Summer Games Fest + Xbox Show 2024 Recap

[00:00:00] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of The Pre-Order Bonus podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren, and I'm joined as always by the Pixel Professor Jacob Price. Jake, it's June. January. January. It's not... My allergies are still going, so I'm going to be coughing through

[00:00:32] this whole show. It's June 13th, 2024. We are in the wake of the Xbox show in the Summer Games Fest. We've had a plethora of announcements, previews, just everything that you can imagine under the video game announcement. Jake, what did you watch? What

[00:00:57] did you like? I watched quite a bit, I guess as much as time and schedule would permit. But I watched most of the Gorilla Collective Showcase, Summer Games Fest. I didn't watch in real time the Wholesome Games. I kind of sped-watched a lot of it afterwards. I missed

[00:01:21] Day of the Devs. I just read Recaps or Day of the Dev and the Devolver Direct. And then I watched like the first hour... I watched like the first hour of the Xbox Showcase

[00:01:31] and then I had a leave and there were still like 15, 20 minutes or so left. So I like missed the Gears E Day tease. I'll have to read about that later. So I caught a pretty good chunk of it. I got to say though, I'm fatigued about

[00:01:51] showcases. Dude, what a gauntlet of stuff to watch if you want to try to stay on top of what's coming out. It's too much. Yeah, I just didn't watch the other stuff.

[00:02:02] I figured that I would just catch the trailers that kind of popped off for people from like the Wholesome Games Direct and the PC Gamer Show. And I still needed to dig back through

[00:02:12] those and find like the gems from those because there was a lot of cool stuff apparently. But no, I mainly... And I think that's what we're doing on this episode is just going

[00:02:24] back through kind of what we saw, what we read that we really liked that stood out to us kind of from both shows. But I was a fan of these. I like watching them. I only watched

[00:02:37] the Summer Games Fest. I watched the whole thing and I watched all of Xbox. And I also watched about three quarters of the Ubisoft show. So... Oh, nice. Yeah. I tuned in for maybe 15 minutes of that. I caught mostly outlaws stuff. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah. So

[00:02:58] this is sort of a one-off news focused episode. So what we'll do is we'll kind of walk through the shows, talk about the things that we liked and that jumped out at us and then

[00:03:10] maybe lay down three, four of our kind of most anticipated games for fall. Yep. That's great. And that's what we'll be doing. Did you catch any of the gorilla collective? It sounds like you didn't. No, so yeah. I still need to go back through

[00:03:29] those shows and find her just... It was like a two-hour show. Yeah. Which, hey, I mean, that is great. There's a lot of games being showcased. There is something for everybody. There was something in there for everybody. Kind of whatever you wanted.

[00:03:49] Whatever type of game or genre you want, it was showcased over the sort of weekend of games. Gorilla collective I thought was really cool. Let's see. I actually have a list written down.

[00:04:02] Sorry guys. It is sweltering hot where I am. So Cameron and I, we both live in Utah. And it is like in the mid-90s right now. And my AC died today. So I'm sweating like a hog.

[00:04:23] Jake, do you want to go... You've got a list. Okay, go ahead and just go down your list and I can pick off any. Oh shoot. I don't know if I wrote a list for gorilla collective just

[00:04:34] because I don't know. I was watching it live and I'm kind of scrolling. It was, I mean, it was good. One thing I really liked was there's this dev that I really like. Their handle is Aerial Knight and

[00:04:48] they're doing a sequel. So they are playing... They got a game coming out called We Never Yield that looks super dope. It's kind of like a side-scrolling endless runner. Kind of has

[00:05:00] that type of a feel, but it's got an awesome like hip-hop soundtrack. Yeah, that was one game that really stood out to me. I think that's coming out as soon as next month. Okay, yeah,

[00:05:12] here I've got my list now. I've stalled enough. So that was there. Oh yeah, this looks dope. Yeah, I played the first one. I actually think it was a way back in when Xbox was doing Games

[00:05:25] with Gold. I want to say that was a Games with Gold download. But yeah, very cool. Motor Slice. Did you see this? This is... This game is weird. You play as somebody with like a chainsaw blade

[00:05:43] weapon and you are doing all this 3D platforming and you are fighting basically construction vehicles. Like the premise... I'll be honest, the premise doesn't really sell the game. But when you look at the game, it actually looks like it's got really good 3D platforming.

[00:06:06] I kind of got like Suda Regalia, which is a game from last year that I played this year that I actually really loved. It's like Suda Regalia, but I got the teensiest shadow of the Colossus vibes because you have to take on seemingly enormous bosses too.

[00:06:21] So Motor Slice, yeah that was one that really stood out to me. That's dope. Yeah, like I said, I didn't get a chance to watch those shows. I need to go back and review those trailers. But

[00:06:33] I did look at what you just mentioned. That looks cool. That is a cool one. Let's see. Another one that I saw... This one looks super dark. It's called Bittersweet Birthday. It kind of had like... Think of like... It reminded me of Earthbound, but really dark.

[00:06:52] Like imagine all the battle line stuff from Celeste, but in an Earthbound-like game. It looks... I put here my notes. It looks like a cryptic supernatural thriller with some cool pixel art. Bittersweet Birthday is action game where every combat encounter

[00:07:07] is a challenging and unique experience. Learn your enemies' patterns, plan your movements, and turn on your opponent in fierce battles. Yeah, I think it's going to be... Q2 2025. Yeah, I think that one's going to be pretty gnarly. Oh boy.

[00:07:19] That's cool. That's a cool one. One of the ones... Jake, did you watch the Latin American Game Showcase? I... No! I read... I had to read a recap on that one. Because I'm just on Steam because I was looking up Bittersweet Birthday is on the list

[00:07:37] of the Latin American Game Showcase. It looks like through the 15th they have demos of these Latin American-based indie games. So that's cool. Yeah, folks. On Steam. I would say...

[00:07:50] So I... Like I said, I didn't have a chance to watch this live, but I did go through a bunch of this. And some of these are games that I've been following. We're about to hit sort

[00:07:58] of a golden era bubble, if you will, or something of really, really cool games coming from Latin American Studios. I would just recommend going to LAGShowcase.com. It has a list of all these games. I think I put in a few, actually, that I recommend from that.

