The Not E3 Thread (and the Grinch who stole E3)

[Zed Clampet]

Spoiler: The Grinch Who Stole E3

Once upon a time there was a magical games conference known as E3. Then, during a dark and fateful year, a dangerous disease spread its tendrils around the world, and E3 was canceled. Everyone assumed that it would return soon enough, but something was wrong with the Grinch who owned E3:

It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

The Grinch continued to cancel this gamer's holiday for years. This caused the Whos in Whoville, and all players everywhere, to realize that E3 was kind of like Christmas. It was about games and gamers and the gamers who make games, and now all the Whos in Whoville knew that it was more than just a series of poorly executed press conferences. It was about coming together. And no matter the pandemic or the Grinch, no matter anything, E3 was going to happen every year.

So as we sit down to our yearly E-feast, and we dine and we eat our who-pudding and roast beast, let us celebrate both the big and the small. Let us celebrate that there are games for us all.

It's Not-E3 time, so let's post about the festivities here.

YESTERDAY we had The Summer Game Fest. Of note was the announcement of the next Resident Evil:

Everything announced at Summer Game Fest 2025

Everything revealed in a day packed full of announcements and WORLD PREMIERES.

www.pcgamer.com

RE9 is real: Resident Evil Requiem just got a surprise SGF reveal, and it's launching in February

Tragically, there's no giant vampire lady in sight.

www.pcgamer.com

Other intriguing games included two new games by the studio that did Atomic Heart, including Atomic Heart 2.

TODAY we have The Future Games Show Summer Showcase

Here's how to watch the Future Games Show Summer Showcase

This year's showcase will have over 50 upcoming games.

www.pcgamer.com

Wholesome Direct is also tonight

TOMORROW our own PCG does its annual show:

PC Gaming Show

www.pcgamingshow.com

How to watch the PC Gaming Show 2025

Featuring a much higher chance of us hurting ourselves with electronics than in previous years.

www.pcgamer.com

There is also "the big one" tomorrow with the Xbox Games Showcase 2025

Xbox Games Showcase 2025 preview: The big games and developers to expect on Sunday's livestream

Forza, Call of Duty, Gears of War, Fable, and many more.

www.pcgamer.com

Apologies for not doing this sooner and more comprehensively. My time is not my own this week.

 

[DXCHASE]

Was about to start a thread about SGF but im assuming this is it?

So not a lot of games peaking my interest. Mafia Old Country, Arc Raiders and Onimusha had already peaked my interest before the show but the new trailers were nice.

Havent played Resident Evil since before RE7 and 8 so 9 isnt all that on top of my play list but ill probably check it out. I like the setting better than the last two, per the trailer.

New stuff for me that peaked my interest was Ill, Acts of Blood and Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver. Chronicles: Medieval peaked my interest with Tom Hardy voicing the trailer, but its releasing into EA and not as a full game, so idk how thatll turn out.

Next year has some great games planned but im making my claim now that 2025 > 2026 for games with the exception of GTA 6

 

[Zloth]

The music in Mixtape was fun, but the game looks like it's just a story you're going to see play out and it will give you a chance to play mini-games here and there.

Nothing else got me interested at all, though the Atomic Heart trailers are always fun to watch.

 

[Frindis]

The Summer Game Fest show did not really pop off for me. I appreciated the RE9 reveal, though I am not sure if it is going to be the type of Resident Evil change I will like. I'm more into cramp and suspenseful horror like you had in the first part of RE7 where you had to sneak around with very limited resources to survive.

I love blood, gore and guts, so the ILL looked interesting. I'm still a bit skeptical about the game actually releasing, but at least it is positive that they are working with Mundfish who made Atomic Heart.

 

[Frindis]

Live now!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlAid70nvME

 

[Zed Clampet]

Live now!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlAid70nvME

If you lived through the "PC Gaming is dead" era. If you felt disappointment every time a game didn't release on PC. Well, the best, like cream, eventually rises to the top.

Welcome to the Golden Age​

Everything I've seen yesterday and today is coming out on PC, and often only on PC.

I must be in a better mood today because I only saw the last hour of this show, and was interested in quite a number of games.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Summer Showcase 2025

Your Hub For This Summer’s Video Game Announcements

store.steampowered.com

This is Steam's page where you can watch all the summer showcases including quite a few that I didn't know existed.

It looks like PCG isn't going to do a rundown of Future Games Show. If I get bored, I might do something.

