Don't call it E3: Summer Games Fest and other 'Direct' Videos in June

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Just because E3 is cancelled doesn't mean Video Games are cancelled. Here's what to expect in the coming weeks: 

June 2, 3PM PST - Sony's State of Play - Youtube Link : 30 minutes of Playstation announcements, with only the confirmed appearance of third party titles and PSVR2 related news. But there's still room for more! God of War Ragnarok is STILL slated to release this year. The Internet is screaming for Bluepoint Studios's next project, you'll remember that Sony acquired them almost a year ago. And then you've got Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 or Wolverine games. 

June 7 - Sonic Central - Youtube Link: Just a short Direct-style presentation of all things Sonic. Including 24 seconds (!) of new footage for Sonic Frontiers

June 9, 11AM PST - Summer Games Fest + Day of the Devs - Youtube Link: Never Kount Keighley Out. There is a frankly bloated amount of publishers confirmed to have something to show off. So that's a lot to build expectations on. SGF is also hosting live demonstrations of games in LA in a not-so-subtle bid to usurp E3 once and for all. Go Get 'em, Keighley!

June 9, 3PM PST - Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing: Youtube Link: The real gem of every E3 returns with gratuitous violence, existentialist commentary on the state of the industry, and lots of naughty language. Journey again to the Future's Future Future. Featuring a surprise guest host: MECHA SUDA51??? Here's the Teaser Trailer

June 12, 10AM PST - Xbox & Bethesda Showcase: Youtube Link: Wow, not ready to slap Activision Blizzard on your titles yet, eh Microsoft? I know it's because that deal isn't finalized yet but you know it's a good joke. Last year's showcase was a feature length 90 minutes. Will Todd Howard finally release a Starfield trailer with Gameplay? Will we finally get a look at Perfect Dark? What else does Microsoft's multiverse of studios potentially have to show? 

June 13, 3PM PST - Capcom Showcase: Youtube Link: 35 minutes of "the latest news and updates for Capcom games". 

You can also tune into the Guerilla Collective showcase (June 11, 8AM PST), The Wholesome Direct (June 11, 11AM PST), Future Games Show (June 11, 12PM PST), and PC Gaming Show (June 12 12:30 PM PST). I will update this OP with youtube links once they become available, as well as any pertinent news about these events. That's it for what we know is happening this year. And hey if a Nintendo Direct gets announced, feel free to make a separate thread for that. You have my blessing. Dunno if you have the Mods' blessing, but my blessing counts double. You can tell them I said that 🙂 I'm also holding out hope for a Devolver Digital show, because those are always a treat. 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Dayni]

There's a lot between the 11th and 12th there, SGF having no tie to it feels like a missed chance to supplant E3 once and for all.

And of course Sony wants to get there early while Ninty will probably put it at the end like they try to do with E3. Pokemon also has a video in 2 + 1/2 hours today for Scarlet/Violet.

[Ycine]

I like the fact that compared to last year, everything will be happening in the span of 1-2 weeks.

The Steam Next Festival is also scheduled right after all the events.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Sony's State of Play is just a few short hours away! Will Knack 3 herald us into a new generation? Unfortunately I will not be able to catch it until late tonight. But I am wearing a T shirt with a playstation logo for good luck. 

[vanguard333]

The State of Play just happened; should we discuss it here or create a thread specifically for it?

[Fabulously Olivier]

Well, Final Fantasy 16 looks incredible, and I do have high hopes for it after 7 Remake.

 

Eternights looks like it may be up my alley.

 

And uh... that's it for my thoughts on this State of Play. I don't care about VR, Resident Evil, or Street Fighter.

 

Oh right. Kitty game. I still have no idea what to make of it.

[ciphertul]

Once again each new FF looks less and less like a game and more of an interactive story. I'm sure others got some quality out of it but it sucked for me.