[00:08:17] But we can get to that when we get to that. Well, do we want to dive into the Summer Games Fest, Jake? Let's go into the Summer Games Fest because we could spend a lot of time looking at these.

[00:08:29] Obviously, we just recommend that you go and watch the Showcases. Or honestly, what I actually think would be better and a little more guided for people is if you have Steam, I'm pretty sure all these collections are still up on Steam.

[00:08:44] You can just click on like with the Showcase had and then you get a list of all the games. And you can just wishlist the ones that look cool to you. And that's

[00:08:54] like the best way I think that you can find games from these Showcases rather than watching the whole video and support the dev by giving them a wishlist. Yeah, we'll call out stuff that's set out to us. Some of it's going to be AAA. Some of it's going

[00:09:07] to be indie. But this way, if you don't want to go watch the whole thing or even watch it, like Jake said, you can just, as you're listening, you can just write them down

[00:09:16] or go look them up and wishlist them. Okay, I'll jump in. We can just go back and forth. Here. My first one that jumped out for me at SGF, this is Jeff Keely's annual summer Showcase.

[00:09:31] This is sort of his lower key show. It punches a little bit less than kind of the other shows that he does. But I think he overall like really does do a pretty good job. I think he does

[00:09:46] kind of the best he can. But headlining it was surprisingly Lego Horizon Adventures. Dude, this looks good. And this looks shockingly good. So what they've done here and I got a little

[00:10:02] bit more information on this. This is not made by TK games or TT games, whatever like the company that's made every Lego game that you've ever played in throughout history. Who makes it? So, Gorilla makes it. What? My sister studio. That's insane. Yeah, Gorilla is making this

[00:10:28] and they're doing their own thing with it. It is a soft retelling of the original Horizon game in Lego form. That's cool. And some other interesting facts is it's drop and drop out,

[00:10:42] couch or online co-op. Every block is animated and like in the game. Wow. So when like stuff blows up or like a building gets hit or like you punch something like individual like Lego blocks will

[00:11:00] fall off the characters. And what they've done with this if you haven't watched the trailer for it is it's like they've really taken the Lego movie and turned that into a video like a Lego

[00:11:09] Lego movie style and turn that into a video game. And Gorilla who made the Horizon games is working on this. It's pretty dope. That's why I would not have guessed that this wasn't TK games. They did a great job, I think of mimicking that style.

[00:11:27] Yeah. So somebody said that this could be the rumored Horizon Zero Dawn remaster that was rumored. That they said that they were working on people think that this might actually be that and that that's not actually happening, but that kind of checks out wouldn't make sense.

[00:11:49] We never talked about the PlayStation show right because that was at a weird time or did we? I think we talked about it maybe briefly before Hellblade 2. We talked about Astrobot. Dude Astrobot I think could be Game of the Year.

[00:12:06] So I am not even joking. I'll briefly mention Astrobot because this is going to be definitely on my most anticipated list, but that's two games right there in Horizon Adventures and Astrobot that are like premium like you know basic you know AAA

[00:12:25] PlayStation games for kids like targeted at kids, which I'm really excited about because I'm always looking for really high quality games to play with my kids. So anyway that's my first one from

[00:12:39] SGF. Yeah okay um speaking of games that look good for us and our kids uh that Power Rangers Rewind dude the title is way too long that Power Rangers game and everybody knows what I'm talking

[00:12:53] about when I say that um let's see my kid might be working Power Rangers Rita's Rewind yeah too many Rs that's way that's a tongue twister dude Power Rangers I'm just gonna say that Power

[00:13:03] Rangers game man um listen my kids loved the TMNT Shredders Revenge that came out was that Dutemu that made that we even got the DLC for it too. One of my kids to this day is still trying

[00:13:16] to get us all to play it because he loves it so much and then I saw this Power Rangers game and I was like oh my gosh the cross marketing is working because my kids are currently obsessed

[00:13:25] with Power Rangers uh one of the TV like reboot series that's on Netflix and I saw this and I was like this is a Christmas present like this is a guaranteed holiday buy for me because my kids will

[00:13:38] love it we can all play it together and it's Power Rangers. Like it was the easiest marketing I think that they could have done for somebody like in our position like parents with kids um

[00:13:50] but on top of that like the TMNT Shredders Revenge game was good like that was fun that was a really fun beat them up and I'm I was seeing the exact same fun in this game so that's one of the ones I am

[00:14:03] most excited for um yeah that one's gonna sell I think super well this holiday. It looks super fun and it's got like 2.5d like 3d kind of 90s style graphic like 3d mech battles and like bike

[00:14:22] bike combat and stuff like that which that like really popped out yeah that looks super cool. Next one for me was this is from the solo developer of Chuchu Charles which is still on

[00:14:34] my wish list I still haven't had a chance to play this um but I really want to cuff bust. Did you watch this trailer Jake? Dude this is I mean in our discord we have a live channel

[00:14:48] where people can live react to these and after watching this I just put this as my most WTF game of this entire showcase it looks just straight up bonkers. I mean it's is it like an

[00:15:02] extraction shooter kind of? It's not a shooter I think it's like a team so what was that viral game that came out on this team earlier this year? Oh something company. Oh yes lethal company.

[00:15:19] So I think this is in that vein okay but it's like so anyway description is it's a cute chaotic prison escape game in which you play as Jalians trying to bust out of the who's go.

