Sonic, Sephiroth, & zero women but plenty of trailers and announcements

June 9, 2023 10:52 AM

Summer Game Fest 2023 [YouTube] Summer Game Fest is here to kick off a weekend full of announcements and trailers for all the biggest games arriving in the next few months and years. The show, once again hosted by organizer Geoff Keighley, included trailers for all kind of titles including Mortal Kombat 1, Alan Wake 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Path of Exile 2, Sonic Superstars, Baldur's Gate 3, Lies of P, Sand Land, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown. But sadly, Summer Game Fest featured no women onstage. Bonus: Devolver Digital’s showcase featured just four games, but they look like good ones, especially wacky walking simulator Baby Steps (from QWOP and Ape Out creators). [via: Polygon]
posted by Fizz (26 comments total)

Loved Ape Out, QWOP was not for me, kind of curious to see how this will pan out. From the trailer it kinda seems more on the Getting Over It side of things, too bad for me.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:47 AM on June 9, 2023

I'm all-in on that Sonic game. Look, it's Nack the Weasel!
posted by Servo5678 at 12:12 PM on June 9, 2023

Summer Game Fest featured no women onstage.

if there's one thing that's happening at my company it's that this huge morass of hedge funds and investment firms losing a shit ton of money esp in the tech space and thus ejecting employees en masse has resulted in DEI programs being eviscerated and leadership once again being mostly staffed by white men with a smattering of white women

I'd be interested in seeing if this is a wider trend for companies experiencing churns in their c-suites because it sure as hell seems like it might be kind of a thing for vidya james
posted by paimapi at 12:47 PM on June 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

Also, Like A Dragon Gaiden, a spinoff of the main Like A Dragon series (formerly known in the west as "Yakuza") that plays in between the 6th and 7th installments, and which sees the original main character Kazuma Kiryu coming back from retirement for one. last. job.

(Just kidding, he's going to be in the 8th installment too).

And at ATLUS, someone is getting fired, since the trailers for the long awaited Persona 3 remake and the spinoff Persona 5 Tactica were leaked on the ATLUS Instagram channel yesterday, just a couple of days ahead of the official announcement:

Persona 3 Reload
Persona 5 Tactica
posted by LaVidaEsUnCarnaval at 1:31 PM on June 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Summer Game Fest featured no women onstage.

I can't speak for this particular event, but at past, different events women have normally been on stage minimal clothing, not allowed to speak, and mostly there for eye candy. So overall this is better, IMO.

Best would be woman game developers on stage presenting their games.
posted by hippybear at 1:48 PM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Nice vfx on that PRINCE OF PERSIA trailer. Hopefully they take the right cues from DEAD CELLS.
posted by TangoCharlie at 2:04 PM on June 9, 2023

Strange contrast of justifiable criticism interwoven with "oooh shiny" going on here.
posted by kokaku at 2:19 PM on June 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

You're right. I reserve the right to be both critical and excited by gaming culture/news.
posted by Fizz at 2:28 PM on June 9, 2023 [10 favorites]

I was talking about the discussion and the two threads talking past each other.
posted by kokaku at 2:29 PM on June 9, 2023

This discussion reserves the right to be both critical and excited.
posted by hippybear at 2:31 PM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

As for stuff in the indie space,

There was the Access-Ability Summer Showcase today, which had a focus on showcasing games that made an effort to be accessible.

There was also the Guerrilla Collective Showcase yesterday.
posted by No One Ever Does at 3:06 PM on June 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Talos Principle II looks good. I wanted to like the John Carpenter game, but the voice acting is just, well, it is really bad.
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:25 PM on June 9, 2023

Yeah, the John Carpenter game looks like a game version of his worst films, like, ugh, Vampire$, all macho bluster and no characterization.

I look forward to never playing Baby Steps, but greatly enjoying watching videos of playthroughs.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:35 PM on June 9, 2023

I look forward to never playing Baby Steps, but greatly enjoying watching videos of playthroughs.

