UbiSoft, Devolver, Wholesome and Gearbox 2021

Hey Friends! It is still very much game show season and today we have a new batch of shows to talk about. I contemplated saving this for Monday, but since I am sitting here with a handful of things to talk about I decided to go ahead and post it because I am hoping Monday I will be able to talk about cool stuff from the Microsoft and Bethesda show. Thursday was pretty solid with the Summer Game Fest, or at the very least there were a lot of trailers to consume. Friday I was largely out of pocket and today the more normal shows started up giving me a few things to talk about. I have to admit I did not do a great job of keeping track of which show had which games, but largely these are the shows that I am going to talk about today and links to the videos of them.

I have to admit I am a little underwhelmed by what was shown today. There are a handful of things that I am mildly interested in but nothing really that got me excited. Well that is slightly untrue because there is one game that we got a trailer for that I am very much looking forward to, and hoping maybe during the Microsoft show we might get a release date. UbiSoft for me is very hit or miss and they seemed to lean very heavily into properties that I don’t really care about. I am kind of hit and miss with FarCry in general and this one in particular with its “Tropico” feel isn’t my jam. Wholesome Games Direct is an excellent show and I support it wholeheartedly… but also most of the games they show off are not really my jam and tend to be more of the walking simulator or harvest moon-like variety.

Of the hundreds of games that were shown there are some that I thought were interesting. Again this is not a best of list or anything because I am certain you would choose differently. It however is my blog so here is my list I wanted to talk about.

Death’s Door

I had not heard of this game before today, but it appears to be another in a fairly long line of recent “zelda nostalgia” games. This time you are playing as a crow with a sword and battling all sorts of intense looking bosses. It looks fast and smooth and similar to Tunic from my last post I am all in on these Zelda-likes… at least enough to give them a shot when they launch.

Release Date: July 20th, 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Olli Olli World

There is an ongoing revival of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater nostalgia game which I guess is a bit of a misnomer for this particular entry given that OlliOlli is in itself a storied pixel art skating game starting in 2014. The early entries were a sort of linear side scrolling “endless runner” type experience. This game appears to be taking that and transforming it into something a bit more open world. In many ways the gameplay reminds me a bit of the old Atari game 720. Most definitely interesting enough to give it a look as it gets closer to release.

Release Date: Winter 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Skatebird

For starters I feel like it is a tragedy that the game was not called Skatebirb, but that is just a me thing. Secondly Glass Bottom Games is pretty great and behind a couple of interesting games including the firefighter endless runner called Jones on Fire and Hot Tin Roof a 3D stylized noir detective adventure game. I remember watching an early video on Skatebird and it is basically a love story to Tony Hawk Pro Skater but with birbs. Because of the scale of the birbs you also have some interesting “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” style repurposing of giant benign objects for the purpose of building ramps and obstacles. Very into this game.

Release Date: August 12th, 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Black Skylands

I remember seeing this several years ago associated with a showing at PaxSouth. The idea looked pretty cool in that you build an airship and then explore the skies looking for resources and treasure… while occasionally having to deal with giant monsters that attack you. This is one of those games that I have kept my eyes out for and it finally has a release date. It looks fun, but I have no clue when I will actually get around to playing it. Unfortunately said release date is actually the beginning of early access… so take that as you will.

Release Date: July 9th, 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Steelrising

This is the one game from today that I am legitimately extremely excited for. So there is a game studio called Spiders that is one of the few companies making new games in the Bioware Action RPG style. They keep making a valiant effort to perfect the formula and thusfar each game has been flawed in a slightly different way, but still very enjoyable to play through. Greedfall is just about as close to perfection as they have gotten and my hope has been the next game… would really nail things. Steelrising is that next game and it appears to be set in an alternate version of the French Revolution where automatons are doing battle and seemingly killing off people. It appears that you are playing a good one of these automatons. I know this has been associated with Microsoft so I am hoping that maybe just maybe we get a proper release date tomorrow during their show.

Release Date: Unknown – Watch the Trailer

Firegirl

I thought this one looked really cool. It has the whole pixel art plus detailed lighting and backgrounds that worked so well for Octopath Traveler. This however appears to be a side scrolling platformer where you battle fires, avoid obstacles and rescue people. I think it looks really cool and it reminds me sorta of a 16 bit era fire fighting game that I don’t think ever made it to the United States. Again zero clue if or when I will ever get around to playing it, but I dug its look and gameplay.

Release Date: Fall 2021 – Watch the Trailer

Dolmen

The trailer doesn’t really give much to go on here, so I was forced to do some external research. This looks like it is a SciFi/Cosmic Horror style game that maybe draws inspiration from Deadspace. The challenge is it describes itself as “Action RPG” which means many things to many different people. It appears to be a third person action hack and slash style combat game. It does however appear to also have gunplay similar to Mass Effect. What little combat footage I could find seemed to feel a bit more Dark Soulsy when immediately makes me question if it is my jam. I guess time will tell on this one and I will absolutely want to watch some gameplay before picking it up. Definitely looks interesting.

Release Date: Sometime 2022 – Watch the Trailer

Chernobylite

My initial take away of this game is that it is in the Stalker/Metro genre of post nuclear war Soviet era Science Fiction. The trailer doesn’t give us a lot to go on, but I did watch some play through and the entire thing looks somewhat compelling. Third person shooter with some exploration and stealth notes, but that seemed to be largely due to extremely limited resources. Also appears to have some survival aspects in that you need to keep tabs on your radiation as you roam around. The game has some heavy horror notes as well, so I am not really sure what bucket to place it in. I find these games extremely interesting but the problem I have had with Metro series is that they are somewhat klunky to control. My hope is this feels smooth and reliable, and if that is the case I will probably give it a shot at some point.

Release Date: Steam Early Access currently with July 2021 console release – Watch the Trailer

Moonglow Bay

This game originally interested me last year also at the Wholesome Games Direct because it had a very similar art style to Touryst. The game itself appears to be a fishing based harvest moon style game. There also is hinted at some mystery surrounding why exactly this fishing village doesn’t have people who fish anymore. I like the concept of a game like this but I always end up finding myself getting bored after awhile. Definitely seems charming however and I really like this simplified voxel art style.

Release Date: 2021 – Watch the Trailer

There you have it. All of the games that I found interesting in the four shows that I watched today. My hope is tomorrow will be filled with games that are more my speed. For those interested we have Xbox and Bethesda showcase at 12 pm CDT, Square Enix at 2:15 pm CDT, PC Gaming Show at 4:30 pm and Future Games Show at 6 pm. With no Sony in the mix, my hope is that Microsoft/Bethesda gives me something to get excited for.

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