Liveblog: Summer Game Fest 2022 as it happens
An audience with Geoff, from 7pm BST
Updated on
It’s time for the third annual Summer Games Fest, the not-E3 live show hosted by Geoff Keighley (of ‘is Geoff Keighley’ fame). And what better way to enjoy an evening of game ads than together with RPS’s two most bass-voiced section editors? Myself and Ollie will be operating the liveblog levers as it all kicks off tonight, June 9th, from 7pm BST / 2pm ET / 11am PT.
We do hope you’ll join us, so here’s the official Summer Game Fest stream; scroll down just a wee bit further and you'll find our rolling blog-o-tron. And we're liiiiive:
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
Hello! This liveblog will be blogging, live, Summer Game Fest once it begins at 7pm BST / 2pm ET / 11am PT. Stand by...
Looks like things are about to kick off, there's a countdown and everything. Anything you're looking forward to, Ollie?
Time for a confession: I'm coming in pretty blind to everything. Only now am I starting to look ahead at what might be revealed. Gotta say, that Planet Of Lana really piqued my interest back in Game Awards 2021, so I'm really looking forward to seeing more of that. How about you?
I want to see some graphics cards. Actually covering games is unusual and frightening to me. Oh hey only 35 seconds to go!
Those zeroes in the countdown timer look well good, don't they?
Crisp zeroes, mate.
Here's Geoff with his intro spiel. Live from LA, BTW.
Opening with Street Fighter 6. Nicely prescient choice of header image, me.
That's some fighty in-game footage with confirmation of Guile as a playable character.
Next up is Aliens: Dark Descent. Nice dark cinematic, lots of xenomorphs Giger-ing their way through the shadows. Good stuff.
Just me or did Dark Descent look a bit XCOM-y?
It's either XCOM-y or Diablo-y. Probably XCOM-y. Hopefully XCOM-y.
Also next up is The Callisto Protocol, starting with a slightly extended version of the trailer from last week. Now Glen Schofield, CEO of devs Striking Distance Studios, is having an unusually lovey-dovey chat with Geoff.
Gameplay footage time. Yeah, this is Dead Space as all get-out: holograms, sc-fi colony gone wrong, dismemberment-based shooting of infected baddies. Quite pretty though.
Ooh, he just used some Mass Effect-style powers to throw that zombie boy against a wall. Oh, it didn't seem to do much. Never mind, a few blasts with the oversized pistol does the trick.
Bloody hell, literally. The brief demo ends with our man getting sucked into some kind of spinning turbine thing and minced. Looked fun while it lasted, anyway.
Next up is Modern Warfare 2. I think everyone expected some sort of super-pretty cinematic which transitions seamlessly into gameplay. Yep, we got it! They just arrived via speed-boat to some big oil platform, and now they be shooting away. The rain looks very pretty.
Yep, this all looks very Modern Warfare. Though it doesn't really match up with my experience playing COD. The player's still alive, for one thing.
Let's see if I can embed some trailers without breaking the liveblog tool's HTML. First, here's Guile in SF6:
Aliens: Dark Descent:
Ooh, I like the tipping platform that they're all fighting on. Ship containers sliding from side to side. That's pretty sweet. Yep, this all looks very impressive, as expected.
And the, uh, "Schofield Cut" of The Callisto Protocol's trailer:
I like how the player rounded the corner already aiming at where the prescripted flood of water was going to push the enemy, rather than where the enemy was at the time.
That MW2 mission was clearly an homage to the cargo ship mission in the original, *original* Modern Warfare. Still super-scripted COD, but a lot shinier and busier.
"Water tech" pushes the boat around, appaz. The follow-up to Fish AI?
Now some chat about Warzone 2.0, which will be an extension of the existing Warzone. Sounds messy. But then Warzone has become very messy already, so it makes sense!
Flashback 2! A sequel after 30 years.
Not an overly revealing reveal, but it looks like it'll be 2.5D, and a platformer-shooter like the original.
Now we've got Witchfire, which looks like some sort of Elden-Ring style FPS. Looks pretty in a very Souls-y way. An exciting and cleverly stitched together montage cuts away from each fight moments before the player's death.
