This week is the week of Summer Game Fest 2024. Ah, SGF! The Geoffers, as they call it down Los Angeles way. The Not-E3s. The Midsomer Keighleys. Jumping G.K’s Game-a-Palooza. The AAAArghs. The Second Fall Of Babel. Trailarmageddon. The Sparkling Stink. SGF is sort of already in motion – last week, Sony kicked off the proceedings with their latest State of Play showcase, but you can expect the majority of new videogame announcements from Friday 7th June with the Summer Game Fest 2024 Opening Showcase, a two-hour livestreamed event which starts at 10pm UK, 5pm ET and 2pm PT. I’ll be out there covering the whole sorry affair in LA from Thursday to Monday while the remainder of Rock Paper Shotgun hold the fort on London time.
It’s a period of frightful bounty for the Maw, our resident Hadean icon of videogame news consumption. Look forward to trailers, celeb cameos, surprise demo releases, around a million hours of interlude music, and hands-on impressions fresh from the creaking furnace chambers of my jetlagged brain. Still, SGF isn’t All She Wrote this week. A few brave developers and publishers are releasing new games alongside the event, like individual rockets plunging into Uncle Geoff’s Fervid Fireworks Show. Here are a few that have caught our eyes.
Monday 3rd June sees the release of Elder Scrolls Online’s Gold Road expansion, which Katharine (RPS in peace) considers a solid gateway drug to MMOs in general, together with lurid 90s room-escaper Tamarindos Freaking Dinner, in which you deliver pizza to a mansion full of Tim Burton-esque munsters. On Tuesday 4th June, there’s Destiny 2’s Final Shape expansion, a project whose success or lack thereof will reportedly determine whether Sony mounts a full takeover of Bungie, together with a pair of fairly handsome strategy games, Songs Of Silence (which looks a bit like a deck of Tarot cards) and Field Of Glory: Kingdoms (which looks a bit like a medieval manuscript). There’s also asymmetrical horror outing Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, which Nic will be upset if I don’t mention. Wednesday 6th June sees the release of Chornobyl Liquidators, which is “not a fantastic tale of exploring the Zone” but “a story about real people facing a real threat”, and Kristala, a Soulslike with a touch of Robin Jarvis. And on 7th June, finally, the “deceptively cute” (aren’t they always?) factory sim Star Stuff.
As ever, let me know if we’ve missed anything I would feel deeply embarrassed about missing, and enjoy the week. You can follow our routine news coverage in the liveblog below, which I’m going to extend into Sunday so you can follow the deterioration of my writing abilities in real-time. Onward, to SGF! Keighley & Friends! The Endless June! The Geoffervescent Circus!
One we missed from last week: you can now play the original text adventure prototype for Outer Wilds in a browser.
Take-Two are reportedly about to sell off or close their Private Division label, whose publishing projects include Moon Studios’ No Rest for the Wicked and Wētā Workshop’s Tales of the Shire.
Here’s a demo for Hollowbody, “a tech-noir survival horror” from Chasing Static developers Headware Games, whose influences include Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner Silent Hill, Kuon and Haunting Ground.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s official modding tools land in September alongside the game’s next major update.
Megacopter is a satirical sci-fantasy homage to EA’s old Desert Strike games. I’ve played the demo and there’s much to like.
MAW MONDAY
Let’s get this party started. FEED IT.