[00:15:34] I don't know what that means. Sure dude I mean sure. Dude this trailer is a just I don't even know how to describe it to be honest like. I mean they did a great job of selling the sandbox sort of creativity as you're busting out

[00:15:53] of prison. Yeah the way that you can fight guards the way that you can escape go through vents go through plumbing but I just saw that these were just like crazed koalas beating the snot out of

[00:16:06] prison guards. Dude it just looked straight up insane it looked like parents entity. This is one of those like if you can get a group of friends together and somehow get

[00:16:19] like four or five other people to buy this and get it on steam that you would have an absolute blast. Oh yeah I think the challenge with games like this is that I think they're just same as like

[00:16:30] lethal company because they're so good but to make them good it's all about like that social experience and I just I find that more and more in my life it's super hard to like get people

[00:16:40] together to play these types of games you know better but if I could I would be excited. I still haven't even started a run of enshrouded and they just released like a major update. I still

[00:16:52] have that like installed on steam I haven't been able to get to it. The crazy thing about games likely for company and cuff bust is man if these games had come out 10 plus years ago

[00:17:06] they would have been couch co-op games and this is this is the game that you stayed up to 2am playing with your buddies downing Mountain Dew and pizza just coming into the point where your

[00:17:14] brain is melted and you're just doing the kookiest things and having the greatest time playing them and I do think that you can recreate that experience like in online squads and it can be

[00:17:27] just as fun and entertaining but I agree that just like is so much harder to get people committed to do something like that. I think that cuff bust is absolutely gonna just all

[00:17:38] the major twitch streamers you know when like lethal company came out and like fall guys and stuff came out you could squat up it's gonna be big twitch streamers squatting up playing the crap

[00:17:48] out of this game for like a month or two which will do awesome for the dev devs gonna make a ton of money doing it but seeing all this does make me feel nostalgic and you can call me out for being

[00:17:59] old man yells at cloud or whatever for those late night couch co-op games and I do wish that something like cuff bust would release in that form as well. This would be a great game

[00:18:11] pass pick if this was like game pass cross play that would be so money that would be like so perfect for this I don't think it'll will be I think it will be steam only but probably because it's it's

[00:18:23] just the dev from choo choo charles right so I imagine that making that leap to another platform and then having like cross play is just like a huge pain in the butt. Choo choo charles is also

[00:18:33] on my wishlist I just briefly mentioned that if you don't know what that is that is a please look it up horror game that takes place on a small island where there is a killer train

[00:18:43] trying to kill you yeah and it's it's it's only supposedly it's only like three to four hours and you basically like upgrade your train and you your own train and you use it to kill

[00:18:56] the evil train I actually watched a few streams of this when it came out it is it is so bonkers but also I think choo choo charles is terrifying looking but I'm also a wimp

[00:19:09] but it looks like fun like for people who like horror games I feel like that one would be a win I feel like if you really liked uh Thomas the train engine growing up that you would have some

[00:19:19] serious like issues after playing the scan probably it's so Jake what else did you like from SGF the allen wake 2 dlc surprise shadow drop announcement if you are a long time listener or listened to us last year my game of the year for 2023 was

[00:19:39] allen wake 2 so um you know sam lake struts out on stage and he announces this and I didn't buy the digital deluxe version what funny enough I'm just a little bit of recap we only ended up

[00:19:54] doing allen wake 2 because some people in our discord suggested it for us and there and we were I was on the fence don't really love horror games but I loved control so we went ahead we got it

[00:20:07] for the podcast and I ended up obviously loving it and um but so that's why I didn't get the digital deluxe it's like I'm only getting base game because I'm probably not going to get

[00:20:16] any more of this game and so I had to go back on buy the upgrade to the digital deluxe and I felt really stupid doing that I gotta say because you can't you can't buy the expansions like

[00:20:28] individually you have to buy the upgrade to the digital digital deluxe so I felt really stupid buying those it's like an all or nothing it's kind of an all or nothing thing but it works I mean now

[00:20:38] it works for me because allen wake 2 will have another dlc package titled the lake house it's supposed to come out late this year early 2025 so that will come now and I'll be happy and

[00:20:47] fine but yeah the allen wake 2 dlc so get this it's three vignettes and this is for the remedy verse mega lore fans how all the universes connect I've actually played two out of two out of three of

[00:21:01] them already because they're like 45 minutes to just two an hour long um and it was in their fun they're extra campy um extra like remedy verse lore drops and I think the first the first like

[00:21:19] vignette you play as rose the waitress and by the end of it I think I had over 250 shotgun rounds like oh yeah I heard they just give you unlimited ammo they just give you so much stuff and this

[00:21:36] basically the game's just like go to town it's basically like monster it's like zombie horde games of yore nice um so we already have seen these these were just rehashes or like kind of presentations uh so these weren't like new game announcements but two that all mentioned there

[00:21:58] are monster hunter wilds and metaphor re-fantasy oh yeah so monster hunter wilds looks incredible like they've taken some of the insane visuals they were able to get out of dragon's dogma too

[00:22:12] and I believe it's the same engine uh and they're just pushing that engine to the absolute max with this thing dude like and I got in on the monster hunter game really late actually just

[00:22:23] recently got into it and played probably like 10 15 hours and was having a lot of fun but just didn't have anyone to play with and so I'm excited to kind of be next year to be able to jump in this

[00:22:34] like like at the beginning because it looks uh it just looks insane uh yeah so monster hunter wilds cross plays already confirmed like that is looking super good I'm with you I didn't I didn't get

[00:22:49] into monster hunter I know that's been around forever but I was really into monster hunter world I really liked it but I was kind of burned out by the gameplay loop by the end of the

[00:22:56] game um but I'm hoping that wilds changes that it looks super super good yeah and then metaphor refund tazio this is the persona developers so like here's the thing with this game right

[00:23:12] craziest name of any game that's ever been made that it it might make sense I kind of almost feel like there's gonna be a line where somebody says metaphor refund tazio and and then you're

[00:23:25] like that's the name of the game oh yeah and then that's it the thing is is like I would literally not even pay attention to this game other than the incredible UI because my goodness Jake there's

[00:23:38] actually two UIs I need to call out that we're showing and one of them is this one the thing is is like this is probably going to be like a 95 metacritic thing like knowing what this

[00:23:50] team is capable of I've got it on my league but the thing is like I just I know that it's not for me like I know it's not for me like it's it's not but it's going to get such good reviews and it's

[00:24:03] going to show so well I'm like marketing that I'm probably going to cave and buy it and play it for like 10 hours and then bounce off yeah I think that's that's a surefire thing

[00:24:14] don't let me do it Jake hold me back I'm not going to be any help I'm sorry because the same thing is going to happen to me like the persona games everybody raves about