Another fresh reveal: Fort Solis. Looks like a third-person, sci-fi...horror game? Mystery game? Set in a spooky Martian mining station.
Fort Solis is "Dead Space meets Duncan Jones' Moon", according to voice actor Troy Baker. He's in everything, that lad. Wonder if he's still into NFTs.
Also the first game from studio Fallen Leaf!
Auldman says: Witchfire looks like Elden Shootery Ring Souls should have been the name.
It did indeed look like it might feature a loathsome dung eater, even if it's not THE Loathesome Dung Eater.
Another world premiere with spacey horror-y vibes. Lots of radio static transitions, and mild jump scares. I'm not really sure what I'm looking at yet. Oh, it's Routine! Yep, it's a survival horror game, and it's been in the works for ten years. Yeesh.
Now here's The Rock, dialling in from a gym and plugging... an energy drink? Is this a Fortnite thing I missed?
Why does he keep mentioning Blackadder? Oohhhh, Black Adam. That makes more sense, I guess.
Now they're literally showing the Black Adam trailer. This isn't a game, what is happening.
Also I would absolutely watch The Rock as Blackadder. Maybe with Idris Elba as Baldrick.
Now we've got an update to looter-shooter Outriders. I completely forgot Outriders was a thing until just now. Looks like they're taking down a big frosty monster in some mountains. Looks like a good time with friends.
After a quick Nintendo Switch ad, here's Fall Guys. Sounds like you'll be able to play Season 1 for free from June 23rd. Neat!
And here's the Routine trailer. It lives!
Aaaaaand Fort Solis:
Now a cinematic from Stormgate, a new RTS from Frost Giant Studios. Getting some Horizon Zero Dawn vibes so far. Protagonist has a cute little flying drone that sounds like a Protoss probe, and she's exploring some old ruins.
Oop, now there's a big demon attacking her, and she's suddenly a mech. So it's Horizon crossed with... Diablo? Destiny? Pacific Rim? Something?
"No NFTs" in Stormgate, hah.
Now for a new indie reveal, Highwater from Demagog Studio. A man in a dinghy explores a completely flooded world, though there's an awful lot of colour and whimsical radio broadcasts for the post-apocalyse. Men with guns too, though, so not all smiles and sailing. It's an "adventure strategy" game with global warming as a theme. Looks interesting!
A word now about Replaced, a game that was originally planned to have released a trailer for Summer Games Fest, but which sadly had to be cancelled because the Ukrainian devs understandably have rather a lot going on in their lives right now. Glad there was still some mention of it, and the situation surrounding it.
Next: American Arcadia. A man named Trevor is trying to escape...something, in a 70s-ish retorfuturistic dystopia. He's being watched, mind. Looks a little like Republique, but cartoony?
Aha, Goat Simulator 3 is coming later this year. I was wondering what on earth I was being shown there until the first goat came careening into view committing mass destruction everywhere it galloped.
Marvel's Midnight Suns! I don't know enough about Marvel characters to full understand what's happening here, but it's got Spider-Man, Venom and what looks like a horned, evil Hulk all duking it out. Marvel fans, if the horned, evil Hulk is someone else, I apologise.
Now we've got Cuphead in The Delicious Last Course. This'll definitely be a highly anticipated one. We're getting a snippet of boss fight gameplay here, and it looks as delightful and creative and crazy as the first. They're fighting some sort of giant sentient snowflake with a point stalactite nose. Wait, is it a stalactite or a stalagmite if it's pointing directly horizontal? Hm.
Time to check in on Neon White, the hyper-agile "card-based speedrunning FPS" from Annapurna. Looks mad, in a good way - pretty sharp sense of humour too. Out on June 16th on PC and the Switch.
Midnight Fight Express is the next premiere we're being shown. Looks like a pretty suave isometric brawling game. I do love slick animations with low poly graphics. Very impressive considering it's apparently been made by a single developer.
Now we're seeing a new trailer for Warframe's The Duviri Paradox expansion. Giant flying biorganic slug things confirmed! Though you'll have to wait until TennoCon 2022 on June 16th to learn more.
