Since the death of E3, June has descended into a chaotic clusterfunk of trailers, broadcasts, announcements, and a generalised frenzy of publicity-seeking barking noises. Summer Game Fest has emerged as a hub for a lot of developers seeking eyes. The 2-hour show hosted by marketing man Geoff Keighley will be broadcasting on Friday, blasting you in the ocular nerves with, probably, a lot of games. However, most of these games will not be brand new, exciting reveals, said Keighley himself in a fresh Twitch Q & A. “There will be, definitely, new announcements,” he said, “but the show is largely focused on, I think, existing games that have new updates for fans.” He’s mentioning this ahead of time, he said, to set expectations.
I’m sure you could fill a bottomless pit with the things Larian decided not to add to Baldur’s Gate 3. One of those things was, in fact, a bottomless pit. Not just a bottomless pit, but a conveniently portable, Looney Tunes-esque hole into which you could seemingly chuck everything from items and equipment to characters. Speaking to me during the same interview in which they discussed long-abandoned plans for bringing back Baldur’s Gate 1’s Candlekeep, Larian CEO Swen Vincke and Baldur’s Gate 3 lead writer Adam Smith (RPS in peace) touched on the subject with tantalising brevity. Argh, if only I hadn’t had to run off and catch a taxi, I’d still be there now, discussing the many applications of a portable hole. Bypassing carrying capacity limits would just be the start of it.
The hole came up during a discussion of whether Larian have considered testing any smaller, more focussed videogame concepts, perhaps to let younger developers try their wits on something less sprawling than a Baldur’s Gate. “Oh, you mean within Larian in terms of incubation? But there’s always stuff happening that you never see,” Vincke began. “I think people still underestimate how much work these big RPGs are already, and how many components there are in there – you never see a lot of small things that are being done, but there’s a lot of innovation happening, other things that never see the daylight.”
“You see small groups, and juniors in those small groups, you know, they’ll bring the things that they care about,” Adam added. “You can see, I think, in Baldur’s Gate 3 that there a lot of scripters who are immersive sim fans, and who are bringing ideas from elsewhere. The world is sandboxy, and within that they are playing with their favourite genres. I get to play with horror, you know, one of my favourite genres, in the storytelling. An RPG of that scale, you’re kind of making lots of things all at the same time. So there’s definitely the space to do that.”
If you love cosy games where the biggest challenge is choosing between which farm utensil to place next to your barn doors, then Tiny Glade may be just the game for you. It’s a creative building game like The Sims 4 but with none of the fuss of actually controlling lives – and no quests, combat or arbitrary challenges of any kind.
Instead, Tiny Glade simply offers a meadow and tools with which to build. The vibe of the game is cottage-core at its finest, with enough whimsigoth finery that you’ll soon lament that you can’t actually live inside your glorious creations. I’ve played the charming demo as part of Steam Next Fest, and you’ll find some thoughts from my time with it below.
This week is the week of Summer Game Fest 2024. Ah, SGF! The Geoffers, as they call it down Los Angeles way. The Not-E3s. The Midsomer Keighleys. Jumping G.K’s Game-a-Palooza. The AAAArghs. The Second Fall Of Babel. Trailarmageddon. The Sparkling Stink. SGF is sort of already in motion – last week, Sony kicked off the proceedings with their latest State of Play showcase, but you can expect the majority of new videogame announcements from Friday 7th June with the Summer Game Fest 2024 Opening Showcase, a two-hour event which starts at 10pm UK, 5pm ET and 2pm PT. I’ll be out there covering the event in LA from Thursday to Monday while the remainder of Rock Paper Shotgun hold the fort on London time.
Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! Did you know that the word ‘book’ was originally spelled with several extra ‘o’s in it? This was changed when it was collectively decided that telling someone to “please, just read a book” was resulting in several more murders a year than anyone could be bothered to keep track of. This week, it’s Obsidian vet and Pentiment creator Josh Sawyer! Cheers Josh! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
I haven’t played Bloodborne and so references to its world or characters mean little to me. Kart racers, meanwhile? There I’m in my element due to a lifetime of Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It’s those games that make me interested in Nightmare Kart, a PSX-aesthetic racing game which was formerly known as Bloodborne Kart, and which is out now.
It feels as if every action-RPG can be described in terms of its relationship to genre daddy Diablo. Wolcen:Lords Of Mayhem, for example, launched a few months after Diablo 4 was announced and helped to satiate some early click cravings. Briefly.
Early positive sentiment was quickly scuppered by bugs, slow updates and more. Now its developers say that they’re ending support for the game, and multiplayer functionality will be switched off this September.
Arkane Austin’s ailing vampire shooter Redfall has received its final update, as the developers themselves are purged by parent company Microsoft. Announced a few weeks back, Redfall game update 4 introduces a much-requested offline mode and single-player pausing, together with some new in-game progression features and activities: a Community Standing bar whereby Support currency can be spent on rewards from the Safehouse Skill tree, and Elder Nests, aka vampire nests with specially modified vampire bosses. That’s in addition to new enemy encounters in Redfall Commons, improved AI and a new Unrivaled Weapon.
Skald is terrific. I’ve tried to come up with a clever angle on its journey, but they all wind up saying the same thing: For all its retro stylings (right down to party portraits taking up an unnecessary quarter of the screen at all times), it’s an accessible, charming treat, and the best modernisation of 80s RPGs that I’ve ever played.
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