[vanguard333]

Final Fantasy 16 Definitely looked really good... when I could actually see it. I found myself having to turn up the brightness on my computer quite a bit so I could clearly see the trailer, which is odd as the game has a ton of bright effects and a lot of vibrant colours; the latter of which I find a great relief, as the first trailer made it look like it was going to be a lot of dull grey and muted & washed-out colours. I really don't understand this trend; what's the point of great visuals and effects if you're then going to make it that the audience can't actually see it?

Other than that though, the game looks great; the action gameplay looks fun and the story looks like it'll be interesting. The apparent lack of party members is a bit strange, but a Final Fantasy protagonist not having a party of allies, if done well, could be a really unique deconstruction.

 

5 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Well, Final Fantasy 16 looks incredible, and I do have high hopes for it after 7 Remake.

Let's just hope that FF16 is actually FF16 and not an alternate timeline of FF7 with weird plot ghosts.

 

The rest of the games didn't really catch my attention that much; I'm not really interested in VR, street fighter, or zombie games, and the game about a stray cat looked a bit boring.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Wow. That was a real nice Capcom State of Play - Featuring other games you can play in VR.

Street fighter 6 looks kind of great though. And that's surprising, modern capcom fighters tend to have very iffy trailers this far from release. They pulled the trigger on the hip hop motif, the pastel color strokes on attacks, there are weirdo goons in the streets wearing Cardboard boxes on their heads. So much weirdness and it's all working for me. Is that world tour mode just a stand in for the Main Menu? The last shot looks like the online lobby, but everything else seems to imply a story mode with some kind of create-a-character looking for people to fight in Metro City. And the actual fighting looks intense. The hit effects are so over the top, the hitlag and sound effects are beefy. I'm watching it all in super slow motion and these animations are extremely fluid. I feel like the only move that looks "video-gamey" is Chun Li's Lightning Kicks. How are they just bowling through these attacks? I saw Ryu do his focus attack at one point, but Luke's version seemed like some kind of parry stance where he was deflecting multiple low and high attacks with no attack on the way. I'm very interested in how this all works because these shots seem specifically there to show off how this plays differently from SF5. I'll be really interested to see if there will be live demonstrations of the game next week. I can't think of any other reason fighting game content creators are invited to Not E3 out of the blue. 

As for FF16, the action combat still seems like it will be fun, but the numbers may be a bit much. They obscure the entire thing you're attacking in some of these scenes. Please just give enemies a health bar and leave it at that, I don't need to know how much damage each hit does unless I'm labbing out optimal combos in a kind of training room. Previous action-based Final Fantasy games have the numbers come up, but I don't ever recall them being this visually obtrusive. Probably because the camera is so much closer to the action, they might be worried the player won't know what their attacks are even doing without plastering the screen with these hit markers. I don't know what to make of these Eidolon battles. No party members, it seems? This is gearing up to be a divisive Final Fantasy game. I'm always ready to play Devil May Cry, but I wonder if the average JRPG player will be receptive to any of this. Especially with the response to Final Fantasy Origins. Anyway, the game is at least a year out, so it's too early to be drawing conclusions. I understand a lot of people were blindsided by the release date, because developer interviews repeatedly suggested this game has been in its final stages of development. 

[Interdimensional Observer]

14 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Eternights looks like it may be up my alley.

From what I've glimpsed, the game is a literal one-man creation which he began after playing Persona (5 to be precise) for the first time in 2019. Sounds like it sure has the potential to bomb.😬

Even so, I'm interested. For one simple reason:

Upper left. They confirmed he is a dating option. Dating s/s is starting to get more common in games, but it still isn't common enough for me to not get excited seeing this.😆

[Fabulously Olivier]

41 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

From what I've glimpsed, the game is a literal one-man creation which he began after playing Persona (5 to be precise) for the first time in 2019. Sounds like it sure has the potential to bomb.😬

Even so, I'm interested. For one simple reason:

Upper left. They confirmed he is a dating option. Dating s/s is starting to get more common in games, but it still isn't common enough for me to not get excited seeing this.😆

You know, one man passion projects can be good, and it's all about managing scope and expectations. If this is a short, medium-to-high quality experience, that sounds fine to me.