Honkai Starrail is a new spacey action RPG from the Hoyoverse. Apparently we'll embark on "unimaginable adventures", which is the definition of sounding good on paper. Beyond that... I really couldn't tell you what I just saw. Lots of flashing lights, godlike beings, and some handsome guy with a lion. That last bit did get me a bit more interested.
Also from the Horoverse, a first look at Zenless Zone Zero, an anime-styled urban actioner. Samurai girls and at least one sharp-dressed wolfboy taking down robots...
WaTcH oUt FoR sHrEdDeR!! It's an old-school TMNT fighting game. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is the name. Looks like quite a bit of fun, actually. And it's out on my birthday!
Jeez Geoff, slow down, I haven't had time for nearly as many pithy quips as I was expecting. Now here's a teaser for the final beta of Super People...
I do love a bit of Super People.
Well then Ollie, you can look forward to that final beta starting on August 17th!
And now onto Humankind, the first game here that I'm genuinely invested in. I love Humankind, I think it's a fantastic 4X. And it looks like they're adding a new culture for each of the six eras to choose from. Woot!
Those new cultures are: the Caralans, Nazca, Taíno, Incans, Argentinians, and Cubans. They're exploring Latin America with this one, which is awesome. It's coming in the form of a paid DLC pack, and the game is also getting the Bolivar patch very soon, which is bringing a host of new quality of life features too.
Ooh, a new trailer for One Piece Odyssey. A quick re-introduction to its perma-screaming pirate cast is followed by some quick in-game footage with glimpses of the fantasy island setting. Looks like a JPRG alright!
I, uh, never got into One Piece. Luffy's lack of eyelids weirds me out.
Now we're being treated to a girl floating through a sci-fi void, accompanied by choir music. It can only be... Soul Hackers 2! Yet another sci-fi RPG. There's a definite theme to most of the games so far, isn't there?
Sure is a lot of a science and a lot of fiction going on.
That Game Pass advert just made me re-remember how nice the water looks in Sea Of Thieves. Might have to dip my toes in someday.
Basically an ad break (Samsung Gaming Hub, anyone?) followed by a brief glance at Mario Strikers: Battle League. Wait, that's not on PC. Truly a low point for the show.
Next is a quick but packed trailer for Metal: Hellsinger, which is basically what you'd get if you crossed DOOM with a rhythm game. Lots of shooting and slicing and dodging to the beat of lots of great metal music. It looks very polished. And a sweet glimpse at a boss fight at the end there.
Next up: a trailer for choose-your-own-death horror adventure The Quarry. Which Alice likes, to be sure, but it's out tomorrow. Bit of an odd choice for a show like this?
Also I feel like Neon White's frenetic oddness deserves another look, so here's its trailer from earlier:
Ooh, Nightingale is up next! Here's a new look at the survival crafting game from Inflexion Games, a studio of ex-BioWare devs. I don't know about you, but it looks like it could be just the right amount of janky. We're also getting a look at some very creepy and fascinating enemies. Some sort of running hunchbacked humanoid wearing a bell on its head? And a nasty oversized yellow spider, too. I wonder if there'll be an arachnophobia setting for the game.
Seems Saint's Row is getting a demo, titled Boss Factory, that lets you try out the character creator. Not clear if there's more to it than that, though the apparent wealth of customisation options makes it seem like you could spend an hour in it...
Next is some gameplay from Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, which is shaping up to be a suitably gory co-op action shooter, filled with blood, fire, and fleshy explosions. The team is making their way to the centre of some sort of complex to inject a whadjamacallit into a thingymajigger. Standard co-op mission fare.
Colour me Somewhat Interested in Darktide. I bounced off Vermintide but have a soft spot for the grim darkness of the far future.
Here's Layers of Fears, the horror sequel and an early Unreal Engine 5 adopter. Seems as headfucky as the previous two, and hey is that Tony Todd?
That violin accompaniment towards the second half of the Layers Of Fears trailer was gorgeous. Love some violins, I do.
