The best way to experience Summer Game Fest is to not experience it at all. For one, it's held over a weekend, which is also the best time to go outside, see friends and hang out. Also there are also too many games spread over too many shows for even the most resolute of you to hope to sit there live and truly catch it all.
I found that this year, like any other year, the best thing to do was to skip it entirely and just catch up on trailers over the next few days at my own pace. In the spirit of this delayed (yet also emotionally restorative) approach, here are some of the coolest games I saw after SGF, not because I saw them, but because people I love and trust and who did blow their weekend watching commercials (thank you for your service) said "watch this trailer it's sick".
WHEEL WORLD
We’ve written about this game before, including a couple years back when it had a different name. So not a brand new announcement, but still, I'm glad to see it's finally coming out, because it looks lovely.
PARALIVES
I have also written about this game before. In, uh, 2020. So I'm even gladder that this one is almost done, because while we could all do with a decent Sims competitor, it's Paralives' furniture and architecture tools that have got me most excited.
STRANGER THAN HEAVEN
Oh look, it's me writing up a RGG game announcement as the highlight of an event, how off-brand. From the original working title (Project Century) to the fact its trailers have been set 30 years apart to the mysterious final revelation of the above clip, a lot of folks are thinking we're about to be signing up for some supernatural shenanigans. Just in case you've ever wanted to see a vampire kick a bicycle over a guy's head.
LEGO VOYAGERS
Builder's Journey was such a good LEGO game, it was a shame to see it...well, not fail. It did really well by all accounts, but I feel like it deserved more recognition than it got when people's focus was perhaps diluted because it had such a staggered release schedule across various platforms. Maybe the same team being given the chance to follow it up with Voyagers--a co-op adventure that looks to be making the absolute most of the license--will help make a bigger splash.
RELOOTED
One of my favourite TV shows is called Stuff The British Stole. Relooted shares the same premise, only instead of asking for the return of historical relics nicely via the medium of television, you're taking the relics directly through the medium of heist.
MY ARMS ARE LONGER NOW
Speaking of heists, here's another game about stealing stuff! Only in this one every crime is a one-person job, and even then, it's not every part of a person. Just one very, very long arm.
(If you're into this art style I should add that Millie Holten, one of the developers on this, also has a new animated series out)
GARBAGE COUNTRY
Great name, great premise, cool visuals, what more could you ask more from a game reveal?
