ALL THE BIGGEST GAMES FROM SUMMER GAME FEST 2024 SO FAR
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What a show it was. Summer Game Fest 2024 delivered, and it wasn’t all about DLC as some feared. There was a massive volume of new game reveals, updates from the biggest names, and none of the traditional onstage awkwardness that usually defines these affairs.
We had showings from Call Of Duty, Doom, and Dragon Age. We saw updates from the upcoming Indiana Jones game and some more Alan Wake 2 content. Best of all, Peep Show’s Super Hans made an appearance. We should probably get to the games, then.
Civilization VII
The first Civ game was released in 1991 and the series has held true to the same formula ever since: progress through all of human history, building your ancient tribe into a mighty civilisation with a space program. And where the Eiffel Tower stands proud next to the Pyramids and Angkor Wat, because building wonders is fun.
We’re not expecting number seven to take a left-turn off into arcade racer territory, then. It’ll be a historical turn-based strategy game. But the biggest question of all remains unanswered: will Sean Bean be back to do all the historical quotes when you discover a new technology?
,Alan Wake 2: Night Springs expansion
One of several predictions we made before SGF which came to pass, Alan Wake 2 is getting a substantial single-player DLC called Night Springs. What we didn’t predict was that it’d be released immediately - it’s out right now, so if you’d rather play it than read us prattling on about it, you have that option.
Ah good, you stayed. We knew you would. Developer Remedy Entertainment likes to wear its Twilight Zone inspiration on its sleeve and in this trio of new episodes, each featuring familiar characters from the base game, you explore ‘what if?’ scenarios that Rod Serling himself would have given the big thumbs up.
,Valorant
This wasn’t a ‘stop the presses’ moment, but given the sheer size of the Valorant community it’s a big deal for Riot Games to announce that it’s coming to consoles.
For the uninitiated, Valorant is basically Counter-Strike with magical powers. Whatever your reaction to that statement was, you are correct.
,Monster Hunter Wilds
Capcom’s latest instalment of its RPG meets hunting sim took to the SGF stage to announce itself, and to show off some wonderful open world spaces in a desert biome.
Like many of the reveal trailers this year it’s a cinematic affair so there’s not much to be gleaned from it in terms of how the thing will play. We suspect the line “You can’t do this alone” between the two hunters in the trailer is the emphasis though. The last game, Monster Hunter World, has deep co-op support after some initial setup faff - perhaps it’s the focal point this time.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6
COD’s always had a way of sailing close to the wind, and it shows no signs of mellowing out in its old age with Black Ops 6. The reveal trailer begins with archive footage of the fall of the USSR, presidential speeches from George Bush and Bill Clinton, then transitions naturally into bombastic firefights underscored by The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’.
It’s coming on 25 October for PC and Xbox, where it’ll appear on Game Pass on day one. Frankly it could be a cosy indie game about farming sentient beetroots and we’d still be amped up for it after hearing Keith Flint’s immortal vocals.
,Doom: The Dark Ages
Excuse us as we ungracefully high-five ourselves for having predicted this one correctly too. id Software’s visceral shooter makes perfect sense in a quasi-medieval setting now that we see it in motion, and little touches like a chainsaw shield and a chaingun that seems to need a skull to be placed in its chamber keep things on brand.
There was a time when shooters ruled the gaming industry. Those days are behind us now, but retro ‘boomer’ shooters and Doom’s continued efforts light an entrail-lined path for the genre’s return to prominence. We are fighting a vague feeling of disappointment that the obligatory metal soundtrack doesn’t feature lutes, though.
,Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Another open secret before SGF kick off was that we’d see the next big Dragon Age game, and sure enough the Xbox conference delivered it. Renamed from Dreadwolf to Veilguard, the upcoming open-world RPG from EA took to the stage with a cover of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’, Eighties sitcom style freeze-frames introducing characters who’ll presumably be your party, and… well, you might want to sit down for this.
At one point one of them unironically says “you know there’ll be dragons". To which her friend says “right. We’ll need someone with fire in their blood".
Dragon Age, ladies and gentlemen. A series famed for its writing. We’re sure the game itself will have a sharper tongue.
,Starfield: Shattered Space expansion
Starfield, aka space-Skyrim, released last year with approximately seven gajillion planets to explore so it’s about time we got an expansion for it.
It’s arriving later this year, bringing new custom content, locations, gear and bounties. It seems to be telling a tighter, smaller scale story this time based on the trailer, about a mysteriously abandoned space station where anomalies lurk, where signs of cultic activity emerge, and – somewhat inevitably – where you seem to find yourself in a fight to the death with strange creatures and religious zealots.
,Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater
Yes, Metal Gear Solid Triangle got a new trailer. This one’s a remake of MGS 3, originally released in 2004 when graphics were etch-a-sketch calibre compared to this latest clip’s visuals.
With Hideo Kojima long gone from Konami, and on decidedly not cordial terms, it’s hard to know what to make of this one. On one hand, it’ll be great to experience a classic slice of MGS in an updated game engine. On the other, without the auteur himself steering the ship, can we be confident that the controls and mechanics will be translated in a way the name deserves? Our solution is to cop out by asking that question and then not answering it until the game turns up – no release date yet, by the way.
,Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
First teased at the start of 2024, Indy’s back with a more substantial showing at the Xbox showcase including very brief snippets of gameplay and a very serviceable Harrison Ford impression from veteran game voice actor Troy Baker.
This one’s set between the events of Raiders and Last Crusade, and begins when Indy realises that sites of great significance have all been built along a line that spans the Earth’s circumference. Whatever you like, Indy - all you had to say was ‘road trip’ and we’d have been in.
Developer MachineGames is better known for its superlative latter day Wolfenstein games, which you’ll note are out-and-out shooters. This is not. However it’s retaining the first-person perspective for much of the gameplay, which should bring a fresh feel to what could otherwise have felt a bit like an Uncharted re-skin.
,Avowed
Vast RPGs were in ready supply during Xbox’s SGF showcase, and Avowed was one of the most exciting. The universe it’s set in began with Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity games, a series originally intended to muster up nostalgia for ‘90’s style isometric RPGs.
It’s quite a thrill to see The Living Lands rendered in 3D and looking very 2024, and the latest trailer shows that the combat’s translated nicely from mouse-clicking on abilities to pulling off spectacular spells and melee blows in real time.
,Our game of the show: Fable
There’s absolutely no gameplay. We’re still basically in the dark about what new systems and mechanics will be added to Playground Games’ new take on the classic Fable RPG series. And none of it matters. Not when you’ve got Super Hans.
Everything we’ve seen from Fable so far has been so far ahead of the rest of the industry tonally that it seems to be visiting from a different medium. One where they don’t say “you know there’ll be dragons". And that’s what we get in this latest peek - a self-aware, genuinely funny bit of narrative setup which introduces a troubled heroine who’s made some bad choices, apparently. Perhaps a nod to player agency in the game, always a big aspect of the older Fables.
What we learn from the SGF trailer is that the protagonist was once taken in by Humphrey - voiced by Matt King, aka Peep Show’s Super Hans - himself once a great hero. The two had a bit of a falling out, the details of which are unspecified, and now after quite some time’s passed, the heroine’s back.
Fable’s not out until 2025, which explains why we haven’t seen any gameplay yet.
2024-06-10T15:20:57Z dg43tfdfdgfd