Oh, apparently he was in Layers of Fear 2 already. You learn the most interesting things doing a liveblog.
Now we've got a bit of footage on Gotham Knights which centres around Nightwing, one of the four playable characters in the game. Ooh, I like that transition into the glider as he jumps off the building. Yep, looks like this guy's got the moves. Let's hope he has the character to back it up, because I didn't get much of his personality from this trailer beyond "I protec, I attac".
Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann is on stage, confirming the Last of Us Part 1 remake that leaked earlier today. The multiplayer is becoming a standalone game as well. But which PLATFORMS is it on, Neil???
That concept art looks lovely though, doesn't it?
Well yeah, Naughty Dog know their way around a concept drawing for sure.
Neil and Geoff are now chatting The Last of Us, the upcoming HBO show. There's even an entire still image of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey crouching in a museum.
Oh hey, now their game counterparts - Troy Baker (again) and Ashley Johnson - are on stage too. They'll be cameoing on the show.
I'm just waiting for a Naughty Dog PC port announcement. If there is one. I don't know!
Oh well. The Last of Part 1 (the remake) was always coming to PC, and here's a trailer.
Damn, that side-by-side comparison of Joel's face between the old version and the remake. That's... honestly very impressive.
Yeah, I was ready to snark but this is kinda winning me over. The Last of Us is a good game, and this version looks super pretty. Enemy AI is getting an update too.
If there were any words that could make me immediately interested in an update or remake of any game ever, it would be "enemy AI is getting an update".
"You had me at 'enemy AI'"
...I think that's the end? Double Fine's Tim Schafer has appeared to talk Day of the Devs but Geoff Fest proper appears to have concluded.
Hey! We got through it. I think.
Indeed. But let's stick around for this Day of the Devs showcase as well. Since we're having so much fun.
First up is a cute monochrome game called Time Flies, in which you play as a fly, and you fly. Specifically around a house, attempting to explore as much of the house you've invaded before your short, short life is up.
Time Flies is from developers Michael Frei and Raphael Munoz, and is out next year. Just clocked that one of the objectives is "Learn an instrument" - I'll be pissed if this is easier for my fly than me, a human with fingers.
Aha, HERE'S Planet Of Lana. A mysterious and lovely-looking side-scroller by Swedish devs Wishfully Studios.
I've said it before, but the vibes really make me think of a cross between Oddworld and Ori. There's the stealthy evading of nasty-looking robotic enemies, and simultaneously the gorgeous natural landscapes and the partnership between Lana and her adorable alien creature companion. It looks brimming with character. Can't wait.
Hah, it's Choo Choo Charles! If you somehow don't remember this from last year, it's an open-world survival horror game where you both drive and upgrade a train, and do battle with a sentient, spider-legged train. Named Charles.
Can't lie, Choo-Choo Charles looks very good. It's creative, it's funny, it's horrifying. And it really does seem like a surprisingly solid game, going off the glimpses we're getting here.
It turns out Charles (the spider train, remember) isn't the only threat around. Hostile cultists also guard the loot you'll need to construct a Charles-killing locomotive.
And agreed, it sounds like some game jam joke but does seem to have some meat to it. Happy to see more of it here.
Now we've got a trailer for Escape Academy, a game made by Coin Crew Games, a team known for their real-life escape rooms. It looks like a pretty faithful game in terms of recreating the tone and puzzles of IRL escape rooms. There's also a giant evil TV screen face which appears to taunt and belittle you throughout your puzzling.
CAT. Everyone stop what they're doing. There's a cat. Everyone. Look. A cat.
Now here's A Little To The Left, in which you re-arrange various household items to solve hidden puzzles within. It's already vexed Alice0 with its key-swapping conundrum.
Missed the cat. Goddamn it.
Bear and Breakfast, eh? Good name. This appears to be exactly as it sounds: a 2D top-down management game where you're a bear running a bed and breakfast. You can head off into the woods and presumably gather materials, and then head back to your BnB to craft furniture and appliances. It looks quite sweet.
Getting big The Little Witch In The Woods vibes from this. But you're a bear.