[ciphertul]

Man, people seem to get stuck on those labels huh. It’s an anime dating sim with action so it Persona like, expect you know that also describes Sakura Wars heck isn’t the Fate VNs pretty much that too?

[Ycine]

Lots of cool stuff with indies. A neat VR showcase. Capcom's on a roll and SE is killing it with FF16.

Also Marvel Spiderman (with Miles Morales stand-alone) are finally coming to PC.

I wasn't expecting much but the State of Play delivered.

@Zapp Branniglenn, check out the SF6 site to see more about the mechanics they showed : https://www.streetfighter.com/6/en-us/

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, ciphertul said:

Man, people seem to get stuck on those labels huh. It’s an anime dating sim with action so it Persona like, expect you know that also describes Sakura Wars heck isn’t the Fate VNs pretty much that too?

I get your point. However, in this case...

...the guy literally posted this on Reddit. He is being very direct and transparent in the muse that spoke to him.

Yes, the ocean of bishojo games and games with dating sim elements is of depth immeasurable. I acknowledge that. I also dislike it when people say "OMG this is Persona!" for every Japanese or Japanese-styled RPG with a modern setting, as it denies those games their own identities. I'm not happy about Soul Hackers 2's pre-release reception for one example. And yet, for this specific instance, it is irrefutable that the P-Word is relevant.

 

2 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

You know, one man passion projects can be good, and it's all about managing scope and expectations. If this is a short, medium-to-high quality experience, that sounds fine to me.

True. I know the much praised Stardew Valley was a one-man project. And that the shumps at the core of the Touhou Project are also the work of a lone developer. Although, these are 2D games, I'm a tad concerned that the third dimension will hinder Eternights. (Though I probably underestimate what modern tools exist to help beginners with 3D game development.)

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, was mostly a two-person project, though its crew surpassed ten later in the process. It is a 3D game for the farming portion, although the combat is 2D with 3D graphics. Sakuna was able to review consistently in the 7-8 score range, with an astonishing 1 million in sales. I personally enjoyed it, it wasn't perfect, and I would've liked more, but it never felt rushed nor seriously underbaked. The developers didn't exceed their limits. However, Sakuna released in 2020 after development had begun in 2015. Eternights won't have spent quite as long in the oven and that is also a point of concern of mine.

Still hoping Eternights turns out well, if the guy seriously quitted his day job for this, then that is one risky venture. I just want to be prepared for a flop.

Edited June 3, 2022 by Interdimensional Observer

[Fabulously Olivier]

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I get your point. However, in this case...

...the guy literally posted this on Reddit. He is being very direct and transparent in the muse that spoke to him.

Yes, the ocean of bishojo games and games with dating sim elements is of depth immeasurable. I acknowledge that. I also dislike it when people say "OMG this is Persona!" for every Japanese or Japanese-styled RPG with a modern setting, as it denies those games their own identities. I'm not happy about Soul Hackers 2's pre-release reception for one example. And yet, for this specific instance, it is irrefutable that the P-Word is relevant.

 

True. I know the much praised Stardew Valley was a one-man project. And that the shumps at the core of the Touhou Project are also the work of a lone developer. Although, these are 2D games, I'm a tad concerned that the third dimension will hinder Eternights. (Though I probably underestimate what modern tools exist to help beginners with 3D game development.)

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, was mostly a two-person project, though its crew surpassed ten later in the process. It is a 3D game for the farming portion, although the combat is 2D with 3D graphics. Sakuna was able to review consistently in the 7-8 score range, with an astonishing 1 million in sales. I personally enjoyed it, it wasn't perfect, and I would've liked more, but it never felt rushed nor seriously underbaked. The developers didn't exceed their limits. However, Sakuna released in 2020 after development had begun in 2015. Eternights won't have spent quite as long in the oven and that is also a point of concern of mine.