This is me with every videogame. I cannot allow myself to play them unless I want to find myself suddenly three days later, unfed and unshowered and without a job. But I love watching others play them and I find what they do and what they can be really wonderful and fascinating.
posted by hippybear at 3:38 PM on June 9, 2023

The real winner for me was (again) the Day of the Devs showcase that - for an hour - features upcoming indie projects and comes tacked onto the main event ...BUT for my money continuously outshines the AAA announcements. (I am biased towards indies, though!)

And this event even had women in it. They exist!

Here's a summary by Polygon's Nicole Carpenter: https://www.polygon.com/23755197/day-of-the-devs-2023-announcements-indie-game-showcase
posted by bigendian at 4:12 PM on June 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Looking forward to Alan Wake. It's successor, "Control" was great but flawed (got sick of shooting weird ghosts), and apparently they take place in the same universe.

I was hoping Wake would be more X-Files, but from a trailer I saw it looked to be more "murderous cult" but who knows? Probably a mix.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:18 PM on June 9, 2023

I love watching others play them and I find what they do and what they can be really wonderful and fascinating.

Plus! No loading times, no exotic hardware requirements, and you can skip the boring and/or frustrating parts. If someone told me years ago how much time I’d spend *watching* others play video games these days, I wouldn’t believe it.
Part of me wonders how this compares to, say, movie piracy, but streams have either led me to buy a game I wouldn’t have otherwise (DREDGE, DEAD CELLS, SKYRIM…) or I was never in a position to buy it anyway (I only have a Switch these days).
posted by TangoCharlie at 5:49 PM on June 9, 2023

(If anyone wonders, “what do you get from watching a video game,” the answer is “I just like seeing what people do with the art and technology.” It can be like sports, but it’s more fun to look at.)
posted by TangoCharlie at 5:52 PM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I mean, there are playthroughs, but there are also sort of shit-for-fun players who try to be awful or game exploiters who do ridiculous things in games the designers never expected...

I watched a video recently where a guy was playing a medieval guild village game and he just went and courted the most wealthy woman with his character he could find and married her and used his wealth to start buying all the resource generating factors in the game and he basically became a capitalist overlord in this guild game.

There is so much art and fun to be had in video games, and I love that I can watch other people do things within them and not ruin my own life!

Also, those cooking pots in that one game, those can be used with wheels to make springs for smooth traveling carts.
posted by hippybear at 6:16 PM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I can't speak for this particular event, but at past, different events women have normally been on stage minimal clothing, not allowed to speak, and mostly there for eye candy. So overall this is better, IMO.

That is much longer ago. People are bemoaning the lack of women executives or developers on stage, because that is something that has been the case for years now. It's a long time since the days of the E3 'booth babe', and suggesting that the current situation represents a step forward is just wrong.
posted by Dysk at 10:46 PM on June 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Does anyone know what the song is in the Sand Lands trailer?
posted by adept256 at 7:27 AM on June 10, 2023

If you are a Crouton Petter, then do yourself a favour and AVOID the Devolver Digital full presentation this year, just seek out the four games individual trailers.

The framing device for the presentation 'The Return of Volvy' is an unsettling Black mirror knock off.

• Human Fall Flat 2
• Baby Steps
• The TALOS Principle 2
• Wizard with a Gun

posted by Faintdreams at 9:00 AM on June 10, 2023

Does anyone know what the song is in the Sand Lands trailer?

It's "My Way" by Grace Mesa
posted by LaVidaEsUnCarnaval at 9:20 AM on June 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

ooooh so going to play TALOS 2
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:37 PM on June 10, 2023

I watched the initial showcase, and it struck me how delighted Geoff Keighley was to be on that stage. It's nice that an actual celebration of games has filled the void of E3 which never was what it purported to be.

However I will never understand the Devolver Digital presentation, and this year pushed it up to 11. What the heck.
posted by daysocks at 5:55 AM on June 11, 2023

women have normally been on stage minimal clothing, not allowed to speak, and mostly there for eye candy. So overall this is better, IMO.

boy if you keep lowering that bar, you'll eventually have to start inventing new technologies to pierce the Earth's mantle
posted by paimapi at 2:28 PM on June 11, 2023 [3 favorites]