Here’s a Rundown of Everything Show at The Summer Games Fest Kick-off Livestream [10/06/2021]

There is something inherently weird about Geoff Keighley running a Summer-video-game-announcement-show-thing that is very loud about not being affiliated to E3 or the ESA, but hey, it's been a tumultuous year. However, thanks to being no E3 last year, The Summer Games Fest became a household name in the industry with almost 4-months of trickle out announcements, Kieghley’s new brainchild seems like it is here to stay.

So what was shown?

Role for initiative suckas!

Wonderlands

The first announcement came from the newly Embraced  Gearbox Software. Tiny Tiny’s Wonderland seems to be a direct follow on from the popular Borderlands 2 DLC, Assault on Dragon Keep. The D&D themed game will see Ashley Burch’s murderous teenager guide you through a campaign of Bunker and Badasses. Burch was on hand to give more details revealing that the recently leaked game will focus more on the high fantasy element of the fictional tabletop game and is scheduled for release in early 2022. Rather notable is the rest of the announced voice cast including; Andy Samberg, Will Arnett and Wanda Sykes.

Finally, I can look at Metal Slug without actually having to play Metal Slug.

Metal Slug: Tactics

In what can only be described as the biggest “Hot-damn! That is actually a really great idea” moment of the show, a Metal Slug turn-based strategy game was announced. Metal Slug: Tactics is being published by everyone’s favourite French miners of nostalgia DOTEMU and is being developed by French team Leikir Studio. The latest reimagining of a classic SNK game received a hefty trailer with plenty of gameplay and gorgeous animated cutscenes. The grid-based strategy game currently has no release and has only been confirmed for PC so far.

And Now… Something a Little Different

Despite the current state of emergency going on in Japan, Hideo Kojima showed up to talk to his BFF Geoff. What started as a somewhat awkward exhibition by Geoff that The Metal Gear Guy is still his friend turned into a surprisingly profound discussion of the prescience of Death Stranding themes of isolation. He also made mention that just as Metal Gear Solid 2 was deeply impacted by post-9/11 American Politics, so too would his next game be shaped by the pandemic. 

Death Stranding: Directors Cut

Kojima wasn’t done as he actually had something to show. A new PS5 version of Death Stranding dubbed the Director’s Cut. You know, because that game was such a tight package before and not a meandering, self-indulgent… We won’t be rude. The trailer itself was as Kojima as ever, by which we mean way too long and full of handheld camera zooms. However, it seemed to hint at new underground locations being added and more stealth elements in the gameplay. But no boxes for hiding in! Yes, the ideas of Metal Gear were rather literally shelved during this trailer. No release date was given but we were promised to be shown more over the next few weeks.

Jurassic Park: Evolution 2

In the first of many celebrity cameos, Jeff Goldblum showed up and mocked Geoff's name (about time someone did). But, the worlds sexiest man was there for a reason. The first trailer for the latest Jurassic World movie is imminent and you know what that means… TIE IN GAMES! Thankfully this one looks good, mainly because it is a direct sequel to the well-received Jurassic Park: Evolution. The trailer for Frontier Development’s new game didn’t give much away but teased more underwater management and was confirmed for this year.

Help her! She’s trapped inside of a TV cube!

Sable and Japanese Breakfast

The first, and arguably, best live performance was next. Japanese Breakfast was on hand to perform their new song Glider, written for the long in development Sable. The performance was excellent, aided by the Sumer Game Fest’s impressive studio which basically played a trailer for the game in time with the song encompassing the performance. The game from two-person dev time Shedworks is slated for release in September. 

Jeff Bezzo’s Fun Hour

So we are going to try not to rip on these segments too much because, one, there were a lot of them and it’d get boring and, two, live shows like this one are expensive, Keighley did a great job overall and the funding has to come from somewhere. BUT BOY HOWDY, Amazon promotions were all over the stream. This started with a trailer for Smilegate’s (the Crossfire developer) MMO-Action-RPG, Lost Ark, which after releasing in Korea in 2018 is coming to the west and being published by Amazon games sometime this Autumn. 

However, what we will rip on is that this segment led directly into Geoff promoting all the benefits of Prime Gaming that was then followed by an actual edited ad for Prime Gaming. And this was only the start of it.

Call of Duty

The next season of Call of Duty: Warzone was shown off and is coming on June 17th. The General Manager for Call of Duty/Head of esport Leagues at Activision Blizzard, Johana Faries introduced the trailer in the most business forward, dynamic synergy, business buzzword way possible. The trailer itself showed a little bit of story for the new Warzone update (which is still a strange concept) and new multiplayer maps and zombie content for Black Ops Cold War.

