Some of the good stuff announced at Not E3
Can a racing game be too detailed? And what is Starfield supposed to be?
Welcome back, Button Buddies!
I hope you’re all well rested. It’s been one hell of a week-and-a-bit in games, with so many press conferences and announcements happening in the middle of the night. Normally we would be on the ground in LA covering Actual E3 with the same level of jetlag, but better snacks and warmer weather. Not E3, though, still had some big announcements, good looks at games that many forgot were coming, and some weird and wild wackiness. So, this week Tim and I thought it might be a good idea to highlight some of the games we’re most looking forward to so you know what to put on your Christmas lists.
Maple Valley, my old home
By Alice
I think we all knew that Forzas Horizon and Motorsport would be my highlights of Not E3.
I have to say that I got a little emotional as I saw the trailer for just how detailed the Maple Valley course is going to be when Forza Motorsport finally launches in 2023.
When I bought my first Xbox, the 360 in early 2007, it came with Perfect Dark Zero and Forza Motorsport 2. I might be the only person who loved Perfect Dark Zero – my partner at the time and I played local multiplayer on it most nights for months. But my true gaming love, other than Guitar Hero, was Forza Motorsport 2 and the Maple Valley track. My friends and I would race on it for hours most weeks while blasting Sleater-Kinney. So, to see how somewhere once so important to me has changed and evolved was oddly meaningful.
At the time, of course, FM2’s Maple Valley looked like a technical wonder. Now not so much. In the 8th entry to the series, it’s been lovingly recreated. The grass still looks terrible, but the leaves are more leaf-like, and the track is more photorealistic.
Aside from this walk down memory lane, the new Forza Motorsport game promises players even more control over oil and tyre compounds. I can’t think of anything I want less than making Motorsport racing more complicated, but I can also see myself getting really into it, so it’ll be interested to see how it’s implemented.
As well as Forza Motorsport, the other big Forza announcement was the first expansion for Forza Horizon 5. Normally the first expansion is weather-related (Storm Island, Blizzard Mountain, Fortune Island), and the second is franchise or toy-related (Fast and Furious, Hot Wheels, Lego), but the announcement of a Hot Wheels expansion for Horizon 5 has thrown tradition on its ear and I love it. This new expansion looks like it’s going to be much larger and more detailed than the one that took up residence on the Gold Coast in Horizon 3. Hopefully we get more details before it’s released July 19. Unsurprisingly, I will be playing day one.
What to play
The latest title from Supermassive Games is out now on PC and consoles and it’s really good. The Quarry follows in the footsteps of Until Dawn, but is more enjoyable. I (Alice) spent three days utterly riveted to the boilerplate horror story with its ridiculously impressive cast. It’s currently way too expensive to pick up, and you can absolutely wait to play it, but I want to make sure it’s on your radar, should you see it at a discount some time soon.
A legend is coming to Apple Arcade this Friday: Cooking Mama Cuisine releases for subscribers June 17. If you like being mildly stressed while constructing food, you’ll love Cooking Mama.
Assassin’s Creed is somehow 15 years old now, and I (Alice) don’t know what to do with this information. However, Ubisoft does: Assassin’s Creed Origins will be free to play this weekend. If you’ve been on the fence about whether the latest Assassin’s Creed game is for you, now is the time to jump back to Ancient Egypt and strategically murder people for free. But only this weekend.
Netflix has offered mobile games for a while now, but finally there's one to recommend! Poinpy is a cute vertical climber from the creator of Downwell, where you have to grab fruit as you jump up to make juice and stop some goo cat from eating you. It's really good.
There's a new Ninja Turtles game out tomorrow in Shredder's Revenge; an arcade brawler in the vein of Turtles in Time for 1–6 players. I (Tim) have loved what I've seen so far, and it's included for Game Pass subscribers.
Two of my (Tim’s) all time favourites, from the dev team that these days is known as Extremely OK Games, are going for a deep discount on Switch. First is Towerfall, an accessible competitive archery game for up to six players that’s unquestionably one of the greatest couch party options ever. And then there’s Celeste, a difficult but supportive platformer with a stunning self-care message surrounded by wonderful music and characters. Each is currently $7.50, down from $30.
Is Starfield like Skyrim in space? Or like No Man’s Sky with narrative?
By Tim
Some of my most cherished gaming memories come from the Elder Scrolls series. And although it’s not as much in my wheelhouse, I’ve very much enjoyed the modern Fallouts as well. So for years now, I’ve wondered how Bethesda Game Studios’ systems and styles would fit with interstellar travel in Starfield. After an extended look during the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, I finally have some answers.
A lot of elements are excitingly familiar, including the compass-like HUD that shows points of interest as you pass, a huge number of traits and expandable skills, first-person conversations, massive creatures, endless crafting, even a lock-picking minigame. With hints at multiple guilds, a “chosen one” main story you can opt to ignore and multiple skill trees, it’s easy to see how Starfield could evoke Skyrim vibes despite the shooter combat.
The idea of traversing multiple star systems is obviously a huge departure. All previous BGS games have essentially taken place in one region of a single continent of a single planet, cramming in enough content to last hundreds of hours. But this time that content will be spread across “more than one thousand planets”, upon which you can land wherever you want. Does that mean 90% of the game area will be barren? Empty but for procedurally generated desserts and randomised loot?
Some online have likened the approach to No Man’s Sky, but I’m optimistic it will fit in much more closely to what we recognise as a Bethesda RPG. Inhabited planets could be like the towns and cities of previous games, with settlements thereon acting as the different districts. Other parts of those planets, as well as some uninhabited rocks, would be more like caves, bandit hideouts or vaults you find along the way. And of course some planets could purely be places for resource gathering or base building.
A key difference may be that in the likes of Skyrim you typically find places to explore when taking the long way to your next objective, whereas in Starfield you’re presumably jumping around faster than light through empty space. The galaxy map in the footage showed a “press LB to scan” on each planet, which I’m sure will give you an idea what to expect.
Game art is getting weird again, thank the gods
by Alice
Aside from the Forza titles, there were two games that really stood out to me at the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase on Monday: The Last Case of Benedict Fox and Pentiment.
I love a 3D open world as much as the next person with limited spare time, but 2D platformers and confusing games with heavily stylised art will always be among my favourite game styles.
What is Pentiment? No idea. Couldn’t tell you. But I love it. The art is in the style of those medieval illustrations where people have been severely wounded, yet are looking at their murderers like “wtf, dude?” That art style is great. This seems to be a choice-based mystery game where you have to solve a bunch of murderers.
Studio Obsidian has form when it comes to making cool, slightly off the wall games, like Outer Worlds and Grounded, so I’m all in. Even if the game sucks when it’s released in November 2022, at least it’ll look cool.
The second was The Last Case of Benedict Fox. It’s a Metroidvania game set in the 1920s, featuring the character of Benedict Fox who has an excellent waistcoat, a demonic side, and daddy issues. It’s not entirely clear if it’s going to be pure 2D platformer, as the trailer suggests, but the brief glimpse of art, story and suggested playstyle seem interesting enough to have me looking forward to its release in 2023. The game is a far cry from Plot Twist’s last outing of Drift Zone II, so no clues can be drawn from there, but it should be cool.
From the bowels of the virtual conference hall
by Tim
What this year's non-E3 has lacked in blockbuster announcements, it's made up for with a huge volume of interesting smaller stuff. I watched at least 10 showcase streams over the week, which comfortably stood in for the sensation of walking the expo show floor and being inundated with cool and near-contextless games to look at.
If you watched the Sony and Xbox streams you would have seen a good mix of blockbusters (Callisto Protocol, Redfall) and smaller fare (Stray, High on Life). But what about that brand new left-field nonsense we all crave? Those wild concepts that just could not work in any other creative medium than video games? In that spirit, here are five games that made their debuts in the smaller showcases you may not have seen, with trailers that are well worth a look.
First up, The Plucky Squire is a gorgeous Aussie-made adventure where the hero of a picture book escapes into the real world. The trailer shows both 2D and 3D gameplay, including a scene where you box a honey badger, and one where you go all Gradius on the surface of a bucket.
Next, check out Fort Solis, a cinematic third-person thriller set on Mars and featuring some A-list voice talent. An off-world engineer responds to a routine alarm where events quickly unravel. It’s unclear whether we’re looking at a human, AI, alien or supernatural threat here, but it’s nonetheless intense.
Then, what if the internet arrived decades earlier? And 80s drug cartels immediately embraced it? And you were an undercover cop using a PC terminal to hack and expose them? That's Vice NDRCVR. Why not just call it “Vice Undercover”? Because it’s not computers enough that’s why.
There were heaps of narrative-driven pixel games, which are always welcome, but the one that's stuck with me most is Psychroma. You play as a digital medium, piecing together the memories of a smart house where some creepy stuff went down.
Finally, Ugly seems to blend elements of Braid and Celeste with a cool hand-drawn style. A mirror mechanic divides the screen in two for some tricky platforming, while there are clearly also some psychological horror elements at play.