Games

Eurovision is my main thing usually, like I said, but that's been extremely soured consistently in recent years by Israel and my home country deciding that they'd give a shit about it for the first time even in order to host a Nazi rally. I used to watch the E3 stuff through a combination of needing event TV, liking games, and knowing people in the industry for a long time, so TGA and to a less extent Summer Game Fest has sort of taken the torch from that. It's naff and a show of ads, but I still enjoy it for a combination of nostalgia, shit talking with people during it, and excuse for an event.

But anyway...

Civ 7 will always be on my radar. I'm traditionally a 'Civ one year after it's out' player but honestly I'm not sure that will even happen with Civ 7 as I'm an old/family console game these days whose PC is a tiny work box without a dedicated GPU (but runs Sims, indie stuff, and CIv 5/6 well). The big step up graphically and structure changes to eras is interesting but will probably leave me behind.

I've only played Helldivers in the office of a friend as I don't have a playstation this gen (it's pretty much the only thing that's made me miss having one so far) but more Helldivers looks rad. I was one of the few hardcore early fans of the first one even though my dyspraxia stopped me ever getting good at it (or any twin-stick top down stuff).

I played a bit of Killing Floor 2 and found it stupidly difficult as a solo player that struggles with twitch shooter stuff, but also genuinely liked it. That trailer for 3 looked more interesting visually even if Mick Gordon should be suing them for the soundtrack.

I'm a bit of a Outer Worlds defender, so I'm looking forward to that one. The first was uneven and paced badly for how short it was, but the bones were excellent I thought and I don't have a problem with the length beyond it not being narratively paced appropriately.

I struggle with Borderlands these days. Played a shit load of the first one, a lot of the second, almost nothing of three. The core loop is still appealling to me, but I played most of 2 on mute.

Things that caught my eye...

Rematch was a genuine surprise but makes a weird amount of sense to me. As someone who loved the vibe of Sifu but basically couldn't do it and isn't a big online player it's probably not going to be my game but it's rad that someone is putting weight and talent behind a totally diffierent kind of football game than FIFA/EAFC.

It's obvious but Witcher 4. I'm trepedatious, still don't think Cyberpunk was very good, and have plenty of issues with CD Projekt but Witcher 3 was a genre I don't usually go for, in a world I don't care about, wrapped in a game I bounced off of horribly at the start until my partner sat me down and coached/guided/just played through it. Now it's one of my favourites ever.

The return of Fumito Ueda is always going to be interesting.

Project Century is one I'm probably unduely excited about despite it not even having a name yet and maybe just being an environment and engine at this point. I'm a latecomer by big fan of the Yakuza game (although I have no idea how people have to time to play all of them) and doing something like that around turn of the century Japan is really interesting to me.

Similarly the historical setting of Mafia: Old Country seems kind of cool, but I wish it was set just a little bit later (20s even) as the politics of the Sicilian mafia gets so much more interesting than clan vendettas at that point.

I don't really know what Stage Fright is, but it had a fun meta trailer and I know someone at Ghost Town Games who is very excited about it. Also, more addictive fun couch co-op games to play with the young people in my family is always appriciated.

And Okami sequel is kind of amazing in theory - I remember the original changing the way I and other people thought about that era of video games at the time - but I honestly don't know how much it'll matter to me or others to have a new one after 20 years.

And a new NaughtyDog IP is a new NaughtyDog IP. The thing that lit my brain up about it though was the soundtrack and the late 80s / early 90s tech future vibe, like a 20 year update to Alien's 70s future.