The trailer also notably included the incredibly hilarious line, “The Cold War just turned hot!”. There was also a lot of talk about Twitch Rivals, the Call of Duty: Warzone World Series and Community Captains, but let's be honest if you cared about that stuff you are in the weeds enough with this community to know what any of that means we don’t have anything to add that you don’t already know.

Free Guys

Another celebrity cameo and this one felt like it was actually recorded on Cameo for a couple of bucks if we’re honest. The ever-charming, maybe overly promoted, Co-owner of Wrexham FC, Ryan Reynold talked a little about his new movie, Free Guy, in which he plays an NPC. This led into a “world premiere” trailer which was already uploaded to YouTube yesterday, except this version had a clip of Ninja in it… Maybe the movie will be ok, Taika Waiitti is in it…

Among Us

Of course, the most popular game in the world was at the show. Innersloth were on hand to show off the new update for their deceit simulator including a new hid and seek game mode, more kills and the return of the Geoff Keighley cosmetic mask.

PlayStation Indies

In a nice little surprise, Shuhei Yoshida presented at a press conference for what felt like the first time in years, since he became Head of Indies at PlayStation. The first game shown off in this batch was Chicory, which went live on Steam and PlayStation in time with this trailer. We won’t get too much into the game here as we’ll have a review on the site soon. All we’ll say is it is pretty delightful.

This game is so much better than Dark Souls it doesn’t even need the third demension.

Salt and Sacrifice 

The next game came out of left field. Ska Studio has been quiet since the release of the 2D Souls-like Salt and Sanctuary but now they are back with a sequel. The small team showed off a trailer for Salt and Sacrifice, which looks even more visually striking than the first game. The combat also looks a fair bit more fast paced and it was announced that the game will launch with local and online co-op. The game is currently only dated for the 2022 window.

It is unfair how much style this game has.

Solar Ash

The final Sony partnered indie game was the breathtaking Solar Ash. The developers of Hyper Light Drifter, Heart Machine, showed off more gameplay for the game announced at the PlayStation 5 reveal. The music is still rad as hell, the mixture of freerunning and space-skating looks dope and the giant monsters still look terrifying and haunting. Solar Ash is scheduled to release in 2021.

Chivalry 2 

There has been a lot of gameplay coming out of Chivalry 2 since its release on the 8th,  and the knight-based combat-sim received a very fun trailer at the show. Trip Wire and Torn Banner’s game has always been known for its ridiculousness and this trailer leaned right into that, with a lot of burly men charging around the battlefield, yelling at the top of their lungs and throwing dismembered archer heads as weapons. The game is out now… FOR AGATHA!!!

Amazon Prime Time Slime

This time it was all gear for Riot’s Valorant. The game’s new agent was also teased in the briefest of trailers.

Escape From Tarkov

A new area for the extremely popular persistent mutiplayer military sim was announced. The Streets of Tarkov look to be much more urban and cluttered than many of the forested areas that have come before. The game continues to be both graphically impressive and janky-as-all-hell looking. Above all else, it still looks deeply impenetrable.

Oooooh Knight School… That is pretty good.

Two-Point Campus

After being leaked on the Microsoft Store last week, the follow up to Two-Point Hospital was officially announced. From Sega and Two-Point Studio, the game looks to carry on the wackiness so many loved in the previous games and their spiritual predecessors Theme Hospital and Theme Park. The game is scheduled for a 2022 release.

Netflix 

There was a short ad for Netflix’s ongoing Geeked Week along with confirmation that the animated Cuphead show will be shown off tomorrow alongside a clip for the new, rebooted live-action Resident Evil movie.

SMITE 

After nine years SMITE is still going and is still crossing over with every IP and it’s mother. The next update will see Stranger Things’ characters like Eleven, Hopper, The Demogorgon and Mindflair all be added to the game.

Prime Matter 

Y’all like the Mergers and Acquisitions? Well, we have good news for you. Having been acquired the be Embracer Group, Koch Media has announced a new publishing label for games, called Prime Matter. Now that they have a name slightly less threatening than “THE EMBRACER GROUP”, this mega-corporation - that has sprung up in the games industry in the last two years - now has a home for all the IP and studios it bought out.

After years of turmoil at Starbreeze there is no tell what sort of state Payday 3 is in.

