All Announcements

Valheim – The opening act for the PC Gaming Show. I’m not sure why. It looks like a minecraft-meets-vikings survival/crafting game. Animations look janky as hell, character models look ten-years-old. Not a fan.

Ooblets – This is exactly the shit that I’m talking about when it comes to “more of the same”. After the success of Stardew Valley, everybody and their mother is getting into the farming and life simulator business. This is Stardew Valley meets cutesy low-polygon graphics.

Torchlight 3 – Not much to say, Torchlight has been around for awhile. I’ve always been more of a Diablo 2/Path of Exile player but it’s nice to see more competition in this space. Path of Exile especially has been pissing me off lately.

Odyssey: Elite Dangerous – Looks good, I like the idea of “being able to do anything in space” but I’m waiting for a VR release. It wasn’t ruled out (just at launch) so I’m hopeful.

Airborne Kingdom – This might be the worst trailer I’ve ever seen. Told me absolutely nothing about the game. I knew there was going to be a goddamn city in the clouds, that’s the title of the game. It doesn’t look bad but jesus, at least give us a hint of what the game’s about.

Dwarfheim – A co-op RTS for up to three players? Looks so much like Warcraft with updated 3D models.

Bunch of games from New Blood Interactive – edgy retro shooter, edgy retro shooter, edgy retro shooter, etc. Edgy interview. No interest in the genre.

Humankind – “community-driven game development” (this can’t go wrong). Looks like they’re recruiting members for the dev team?

Evil Genius 2: World Domination – Never played the first, but it sounds like a Simcity for secret agents? Not bad.

Godfall – It’s funny how this game looks so much better now without the edginess and whole “heavy metal” vibe of the PS5 event trailer. I don’t see anything really innovative though, looks like your standard third-person melee action game. I guess the looter aspect?

Prodeus – retro shooter

Fae Tactics – pixel-art isometric tactics game. Alright, I haven’t played a tactical RPG since Disgaea 4 so I can’t offer much here.

Project Wingman – combat flight simulator that also supports VR. I really wish LucasArts (if they’re still around) would make another X-Wing/TIE Fighter game with VR support.

Blankos Block Party – looks like Second Life mixed with Funko pops. Not excited about this one.

Everspace 2 – Okay, we have our modern Descent game. Looks good though a little surprised the trailer didn’t really show much of the combat, just your ship flying around different environments.

Inkulinati – Kickstarter game that showed a turn-based battle system with these 2D “inked” sprites. And a ram attacking with some sort fart move? Not interested.

Total War Saga: Troy – Never played the Total War games.

Mafia Remake – Looks amazing, except…”NOT ACTUAL GAMEPLAY”. That’s a tough one. What does the game actually look like?

Dauntless Call of the Void – Looks like a bunch of Kassadins facing off against Baron (League of Legends). The trailer didn’t show much at all.

Among Trees – here’s the trailer text: EXPLORE BUILD SURVIVE. Yep, you guessed it: it’s another survival crafting game! The difference? First-person and low-poly (kind of like Firewatch).

Mortal Shell – So I saw this game mentioned during the Playstation event (or was it a side event?). Third-person melee fighter except you can possess (certain? all?) monsters you come across. Each monster controls differently and has access to other moves. The event featured a trailer (okay) and another clip of a boss battle where two guys just repeatedly hack at each other with swords. I’m not sure what the point of this was.

Shadow Man Remastered – Third-person Hexen? Graphically it looks ancient. Further research indicates that this was an N64 game released in 1999 (oddly enough, I remember the box cover but not the name) and now remastered for PC. Hmm.

Shadows of Doubt – I remember seeing this on Reddit several months ago and my opinion on it hasn’t changed: I like everything about it EXCEPT THE PIXELATED ART STYLE.

The Forgotten City – really confused with this title. It’s a game based on a mod? And the mod won a National Guild Writers’ Award?

Cartel Tycoon – these tycoon games aren’t really my thing. No comment.

Trash Sailors – this is, graphically, my worst nightname. EVERYTHING is modularly animated. Sorry…I just can’t.

Cris Tales – I mean, I’m not sure what the actual game looks like because this just seems like a series of random cutscenes.

Alaloth Champions of the Four Kingdoms – new action RPG. The settings look interesting, but the battle animations are kind of a turn-off.

Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town – “the original farming simulation series sprouts on Windows PC!” I’m out. Actually, I’m back in for a second. This is a port of the original Harvest Moon game (Natsume has the rights to the Harvest Moon name). And with that, I’m out again.

I don’t know how many millions were poured in New World, and I don’t even want to know.

New World – Okay, here we go. Amazon’s second crack at PC gaming and…………..it’s super dark and I can’t tell wtf is going on. The environments look awful. There are no shadows underneath any of the characters. I’m gonna call it: this game is donezo.

Metal Hellsinger – not sure if this qualifies as a retro shooter, so let’s go with Heavy Metal Shooter.

Dungeons of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos – snippet of conversation from the game: “You, again? I’d expected your asses to be turned into lampshades by now!” I mean, the little bit of the combat that we actually see gives me heavy Divinity 2 vibes, but man – what’s the story? Is it coop?

Red Sails – So this is a game where you pilot a red-sailed boat that travels on sand. And rescue people. It’s also a game where the graphics and animation remind me of Out of This World (1992). Not sure what to say about this one but I found it funny that one clip cut just before it looked like the ship was about to crash into some wooden poles.

Surgeon Simulator 2 – I’ve never played any Surgeon Simulator games, but this title is so wildly over-the-top that I’m not even sure what the point of it even is. It can’t be surgery, right? Surgery doesn’t have crafting and customization and popping heads off bodies and dropping donuts into patients’ rib cages.

Escape from Tarkov – good-looking shooter, but unbelievable bad trailer that literally shows a sniper walking around opening doors.

Outlast Trials – co-op horror game? All we could really see is just running around from bad guys so I’ll have to reserve opinions on it. I would love to see more players in this space though.