July 28th is the release date given for Bear and Breakfast. Might be one to watch out for.
Next up, Animal Well. It's a darkly cute pixel art Metroidvania set in a series of haunted caves, with a physics-heavy twist for some of its puzzles. Puzzles which may require some kind of "community collaboration" to solve? Wonder if that just means they're super hard. Looks nice though, with some appropriately spooky enemy designs (ghost cat!).
Got some slight Rain World vibes from Animal Well too.
Now we've got Naiad, an adventure game where you float down a river, interacting with various creatures like fish, butterflies, and, um, crocodiles. Well that took a rather more carnivorous turn, didn't it.
Looks very chill. I like it.
Quite. Gorgeous game, mind.
Here's Roots of Pacha from Soda Den. It's a Stone Age farming/life sim that sees you attempting humanity's first cooking and animal husbandry endeavours, which can lead to you building a clan and even getting hitched. Maybe the first hitching in recorded history?
Not a huge fan of farming games myself, but I do love the idea of just casually riding an ostrich past a completely unbothered woolly mammoth. That really appeals to me.
Desta: The Memories Between is a new game from the devs behind Monument Valley. I'm hearing roguelike, turn-based tactics, and... Sports! Huh! Interesting.
It looks like a sort of poignant puzzle game where you're in a dream world, passing a ball between the different characters to solve puzzles and progress from level to level.
The idea of a game that tells an important story while also giving you a ball that you pass from character to character - it really reminds me of the wonderful Pyre, by Supergiant Games. That's a very high standard to compare a game to, and Desta is probably intending to be something very different. But I think I'll be keeping an eye on it all the same.
Schim is an interesting take on platforming: you play as a lil' shade blob that jumps between objects' shadows, rather than the objects themselves.
Fox and Frog Travelers: The Demon of Adashino Island. Man, by the time I finished writing out that game name, the trailer had nearly finished.
Looks like a quirky narrative-driven adventure and puzzle game where you're solving puzzles to bring light and colour to the world. There was a pretty horrifying face coming out of a wall at the end too, so the vibe is a bit hard to pin down.
Birth is, to quote solo dev Madison Karrh, a "point-and-click puzzle game about being alone in a large city". Been there! Your aim is to get to know your beastly neighbours by rifling through their belongings and solving the puzzles within. Lovely hand-drawn artstyle, I must say.
Nice calming bit of Debussy in the background to the Birth trailer, too.
Oh, actually, clarification: your real goal in Birth is to build a new friend from parts you find in the course of your puzzle solving. Spooky, but probably easier than using Bumble.
How To Say Goodbye is a very strange-looking puzzle game where the levels are made of blocks that can be shifted and pushed about to change the nature of the level and thereby solve the puzzle. It's also apparently a story about death, and working through grief, but one that's very gentle and tranquil, rather than hollow and depressing. Probably a good decision, that.
Think we're approaching the end now - going out on a musical note, with Peter Berkman of Anamanaguchi playing some tunes from Die Soft's upcoming Little Nemo And The Guardians of Slumberland. Also some live action shots of Berkman around Brighton, the home of RPS! From a legal and business perspective, anyway.
I'm a big fan of the little skull cloud poof that replaces enemies when you kill them in Little Nemo.
Speaking of, Little Nemo is probably getting one of the most extended looks of the show. Lots and lots of pajama-clad platforming.
And credits roll! That must mean it's the end of Day Of The Devs, and an end to this here liveblog!
Hoo boy, those sure were some video games. I was pretty mid-whelmed for the most part, though Highwater looks interesting and it was genuinely nice to check in on Choo Choo Charles. Any highlights, Ollie?
As I predicted, Planet Of Lana was a big high point in the whole show for me. But I'm glad we also got a look at Nightingale, I'm quite excited for that one. And, of course, Choo-Choo Charles. Man, that just looks far better than it has any right to look.
Right, that's it from Summer Game Fest 2022, and from us. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll have more liveblog ramblings during the Xbox/Bethesda not-E3 showcase on June 12th. Cheers!
Have a good'un, everyone! .o/