The first 13 games from the publisher were also announced in a sizzle reel. They are; Crossfire: Legion, King’s Bounty II, The Last Oricru, Encased, Gungrave G.O.R.E (Holy crap, someone is making a new Gungrave game?), The Chant (working title), Final Form (working title), Dolmen, Project: Echoes of the End, Scars Above, an untitled new Painkiller game and Payday 3.

One, yes, this was a weirdly low-key way to show off the first footage of a new Payday, two, no, literally nothing was said about the Painkiller revival, three, yes, it is perfectly normal to feel a general sense of anxiety when you release that we are hurtling towards a future where all games are owned one of four companies.

Anacrusis

Chet Faliszek (writer on a bunch of Valve and Bossa Studios games) and Stray Bombay have finally announced their first game. Anacrusis is a four-player, co-op shooter, ala Left 4 Dead, set in a far future where aliens have invaded and ordinary folk have to fight back. The game will be an Xbox (and presumably Microsoft Store on PC) exclusive and arrive first on Game Pass. Interestingly the game is said to be episodic in nature with the story slowly unfolding. The game is due to release sometime this Autumn but no hard date was given nor was a mention of a beta.

MORE AMAZON

The long, long, LONG in development New World is finally set to come out this Summer. But when it comes to this uncomfortably colonial MMO we’ll believe it when we see it.

Rocket League 

Psyonix's hit game is crossing over with Fast and Furious again to celebrate the imminent release of Fast 9. The team is bringing back the two limited timed event cars from the previous collab as well as the Pontiac with a rocket strapped to it that has been all over that movie’s marketing on June 17.

Wet pavements? Purple neon lights? Person in a hoodie perched on the edge of a building? Yep, this is definitely a Vampire: The Masquerade game.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt

Vampire: The Masquerade, isn’t exactly the first IP that comes to mind when you think of competitive multiplayer shooters, but here we are. With Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 seemingly going through development hell there is a lot of pressure on new developer, Sharmob, to perform. Bloodhut will hold a closed alpha starting July 2nd and is releasing this year.

Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Supermassive previous two games in the Dark Pictures Anthology have been nothing if not woefully unsubtle, so they have a lot to prove with their next instalment. This new interactive horror experience will star American troops in 2003 during the Iraq war and see them trapped in a cursed temple with underworld creatures… Oh, this can only end well. The game is out on October 22nd.

I thought that Nier remake already came out?

Tales of Arise 

In what might have been the most anime trailer of the livestream, Tales of Arise showed up running on Unreal Engine 4. Bandai Namco’s much-anticipated RPG showed off a bunch of combat, anime-ass dialogue and count ‘em, not one but two, eyepatch dad looking fellows. The game finally realises September 10th.

Sky: Children of the Light

Jenova Chen was on screen for all of ten seconds to announce that Thatgamecompany’s Sky: Children of the Light is coming to switch in June. The game, previously exclusive to Apple Arcade, will launch alongside Le Piete Prince season of content, and yes, it is very strange that the follow up to Journey has seasons in it.

Planet of Lana 

Geoff Keighley does seem to earnestly try to feature unheard of indie games on all of his shows and this one was no different. Planet of Lana is a 2D sidescroller from developer Wishfully, which is aliens arrive on an otherworldly planet as you play as a child a stunning watercolour world.

Overwatch 2

Aaron Keller having taken over from Geoff Kaplan as Overwatch 2’s Game Director was at the show in person. Hot off the heals of the controversial announcement that Overwatch 2 would be reducing the player count from 6v6 to 5v5, he showed off the new default skins for Baptiste and Sombra… Yep… That was it.

D&D: Dark Alliance

Yet more out of place marketing here. We were treated to an overly edited, Youtube-like video being played, that saw Geoff, Dake Alliance’s Game Directo, WWE star Ember Moon and comedian Hannibal Buress play the upcoming game… But mainly shout at each other. It was pretty hard to watch up but mercifully short. The game is out on the 22nd of this month.

Paladins 

Paladins, from Hi Rez Studios, showed up to remind us all it still exists and has somewhat of a community. It is will be crossing over with Rooster Teeth’s anime Gen: Lock in July… For some reason, we’re not sure.

Yet Another Prime Ad

This one was trying to sell the audience on the eight-year-old Battlefield 4. WHICH IS ON PRIME GAMING!

Monster Hunter Stories 2 

Capcom’s RPG spin-off of their juggernaut franchise received the 2nd most anime trailer of the night. The game is releasing exclusively on Switch on July 9th and will be sold alongside three new amiibo… (Editor’s note: I will probably buy this… because I am a chump) 

After watching half an hour of gameplay of Wave Break this game actually looks amazing

Wave Break

Funktronic Labs “SKATEboarding BOATING game”, was shown off with the help of a performance by a very tired looking Weezer. The bands new single will feature in the game and they will have a level based on them when the game launched on June 11th.

