Summer is Heating up the Video Game World
Well folks, I’ve got good news and bad news. Bad news is that E3 is dead, forever this time. (RIP) Good news is we have the Summer Game Fest to take its place. So if you were fearing that the Summer would have less video game news this year, that’s not the case. For those of you who are out of the loop, Summer Game Fest is basically the same as E3, just run by different people. Thanks to this there’s still a lot of news to talk about. The Fest just finished up this weekend and there were so many announcements that I do not think I’ll be able to cover absolutely everything but I’ll cover all the most interesting announcements from the event.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Is Coming Next Year
The show started off with a big surprise. A brand new Prince of Persia game will be coming on January 18, 2024 for PlayStation, Xbox and PC. It really feels like we’re in an era of resurrecting seemingly dead series. I remember playing Sands of Time and Warrior Within when I was a kid, and the series seemed to be dormant for at least a decade. The trailer showed that this new game would not be like those games but rather like the first Prince of Persia, which was a 2D Action Platformer. This is a genre of game that hasn’t gotten a lot of love recently, so I’m interested to see how this game does. The game also looks amazing, with a storybook type of art style, which is something that I’m a big fan of.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Is Coming in Early 2024
If you read my article about the Playstation Showcase, you might remember that I complained that none of the major releases have release dates. Well, it appears that Sony was saving these announcements for SGF because there were many release date announcements at the event, starting with FF7 Rebirth. And I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is that Rebirth is not coming out until early next year. The good news is that we got a new trailer to tide us over until then and SPOILER ALERT, the game looks amazing. The trailer shows off the world outside of Midgar, and it looks gorgeous. The party rides Chocobos and explores new locations. The biggest part of the trailer is showing off new party members. Red XIII is finally a playable party member in Rebirth and Yuffie makes an appearance as well. Square Enix are still being vague about the release date only saying that the game will be out in early 2024. In my opinion, the new year cannot come soon enough. I’m sure we’ll get a specific date between now and then.
Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis Is Getting a Closed Beta
Rebirth may have been the biggest FF announcement at SGF, but it was not the only one. Square Enix also announced that Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis will be getting a closed beta starting on July 6. The game was first announced in 2021 and is a compilation of every story told in the Final Fantasy VII universe. There will also be new story elements that focus on the origins of SOLDIER. The game is coming out on mobile devices; unfortunately the closed beta is available only for Android players and if you want to participate, you can apply for pre-registration right now.
Spider-Man 2 Gets October 20, 2023 Release Date
A game that did get a specific release date is Spider-Man 2. We will not have to wait very long for the game as it’s coming out at the end of October. We also got the box art for the game with both Miles and Peter shooting webs out. Seems like a natural progression of the covers of the first two games since both Miles and Peter will be playable in this game. We also got new information about the villains. Venom will not be Eddie Brock in this game. We also learn a little bit more about Kraven the Hunter and his story, which is interesting because he’ll be hunting The Lizard, and that makes Peter and Miles reluctant to help him. The Spider-Man 2 story is looking to be more and more interesting, and I’m interested to see how it will play out when the full game comes out on October 20th.
Mortal Kombat 1 Gets A Brand-New Gameplay Trailer
Another game that got shown off at SGF is Mortal Kombat 1. The game is coming out later this year and we got a lot of new information on it. Gameplay-wise, it seems to be a more up-to-date version of MK11 with a few brand new mechanics such as assist characters who can help you extend combos. The trailer also shows off the new story for the game as well. The story looks interesting because it seems to re-tell the story of Mortal Kombat but with characters in different roles, such as Raiden and Liu Kang switching places in the story. Am I the only one who enjoys the story mode in fighting games? (Let me know in the comments.) Of course, the trailer is capped off with that trademark MK violence and that’s always fun to look at. This is another game that I’m greatly anticipating and I cannot wait for it to come out.
