I really should have done my due diligence and written down the things I wanted to talk about as I was watching the opening night show, but I didn’t, so now I have to scour the Internet for a reminder because I’m Old.

The good news is that this should be quick. I’m also not going to link videos because I’m lazy. Sorry.

Control Resonant

I will ALWAYS single out Control. I’m still hyped for this, and while I don’t think they showed anything new or mind-blowing, I’m always happy to see it.

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy

I own one of the A Plague Tale games but have never fired it up. I thought this series was about, you know, survival during times of plague with nothing fancy going on, but this game appears to make me think twice if it’s happening in the same timeline. It looks gorgeous, though.

Gears of War: E-Day

Let’s get you back to your room, Grandpa, where you can dream of the days when you were relevant.

Ananta

So, me and anime games aren’t on speaking terms, but this was being sold as an anime GTA and I don’t know how I feel about that, really. On one hand, an open world on a massive scale like GTA sounds great. On the other hand, anime.

Tides of Annihilation

An Eastern take on a Western mythology in an apocalyptic setting? I mean, maybe don’t make Guinevere look like a stripper?

1001 Threads of Mizan

A game set in the “1001 Arabian Nights” universe, which looks insanely cool, but also action combat, possibly in the Souls-like vein, is not my cup of tea. I would like to see more authentic games set in this mythological universe, because it’s an untapped goldmine based on what I saw in this trailer.

Aion 2

I played Aion for awhile and enjoyed it, but PvP kicked in at level 20, I think, so I bailed. You might think that such an admission would lead me to state that I’ll give this a go, but I won’t.

Crazy Taxi World Tour

This just made me miss Simpson’s Road Rage.

Exterminauts

Helldivers 2 meets Satisfactory, so I’m going to keep an eye on this.

NO LAW

Kind of like Hitman 47 meets Deux Ex. I’ve had this one on my wish list since I first saw it that TGAs last year, I think?

EXODUS

I dunno man. I loved the first book and have yet to start the second, but the more I see of this game the less interested I am. It’s not the fact that this trailer focused on a Raised octopus in a mech suit; it’s just that I’m not seeing a lot of resemblance to the world crafted in the novels. This is just starting to look like a generic Mass Effect rip off.

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons

OK. I think we’re getting to a point where no major video game event is complete without some kind of licensed D&D product, which is pretty good considering D&D was once reviled and cast as the antagonist in the battle for the souls of our youth. This is another action combat game, so it’s really not my thing. My brother will be all over it, though, since he likes these kinds of solo-protagonist action fantasy titles.

Gravhounds

I guess we’re also at the stage where everything has been done and the only option is to tweak something that’s otherwise inconsequential. Since Fortnite abandoned the modern tower defense genre and sold out, it leaves space for others to fill the void. This time, Gravhounds has us building fortifications, except that every player is an anamorphic dog. That is not a deal-breaker for me.

Afterworld

This is the one title I really sat up for because it’s a Paradox Grand Strat game set in a post-apoc world. That’s a massive departure for Paradox who usually focus on historical games, so I’m really going to dig in for more info on this one.

Stage Tour

I said during the presentation of Stage Tour that it was about that time where we should expect the return of rhythm games that use plastic instruments. My wife has been wanting to play Rock Band, but we don’t have a system that can play it and our original instruments are missing pieces anyway so it’s been a non-starter. Problem is, while we have a PC to play this on, it’s not connected to a TV or anything. Do we get an Xbox? Do I get a dedicated PC TV? I’m torn.

LEGO Skylines

And the winner goes to a Cities: Skylines-level builder, but with LEGO? Is that what I’m hearing? Hell fucking yes, people.

Some Observations

Not a game, but there were a few things I noticed when watching the presentation.

A Lot of Eastern Games

There usually are at these events. China and Korea seem to be really good at making action combat games and people really like those so it’s a natural fit. China, Korea, and Japan are all in on the anime and anime-adjacent game design, although Hoyoverse stunned this year by announcing a game that looks nothing like anything they’ve done before.

My major issue with Eastern games, though, is their aesthetic choices which are, literally, foreign to me. I’m not down with the overly ornate look and feel of their armor and weapons, for example, or their…shall we say…lack of fabric for women’s costumes. It’s a style choice, I get it, that resonates with their audience so to each their own.

One interesting thing though: a Chinese-made historical shooter set in WWII which, if memory serves, was mainly against Japan. I think it’s a sign of the times that China is comfortable putting out such an aggressive (though historically set) title in 2026/27.

Mining the Soundtracks

I was watching on Discord with @Mindstrike and @CakedCrusader, and Mindstrike noticed that there were a lot of games that were using songs from the 90’s playbook. Someone used Jesus Built My Hotrod by Ministry, and someone else used a song by The Prodigy…I can’t remember which games and I’m not re-watching the whole presentation, but I know there were others and I’m guessing that soon, Millennials will get their turn to hear their generational music in the supermarkets.

Stuff I Didn’t Really Care About

There were a lot of titles that I didn’t care enough about to mention. Another Final Fantasy VII remake entry? Is this remake series running longer than the original game now? Feels like it.

There were at least two of what looked like competitive shooters. Have we not learned from the sudden closure of several that we can’t even remember the names of? I guess it’s good for them to give it the old college try but maybe update those resumes, just in case.

Finally, I’m not a huge fan of The Witcher series; while I like the premise, and played a bit of all three, I could more leave em than take em. However, remastering the third entry, adding the DLC to the base, and offering the update to current owners for free is Big PR Energy that I appreciate. And announcing new DLC over a decade after the base game released? /applause.

And Now, The Usual Star Citizen Footnote

I like these dog-and-pony shows on a good day, but my real reason for watching was to see if CIG would sneak in some announcement about Squadron 42.

They did not.

Now folks are saying that they expect CIG to kick the can down the road to October. This would normally be when we’d get CitizenCon, but CIG announced that there would be no event this year, in person or virtual. Big Brain Thinking assumes that instead, we’re going to get the Squadron launch event during this time, but considering the fact that there’s no external marketing and no internal whispers of anything having to do with verification or even credible rumors, either CIG has a tighter lid on their product than Rockstar does with theirs, or CIG’s pockets are completely empty and they’re digging in for the inevitable beating at the hands of their investors.