Endless Dungeon

Amplitude, developers of, well, Amplitude, and Sega showed off their new game. Endless Dungeon is a Diablo-like action RPG with cartoony artstyle, that looks really promising. No release date was mentioned but they are taking sign-ups for a beta now.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

This was just a short promo for the game, which is out tomorrow, and an advert for a developer stream from the folks at Insomniac going on then too.

Big fan of Peloton in the background.

Far Cry 6

Giancarlo Esposito was on Skype to talk about Far Cry 6. Well, less Far Cry 6 and more his Anton Casito, which of his villainous roles would win in a fight and Hitler’s star sign… We are not making this up. But he seemed to be having fun and that is all that matters. We’ll definitely be seeing more of this game over the next few days, especially at Ubisoft Forward on the 12th.

More Amazon Ads

I got no jokes for this, I’m just getting tired now.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout 

On June 18th Mediatonic’s surprise hit from last Summer is getting a new costume based off 2B from Nier:Automata, freaking what? I guess Yoko Taro wasn’t lying when he said, “We’ll do anything for money.

Genshin Impact 

Update 1.6 was shown off for miHoYo’s massively popular Breath-of-The-Wild-like. This new update will bring a new island to explore, new weapons, skins and hero (Kazuha) and a new boss fight. The update came out on the 9th of June but the trailer also teased a good old fashioned anime tournament. We do all love a good tournament arc.

At least no one at the show talked about the blockchain.

Deviation Games 

Yet more uncomfortable business talk was next as a new developer from ex-Treyarch people was announced. It was all very strange with to co-founders talking about how they have guaranteed financial security and how their new IP was full of innovation and was truly groundbreaking. Despite Keighley poking and prodding the developers weren’t going to give anything about their new game away. It was confirmed that this new IP is being developed in partnership with PlayStation… We also got a bunch of awkward photos of the developers cheering in their new office. It was a very strange segment.

Sonic: Unleashed (...wait, what?)

The next performance was a few minutes of clips of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra playing songs from the 2008 game, Sonic: Unleashed. Technically this was because it is the 30th anniversary of the Blue Blur and this was an advert for the full performance later this week… But why songs from the 13-year-old Unleashed?  That game isn’t even that well known for its music…

Back 4 Blood

Turtle Rock was on hand to announce the open beta starting date for their spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead as August 5th. The new trailer continued the game’s marketing campaign of leaning very heavily into Turtle Rock’s pedigree as the developers behind Left “Pills Here” 4 Dead.

Indie games got impossibly good looking at some point.

Tunic

Geoff gave us all an oral promo for this year’s Steam Next Fest and (new for this year) Microsoft’s ID@Xbox demo event. As part of that ID@Xbox event, the long-awaited Tunic will get a gameplay demo. No confirmation if it will be the same gameplay slice as the one that has been shown to press for the last four years. The real question is after all this time in development, will the indie game that left a magical first impression have lost its sheen a bit? 

Tribes of Midgard

Video games in 2021 really love Yggdrasil and the Norse inspired survival action RPG, Tribes of Midgard, is no different. The somewhat zoomed out perspective and cell-shaded style actually looks quite striking too. The game from Norsefell Games and Gearbox Publishing is coming to PlayStation, Xbox and PC on July 27th.

Evil Dead: The Game 

Evil Dead: The Game was first shown at the game awards last December and industry legend Tim Willits Skyped in to reintroduce the game. The game is pitched as a 1v4, multiplayer game, however, it appears to be less Dead By Daylight and more Vermintide. The trailer was commentated by the ever great Bruce Campbell and showed off buckets of blood and deadite possession.

This is actually a pretty good visual representation of The Embracer Group buying developers and IPs.

Elden Ring

FromSoftware, Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin all came out of hibernation to finally show off Elden Ring. We will have a dedicated story breaking down the whole trailer but the cliff-notes are; it looks very Celtic, Yggdrasil is in this game too, summoning is back, you have a horse(and it can jump!) and a lot of the enemies look as gross as ever. Most importantly the game is now confirmed for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X and Elden Ring releasing worldwide on the 22nd of January.

Over the show was really good and a great way to launch a Summer of games new. However, it really dragged in the middle and the overtness of the Amazon promos didn’t help. Let’s hope this show sets the tone for the rest of E3 and we have plenty of more wild announcements.