Decided to make a consolidated thread for game announcements instead of searching for all the various publisher specific threads I've created over the years. I can't promise I will maintain this any better than the others, but it feels more appropriate than posting this stuff in the upcoming games thread or making a new thread every time.
First up, there was a new Sony State of Play recently, with its biggest announcement being God of War: Laufrey. This will be a spinoff game starring Kratos's wife and mother to their son, Faye. Anyone who has played the previous two games knows that the entire premise of the first game was to bring her ashes to a specific mountain after she had passed away.
They posted a two minute video of what is presumably the beginning of the game. Don't read any further or watch any trailers if you don't want the premise spoiled. Basically it seems to be about her waking up immediately after her funeral in the afterlife for the gods. They introduce some new characters from other mythologies and show her combat style.
A few of the other announcements I recall from this State of Play were a new Until Dawn game (cinematic horror), and a game in which you play as the stunt driver for a lot of different licensed TV shows and movies (Knight Rider, Back to the Future, etc).
Summer Game Fest was a couple weeks ago, and I don't know if it's coincidence or bias, but it seems to have been one of the more interesting ones in awhile. Across the various presentations, these are the big announcements that I can recall:
Main Show:
Final Fantasy VII Revelation - I felt like this was the biggest announcement, which I promptly ignored because I (still) haven't played the other two.
Resident Evil Code Veronica Remake - Teaser. Remake of a spin off game in the series that takes place sometime between 2/3 and 4.
Guild Wars 3 - Prequel. Coming to consoles and PC. Still no subscription
Alien Isolation 2 - This was one of the few games that had more than just a teaser shown, but I don't remember what's new in it.
TMNT: The Last Ronin - Developed by Platinum. Based on the graphic novel that takes place in a dystopian future.
Stellar Blade: Blood Rain - Sequel.
From the Nintendo Direct:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake - This has been rumored for awhile, but they only showed a teaser of the new graphics.
Xenoblade Genesis - Fantasy rather than sci-fi themed, possibly a universe prequel?
Dragon's Dogma II: Dark Arisen - An expansion DLC. Interestingly despite sharing the same name, this version includes a new snowy region rather than being locked into a super dungeon like in the first game's Dark Arisen.
From the Xbox Showcase:
Spyro: A Realm Beyond - New game in the series, being made by the team that made the Spyro remake.
Senua - Bit of a cynical take here, but they announced this to try and attract investors for Ninja Theory, which they are cutting ties with.
Persona 6 - Just a teaser. They basically announced the theme color for this game (green).
Nintendo had one of their big Nintendo Direct presentations a week or so ago. Most of it was just Switch 2 versions of old games, but they did a announce a few new things. The two most notable being:
Metroid Ravenous - A new 2D game in the series, following up on Metroid Dread. I was kind of surprised at just how much of a high paced action game they made it appear to be.
Kirby and the World Beyond - A new 3D game in the Kirby franchise. Kirby being the little pink fluffball that eats enemies to steal their powers. The Forgotten Land (the previous title) was the first 3D game in this franchise and was well received. Whereas that one still had self contained stages to play through, this new one has larger and more open environments.
Blizzard also announced some new games at Blizzcon about a week ago. I'll post the games first and then my thoughts below.
Diablo V - Set to release in 2029. I haven't played Diablo 4 so do not know if this next part is a spoiler. The story premise is that Sanctuary (the human world) has fallen and the demons of Hell have finally won. Diablo is also now the primary antagonist again, whereas he was apparently absent from Diablo IV. One of the new classes they have announced is a Plague Knight, and the setting is supposed to be post apocalyptic. Though the Diablo setting has always been fairly miserable, so I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes.
Starcraft Dominion - Set to release in 2030. An open world first person shooter that takes place about 70 years after the events of StarCraft 2. The cutscene trailer originally had me concerned that they did not understand the source material, but by the end I think it felt appropriate.
Warcraft III: Forsaken Kingdom - An entirely new campaign for Warcraft 3 using the Reforged client. This actually was released the same day they announced it. In addition to the new campaign they are introducing Undead Paladin champions as well as various minor gameplay and graphical tweaks. They are also removing the maligned art style introduced in Reforged and replacing it with a more natural HD uplift for the original art style.
Warcraft Forever - Not really a new game as much as a new way to play WoW Classic. I'll make another thread about it in the MMO forum.
They also announced new content for a lot of their games, but as those aren't game announcements I won't be summarizing them here.
My Thoughts:
I am struggling to contain what I think might be anti-Microsoft bias affecting my judgement. There is nothing about a new Diablo or Starcraft game (well, almost nothing...) that I should be disappointed by, but announcing a game four years in advance reminds me starkly of Bethesda announcing The Elder Scrolls 6 way too soon. Is this a natural announcement, or is it Microsoft wanting a return on their investment?
To top it off, I would have killed for Starcraft spinoffs back when it was big. But this isn't a spinoff, it's the first new game in the series in 10 years and could very well be the new identity of the franchise. They are taking a great RTS and turning it into a FPS for a company that makes mass market FPS games. I just can't decide if I am more excited or disappointed.
Lastly, the new Warcraft 3 campaign is pretty cool. I sort of wish I had heard this first in order to relieve the sting of the other announcements a bit.
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