We Played Star Wars Outlaws, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and More

Here's your Summer Game Fest shareback—and expect more next week.

Author

Robert Scarpinito
June 14, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Summer Game Fest Previews Galore

Our team’s back from LA, and we’ve got lots of video game previews coming your way!

Austin Suther and I sat down to watch some hands-off live gameplay of Monster Hunter Wilds, and I’ve never been so excited to see a player character switch to another weapon in the middle of a battle. If you know, you know.

We saw the first hour of Dragon Age: The Veilguard at Summer Game Fest, and it blew Andrew away. Good bye tactical gameplay, hello action RPG.

Is it basically Persona? Yes. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. The dungeon crawling still puts convenience first without sacrificing some satisfying gameplay—and it makes the in-the-field moments even more stylish.

Everyone’s been hoping for Assassin’s Creed to take on Japan for over a decade now, and based on what we saw at Summer Game Fest, Ubisoft’s trip to the Land of the Rising Sun will be worth the wait.

Star Wars Outlaws does what few other Star Wars games do: Tell the story of the scoundrel, not the Jedi. In the words of Andrew, this game finally tells the story of a Han Solo type, not a Luke Skywalker type, following in the footsteps of more recent Star Wars media like Andor and Rogue One.

Here’s something that makes my 12-year-old self proud. The Budokai Tenkaichi games were some of my favorites as a kid, and thankfully, the next step in the franchise really exceeded all my expectations.

And I didn’t even play the final form yet.

Overwatch has been in a weird state since it relaunched a sequel-not-sequel, and if you’re looking for an alternative, Marvel Rivals could be exactly what you need.

Hyper Light Drifter is a certified legend in the indie space, and its follow-up, while being a radical departure, is living up to Austin’s expectations. This 3D roguelite is addicting, and it has co-op on top of it all so you can play with your friends.

Our editor in chief Andrew Otton can confirm: Phantom Blade Zero is not a soulslike, despite what you might think from the trailers. This is a high-octane hack n’ slasher akin more to Devil May Cry than Dark Souls.

In Other News…

Our resident Destiny 2 enjoyer Tyler Chancey has been a fan of Bungie’s live service space shooter since the previous game, and he’s been looking forward to The Final Shape since it was announced.

A lot has been riding on this finale, which wraps up the Light and Darkness Saga that started with the first Destiny game. Tyler calls it the best expansion ever released in Bungie’s history, and it absolutely delivers on all expectations.

A massive Epic Games Store leak appears to have confirmed the existence of a Final Fantasy IX remake, as well as several other as-yet unannounced games.

Some of this week’s most played games on Steam include Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG, Apex Legends, and…. Banana???

Turns Out, Live IRL Audio Isn’t Easy

On our last day in LA, we recorded this week’s podcast to digest our thoughts on what we experienced at Summer Game Fest. Setting up the audio was a bit of a struggle though, so apologies for the less-than-stellar audio here.