Gaming Events Unwrapped: A Look Back at 2023's Gaming Showcases

A Summer full of games.

With E3 dead and buried, for the first time in over 3 decades (excluding the Covid years) there was no big centralized gaming event. Fear not though, my fellow gamers, as other events such as Summer Games Fest have filled the void. More than enough that I'd say the month can still be called a Christmas for gamers. Now that most presentations are over I want to look back at all these events and give my two cents about them. Have a fun discussion about some of the games I liked, the quality of the presentations and all that jazz. 

The way I'm going to tackle the events is chronologically. Several games were shown off in multiple events and this way I can decently segway into them. The events I will cover will be the 4 big ones: Summer Games Fest, the platformer holders and Ubisoft. Yes, Ubisoft. Surprise, surprise, there were actually quite a few fun games in that one I want to talk about. This won't be a play-by-play. I'm only going to talk about the games I want to talk about. 

All right then, let's dive in!

PlayStation showcase

The first big presentation was the PlayStation Showcase. The first 'proper', big-time showcase since 2021 I want to say. The first one since I entered the PlayStation ecosystem, that's for sure. The best word to describe this showcase would be 'underwhelming'. I and many others were looking for Sony to chart out their next 2-3 years or so. They have a bunch of 1st party studios that we know are working on stuff but aside from Insomniacs Marvel titles, we know nothing. We were hoping that Sony would use this presentation to reveal some of them. 

Instead, they kept their cards close to their chest. 1st party wise the biggest showings were 2 life service titles which look rather standard and are not all that exciting for the core gaming crowd. The biggest 1st party showing was the 10-minute gameplay showcase for Spider-Man 2. It gave us a good look at what Insomniac has been cooking up with this title though it was a bit weird they waited for Summer Games Fest for the release date. 

Sony also highlighted some hardware: Project Q, that weird 'streaming-only' handheld I reported on before. With its limited functionality, only PS5 streaming, and a weird design I don't see it doing well unless it´s really cheap. 

In the 3rd party department, we got some fun stuff. The reveal of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and a new trailer for Alan Wake II. MGS is nothing more than a tease, an 'it's happening' but that´s still cool. Alan Wake II looks like a very good horror/thriller title whose biggest 'claim to fame' at the moment is that's the first noteworthy AAA title that is digital only. The lack of physical copies is a shame but someone was bound to try it out sooner or later. Really interested to see how it performs because of this.

 

For the rapid-fire round: Phantom Blade 0 looks awesome but I can't buy what was shown as real; they say the game only entered development last year. Neva looks like an interesting Indie(-like) game. Beautiful trailer about life and death. Really would like to see gameplay. And Lucky Squire? It still looks good. 

Summer Game Fest

This year's Summer Game Fest, the de-facto E3 replacement, was a good showing. It had some fun stuff and some good reveals though nothing that blew my socks off. My biggest takeaway is a game that we got a better look at during the Ubisoft Forward. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. A Metroidvania (I think), harkening back to Prince of Persia roots. It wasn't a game that impressed me when I first saw it but it has come on my radar due to the 'controversy' around it. Basically, it's the Metroid Dread of 2023/24. Getting attacked for it being a 2D game. For that alone, it has won my sympathy. 

This segways nicely into an aspect of E3, and now Summer Games Fest, which is a 'you only know what you had once you've lost it' situation. The benefits of a physical event. That people get to mingle. If not for the on-floor demos and talks to creators we wouldn't have gotten a more nuanced view on titles such as Prince of Persia and Foamstars. Games that were better players than when shown. The power of getting the chance to try them out and talk about the people behind them at the display. 

The event itself, the one on stage streamed live, could've been snappier. I don't mind that Geoff wants to bring in more people, have some fun guests show up and talk with the developers about it all. It has value, but the pacing suffered from it. I ended up setting the playback speed to 1.5x to get through it quicker. 

I think it would be better if those moments came after. That we have an hour or so of the main show with some quick, in-and-out, guests to announce stuff that's all about the trailers and such and then another hour, maybe even two, in which Geoff and guests get to really dive into the stuff. 

Nicholas Cage showing up on stage to promote his apperance in Dead by Daylight is just weird enough that I'll allow it.

With that little point out of the way back to the games. MK1, FF7 Rebirth and Sonic Superstars all look good. MK1, like all the other Mortal Kombats before it, looks too bloody and violent for my tastes. Shame because I have been enjoying the bits of mythology and lore I've been exposed to as of late. FF7 Rebirth looks really good. Reminds me of a surprising amount of Xenoblade Chronicles for some reason. I have to get myself FF7 Remake one of these days. Bit weird that's on 2 discs though. Sonic Superstars also looks fun. A more ´modern´ classic Sonic with its 3D (well, 2.5D) graphics. Where Sonic Mania was a celebration of the classis this one seems like Sega's attempt to grow that formula. It's even running on the same engine (I believe) but since I don´t play Sonic what do I know. 