[00:24:23] them and and then I check the how long to be and I'm like no I'm sorry I can't you're like 120 hours I'm out can't even start this um I at this point started persona five I've started percent of I have

[00:24:39] three like seven to 15 hour play through is on percent of five if you combine those you'd be like a quarter of the way through the game well the thing is like so I started on playstation four

[00:24:55] got like 10 hours in beat the first dungeon then uh royal came out so I bought it on ps5 started that got like five hours in then they added percent of five royal to game pass and I was like

[00:25:10] oh I prefer playing on xbox so I started it again on xbox I've kept it installed on my ps5 just was like okay I'm going to come back to this like for sure because like I can see like the quality

[00:25:22] in it and like really good tactical turn-based combat and stuff and I just I never do it's just too much it's too big yeah it's too much oh boy Jake what else from sgf anything else yeah

[00:25:35] there's a few other things that stood out to me um I do want to say that listen Jeff keely takes a lot of crap and he dishes out a lot of crap you know but I you gotta give credit where credit to do

[00:25:47] his opening maybe didn't appease everybody and that's fine and I don't think it was perfect but he did address you know layoffs and the sort of the turmoil that the that the gaming industry is going through but I think that the announcement of outer sloth as

[00:26:03] sort of a publishing branch from the among us devs that's inner sloth really beefed up and added credibility to what he was saying but obviously I think the announcement of outer sloth is just

[00:26:14] massive it's so cool a bunch of interesting projects are coming from that and a bunch of devs the devs who actually have signed projects with outer sloth have already come out and said that the contracts

[00:26:30] are very favorable for developers so very cool to see uh indie hit unicorn viral game among us uh kind of give back to the community in that way and then kind of along that as well as uh bloom

[00:26:47] house right making a bunch of horror games yes this was a super cool announcement this was super cool so this is kind of like I think it's really cool like there's a lot of turmoil in the games

[00:27:00] industry but those two like publishing announcements were like rays of hope on a cloudy day I think for a lot of developers so very cool very cool I think that was definitely one of my highlights of

[00:27:13] of summer games fest yeah I think a lot of people gave this show poor reviews and I I take issue with those because yes well this this show did not have a huge amount of triple A

[00:27:31] crazy announcements it just didn't like it didn't but what it did do is it like really took time to highlight indies which I think are going to like carry a huge part of this industry and in a time when

[00:27:48] like the industry sucks right now right seeing stuff like bloom house and seeing the owl like what you just mentioned that is just awesome and then even Jeff Keely kind of took time in the beginning

[00:27:58] to call out like hey we're going to see a lot of indie games it's going to be indie focused a lot of these are made by solo developers I just freaking love that that was such an awesome call

[00:28:06] out yeah and I do agree with what he said that indies right now are in a unique position to shape and change how marketing happens in the video games industry which we've discussed before

[00:28:19] and this is a huge thing marketing budgets are enormous they're huge right and indies don't have that cash and before summer games fest you know it was leaked how much it costs and we talked

[00:28:31] about this a little bit but how much it costs for some air time during summer games fest and their prices a bunch of indie devs were like the minimum price which I think is 250k was more than a

[00:28:42] developer's entire budget for a game yeah right so stuff like that like like you know these are crazy huge numbers but I it's it's kind of fascinating to have Jeff Keely himself say

[00:28:54] that indie games are going to change how games are marketed because they're going to play against those really big numbers and they're going to come up with better more streamlined and creative

[00:29:02] ways to get their games into players hands so I kind of read it as like hey this is almost a little bit ironic that he's saying this but at the same time I think it's the truth and I

[00:29:13] think it's a smart thing and a right thing for him to to notice and to say yeah and all the indie titles from the bloom house presentation which were like quick b-roll of kind of four or five games

[00:29:27] from both of those new publishing houses all looks really good in fact I need to go back through and like wish list a bunch of stuff where I want to forget them yeah the bloom house stuff a bunch of

[00:29:37] it I won't play because it's like horror games obviously but I was like holy cow horror like enthusiasts they're doing well speaking of which the last one I'll mention from the show for me

[00:29:50] to that I wanted to highlight was never oh yeah this is from the developers of grease which was pretty acclaimed indie title a few years ago this is about like a girl and her wolf and her

[00:30:06] wolf gets really big yes over time and it looks like a sort of action RPG ish Metroid vania type thing like but visually stunning really incredible trailer yeah this and it says coming in 2024 so this this is definitely maybe like the maybe kind of the most standout

[00:30:34] indie announcement probably from the show maybe anyway probably for me to honestly I love grease actually grease nomad studio is um is a spanish they're from spain right and so I've actually

[00:30:48] used grease in a class um and it's a really fun one to teach a bunch of students who would never call themselves gamers they love playing grease they love it um and for for good reason

[00:30:59] grease is wonderful it's it's pretty slow slow paced slow moving and never they've they quicken the pace and it looks like they've added combat right so it'll be interesting to see how

[00:31:11] it changes but I think it's going to be a total slam dunk that was actually one that I have on my list as well too oh and I forgot to mention they showed the bean game again the dude why do

[00:31:22] why do I like this game like it looks so I don't know but it looks so good the bean game bro like this is why does this look as good as it does so I've been reading up on this because I'm

[00:31:39] so curious I am so curious to see how killer bean turns out it is it they're calling it a campaign roguelike so it is a campaign and it sounds like it's mission based and it's supposed to feel very

[00:31:52] much max pain and it looks that way too right but essentially the story is supposed to be procedurally generated so no two campaigns are the same so some npcs will be villains sometimes they won't be maybe they'll betray you maybe they'll switch to your side and I am

[00:32:13] so intensely curious about how that kind of campaign plays out killer bean unleashed yeah dude if you didn't watch this trailer this trailer is wild this is like GTA slash the matrix

[00:32:31] like I don't that's when he does the moment for me was when he does the alley hoop slam dunk under the legs with the grenade with the grenade it is so over the top it is so over the top but it

[00:32:46] works so well for that game just vibes to be that way I love it it actually kind of reminds me of this is an old game that I loved and played the crap out of but did you play enter the matrix

