlocks will work here, but hopefully the gacha mechanics from the original release are removed smoothly. It’ll be released on Steam and mobile phones.
Pragmata, Capcom’s mysterious sci-fi action game, has been delayed indefinitely after its previous two delays. We really don’t know much about this, except that you’re a guy in a cool space suit fighting robots and protecting a little girl. There’s some gameplay shown in this trailer, and it does look cool! Guess we’ll be left waiting quite a while to know what’s really going on here.
Shu Takumi’s franchises, Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick, both had some pretty big updates. Ghost Trick has a demo available now, and a new Ace Attorney collection, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, has been announced. Ghost Trick is due out June 30th and Apollo’s Wacky Adventures will ship some time at the start of 2024.
We got some information about Exoprimal, the dinosaur killing EDF-like as well. Some story was shown off, then modes such as a five-player weekly challenge that changes its structure each week. There will be an open beta from June 16th to the 18th, and the game launches July 14th on PS4/5, PC, and Xbox Series.
Finally, we got a look at Dragon’s Dogma 2. The game’s director, Hideaki Itsuno, talked a bit about Dragon’s Dogma‘s gameplay structure, revealing that the beloved pawn system would be returning, allowing you to have a pawn of your own plus two sub-pawns from your friends. There was also talk of map size, which Itsuno claims is four times the size of the original game. No release date, but expect Dragon’s Dogma 2 on PC, Xbox Series, and PS5.
Devolver Direct
Devolver’s showcase was another “comedy” event (which personally, some of us didn’t watch as the last few have been excruciating.) They did show off four games that are daring to be something different compared to everything else we have seen so far, so we can give them some credit where it’s due here!
Baby Steps, the new game from the team behind Ape Out and Bennett Foddy of QWOP and Getting Over It fame, is a “walking simulator” where a manchild named Nate has to leave his parents’ basement and literally learn to walk on his own again.
Human Fall Flat, a goofy physics-based puzzler from 2016, is getting a sequel.
The Talos Principle 2, which was already shown at the PlayStation showcase, got a new gameplay trailer.
Finally, Wizard with a Gun, a game about. Just. That. It debuted a story trailer as well as the release of a demo on Steam.
Grasshopper Direct
The Grasshopper Direct was hyped for over two months, with a webpage promising that “something’s gonna happen” and a countdown running until June 15th at midnight. Once the clock struck midnight, however, the post was delayed around an hour and a half because they seemingly didn’t pre-upload the video to YouTube.
Once the video was posted? A small amount of Shadows of the Damned news (they’re projecting to release it on all current consoles) and a blurred out shot of their next game. And a new merch store. That’s it. There might’ve been some other teases in there, but other than an admittedly cool showcase of 25 years of their games, this felt like a waste of time.