Xbox Games Showcase

I don´t have an Xbox so I didn´t check out its presentation. I don't see the point in gawking over games I can't play, you know? Even so, I did learn a few things about the presentation from the Internet. Fable, for starters, looks quite neat. I always enjoy fantasy and I like how quirky the trailer was. Lots of 3rd party stuff as well, like that Star Wars game I'll dive into later, and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. 

That game's history, all of its failures has been well discussed by this point, but credit where credit is due: CD Projekt Red didn't just write the game off as a loss and move on. They've done their best to get the game to what they've promised. Not only does Phantom Liberty look like a proper big-boy expansion but it will also come with a slew of updates to the base experience that promises to completely overhaul the experience. It even incorporated the anime's cyberpsychosis aspect into the game like it is portrayed in Edgerunners. 

I've got the feeling that if you'd compare the launch version of Cyberpunk 2077 to the version post-Phantom Liberty you'd hardly recognise it.

Ubisoft Forward

Right, on to the odd one out. The Ubisoft Forward presentation. I'm listing it here with the big boys because I want to discuss 3 games from it. One of which, Prince of Persia, I already talked about. The other is the new Star Wars and Assassin's Creed games. 

When it comes to Star Wars I'm only a casual. I only really check something out when it piques my interest. This game, the first non-EA Star Wars game in years, has. I wouldn't mind playing an open-world (like) title as a space-faring loveable scoundrel. That it focuses on a character that doesn't have a lightsabre is also a fun angle. We don't have many of those out there. Now to think of it, gotta put EA's two Jedi games on the Black Friday lookout list. 

Assassin's Creed Mirage is a type of game we need more of. A smaller title in an established franchise that isn't afraid to reuse quite a bit from a previous game. Like Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Those were titles of the same calibre and last time I checked both were well received. With how expensive and time-consuming game development has become, we need titles like this. Titles that are quicker to bring to market, won't break the bank and still gave gamers a worthwhile experience. 

Oh, and Skull and Bones must be coming out soon right. Right?

Nintendo Direct

This Direct came as a complete surprise to me. I didn't expect Big N to hold a presentation after it rejected E3's invitation because it "didn't fit into their plans". With the Twitter drops of Everbody 1-2-Switch! and a Pikmin 4 trailer I felt that settled it. There wouldn't be a Summer Direct. Well, I was wrong. Not that I mind. 

The Direct started, surprisingly, with a trailer for the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC. Nothing big like a new Pokémon reveal, just a better look at the 2 new areas and some of its returning Pokémon. No concrete release date though so that's a bit of a shame. What was even more surprising is that, 4 years after it was announced, we finally go to the Detective Pikachu game for Switch. Detective Pikachu Returns. I'm not certain if it's a sequel to the 3DS original or a reimagining but it looks fun. Grander.

The expected check-in on Pikmin 4 was here with a nice bit of gameplay. We also got HD ports of Pikmin 1 and 2. Nintendo sure loves to shadow-drop GameCube titles. First, it was Metroid Prime Remastered (which I started playing this past Sunday) and now it's the first 2 Pikmin. Digitally they're already out, physically they'll drop in September. Almost the entire Pikmin series is now on Switch. What a timeline we live in!

More so than anything else, this Direct was about Mario. We got a whopping 6 Mario-related titles. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC wave 5 brings Petey Piranha, Wiggler and Kamek as racers. A new Wario Ware is coming. Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon is getting the HD Switch treatment. Princess Peach will have a 2nd game all about her soon. Mario RPG is being remade whose visuals reminded me of Grezzo.

The biggest reveal? A brand new 2D Super Mario game. The first in a decade (not counting ports) and one with a different visual style to boot. Super Mario Bros. Wonder it's called and it's looking quite weird but in a good way. Some trippy new powerups and gimmicks like warp pipes coming to life, Mario turning into an elephant etc. It also has Daisy as a playable character, so that's something new. 

Last but not least: the Arkham Trilogy is coming to Switch. I must admit that I'm not as excited for it now as I would've been 2 years ago before I had a PlayStation and Superhero Fatigue, but it's still a big get for the Switch. Guess the console isn't slowing that as much as I thought it was. 

.........

So, final thoughts. What did I think of 2023's 'month of not-E3'? I thought it was solid. I do think that, at least for me, the year lacked that one big 'knocking your socks off' moment. There were, however, quite a few games that I liked. That piqued my interest. Sony Underhwelmed and Summer Game Fest could be a lot snappier but overall I enjoyed what I saw and how it was presented to me. I'm happy that we gamers still have a yearly event like this to look forward to and have fun with and I wonder what next year will bring.