[00:33:00] oh like the og that like had the story stuff for like for the movies that was only in the games yeah yeah yeah definitely yeah like maybe like I think I did it like literally once like so many years

[00:33:15] ago right I played that game quite a lot and I want this game to be that good but maybe that's a tall order to ask anyway I'm interested um I'll just round up real quick other things that I noticed

[00:33:25] from the game the skate update I said in our sort of predictions for summer game fast I thought it would come this year well it's not that far off we're getting console beta testing or alpha

[00:33:36] testing this fall I think skate is going to be smash hit I'm super biased because I'm super emotionally invested in it but I was I was so glad to see that update and then the let's see Karen

[00:33:53] the climbing game like extra depressed Juson that one stood out to me and then the fact that phantom blade zero they announced like this world tour for their demo makes me think oh wow

[00:34:04] that game is actually much closer to launch than than I thought so those are my top things from summer games fest nice okay let's move on to the uh xbox show xbox show and uh yes where this

[00:34:33] start let me pull up my list here can you believe this is the thing that's the biggest shock to me can you believe that nearly everything I think the only exception is gears e day everything

[00:34:47] else is supposed to come out this year or next year can you in your heart believe that I just don't think I can believe I think there's a lot of delays in here like I love the showcase don't

[00:35:00] get me wrong but like after you know the adrenaline has left my body I'm like okay but how much of this are we going to be playing this year next year uh yeah yeah so for me a lot of people love

[00:35:16] this show and I did I also love the show I thought it was a fantastic show amazing show oh yeah I think what took it down from possibly like a 9.5 10 out of 10 for me was the fact that no concrete

[00:35:27] release dates um which that's fine so I also really thought silk song was going to be here and I'm absolutely shocked that it was not part of this showcase which I guess

[00:35:52] man this cough is driving me nuts which uh I guess just means that they're going to do some like social media twitter drop and then just release it like a week like two weeks later right

[00:36:02] like that's that's what they're doing not even two weeks I I think silk song I'm being slowly convinced by soccer who's a member of our discord community who says that silk song is a collective

[00:36:15] hallucination at this point um it's not real it's not real it's not a real game I'm like 40 I believe that but but uh the other 60 percent of me is convinced that when silk song comes out it

[00:36:31] doesn't need a showcase it doesn't want to be in a showcase either it's just going to release whenever team cherry wants to release it um I think they're done making promises I think they feel really bad

[00:36:42] for having Xbox make a promise that it was going to come out 12 months after the Xbox showcase before the end of 2023 and it didn't um I just think team cherry doesn't want to make

[00:36:53] or they don't want to break any promises so that game is going to show up out of the blue middle of nowhere and it will absolutely devastate every other game that's coming out that month

[00:37:03] and I just kind of wonder if team cherry is super cognizant of that and they are just super terrified that the hype is so big for this game that it could all crash and burn

[00:37:17] I'm projecting it's not gonna crash and burn come on I mean it can't right but yeah a game like this has been so hyped so hotly anticipated that kin I don't know it's not even

[00:37:29] fair to try to ask team cherry to make the game live up to its height that hype at this point that's fair all right well let's jump in my first game uh I'll call out is uh doom the dark ages

[00:37:43] this was a dope trailer for the new doom I I played doom 2016 wasn't like the craziest fan of people really love that game like just love it again um I did however play doom eternal which wasn't quite

[00:37:59] as critically acclaimed but I actually really liked that game and had a lot of fun with it nice they like they amped up the movement in that and the fact that it was on game pass like played

[00:38:09] put like eight or ten hours into that and just and had a blast of it and the fact that this game is kind of just doing wild stuff and just like let's just go to the medieval times with the doom guy let's

[00:38:20] just do it you know why not we'll give him a shield like we'll give him a big fur cape like this is this goes pretty hard I gotta say oh yeah it goes super hard I thought it was

[00:38:31] very cool looking too um let's see the game that probably blew me the way the most was south of midnight um yes we I was shocked I was also I was shocked to see full like a full gameplay showcase

[00:38:50] of this like shocked like we when did we learn about south of midnight was that a year ago last the last showcase one year ago we had a they showed off this this sort of into the spider verse

[00:39:05] 15 fps animation style that they're doing right and they did the trailer we didn't really know what kind of game it was going to be and now they show up here with like a full blown

[00:39:17] like gameplay thing which is crazy yeah it looks like a one very cool setting two it looks like awesome action awesome combat um three it's just got an incredible incredible atmosphere and there's so much to sort of love about the art direction and what the character feels like

[00:39:37] and just kind of what the game is going to be there's some dope looking massive monsters I'm like dude I just feel like the imagination and creativity behind what south of midnight is

[00:39:50] as that was revealed in the xbox in the xbox showcase my mind was blown and I am really really excited for that um and like you said we saw way more on that game that game was so much

[00:40:02] further along than they let us on to believe that I am like hey that one could come out in 2025 I hope it does yeah that that actually looks like it could for sure yeah um

[00:40:17] um I will call out from this show I mean a bunch of cool stuff state of the k3 dragon age the veil guard obviously new dragon age we haven't had one of those in a while a lot of people really liked

[00:40:29] the in-person previews that they did of this at SGF yeah um like behind the behind closed doors like demos that a lot of game dev or pundits have been talking about uh the one I really

[00:40:42] like the trailer Claire obscure expedition 33 what does that title even mean can can someone please sit down so explain so the expedition 33 refers to the premise of the game which is actually pretty cool that there is a evil malevolent malevolent like witch or lady or goddess

[00:41:06] or whatever that every year or something picks a number she paints a number and if you are that age of the number she paints then you're just wiped off the face of the earth nice so what they

[00:41:20] premise like the premise is that you're this sort of group of dudes and you're going to go kind of take down this lady and like solve that problem once and for all dude this trailer

[00:41:32] goes super hard oh I agree I am very very excited for expedition 33 um and this is the second one that I'll call out the UI dude like someone someone put some time and like someone dumped some serious

[00:41:51] artistic chops into that UI and it looks to be a turn-based real playing game but with like interactive elements sort of like a paper mario style where there's sort of button prompts

