Video games

Picks from Week 1-ish of Summer Games Fest 2023

We’ve gotten the kickoff of Summer Games Fest 2023, and I’ve got my picks from the various announcement/event/whatever streams that I’ve watched from the past week plus this weekend (as of 6/11/2023), so it’s time to give my picks for the stuff that caught my interest. I’ll have a video focusing on my top 10 or so at the start of July, to wrap up the month.

Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest 2023 Keynote

Still from Sandland
Sandland
  • Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown: It looks interesting, though it feels a lot more combat heavy than what I’m used to from the Prince of Persia games.
  • Mortal Kombat 1: The new Kameo mechanic looks a lot like Strikers from King of Fighters, and I like it.
  • Path of Exile 2: I liked the first game, though I was never really able to get into it – hopefully I’ll be able to fare better with this one.
  • Lies of P: Interesting twist on the Pinocchio concept, so I hope this plays out well.
  • Sandland: This looks neat – I’ve never read this particular manga by Toriyama – indeed I’m not even sure it’s been licensed for a US release, however, I’m interested to see how this plays out.
  • Alan Wake II: I played and beat the first one – and indeed I started streaming games and doing Let’s Plays to share my experiences after having played the first one, so I’m definitely playing this.
  • Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name: I need to get caught up on the Yakuza series, but I’m very interested in this title.
  • Star Trek Infinite: I remember playing Birth of the Federation back in the day, and I really enjoyed that game then, so I’m interested to see what Paradox does with a Star Trek 4X game.

Future Games Show

Still from Resistor
Resistor
  • Resistor: Racing + RPG – it has a bit of a Redline vibe but without the aliens.
  • The Book Walker: Thief of Tales: I enjoyed reading the Thursday Next novels, and while this doesn’t necessarily have the same deadpan humor as those novels, I do appreciate a heist book set in works of fiction that are possible pastiches of various other authors (stealing from a Clancy style Techno Thriller, or a James Patterson style serial killer novel, or a Steven King style horror story).
  • Steel Seed: Interesting looking science fiction/cyberpunk-ish stealth action game.
  • Station to Station: The voxel-based art style combined with clear boundaries around the level gives the game a real “virtual model railroad” vibe.
  • Stray Gods: A visual novel (they call it an RPG but I’m not seeing any RPG-like mechanics here) musical looks like a unique concept.

Microsoft Games Show

Still from Path of the Goddess
Path of the Goddess
  • Fable: It looks like they got the tone right, without necessarily the levels of bathroom humor.
  • South of Midnight: This was a trailer that was very much about the vibe, and it has a very strong one, though admittedly I don’t have a good sense of the gameplay yet.
  • Persona 3 Reload: I’m disappointed by the lack of a female protagonist option (from Portable) or the end-game campaign from FES – but one could hope they could add those later as DLC. Still, I’d prefer to experience the narrative either this way or as FES and get the more animated cutscenes and a better presentation of the game’s dramatic moments.
  • Avowed: I’m in the middle of finishing a playthrough of Pillars of Eternity 2 now, and I’m interested in seeing this world from a first-person perspective.
  • Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth: I think this is the first time the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series has ventured out of Japan, and I’m interested to see how things fare for Ichiban Kasuga in… Hawaii? Miami? I’m assuming we’ll see more at the RGG Studios showcase.
  • Path of the Goddess: I don’t know if we’ll see more at the Capcom showcase, but this action game has a strong Shinto vibe (the sword appears to also be depicted like an ?nusa, for example) – and the monsters have a strong oni vibe. I could see this being less an Onimusha successor and more like an Okami successor.
  • Forza Motorsport: I love me some racing games, so I’m definitely going to be playing this.
  • Persona 5 Tactica: I’m in for this – and I also kind of dig the art style, which has some New Cinema Labyrinth vibes.
  • Justant: It’s nice to see another game with a more heavy focus on traversal than anything else.
  • Starfield: The extended showcase at the end gave me a very strong sense of the game, and convinced me that this was definitely playing into some Traveller vibes the same way that The Elder Scrolls had been so very influenced by Runequest.
  • Dungeons of Hinterburg: This looks like a very fun dungeon-crawling game, with a very different vibe.
  • Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty: I already own the base game, so I’m definitely going to be picking up the DLC.
  • Cities Skylines 2: I’ve been looking for something to scratch that Sim City itch, this should do it for me.
  • Metaphor Re Fantazio: It’s a bunch of people with Persona experience doing a fantasy RPG that is completely separate from the MegaTen franchise, so I’m very interested to see where they go from this.
  • TowerBorne: While the name is generic, the game looks like a beat-em-up hexcrawl, which could be very interesting.

PC Games Showcase

Still from Jumplight Odyssey
Jumplight Odyssey
  • Nivalis: Interesting slice-of-life small business sim set in a science fiction setting, which looks pretty interesting.
  • Jumplight Odyssey: FTL meets Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers – definitely in for that.
  • Eternights: Looks like an interesting mix of anime romance with some engaging character-based action.
  • Islands of Insight: It’s been a while since Myst Online: Uru Live.
  • Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master: It’s been a while since the last big Dungeon Keeper-alike came out, so it’s nice to see another one.
  • Mariachi Legends: This looks like a Metroid-vania game with a very strong visual style.
  • Citizen Sleeper 2: I missed out on the first one – I really need to get around to that.
  • Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivors: It’s nice to have licensed games based on Dungeon Fantasy tabletop games that aren’t D&D, so I can give a little less money to WotC (what with their having sent the Pinkertons on someone who was shipped Magic card in advance of release date).
  • 30XX: It’s nice to see another Mega Man X clone – and the roguelike and level creator elements could potentially be very interesting – especially considering the success of Mega Man Maker (check out the Mega Man Maker run at Summer Games Done Quick 2023).
  • Baldur’s Gate III: I will say upfront that this and Planescape are going to be my last purchases for D&D 5e, at least for a while.
  • Earthless: I’ve been digging some deck builders like Slay the Spire, and I’d been looking for an interesting science fiction one – this might scratch that itch.
  • Last Train Home: There were a lot of FPS games this year, but this is the one that probably caught my interest the most, in terms of the concept.

What games from the first week of Summer Games Fest 2023 that I didn’t mention caught your interest? Let me know in the comments!

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