Still hoping Eternights turns out well, if the guy seriously quitted his day job for this, then that is one risky venture. I just want to be prepared for a flop.

Baring in mind that indie level game dev is becoming more and more accessible as premade engines and tools become better and more available. It's probably Unreal engine?

[Zapp Branniglenn]

5 hours ago, Ycine said:

 

@Zapp Branniglenn, check out the SF6 site to see more about the mechanics they showed : https://www.streetfighter.com/6/en-us/

All is revealed. Thank you so much. Lol at the description of Overdrive. "This is basically the same as EX Specials in past games". Yeah they feel a need to give a new name to returning mechanics and expect us to keep everything straight. And people wonder why Fighting Games are difficult to approach when you need a literal glossary to explain these on top of made up lingo from the players. The truth is though it's those differences that have me invested. The last thing I wanted for SF6 was for it to be SF5 with a smaller roster, like 5 was to 4 at launch. I think the World Tour Mode is equally important. The Cinematic story mode of SF5 - making a movie and interspersing fights between the cutscenes - can be really expensive to produce for how not good the finished product is. Being able to explore Metro City is a much better way of getting me to care about it and its characters and the create a character stuff will certainly set it apart from the usual Versus Modes. 

I am trying and failing to identify what happens at 2:23 in the trailer. These drive abilities are color coded, but blue suggests the parry stance and I don't think it's the same thing as 2:20 because of that long freeze frame I am liking everything I am seeing, but watching Chun Li successfully getting over a fireball only to get blasted is terrifying. Could it be that Fireballs have way less endlag to account for the new options? It'd probably be a waste to assess the game balance of these unconnected clips, but I am hoping to see live demonstrations. No word yet on whether SF6 is confirmed for next week's SGS 'Play Days' Livestreams. In fact they probably won't confirm any games until after the event on June 9.

Edit: Took a look at the new Simple controls. And wow. I don't think any Capcom fighter has ever had combo assist, but this just straight up looks like Smash Bros. Dedicated Special button, with four special moves. Dedicated Throw button. I like it, I hope people try it out if they've been turned off by directional inputs in the past. Also this in-game commentary mode seems totally unnecessary and hilarious. Don't know who signed off on it, but I can already tell this will be very fun to listen to as you play.

Edited June 3, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn

[ciphertul]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I get your point. However, in this case...

...the guy literally posted this on Reddit. He is being very direct and transparent in the muse that spoke to him.

Yes, the ocean of bishojo games and games with dating sim elements is of depth immeasurable. I acknowledge that. I also dislike it when people say "OMG this is Persona!" for every Japanese or Japanese-styled RPG with a modern setting, as it denies those games their own identities. I'm not happy about Soul Hackers 2's pre-release reception for one example. And yet, for this specific instance, it is irrefutable that the P-Word is relevant.

Okay, I didn’t know that. If he is making as a love letter to that style then that makes sense.

However I was talking about that reception, my news feed was just full of “OMG it’s persona!”. But it was kinda about that style of labeling in general. You get an anime style open world “it just BOTW”. Thing of that nature.

Edited June 3, 2022 by ciphertul

[Fabulously Olivier]

8 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

Okay, I didn’t know that. If he is making as a love letter to that style then that makes sense.

However I was talking about that reception, my news feed was just full of “OMG it’s persona!”. But it was kinda about that style of labeling in general. You get an anime style open world “it just BOTW”. Thing of that nature.

To be fair, most things that look like Persona are very much blatantly inspired by Persona.

 

Sure, you can say Three Houses is actually inspired by Trails of Cold Steel, so the Persona comparisons are wrong. But then you realize that Trails of Cold Steel is itself inspired by Persona. Ergo, Three Houses is still Persona twice removed.