[00:42:02] combined with like the tactical turn base which I super I know people don't like turn based and it turns them off but I was actually really excited to see turn based because I I really enjoy that

[00:42:11] dude the turn base looks great and it looks innovative they're adding like these kind of real time actiony components to the turn based modeling system I gotta say I think expedition 33 has a super strong personality which makes it stand out it was super flashy

[00:42:30] looks beautiful I agree the combat looked really great and did you see that Ben Starr is a voice actor in it yes yeah everybody's heard his voice yep everybody's kind of Final Fantasy 16 darling

[00:42:45] is is going to be in this one so yeah that's on my list too of what I thought was some of the best games showcased at the xbox event let's see the other ones I'll call out I actually had there's a ton I also want to call out

[00:43:06] meta-grasal delta snake eater this looks perfect like no notes I mean I'm not like a crazy metal gear fan like a lot of people are I really like the metal gear games yeah I think they're great

[00:43:20] they're fantastic like they're fantastic but dude this this remaster it looks hot like this looks really good like I don't know I don't know who this is for but I'm 100 buying this and playing this

[00:43:36] I have a very vivid memory of playing metal gear saw three on my PlayStation 2 like as a kid like in my bedroom like many many years ago and so kind of reliving that and it looks like they're

[00:43:50] delivering like the ff7 level of upgrade to this it looks good I haven't played three I have had metal gear solid peacewalker downloaded for like years at this point and I need to play it

[00:44:07] but I'm really excited for I actually really liked metal gear solid five that was my first game in the series I think this looks really great I think has it been leaked or somebody there's strong rumors that it's supposed to come out November 2024

[00:44:25] and a part of me doubts that they'll hit that target but it would be cool I'm sold on it because I want to play I want to play other metal gear solid games and you know you can fault me for

[00:44:38] this or not but when a really old game gets remade I'm so much more likely to wait for the remake and play the remake then go back and play the older one part of that is because the old one usually

[00:44:50] is super hard to get or you have to emulate it or something but yeah remakes are I am the target demographic for that so I will be playing this one 100 percent some quick mentions before

[00:45:06] I do kind of my two big ones are a footlong siege of dawn was shocked to see it July released it on this yeah this looks like a super could be like an act like a super solid like 8 8.5 kind of souls

[00:45:21] light action game like it it shows super well it does and it's actually retailing for I think 40 bucks which makes me think shorter game which makes me very very happy the other quick call out

[00:45:37] I'll do is age of mythology retold this is a full remaster of the age of mythology games if you never played this like back in the day this is like a successor to the age of empires games but

[00:45:48] with kind of fantasy civs so they have like the Egyptians the Norse the Atlanteans and one more so for this game which is coming in September they did like a full bottom-up remaster and the

[00:46:05] campaign in this one is really really good like it has a really great RTS campaign which I I am a massive fan of like really great real-time strategy campaigns which there's very few of those

[00:46:19] so excited to pick this one up and then so I think three more I'll give my game of the show last fable was not expecting to see this at all jay we got like full-blown fable here

[00:46:38] I I do not think it's gonna come out 2025 it just looks like they have set a really high bar in terms of like graphics and what it looks like and what it's supposed to play like

[00:46:54] fable I think is a fickle franchise also in that it has a very very distinct personality and you've it's gonna be tough I think to replicate that but all those concerns and worries aside it looks

[00:47:10] awesome it looks super awesome and I want it to be smashing success they're nailing they are nailing the visual style the tone like the art direction they're nailing that right whatever that is like

[00:47:27] they're doing it they're doing it I can't remember which fable there's one of the fable games I played a ton of I want to say fable 2 maybe but yeah I'm looking forward to that played a lot of

[00:47:42] fable 1 and then fable 3 quite a bit of back in the day nice the xbox I'll share my my big two ones and then I'll let you get to what you think the game of the show was or what the game of

[00:47:57] the show is for you um perfect dark dude I I think you nailed it Cameron when we last talked about perfect dark and sort of the predictions coming up to the showcase a bunch of rumors were floating

[00:48:11] around right and I'm recapping this that perfect dark was in development hell and so Cameron and I were talking about what that means and Cameron said well every game at some point in development

[00:48:20] is probably in development hell because there's so many moving parts when it comes to creating a video game and so my conclusion to that was like when an article says game x is in development

[00:48:31] hell you gotta take that with a grain of salt and I just loved the presentation of perfect dark like it it's got me so jazzed about um just being that the sort of espionage the agent the super

[00:48:47] super secret agent all the all the stuff there looked fantastic the stuff looked great the combat looked great the war looked great I am super super excited for that one and then I am also very excited

[00:48:59] for Indiana Jones in the great circle um my kids have been really into Indiana Jones lately so it's part of the buzz and yeah those two games I think are ones Indiana Jones might be become one of

[00:49:13] my most anticipated for this year actually after that trailer but perfect dark is definitely one of my most anticipated for 2025 now perfect dark was by game of the show uh by a mile oh was okay yeah like

[00:49:27] this was first off absolutely shocked to see this was not expecting to see this at all yeah but not only do we see it we got like a classic e3 like 2007 level presentation of this game

[00:49:41] that blew me away like they've they've gone the full immersive sim route yeah and this is like it's like dishonored but in like the perfect dark universe and your spy and you have like gadgets

[00:49:56] and I was blowing this this may have gone up to like one of my most anticipated games like just period um no idea when this is coming out we were probably

[00:50:10] I mean it's hard to tell it looks like they put a lot of work into this vertical slice that they did like for the showcase which which we know is doesn't really indicate anything about like the

[00:50:22] actual state of the full game other than that they have like a strong concept yeah and they have like a strong like design and they have assets that they're working with right but who knows like

[00:50:32] how much time they're going to need for content and like fleshing things out I could see they still be in like a couple years away honestly um if not yeah I don't know we saw so much of this game

[00:50:44] that I think 2026 I think this could be holiday 2025 maybe I'm being optimistic um but yeah I don't it looks super great I actually ended up downloading um Rise of the Tomb Raider on Game Pass and I

