Summer Game Fest - The Best Games and Announcements

Published on June 8th, 2024 in Games

The first day of the annual biggest (series) gaming event just finished. So far, this year's presentations have three common traits:

  • Little to zero huge announcements and AAA-games in general.
  • A lot of trailers that are either just cinematics with no gameplay or even a good representation of what that gameplay would be. I really hoped that this trend is dying, but nope.
  • Weird trailers that are actually teasers for other showcases. Huh?

In general, I found indie games to be a lot more exciting this year than all the big thingies. This is partially due to me planning to start my venture into indie gamedev soon, but also, these small projects just show a lot of variety in visual, narrative, and gameplay ideas — some are pretty exciting!

So yeah, instead of wasting your time and browser RAM by embedding all the trailers, I will only tell you about the ones that made me wishlist games. This is my blog, after all, right?

Squirrel With a Gun

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: August 29.

This game made me spit my tea (fine, beer). You play as a squirrel that uses all kinds of guns to take out... Well, doesn't really matter who, because it looks so darn fun. I always liked when indie game devs successfully pull off such silly concepts, and also commit to them fully. This looks like a very good example of that.

Star Wars Outlaws

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: August 30.

A small teaser, but I'm already sold on the game. It's Star Wars with a full open-world, and a quirky protagonist without Jedi superpowers. The game tries to fit the western formula, and, so far, looks like the devs know what they are doing.

Skate

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: TBD.

I personally fell out of love with skatesims a few years ago, but Skate is kinda special, because it managed to create a distinct identity in the genre without relying on huge brands and names like Tony Hawk. It's great that fans conviced EA to greenlit the sequel, and I also like that the studio is taking its sweet time developing something actually worthwile.

Neva

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch.
  • Release date: 2024.

A seemingly short and chill platform with drop-dead gorgeous drawn visuals. I'm yet to play Gris, the studio's previous title, but I like this game and will definitely buy it.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: October 11.

Game of Thrones, but make it a high-fantasy anime. This is a completely new JRPG from the creators of later Persona titles, and it just OOZES with style. You know, I wish that my interfaces, be it for web apps or video games, would look half as dazzling one day.

Mecha BREAK

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: August 2024 (Closed Beta).

I'm a simple man: I see sexy mechas (big battle robots) - I smash wishlist. No, but really, those designs are just stunning. I see a lot of mecha games that look generic and uninspired, but this one is leagues above the competition.

Blumhouse Games - The whole initial line-up

Hands down the most exciting thing that happened past evening. Blumhouse - a film studio that does some of the best modern horror - is now publishing video games. Basically, they curated a number of unknown devs that try to do something unique and interesting in the genre.

This is just insanely cool to see, and I'm genuinely interested in most of the games shown. Also, respect to Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum for spending money on this initiative!

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: 2024.

A sequel to one of the most hyped medieval RPGs out there. Looks great, would probably play, wish they showed the gameplay - but first have to play the first one.

Slitherhead

  • Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: November 8.

Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama returns to the genre with a game where you play as some kind of spiritual parasite that can posses anyone - including dogs - to fight terrifying demons, using your host's unique abilities. Looks way too cool (and ambitious) to be true, but we'll see.

Killer Bean

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: Summer 2024 (Early Access).

Not exactly my cup of tea, but this sandbox hitman game looks to be pretty inventive and somewhat funny. I'm interested to see what a VFX artist of Martix: Reloaded came up with here.

CAIRN

  • Platforms: PC.
  • Release date: TBD.

A very personal and truthful game about mountain climbing.

Wanderstop

  • Platforms: PC, PS5.
  • Release date: 2024.

An ex warrior settles as a worker at a "cozy tea shop", as she tries to convince herself that she is finally happy with her life. But, clearly, something is VERY wrong with her.

Mind you, this is a game from the creators of The Stanley Parable - one of the unique narrative experiences to ever happen to this medium. Very curious to see what's the meta twist will be.

Outersloth - The whole line-up

Another case of "people getting rich and spending money to sponsor indie devs" here, which I love to see. Outersloth is a new publisher founded by the people that created Among Us. The line-up is very diverse, I'm somewhat interested in all the titles.

Alan Wake 2 - Night Springs Expansion

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: Already released.

Three extra episodes with Remedy's kooky characters, including Jessie from Control. Remedy is always quirky, weird, and creative about their stories, but here they even used the "what if" plot device to really go wild.

Hyper Light Breaker

  • Platforms: PC.
  • Release date: Late summer 2024 (Early Access).

Almost didn't include it because of this game's focus on co-op, but Hyper Light series is too praised to ingore it, and this sequel looks fire too. Personally, I'm a sucker for bright postapocalyptic aesthetic.

Monster Hunter Wilds

  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series.
  • Release date: 2025.

I really, really wish I could undertsand the craze about this series, but I don't. Monster Hunter is a huge franchised focused on hunting down immense beasts, learning their traits, preparing for each battle, etc. My beef with these games is that each of these fights take like 20 minutes to finish, and I don't find it that much fun either.

Hopefully Wilds does something for me, but I have to agree that the trailers looks quite good.

Phantom Blade Zero

  • Platforms: PC, PS5.
  • Release date: TBD.

The game to close out the event was Phantom Blade Zero - a yet another souls-like heavy on Japanese/samurai aesthetic. I grew tired of this specific niche and, honestly, struggle to distinct them from each other at this point. However, this specific one has quite impressive graphics and combat that at least looks very fluid - we'll see how it actually plays.

So yeah, that was it for Summer Game Fest - or, to be specific, it's "opening ceremony" of sorts. This year certinly underdelivered on surprises and big announcements, and the sheer number of cinematics without gameplay is baffling.

I just like that indie games got a lot more attention this year, and am excited to play many of them.

The next two days are also packed with presentations, so be sure to come back for more quality (and, yes, opinionated) recaps here later.

Stas Pogorskii Written by Stas Pogorskii