As Spring fades and the solar begins to creep again into view, the primary week of June has at all times heralded an much more pivotal occasion – the start of gaming Christmas.
After months of feverish anticipation and hours spent devouring each morsel of questionably sourced rumours, the giants of the gaming world would converge on Los Angeles to disclose their extraordinary gaming wares to the eagerly awaiting world.
This holy week’s title? The Digital Leisure Expo (E3) – and it was bloody sensible. It was an occasion that I’d sit up for yearly, and in my home it quickly turned a mini competition.
Because the Glastonbury of gaming arrived, in what I can solely assume was out of sheer respect, my mother and father would go on vacation, leaving me surrounded by a parade of friends and an overflowing mini-fridge in my loft room, observing LA’s parade of polygonal proclamations from our GMT stronghold, as we chugged bafflingly soup-like outdated beer from the native offy.
But like every bottle of candy, soupy beer, all good issues should come to an finish. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, the LA present that when stuffed me with giddying glee unceremoniously crumbled into nothing, feebly vanishing like a corporation-backed Ben Kenobi.
Quick ahead eight years and one international pandemic, and sadly my beloved E3 is not any extra. Now, sat miles away from my mother and father’ loft, the place I as soon as soaked within the spectacle of warring platform holders, I discover myself as a substitute staring bleary eyed at Geoff Keighley, the person virtually single-handedly making an attempt to fill the Akira-esque crater the place E3 was once.
Getting Geoffy Wiv it
Any on-line occasion or convention takes time to seek out its rhythm, and for the fifth annual Summer season Geoff Fest – which is what I’m stubbornly calling G3 – it appeared as if Keighley was extra decided to deliver again a few of that lacking magic.
Acknowledging the criticisms levelled at December’s slightly tone deaf Recreation Awards – a present that failed to say the horrific layouts that surrounded it – Keighley kicked off this yr’s SGF by adressing the company greed that has blighted the business during the last six months.
It was all surprisingly statesman-like and, for the intro no less than, Keighley resisted the urge to promote you a pizza, as a substitute properly highlighting 2024’s slew of extraordinary gaming gems which were given room to shine within the absence of blockbuster behemoths.
It’s this philosophy of celebrating video games of all genres and sizes that ran all through the prolonged two hour showcase, a comparatively (for Summer season Recreation Fest) snappily-paced convention that largely sidelined pointless DLC reveals and weird collaborations in favour of brief sharp shocks of giddying gaming goodness.
Losing no time attending to the bizarre, the present kicked off with the beforehand leaked Lego Horizon Adventures, a fever dream spin-off outing from Sony that sees Lego dinosaurs battling protagonist Aloy whereas making an attempt to devour a scorching canine man. Much more curiously, this Lego launch marks the primary time {that a} beloved PlayStation mascot will arrive on Nintendo Change.
G3 solely received much less predictable from there, ducking and weaving between a relentless barrage of trailers that confirmed off all the things from intriguing indie fare like Cuffbust to the multiplayer Quidditch sport that millennials of a sure age have been pining for since their first journey to Privet Drive.
Forward of Ubisoft’s Monday showcase, we had been additionally given a nostalgia-tickling tease of the more and more brilliant-looking Star Wars Outlaws.
The place Gamescom X Geoffy’s Opening Night time Stay dragged greater than a rag doll, Summer season Video games Fest adopted a breezier cadence, and was all the higher for it. Sticking with the multi-genre, multi-budget-level theme, there was one thing for everybody on this yr’s showcase.
In case you ever dreamed of a chibi Dynasty Warriors Braveheart, then Tears of Metallic’s wee males had been there charging into view. Bandai Namco signalled the official arrival of the PS5 gen with the reveal of one more Dragon Ball sport, which is bound to appease gamers who’re psyched to kill Raditz and Cell for the thousandth time.
Kudos to Warner Bros, too, who cracked the code of creating a VR sport look thrilling by not exhibiting a single second of precise gameplay, and followers of historic struggle crimes might be happy to see that they had been nicely catered for, with the Black Hawk Down impressed Delta Drive.
Monster Hunter Wilds received a re-evaluation in, too. The creators of Gris and Stanley Parable returned with model new releases. Kingdom Come 2, Civilization VII and new Alan Wake 2 DLC had been all revealed, alongside new showings for the extremely anticipated Persona non secular successor Metaphor: Re Fantazio, and Phantom Blade O impressed with its slick swordplay.
One other clear spotlight was the primary correct look into movie studio Blumhouse’s first ever sport label, exhibiting off a litany of retro-leaning horror initiatives, that each one boasted greater than a slight whiff of Annapurna video games’ cinematic weirdness.
Like every long-running hype practice, nevertheless, the chugging pseudo-conference ultimately ran out of steam. Skate got here and went, touchdown with extra of a sickening thud than a killer heelflip. A developer revealed a sport that was really known as Deer and Boy and apparently it wasn’t a parody.
I’d like to provide a particular shout out to the reveal for Killer Bean, a sport a few meme-touting, gun-wielding bean that appeared so heinous that it briefly made me query whether or not I had received again on the soupy beers.
Because the tight pacing of the primary hour and a half slowed to a crawl, it as soon as once more begged the query, why the hell is that this two hours lengthy? After which as if in reply, the parade of adverts arrived.
With one other annual nod to Geoff’s beloved DoorDash and an impossibly lengthy celebrity-filled trailer for a cell sport that I’ve nonetheless one way or the other forgotten, there have been nonetheless flashes of the type of sickly company shilling that felt much less like gamer Christmas and extra like a barely extra entertaining Black Friday.
“There have been nonetheless flashes of the type of sickly company shilling that felt much less like gamer Christmas and extra like a barely extra entertaining Black Friday.”
Nonetheless, to Summer season Recreation Fest’s credit score, the shoehorned adverts no less than felt far much less intrusive and dystopian than in earlier years, with a lot of the extra blatant adverts no less than flogging you gaming shows and associated companies slightly than simply new automobiles and Doritos.
With the three clever males of Sony, Xbox and Nintendo now not descending on the LA conference centre, the beginning of June might now not be the holy week that it as soon as was.
Whereas Keighley is way from the convention’s lacking messiah, it’s encouraging to see Summer season Recreation Fest regularly develop right into a extra entertaining providing, and I hope that he and the workforce proceed to trim the fats and supply one thing extra compelling for viewers.
With a smattering of separate conferences nonetheless to return this weekend, Summer season Recreation Fest was a strong sufficient place to begin off the gaming festivities.
It wasn’t excellent, however this yr’s occasion confirmed sufficient to assist this author get again into the vacation spirit – and I’ll be damned if I’ll begrudge Keighley Claus for attempting to save lots of gaming Christmas.