Fortnite Wilds Reveals a Brand New Crossover
It is honestly a surprise to me that Fortnite is still getting updates. Epic Games released a new trailer for the next season, WILDS. The trailer reveals the next crossover for Fortnite, this time with Transformers. The trailer shows the characters fighting in a forest before running into Optimus Prime of all characters. Add this to the list of insane crossovers that Fortnite has. Seriously, the fact that you have a game where Optimus Prime can fight characters like Darth Vader, Goku and Naruto is baffling to me and I still cannot believe that such a game exists.
Sonic Superstars Is a New 2D Classic Sonic Game Coming This Year
Here is another SGF surprise: Sega announced a brand new 2D Sonic game called Sonic Superstars and the game is coming out this Fall. Sonic has had a very hit-or-miss record recently, but this game looks like it could be a home run. The game is doing something that the series has not really done until now: four player co-op. Games like Mario Maker show how 2-D Platformers can be done with co-op, and this game could be the next evolution of that. The art style is also reminiscent of other modern Sonic games, with the 3D art style but with 2D gameplay. I am cautiously optimistic about this game because it sounds like a good idea, but Sega’s execution with Sonic is famously hit-or-miss.
Alan Wake 2 Gets Huge Gameplay Reveal
Alan Wake 2 is a game that I find myself talking about yet again. The game is coming out on October 17th and SGF gave us our best look at the game yet. The trailer showcases the two characters that will be playable in the game, being Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. The trailer also shows what these characters will be doing in the game, with Saga being an FBI agent in the Pacific Northwest and Alan trying to escape the Nightmare Dimension. The game also shows that the story will be a 50-50 split between the two of them as well.
Like a Dragon Gaiden Is Coming This November
Like a Dragon Gaiden is another game that has a concrete release date. That date being November 9th of this year. While the main series seemingly moved away from the main character of the first seven games Kazuma Kiryu, Gaiden is a spin-off that will have Kiryu as the main character once again.
Star Trek Infinite Announced
This is a game that I think Jason would like. We got a brand new trailer for a game called Star Trek Infinite. The trailer did not show off much, only a Federation Fleet approaching the Borg. The game will be a strategy game coming from Paradox being made by Nimble Giant Entertainment. You get your choice of playing as part of the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire, or Cardassian Union. Paradox released a game play trailer on the 16th.
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando Revealed
This is another surprising announcement as the man himself, John Carpenter, teamed up with Saber Interactive to make a new video game called John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando. The game will be a First Person shooter with an ode to 80s action and horror movies, like the movies that Carpenter himself has made. The trailer also shows that the game will have a horde shooter aesthetic as armored vehicles with plenty of guns to fight huge hordes of zombies. The game will be coming out for the PS5 Xbox Series X and PC next year and hopefully it will be the proper spiritual successor to games like Left 4 Dead with the aesthetic of John Carpenter. Hopefully this game will be a home run.
SandLand Is a New Action Game from Akira Toriyama and Bandai Namco
We got our first look at a new game from Bandai Namco called SandLand, coming to PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game features Akira Toriyama’s signature art style and is based on a niche Toriyama manga from 2000. The gameplay showed tank and melee combat across the game’s wide desert. There’s no release date for this game yet. As a DragonBall fan I always find it interesting to see other things that Akira Toriyama has worked on. I guess Bandai Namco has made enough money on DragonBall games that they are able to take risks on other IPs. Only time will tell if this gamble will pay off.
Palworld Is Like Pokémon… But With Guns
Yes you read that headline correctly. Palworld got a brand new trailer at SGF, and the game looks like a Pokémon clone but with guns. The game is coming to early access this January and it seems to be radically different then other Monster Collecting games. I feel as though that’s what you have to do in order to be successful in a genre that’s dominated by Pokémon.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Is Coming This Fall
If you ever wanted to play a survival crafting game set in the world of Middle Earth then The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria may be the game for you. The game is set to come out this Fall, and it’s set during the fourth age of Middle Earth. The game also has a resemblance to genre mainstay Deep Rock Galactic as well, so if you’re a fan of that game and want to try something similar with a fantasy aesthetic rather than a sci-fi one then this is the game for you.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Introduces Jason Isaacs as a Major Villain
Baldur’s Gate 3 is another game that I find myself talking about constantly and it also got a new trailer at SGF. The difference between this trailer and others is that it shows that it has some mainstream support through the introduction of Jason Isaacs as a major villain. Jason Isaacs — who is best-known for playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise and Captain Hook in 2003’s Peter Pan — is joining Baldur’s Gate 3 as a major villain named Gortash. The actor has appeared in video games before, including Marvel’s Midnight Suns and The Last Worker.
