Summer Game Fest 2022: The Highlights

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Fresh off the heels of Playstation's State of Play demo, Summer Game Fest did not disappoint with an array of game announcements, demos, and trailers that spanned from monstrous to heroic. Those looking for a quick written summary should read ahead to see what's on the roster for gaming in 2022-2023. 

While I may have missed a thing or two, overall these are the biggest highlights of the event, with some extra love to the indies. I've gone ahead and hyperlinked game trailers for each of these games so you can check them out yourself.

The Last of Us joins Skyrim and GTA for the most remasters of a game by announcing a third remaster set to release in September 2022. If this ruffles your feathers, maybe you'll be sated by the news that Naughty Dog is planning on releasing a standalone, online multiplayer game set in TLOU's universe. While it's still too early to see specific gameplay footage their team shared concept art and announced the game will arrive at some point in 2023.

Superheroes and their ilk are getting a lot of love in the games industry. More trailers and updates about Gotham Knights were at the show, as well as Marvel's Midnight Sun, a tactical game starring Spider-Man. The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game TMNT: Shredder's Revenge is releasing on June 16th and will feature a 6-player co-op mode. One Piece's JRPG adaptation, One Piece Odyssey, revealed more details and is still set for a 2022 release. The highly anticipated Street Fighter 6 got a new trailer and a confirmed July 2022 release.

Horror fans were well fed at the latest State of Play, and Summer Game Fest followed suit. There were more Callisto Project updates for Dead Space fans, and a new Alien title, Aliens: Dark Descent, is set to release in 2023. (Likely a fall/winter release, if my guess is accurate.) Another horror game by The Medium's creators called Layers of Fear premiered at the fest, and indie-horror title Fort Solis promises space horror and excellent performances by Troy Baker and Roger Clark (Arthur Morgan, RD2). The nightmare-fuel train horror game Choo-Choo Charles shared new footage and will release this year.

On the fantasy front, a few new games premiered: fantasy-shooter Witchfire, fantasy-survival Nightingaleand highly-anticipated fantasy-sci-fi f2p RTS game Stormgate. MiHoYo is hitting the ground running, unveiling two sci-fi titles: Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) and a strategy RPG Honkai: Star Rail World. (I wrote about ZZZ earlier this year.) 

Titles that have been in the works for a long, long time are finally coming to light. Three decades after the first Flashback was released, Flashback 2 will release winter of 2022, and a decade after its initial announcement, the sci-fi horror game Routine has finally debuted (though it does not have a release date yet.)

For fan-favorites: Goat Simular 3 releases at some point this year. (And no, you're not reading that wrong. There is no Goat Simulator 2, but alas, we're getting a "third" one.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 announced a new level called 'Dark Water' set on a cargo ship. Warframe is getting a world expansion in The Duviri Paradox, with more information on the update on July 16th. Warhammer 40K Darktide releases September 13th, 2022.

There are some other fantastic indies on the way that swing the gambit from reflective and grounded to wildly fantastical. Monument Valley creators are making Desta: The Memories Between, a turn-based strat game that promises plenty of introspection. The next cozy-game hit Bear and Breakfast releases July 28thCuphead's long-awaited DLC, The Delicious Last Course, releases on June 30th. A new isometric survival game, Highwater, was announced. Creators of Call of the Sea are making a new 60s-styled, Truman Show-esque side-scrolling platformer called American Arcadia. Isometric action-fighter game Midnight Fight Express has a demo out on Steam and premiered at the fest.

Other indies announced or detailed further at Summer Games Fest include:

What announcements are you most excited about coming out of the fest?

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