[ciphertul]

35 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

To be fair, most things that look like Persona are very much blatantly inspired by Persona.

 

Sure, you can say Three Houses is actually inspired by Trails of Cold Steel, so the Persona comparisons are wrong. But then you realize that Trails of Cold Steel is itself inspired by Persona. Ergo, Three Houses is still Persona twice removed.

So any anime game set in a school is Persona? That is a bit of a wide net no?

Do you consider Danganronpa inspired by Persona?

Edited June 3, 2022 by ciphertul

[Fabulously Olivier]

27 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

So any anime game set in a school is Persona? That is a bit of a wide net no?

Do you consider Danganronpa inspired by Persona?

Is it an anime JRPG set in an academy setting around a calendar system in which you can make mundane daily choices that effect your JRPG gameplay as well as engage in social/dating simulation? And did said franchise either start after or change its gameplay to such after Persona?

 

If so, yes, it is inspired by Persona.

[ciphertul]

No, it an anime game set in a school. Mundane task that effect the story… so just about every RPG ever. 

[Ycine]

21 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

All is revealed. Thank you so much. Lol at the description of Overdrive. "This is basically the same as EX Specials in past games". Yeah they feel a need to give a new name to returning mechanics and expect us to keep everything straight. And people wonder why Fighting Games are difficult to approach when you need a literal glossary to explain these on top of made up lingo from the players. The truth is though it's those differences that have me invested. The last thing I wanted for SF6 was for it to be SF5 with a smaller roster, like 5 was to 4 at launch. I think the World Tour Mode is equally important. The Cinematic story mode of SF5 - making a movie and interspersing fights between the cutscenes - can be really expensive to produce for how not good the finished product is. Being able to explore Metro City is a much better way of getting me to care about it and its characters and the create a character stuff will certainly set it apart from the usual Versus Modes. 

World Tour definitely seems promising, It seems there is MK's "Kreate your Fighter" and I can't wait to learn more about it.

22 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

I am trying and failing to identify what happens at 2:23 in the trailer.

Luke is using the new V-Reversal of the game named "Drive Reversal", how convenient.

22 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Could it be that Fireballs have way less endlag to account for the new options? It'd probably be a waste to assess the game balance of these unconnected clips, but I am hoping to see live demonstrations. No word yet on whether SF6 is confirmed for next week's SGS 'Play Days' Livestreams. In fact they probably won't confirm any games until after the event on June 9.

This is mostly a demo, things aren't in their final stages. We can't judge the gameplay from it. There's been words on a Capcom's Showcase but we still don't know if it was what we had in the State of Play or if more is to come.

21 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Edit: Took a look at the new Simple controls. And wow. I don't think any Capcom fighter has ever had combo assist, but this just straight up looks like Smash Bros. Dedicated Special button, with four special moves. Dedicated Throw button. I like it, I hope people try it out if they've been turned off by directional inputs in the past. Also this in-game commentary mode seems totally unnecessary and hilarious. Don't know who signed off on it, but I can already tell this will be very fun to listen to as you play.

I'm kind of intrigued by the 1-Button-Special, does that mean we only get 4 Specials per Character? Sure we have 3 Supers now but this doesn't seems right to me but alas time will tell. And yes, the in-game comm is hilarious. Opens the door to customisation outside of the character in SF (pls Capcom give me Ken Bogard's commentary as DLC I will buy it).

[Zapp Branniglenn]

14 minutes ago, Ycine said:

I'm kind of intrigued by the 1-Button-Special, does that mean we only get 4 Specials per Character? 

Up to 5, because of neutral special and splitting up side special into Forward and Back Special. Although in the Ryu example on the website he's only packing four, with the missing slot being up special. Not sure I agree with those placements. A Smash player might expect Shoryuken as Up Special, and I would have mapped it to down, with the mule kick being forward special. Button remapping is in the game, but I wonder if simplified controls will allow for remapping of an individual character's specials. Maybe that's unnecessary. 