Twisted Metal Debuts on Peacock on July 27
In a piece of videogame adjacent news, Will Arnett showed up at SGF to promote the new Twisted Metal series which will be coming to streaming channel Peacock July 27th. The clip showed off the series version of Sweet Tooth (“Samoa Joe” Seanoa, voiced by Arnett) and John Doe (Anthony Mackie), who both have designs faithful to the original game. Honestly, the only reason I’m talking about this is to ask Sony for a next-gen Twisted Metal game. I feel as though Twisted Metal could work in Sony’s agenda of making more live-service games so I hope they consider it at some point.
Marvel Snap Getting a New Competitive Mode
For those of you that like Hearthstone-like games, you’ll be happy to know that Marvel Snap will be getting a new competitive mode. The mode is being added on the 13th of June (so it’s probably out right now.) The mode is being called Conquest mode and it will be a single elimination tournament mode. The tournament will take place over the course of the season.
New Trailer for Season 4 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
SGF also got a new trailer for the next season of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The trailer showcases some of the new maps set to release with the season. The trailer showed levels themed after a castle, soccer stadium, and an abandoned zoo which are areas that have not really been shown in Call of Duty before. This is a nice change of pace from having Nuketown for the 15 millionth time.
Exoprimal Is Getting a Street Fighter 6 Crossover
Capcom’s newest franchise is getting a crossover with one of its most famous ones. The company announced Capcom Collab 1 for Exoprimal and showed off a Mecha Ryu fighting Exoprimal’s dinosaurs. (I can’t believe I just wrote that) Exoprimal is coming out July 14th with the DLC coming out in the Fall.
Lies of P Gets a Demo and New Release Date
If you are looking forward to Lies of P then I have good news and bad news in regards to it. The bad news is Lies of P is now coming out on September 19th, which is a slight delay from its previous August date. Good news is that you can play a demo for the game right now. The demo shows off the first two chapters of the game with many bosses to fight and locations to explore. Once again the cross between Pinocchio and Dark Souls is a surprising one but the game looks more and more promising with each trailer.
Nicolas Cage Is Coming to Dead By Daylight
Once again, this is not a clickbait headline, this is actually real. Dead by Daylight is another game that has a huge crossover with characters like Ghostface and Micheal Myers and now Nicolas Cage is being added to the game as well. The infamous actor also appeared on stage for a chat. Cage called Dead By Daylight a chance for him to branch out, since he’s never been involved in the video game industry before. The Nic Cage chapter comes to Dead By Daylight on July 25.
Immortals of Aveum Gets an Extended Gameplay Clip
Immortals of Avenum is another game that I have talked about before. The game is another that got the highlight of SGF with an extended gameplay clip showing off both the Magic and FPS mechanics.
Honkai Star Rail Gets a PS5 Release Window
Honkai Star Rail is the newest game from Genshin Impact Developer Hoyoverse. The game is following in Genshin’s footsteps in that it is getting a PS5 version coming out soon. as we now know it’s coming in Q4 2023.
Party Animals Gets a Release Date
Party Animals — the brawler game featuring adorable animals — is coming to PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 20. We got a new quick look at the game to celebrate the announcement. The game seems to be a clash of art style and gameplay. It definitely follows the Palworld formula of being just absolutely ridiculous enough that it might work.
Xbox and Porsche Partner on New Designs
In celebration of Porsche’s 75th anniversary, the company is partnering with Xbox for a collection of new Xbox Series X consoles themed after Porsche cars. They aren’t for sale, but you can enter sweepstakes for a chance to win one. Xbox also announced that they are releasing a new version of the Series S as well.
There you go folks, that is the major announcements coming from Summer Games Fest 2023. Thank you for reading!
