Let’s not waste any time.
Post Trauma
Post Trauma appears to be a third-person horror game that harkens back to the original Resident Evil. It’s not because undead Dobermanns are jumping through windows, scaring the crap out of you, but more because it has fixed camera angles, which might be off-putting. Even the trailer shows the player stumbling with the static camera once or twice. The teaser doesn’t show any enemies, making it appear to be about solving surreal puzzles. But it’s still early. We need to see more.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a decent entry into EA’s SW portfolio — that is to say, it wasn’t loaded down with money-grabbing microtransactions. For an open-world game, it was pretty well done. Good story. Smooth gameplay. In the end, we wouldn’t have minded playing more. Fortunately, EA decided to do a follow-up called Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. It’s more of the same — same hero and sidekick, albeit both visibly older. The gameplay looks just as solid, so it should make for another good entry in the Star Wars franchise.
Hellboy: Web of Weird
The half-demon with a big ol’ clobberin’ fist is starring in his own video game. Yes. Yes. He had two others — Hellboy: Dogs of the Night and Hellboy: The Science of Evil — but both were complete rubbish. It’s hard to say how well-executed this one will be but at least the comic-book styling is pretty cool.
Scars Above
Mad Head Games initially revealed Scars Above about three months ago. The indie developer used The Game Awards to update us with a brief (one-minute) gameplay clip. It’s a third-person shooter with some cool-looking technology, weapons, and puzzles. Is it Souls-like? The developer says, “Scars Above is a challenging sci-fi third-person action-adventure shooter combining the rewarding feel of overcoming difficulty with a compelling and intricate story, set in a mysterious alien world to explore.” So you tell us.
After Us
After Us looks like a Jenova Chen game, which is not a bad thing — Chen is renowned for his game design on Flow, Flower, Journey, and other games from Thatgamecompany, which he heads. However, After Us is not his game. Co-developed by Piccolo Studio and Private Division, the game does appear to have heavy Chen-like stylings evident in the trailer. We definitely want to see more of this game.
Replaced
Sad Cat Studios announced Replaced at E3 2021, and it’s still looking like a spiritual successor to 2.5D side-scrolling platformer Deadlight. The settings are gorgeously rendered, and the lighting is impeccable. If Sad Cat’s game plays as well as Tequila Works Deadlight, it’ll have a winner on its hands.
Hades II
What can we say? It’s Hades II. If any game deserves a sequel, it’s this one. The roguelike hack-n-slash adventure from Supergiant games was one of the best titles released in 2018, and that says a lot considering its competition was God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2. Instead of trying to escape Hades, players will attempt to hunt down and kill the Titan Chronos. The game doesn’t have a release date yet, but it does deserve to be on your watch list.
Judas
From Bioshock creator Ken Levine comes Judas. It’s a first-person supernatural shooter with a trailer that is so weird it’s hard to put into words. You’ll just have to watch this one and see if you can figure it out. That said, it does look fun and just enough like Bioshock that our interests are definitely piqued. It’s also worth mentioning that the developers made the trailer using the in-game engine, so the final draft should look spectacular.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
It has been so long since we have seen an Armored Core game that we almost forgot it existed — no, we didn’t. FromSoftware’s third-person mech shooter has come a long way since it debuted in 1997. There are 23 games in the series if you include all platforms and direct sequels like Armored Core 2: Another Age. At one point, FromSoftware was busy releasing one or more games yearly until Armored Core: Last Raven Portable in 2010. We haven’t heard from the franchise since ACV and AC: Verdict Day in 2012 and 2013, respectively. So we can’t wait to see more of this one.
Crime Boss: Rockay City
Okay, let’s just get this out of the way. Crime Boss: Rockay City looks like a direct ripoff of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, but with a modern coat of paint set in the 90s instead of the 80s. Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing. From the trailer, it looks good and, like Vice City, has some big-name voice talent. Don’t mind us while we drop some names, such as Michael Madsen, Kim Basinger, Damion Poiter, Banny Trejo, Danny Glover, Michael Rooker, and Vanilla Ice (sorry, just have to lol at that one). As always, there were more reveals than we could shake a stick at or cover without going full-blown novel. So we probably missed some of your favorites. If you missed the show, we put it up in the masthead for you. You can also check out our coverage of the winners and losers.