 

[Colif]

Live now!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlAid70nvME

Two hours of cut scenes showing the work of the best animators on the teams to show you what games MIGHT look like when they are released... wake me up when we get gameplay

 

[Zed Clampet]

Two hours of cut scenes showing the work of the best animators on the teams to show you what games MIGHT look like when they are released... wake me up when we get gameplay

Two hours? You must have fallen asleep and missed half of it.

I did see some gameplay, though

 

[Frindis]

Not a super exciting show this one either, but it had a few that caught my eye: Hirogami, Truxton, Titan Quest 2 (though it looked a bit dated, what did you think @Colif?), Don't Wake The Beast, Hell Is US, The Explorator and Lynked. Probably a couple more I don't remember. At least we did not get that many gatcha games showing like in Summer Game Fest. Looking forward to some more big hitters today!

 

[Colif]

I didn't watch all of it so I missed the 3 minutes they spent on the game

It needs more than 4 classes to make it interesting long enough, especially when 2 of them are casters now.

 

[Frindis]

@Colif Maybe it's just me, but I think the guy who talked about Titan Quest 2 did a mediocre job at best. It almost sounded like he did not really know what he was talking about or perhaps just not that invested or enthusiastic. Kind of reminds me of the time Sean Murray from Hello Games made this huge pitch about No Man Sky and how great it would be, but you could see him clenching his teeth looking very uncomfortable. My point is that he didn't really sell the game for me.

 

[Colif]

True. He didn't sound really excited about it... just heard it again

It still didn't show much

 

[DXCHASE]

Man that video has more adds than the actual gameplay lol.

Im excited for TQ 2 too but i do want them to take more time after what i saw. The ARPG community is full of tough-headed "this-is-how-an-arpg-is-supposed-to-be" type of people so, if the endgame isnt long enough or bad, if loot drops are bad, if 1 build is better than others, if bosses are too hard, 1-shot mechanics, if theres terrible synergy between skills and weapons/armor, terrible skill tree, bosses having "stages", bosses dropping nothing important, not enough classes, no transmog, no map/overlay features etc. you are going to see the game roasted into oblivion.

Theres just so much that people complain about i feel this game is going to be attacked right away. I want it to succeed but the ARPG space is a tough spot to get into.

 

[Frindis]

Yeah, It's not going to be easy for THQ Nordic, but I do hope they just do their own thing and not copy to many mechanics from other companies. There is always room for another ARPG and I think of it as healthy for the genre because you can raise the standard a bit, filtering out those that are bad, but also appreciating new ways to go about it. It is one of the reasons I like Torchlight 2 for example, since it got it's own unique charm, very colorful and with a very relaxing pace. It's rare nowadays to find an ARPG that is more charming in it's style when most are brutal and gritty.

 

[Frindis]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPa7KaQXp8g

 

[Zed Clampet]

The new Fable better be damn good since it's forced the new Forza to 2026. The most disappointed i've ever been for E3/notE3

 

[Frindis]

And we are LIVE!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9nis5uXSmU

 

[Zloth]

Just started watching and it was for Fatan. Guessing on the spelling, they toyed with the font so much it's hard to read. Funny thing is, that's the exact game that was showing when I tuned into the one yesterday!

 

[Zed Clampet]

Based on nothing but second-hand reports regarding Titan Quest 2, I'm going to say that main thing to watch for is how well it sells in Early Access. It's abundantly clear that the game isn't going to launch in a state that everyone wants it to be in. Everyone wants more and more and more of everything. I'd say they will be willing to do all that so long as EA sales go well. But if everyone says, "forget this, I'm waiting till the game is how I want it" then the game will be either quickly wrapped up in an incomplete state, or it will be drip fed updates for years by a skeleton crew that has no chance at success. At least, this is how it usually works.

For sure, it's perfectly reasonable not to want to buy the game if it isn't what you are wanting, but if everyone takes that route, it is very unlikely that the game will ever meet people's expectations.

 

[Colif]

It is one of the reasons I like Torchlight 2 for example, since it got it's own unique charm, very colorful and with a very relaxing pace. It's rare nowadays to find an ARPG that is more charming in it's style when most are brutal and gritty.

maybe why I kept going back to it. That and mods kept it alive.
Too many things take themselves too seriously now. Its rather boring

Tl3 was a complete waste of money, as are most Part 3 of any arpg. None have managed to get past that point and be anything like the 1st two.

THQ Nordiic also own rights to ... Sacred... can't they remake that as well?

 

[Frindis]

maybe why I kept going back to it. That and mods kept it alive.
Too many things take themselves too seriously now. Its rather boring

I'm playing with Synergies and Essentials and those mods really change up the game. I had to be careful with some vendors and vendor items though because they sold end game items and for example stronger pets and potions.