My question is this: how does this system handle charge moves, like Chun Li's fireball? Can she do it while standing or walking forward? And if the answer is yes, do they remove charge motions from classic controls? And if the answer to that followup question is no, will we have a scenario where a character like Guile is just functionally better because of advantages afforded by simplified controls? 

16 minutes ago, Ycine said:

There's been words on a Capcom's Showcase but we still don't know if it was what we had in the State of Play or if more is to come.

Been listening in to Maximillian Dood's streams, and he says there's a 99.9% chance that he's been invited to SGF next week to check out this game, and he'd be shocked if he wasn't there to demo it and hopefully record footage. His streams have been a treat because of that website explaining so much and giving such a strong idea of where they're going differently from past SF games. Last night was three hours of chatting about the game, and he didn't even really spend time on the roster leak. This is an exciting time for SF and people caring about Capcom fighters again. By the way shout outs to Capcom for being cool about the leak.

[Ycine]

On 6/4/2022 at 6:05 PM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Up to 5, because of neutral special and splitting up side special into Forward and Back Special. Although in the Ryu example on the website he's only packing four, with the missing slot being up special. Not sure I agree with those placements. A Smash player might expect Shoryuken as Up Special, and I would have mapped it to down, with the mule kick being forward special. Button remapping is in the game, but I wonder if simplified controls will allow for remapping of an individual character's specials. Maybe that's unnecessary. 

Considering we can not turn off jumping by pressing upwards, I'm fairly sure they're sticking to what we have in GBFVS and DNF Duel. As for the remapping of specials I don't know if that will happen but it would be really cool.

On 6/4/2022 at 6:05 PM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

My question is this: how does this system handle charge moves, like Chun Li's fireball? Can she do it while standing or walking forward? And if the answer is yes, do they remove charge motions from classic controls? And if the answer to that followup question is no, will we have a scenario where a character like Guile is just functionally better because of advantages afforded by simplified controls? 

Everybody's curious about this and only time will tell.

On 6/4/2022 at 6:05 PM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Been listening in to Maximillian Dood's streams, and he says there's a 99.9% chance that he's been invited to SGF next week to check out this game, and he'd be shocked if he wasn't there to demo it and hopefully record footage. His streams have been a treat because of that website explaining so much and giving such a strong idea of where they're going differently from past SF games. Last night was three hours of chatting about the game, and he didn't even really spend time on the roster leak. This is an exciting time for SF and people caring about Capcom fighters again. By the way shout outs to Capcom for being cool about the leak.

But what if FG content creators are called for something else? GG Strive Season 2? MultiVersus news? The new NRS game? More about the LoL Fighter? Kof XV last S1 team official reveal? Bloody Roar or Virtua Fighter resurrection?! Whatever it is I will be eating my fill.

Capcom got so much leaked in the past few years that they grow a thick skin for it.

Edit : Capcom announces their showcase, schedule for the 13th of June at 3pm Pacific Time.

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Ycine
Added intel

[Zapp Branniglenn]

On 6/4/2022 at 11:22 AM, Ycine said:

Edit : Capcom announces their showcase, schedule for the 13th of June at 3pm Pacific Time.

 

Thaaank you. Capcom showcase? Feels like we already got one on June 2 lol. Guessing it is mostly SF6, but I suppose RE4 remake can make an appearance too. Or that long lost RE8 DLC we've been waiting for over a year to hear about. 

Added that to the OP, as well as today's Sonic Central broadcast. Because it is definitely a Direct style video. Even if it has little to say about Sonic games. It does include 24 seconds (I counted) of new Sonic Frontiers footage. And a still image shot of Knuckles that is supposedly an animated short. It's enough to get you saying "are they sure they wanna do this?".

Edit: Also Devolver Digital's show has been confirmed for 6PM on June 9! And the teaser trailer is excellent

Edited June 8, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn