Hello! Welcome to the latest Geeky Brummie Gaming Roundup!
This week, State of Play, Gotham Knights and Unofficial Fornite Crypto.
State of Play Was Good, Millions Shocked
After bemoaning pretty much every State of Play that Sony has put out since they decided they were too good for E3 anymore, it was a real shock to me that last Thursday’s State of Play (link) was actually good. And if you’re wondering why I’m talking about it now and not last week, Thursday nights are my deadline, and it’s also why Summer Games Fest will be covered next week, not this week. Hope this clears things up.
Anyway, State of Play. There was a bunch of big stuff in there, which made a change from the usual middling announcements or a showcase that mostly centred on licensed Disney properties. Here’s what was on show:
After months of rumours, Resident Evil 4 Remake was officially announced, with a bold statement of releasing in March. Which shows some degree of confidence, although if I’m honest, I’m not sure what the point of a full remake of RE4 will achieve because the original holds up pretty well to this day.
Assorted PSVR2 announcements, including support for Sony’s new headset coming to Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky, and the reveal of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Chapter 2: Retribution (a title I absolutely could not remember because of that length!) and Horizon: Call of the Mountain, a VR spin-off set in the land of robo-dinos.
A fan favourite PlayStation game is coming to PC. No, it’s not Bloodborne, it’s Spider-Man. So I’m sure you’ll be happy if you’re into that sort of thing.
The real news came next, as Annapurna’s futuristic cat game finally got a release date. Out next month, Stray sees you playing as a tiny cat with a cyber backpack navigating a city populated by robots. It offers two levels of intrigue for me – 1. Why is the world so full of robots? And 2. I am 100% here for a game where you play as a cat.
The next bit of important news was that The Callisto Protocol also has a release date now, confirmed for December. If you’re unaware of this game, it’s a horror action game from some of the former Dead Space team, and oh boy does it look it. This is such an obvious spiritual successor to that series and I’m excited. Even if inexplicably it also has something to do with the PUBG universe somehow. I don’t know what’s going on there.
Then there was the reveal of Rollerdrome, which is what happens if you throw Jet Set Radio and Max Payne into a blender. It’s an arena battler where you’re on roller skates being rad as hell. Interesting.
We had the obligatory anime nonsense in Eternights, a game where a boy shows a girl his wiggly appendage and then they hold hands. So lewd. Also there’s some big overblown combat, I guess.
A lot of Street Fighter 6 got shown, including Chun-Li’s new appearance (she’s nowhere near as wide as Ryu is now) and also a story mode that features a full 3D city environment to free roam in, which is slightly odd. Also, leaks afterwards may have revealed the full roster, and to the Internet’s dismay, Cammy is now wearing leggings. Which is obviously the worst thing happening in the world right now.
Previous Game of the Week Tunic is coming to PlayStation! It’s good, you should play it. Right now. Unless you only have a PlayStation, in which case you should wait until September. Also, we got a look at indie title Season, which looks like sound might play an important part in its mechanics.
And finally, more of Final Fantasy XIV got shown, confirming that Square Enix are still wedded to real-time action battle mechanics for their flagship RPG series, revealing the many extremely British voices in the game, and putting a heavy emphasis on summons, who seemingly get to fight each other. Interesting.
And that was Sony’s showcase, kicking of a summer of endless game showcases that will probably overwhelm us all. And a much better showing than Sony’s usual fare. There was a good mixture of stuff, a few big announcements alongside some solid indie projects, and generally felt a lot more confident. More of this please, Sony.
Gotham Knights Devs Distance Themselves From TV Show
So there’s a new CW show that got itself a trailer this past week or so. Now, as someone who knows nothing about superheroes and finds the entire genre tedious, I know it’s a Batman related thing where assorted side characters do superhero stuff and that’s about it. And the reveal trailer for this show has led to a lot of upset, as it looks a bit rubbish. (link)
There’s just one problem – there’s another project coming out soon called Gotham Knights. As you might expect since I’m writing about it here, it’s a video game. And in a rare move, the developers at WB Games Montreal have issued a statement to let everyone know that the game has absolutely nothing to do with the TV show. For one thing, the game actually has a canon Robin in it (I think? I don’t know, I’d need to ask Keith). (link)
Considering both of these are coming out of Warner Bros, it’s bizarre for one division to be utterly determined to distance themselves from another. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
But let it be known, Gotham Knights, the video game releasing in October for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X, has nothing at all to do with Gotham Knights, the TV show launching on The CW next year. Glad that this is completely clear to everyone.
Epic vs Cryptobros
There’s a cryptocurrency floating around out there called Fortnite Token, which is designed to be a digital currency for Fortnite fans that isn’t controlled by a CEO.
Except for one problem, that’s not how trademarks work, as Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has pointed out (link), branding the fake money “a scam” designed to profit off the Fortnite name. It’s certainly not the first time cryptobros have woefully misunderstood how actual IP ownership works in the real world, and almost certainly won’t be the last. Sweeney has confirmed that “Epic’s lawyers are on it” so that’s fun.
But, as users online have pointed out, Epic’s decision to allow grift-based NFT games on their storefront is practically encouraging this behaviour. In the same week Sweeney criticised cryptobros trying to profit off his IP, it was revealed that Grit, a Wild West battle royale stuffed with NFTs would be launching on the Epic Store. (link) So they’re practically encouraging this stuff, as nothing involving crypto or NFTs is ever worthwhile, and the scams are rampant. And let’s not forget that the only reason this decision was made was to spite Steam, who’ve done the right thing and banned anything with NFTs in it from ever launching on their store.
In conclusion, crypto and everything associated with it is a worthless scam and it all needs to stop infecting video games.
New Releases
Another quiet week this week, as once again there are only two games to talk about. First up, Mario Strikers: Battle League Football brings the Gamecube’s big, brash arcade football game to the Switch. Unlike actual football, there are powerups, an electric fence and aggression is allowed. Plus you and seven friends can each take control of a different player on the pitch, so you can have maximum chaos.
Game of the Week
The other release this week, and Game of the Week, is The Quarry, the latest horror narrative game from Supermassive Games, launching on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
Considered more of a spiritual successor to Until Dawn than The Dark Pictures Anthology, The Quarry once again adheres to traditional horror tropes, as you control a group of camp counsellors trying to avoid being murdered. This is done through a series of narrative choices, quick time events and the occasional action set piece. Basically, if you’ve played Until Dawn or a Dark Pictures game, you know how this plays.
It’s also got a massive cast of horror veterans, with digitised versions of David Arquette (Scream), Lin Shaye (Nightmare on Elm Street), Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks) and Ted Raimi (Evil Dead) all present, alongside…uh…Detective Pikachu star Justice Smith.
I loved Until Dawn, so the fact this represents even more of that is an exciting prospect, so it has to be Game of the Week.
And that’s all for now! See you next week with more from the world of gaming!
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