[00:50:58] started playing it because I was so hyped on um perfect game which is also crystal dynamics right so I was like ooh I kind of want to just kind of get a sense of maybe what to expect from some

[00:51:10] of these games that I was talking about but holy cow holy cow what a showcase so many great things going on there let me mention my last one oh yeah go ahead um well we could quickly mention

[00:51:25] Gears of War Eday I really liked Gears 5 I'm a Gears of War fan this didn't like for whatever reason this didn't like knock my socks off but because maybe I'm not like a Gears of War die

[00:51:38] hard and that's why but I I understand why people are really hyped about this yeah I think there's a lot of reason to be hyped um but yeah I'm not I'm not a Gears fan and that's not because

[00:51:48] I'm not saying I dislike them I just haven't really played them all that much I know Cameron and I started playing the Hive Busters but my series X was having issues and I had to get it repaired

[00:51:59] so we never finished it but yeah yeah Gears 5 is a really good game it has great co-op around 60 frames it looks beautiful really solid really fun game uh so yeah I'll definitely

[00:52:11] play this excited about it um I think the last one though that I wanted to mention just to to to point out from the Xbox show was mixtape oh nice dude I am a huge huge fan of like coming of age

[00:52:31] movies tv shows especially like 80s era or like 80s vibes and so the vibes of this just like hit me in the feels like big time um and I gotta read I gotta read this uh on their last night of

[00:52:47] high school three friends embark on one more adventure together play through a mixtape of memories set to the soundtrack of a generation and route to their final party together a perfectly curated playlist draws them into dreamlike re-enactments of their formative

[00:53:01] memories experience a variety of narrative vignettes exploring the pivotal moments that shape them players will immerse themselves in the teenage waist plan by playing through a mixtape of joyful gameplay from skateboarding and flying to taking photos after hours in abandoned theme park

[00:53:15] hitting baseballs putting on a firework show from the backseat of a car it's the greatest hits of teenage friendship from the first kiss to the last dance oh nice I like that description right yeah

[00:53:27] wow yeah no this looks this is so every once in a while one of these like anapurna sort of like walking simulator kind of just narrative hit you in the feels game will get me and I think

[00:53:38] this might be the one that's the one for you is that 2025 is that right yeah yeah very cool and also did you notice the fairest bealer moment no I didn't they didn't call it they

[00:53:53] didn't call it out but if you watch the trailer when she's running through the backyard like how the camera pans oh that's totally fairest bealer when he's like running home yeah

[00:54:05] I'm trying to make it home on time he's very cool anyway yeah any other jones uh honestly I I love any of jones obviously uh machine games is incredible these trailers for whatever reason

[00:54:19] are not like working for me to get me more excited but I trust machine games like being the team to make like in any like no other team could make an any out of jones game like the right

[00:54:30] way and my like machine games is just perfect fit for that so um yeah that's the xbox show um Jake let's just talk about our general most anticipated game and then we can close out this episode uh

[00:54:46] I've got a whole bunch obviously but let's just go back and forth and just do a few until we're we're we can't remember what what else we have because there's too many games now

[00:54:57] way too many games we'll start with you what's your what's your uh what's one of your most anticipated now coming this fall after now that we pretty much know for the most part everything that's coming into fall I think there's still going to be some obviously

[00:55:12] some one-off announcements and there'll be some stuff at gamescom in august as well for probably late fall but what's your biggest stuff stuff that you're looking forward to yeah that

[00:55:21] is tough um I think let's see I'm actually gonna cheat a little bit and I'm gonna talk about a game that's coming out next month um there's a game it's uh bow path of the teal lotus um

[00:55:39] I'm what is that I'm getting more and more excited for it's a sort of 2d securo inspired um beautiful sort of cartoon animation game uh the the demo is currently up with uh steam

[00:55:53] next fest and it is getting rave reviews um I can't remember if I back this one a kick start or not probably not because I don't remember seeing a bunch of notifications oh nice but um so yeah not quite

[00:56:04] this fall but it is something that we know that's coming out during the rest of the year I'm super excited for it the praise has been through the roof um and it just looks really fantastic

[00:56:16] um okay so this this is a really weird jake I feel like it's 2012 man because we have two ubisoft games coming this fall that I am really excited about and I'm like man it is and we also

[00:56:40] have a bio-wear game coming this fall which is like this is what year is this is this 2008 like um but dude the footage uh so I watched the ubisoft show the footage for star wars outlaws and the

[00:56:56] footage for assassin screed shadows dude they got me man they yeah they this marketing has hooked me in like I'm about ready to hit that pre-order button oh that close kind of in

[00:57:09] I think assassin screed shout out this is the one I think this is the one that's going to get people back in because I think people have fallen off and like it kind of I know what this formula is

[00:57:18] this just looks like it's shaping up in the right every all of the right ways that I'm kind of looking for from an assassin screed game plus they're finally doing that feudal japan setting

[00:57:27] which is just a dope setting all around um and then for star wars outlaws dude it dawn on me when I watched the presentation they're really going for red dead redemption space yeah and once

[00:57:43] that kind of clicked for me I was like oh I think I understand like what this game is now and now that I understand that maybe that's gonna throw my expectations out of whack but it's just got me

[00:57:55] a lot more excited and it just looks really good and all the previews coming out of sgf for like the behind closed doors demos have been super super super positive yeah yeah things have

[00:58:08] been super super positive for that I agree I'm with you it looks awesome I kind of have a lot of faith I know it's a different studio but I have a lot of faith in star wars games that are coming out

[00:58:19] right now because of star wars jet I fall in order and survivor such amazing awesome games and they told but it felt like was a really interesting and relevant star wars story and I just kind

[00:58:33] of hope that ubisoft adds to that trend as well so I'm also excited for that one now this next game I'm going to talk about we've already mentioned and Cameron tonight are both already very excited

[00:58:45] for this one but dude astro bot that that astro bot game I'm saying it now you heard it here first this is this might be game of the year it might be game of the year this based on the

[00:58:56] trailer it looks at least on par with super mario odyssey like the platforming is awesome the visuals are stellar you know they're boasting what 80 plus levels several different worlds I'm going to

