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FFor the better part of 15 years, every June I hopped on a plane to Los Angeles to cover E3. It was the giant video game conference where most of the major games and consoles of the last few decades were shown for the first time, from PlayStation to Wii U, from Fallout 4 to Final Fantasy VII Remake. Unfortunately, the pandemic wiped out E3, so this year we have a bunch of competitive, loosely affiliated events: Summer Game Fest, led by the Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley; the Xbox games showcase; Day of the Devs standalone event and many more. It all starts tomorrow, June 6.
Publishers like Ubisoft and Devolver organize their own broadcasts. Other former E3 standbys, such as EA and Square-Enix, are absent. there is a live show from IGN, the huge gaming and entertainment website – I used to work there back in the glory days of E3 in the early 2010s, when the company rented a studio and we basically did a continuous stream of all the announcements for four days. Basically, what seems to have happened is that we still get at least as much gaming news as we would at E3, but now it’s super diffuse and also concentrated into a single weekend instead of a week-long conference.
In short, it’s very confusing now, but here I am, on a plane to Los Angeles like old times, so I’ll do my best to play and cover as many interesting games as I can. If you want to follow what’s not E3 over the weekend, here are five things to keep an eye out for (and where to watch them).
Summer Game Fest Live Stream – Friday, June 72 pm Pacific Time / 10 pm Pacific Time
This is a two-hour live performance presented by Keighley from the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. Based on previous experience of both the SGF and the Game Awards, it’s likely to be a flurry of blockbuster trailers interspersed with very tepid, highly rehearsed chatter with the developers. It’ll be an endurance test, but with all the big names in gaming involved, including Capcom, 2K Games, and PlayStation, there will be at least a couple of big game announcements that will make it worth watching. And right after, for those staying up late in the UK, the indie showcase Day of the Devs (4pm PT/midnight BST) and the Devolver Direct broadcast (5pm PT/1am BST ) will offer some game industry satire and an independent spirit to wash the corporate taste away.
Healthy Direct – Saturday June 89 am Pacific Time / 5 pm Pacific Time
This is where to look for the cozy atmosphere of games: farming simulators, dating games, anything that involves cats or frogs. I get a lot of emails from Pushing Buttons readers asking me where to look for accessible, non-violent games, and this is where. In previous years, I’ve found that this showcase lasts long enough for the cuteness to become cloying, and with over 70 games on display, that’s a distinct possibility for 2024, but the, um, wholesome intention behind it redeems it for my. .
Xbox game showcase – Sunday June 99 am Pacific Time / 5 pm Pacific Time
I’m very interested to see what a rather beleaguered Xbox division has to show this year, having spent last year pushing for a mega-merger with Activision/Blizzard/King and then making the deeply unpopular decision to close several of its studios. . A new version of Xbox is on the horizon, its Game Pass strategy appears to be changing, and Microsoft now owns so many developers that ought There is no shortage of first-look games to show off. This year’s upcoming sequel to the Call of Duty Black Ops series (above) will premiere shortly after.
PC gaming program – Sunday June 91:00 p.m. Pacific Time / 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time
PC releases tend to receive less attention than their console counterparts in gaming media, so for the section of our readers that loves real-time strategy, 4x, Mobas, team-based FPS games, CRPG and all the other genre acronyms that go with PC Exclusives, this will be the most exciting showcase. Hosted by the venerable PC Gamer magazine, this event celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
Ubisoft Forward – Monday, June 1012pm Pacific Time/8pm Pacific Time
Ubisoft’s slate is encouraging this year – a new Assassin’s Creed game set in feudal Japan and the promising Star Wars Outlaws should be enough to make this hour interesting – but I’m waiting for a leftist moment like the Mario vs Rabbids: Kingdom Battle one of 2017, where Shigeru Miyamoto appeared and Rabbids creative director Davide Soliani got emotional. And what would E3 be without a vaguely embarrassing Just Dance performance?
What to play
With two long-haul flights ahead of me, I’ve decided it’s finally time to properly immerse myself in Elden Ring on Steam Deck – Fortunately, the best game of 2022 (and, in fact, one of the best fantasy games ever made) runs very well on the portable PC gaming machine. Your next expansion, The shadow of the Erdtree, is out June 20 and is so big that it could count as a small sequel. The good news for people like me who haven’t beaten Elden Ring yet is that you don’t need to complete the game before the expansion comes out, but you’ll want to reacquaint yourself with the brutal but invigorating pace of combat (and the substantial lore) before launching into their new challenges later this month.
Available in: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox
Estimated playing time: More than 60 hours (expansion will be at least another 15-20 hours)
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what to read
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Amazon Prime is unexpectedly making a live action television series based on the brilliant cult crime drama game, Like a Dragon (pictured above).
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The summer of gaming announcements technically began last week with Sony’s State of Play showcase. gaming radar has a summary from the trailers – the highlight was Astrobot, starring the charming little white robots who serve as the best PlayStation mascots. A fun mix of platforming, puzzles and action that looks absolutely charming.
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In news with ramifications too depressing to think about too much, Ikea will pay people minimum wage to work at its roblox virtual store. Did you want the metaverse? This is the metaverse: working at Ikea for minimum wage, except now it’s not even real.
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Actor and developer Abubakar Salim, whose studio Surgent recently released its debut game Tales of Kenzera: Zau, had talked about the racist and targeted harassment he and his team have received, part of a resurgent culture war against wokeness that has erupted again this year at the games and elsewhere. “There’s always a reason why diverse stories can’t exist… these exclusionary rules keep piling up and the goals keep changing until I, my studio, people who look like us just sit back, be silent and accept the fact that They are outsiders. But I won’t do it,” he states.
What to click
Question block
This week I answer a reader question. Alexander:
“What do you think of games as a vehicle to understand the problems and reality of other communities?Yeah? I recently finished the excellent Get in the car, loser! and although its gameplay is quite simple, its story really made me connect with the difficulties of the LGBT+ community in general and the intense mental and emotional anguish that transgender people have when navigating an intolerant world. Have you ever had an experience like that? Playing a game and suddenly feeling like you understand another group of people a little better?
I think this is one of the greatest strengths of video games: their interactivity generates empathy. When we put ourselves in the shoes of a character, we have the opportunity to see things from a different perspective. One of the first games I played that had this effect on me was Anna Anthropy. dis4ia, a transition game made up of simple vignettes that helped me understand dysphoria, feelings of not fitting in, and the horrors of navigating the medical system as a trans person. I played it over 10 years ago and it had a huge impact on me.
Before I forget, for its part, is a moving and emotionally difficult game about the experience of dementia, which had me walking around my house while my memories faded before my eyes; You start to feel like the walls are closing in on you. Bury me, my love is one of several moving plays about the immigrant experience, told from the perspective of someone fleeing Syria. All of these games are a direct result of the slow increase in diversity and democratization of game developers; There is a long way to go and I hope to never stop playing games that help me understand other people better.
If you have a question for the ask block, or anything else to say about the newsletter, hit reply or email us at pushbuttons@theguardian.com.