[00:59:16] dawn that I think you can unlock it's either an astros playroom now or the astro bot game that's coming out you can unlock the hunter outfit from bloodborne ironically enough but nice but yeah honestly it just looks so so good can't wait for that one to come out

[00:59:42] yes so I already mentioned Assassin's Creed outlaws like they've kind of shot up the top if I've just sit and like try not to think very hard those are kind of the top two um what would be my number

[00:59:57] three I've been thinking about this a lot um I need to it's it's that time of the year where I like literally have to make a list of like all the stuff I want to play because there's like so much

[01:00:06] stuff yeah Indiana Jones we already talked about super excited for that um dude I'm forgetting every game that's coming out Jake in the fall there are a lot coming out um I'm gonna here let me

[01:00:23] quickly look at it really stay because my mind it's getting late and my mind is going yeah Indiana Jones in the great circle I think I mean you you all guessed it listening I'm super excited for that

[01:00:32] one um I'm really looking forward to it I'm really looking forward to using a whip even in first person right I know people initially were really bummed that the majority of the game is going

[01:00:42] to be in first person but I don't know I think it looks really great um yeah and machine games does first person really well so I'm not worried it just looks like a grand old time and I'm really

[01:00:53] really excited to see um what it really is and what that story is okay my brain's working again I found a list okay nice uh I'll go through quickly of these and I'll just I'll just list off

[01:01:05] kind of the rest of mine and then talk about a couple for a second so blackmouth wukong yeah I think this has the chance to be like a lyza p level event perhaps even like bigger than that

[01:01:18] visually just stunning like this thing is like this thing is expensive looking yes it looks very expensive blackmouth wukong uh Star Wars Outlaws already talked about um age of age of mythology retold excited for that astro bot you talked about Jake that immediately kind

[01:01:37] of went way up my list um and then that's taken us into where is the other one already talked about assassin's creed already talked about indiana jones um a vow surprisingly no release date right

[01:01:55] well did you see that there was a release date um November 12th and then it got scrubbed like immediately so okay I yeah I think I think they did um release something there was some sort of

[01:02:12] interview after their showcase I said that they are in the polishing stages right now so that bodes well for a 2024 release yeah dude like it's crazy when I really kind of look

[01:02:24] at this list again like astro bot is probably now I would say probably number one on my list but dude the two ubsoft games are like right there for me like I just they just they click

[01:02:38] something in my adolescent brain I don't know they look good I'm more excited for outlaws personally um yeah for sure I think that's yeah I'll probably be picking that one up unless something terrible

[01:02:53] happens so you can there's like a 90 chance we're doing an episode on that is this the assassin's creed that will get you what do you think are they gonna get you with this one

[01:03:03] maybe I don't that was the the weakest maybe I could have given you folks um if you're a long time listener you're digging into the deep lore of the podcast I have a very rocky relationship

[01:03:18] I think with assassin's creed in part because I haven't played a lot of them but I always really like assassin's creed and then I just fall off a cliff and I'm done with whatever the game is

[01:03:30] the last assassin's creed that I really liked was assassin's creed odyssey which I thought was fantastic that game world just got way too big for me and I uninstalled and I never looked back

[01:03:43] the closest I came back since then was assassin's creed mirage I was like oh this looks interesting it's a smaller setting it looks cool but I didn't pull the trigger on it so

[01:03:54] we'll see I loved the gameplay that they showed of the two different characters um that you that you play as and I am definitely in a wait and see I want to see what reviews are and I want

[01:04:08] to see I'll probably actually end up watching somebody stream part of the game and then make make decision but I'm not sold on it yet gotcha that makes sense well I'm excited lots of video games

[01:04:28] you know it was it was kind of feeling like I was on the fence about some of the stuff coming out in the fall but now like these presentations have done their job and uh I am very excited for

[01:04:41] what's to come we didn't even talk about a whole bunch of stuff flight simulator flying billion games like yeah um come come into our discord and ask us what other games are looking forward to I posted my top five games from all the showcases that I liked

[01:04:56] and so we would love to just talk more about the games that you're excited for the games that we are excited for as well there's a lot out there I think maybe the last ones I want to

[01:05:07] mention just because I have the list up here from the latin american games showcase I want to reiterate folks latin america is on the cusp of producing some super hot games and it's going

[01:05:18] to be a region to watch put these ones on your wishlist now mariachi legends arco the midnight crimes wind runners and abyss x0 so abyss x0 or times zero or whatever that is from it's a brazilian studio and they made unsighted which was an awesome awesome game

[01:05:41] and this this next game they're putting out I think it's going to knock some socks off so that I think that's the last bit I want to get out there but yeah there are billions of

[01:05:49] games lots to be excited about and the rest of the year is kind of planned out and the funny thing about that is like their games and this is just one out of many for example

[01:05:58] cameron and I are both really excited for the plucky squire which didn't get a whole lot of airtime for example during the showcase so we haven't really talked about it but that is another one that is

[01:06:10] like a surefire hit and is going to be really good and we're looking at an awesome awesome second half of the year of games yeah we're still yeah I mean we don't even know what's

[01:06:22] happening with Nintendo really um yeah we don't there's still like a lot we don't know so I think they're like there's going to be a lot more stuff announced during the summer and and talked about

[01:06:35] more yep for sure well ladies and gentlemen this has been another episode of the period of bonus podcast talking our giving our recap of summer games fest and xbox show and all the

[01:06:47] stuff announced over this last weekend we hope that you heard something that perked your ears up a little bit if you didn't watch the show maybe something that you didn't notice or something

[01:06:57] that you didn't think about you can go on steam and you can wishlist that thing I recommend if any of these kind of jumped out of you go watch the full presentations like for the

[01:07:06] Ubisoft show for Assassin's Creed shadows and Star Wars Outlaws if you've been kind of on the fence on those those that those pushed me over the edge like they sold me for sure

[01:07:16] so go check those out you can find us on twitter at period of cast if you want to support the show there's a couple ways you can do that probably the best one is if you leave a review on your

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[01:08:11] we've got a bunch of great stuff cooked up so go check that out patreon.com slash period of cast thank you so much for listening and have a great night