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I’m back from GamesBeat Summit 2023, and I somehow managed to catch the PlayStation event on the airport’s poor WiFi moments after my plane landed. They thought they could fool me by airing it while I was still feeling post-event fatigue, but I persevered! Now I’m not sure what the point was because seriously what was that show? Most of PlayStation’s first-party studios missed it, and very little of what they showed piqued my interest. And what is that handheld and why does it look like a bad Photoshop job?
Of the games they showed, the only one that made me feel anything was Spider-Man 2’s extended gameplay trailer. I enjoy the idea of Peter trying to deal with Venom, the black suit, and Kraven at the same time – the is definitely better served in a game than a movie, for example – with Miles playing the beleaguered straight guy whose boyfriend starts acting weird. Although I did wonder why they were so hyped to have Tony Todd as Venom’s voice, only for him to say three words in the teaser trailer and sit out the gameplay trailer all the way through.
Speaking of voiceless characters, I linked that weird jungle trailer to Metal Gear Solid as soon as I saw that dead frog. Hopefully, David Hayter will return as the voice of Snake after Kiefer Sutherland’s snooze-worthy performance. Of course, the funniest part of the event came afterwards, when Xbox very passive-aggressively posted an image of all the games in the showcase that will also be coming to its platform. I live for corporate pettiness. Plus, it’s encouraging because we know Xbox fans are also looking at more new releases in the coming months.
Personal news: I’ll be using the weekend to catch up on some games and try out The Lord of the Rings: Gollum now that it’s finally crept across the release line. I was quite skeptical about Gollum over two years ago when I saw a preview build. Specifically, I thought the game had an identity crisis, saying it resembled a lesser version of Styx: Master of Shadows. I don’t claim to be prophetic and I was very willing to be proven wrong about the game. But judging by what I’ve already seen, that was somehow the jacked-up version of Gollum. Gollum was with that come up with on. I’ll give the game a fair shot, but what I’ve seen so far hasn’t been very encouraging.
What to play this week
What’s new:
- Lord of the Rings: Gollum
- Planet Lana
- Warhammer 40,000: Bolt gun
- After us
- Convergence: A League of Legends Story
- Star Trek: Resurrection
- Sunshine shuffle
- Railroad empire 2
- Above snakes
- Thriving business: casino
New on subscription services:
- Cassette Beasts (Xbox Game Pass)
- Massive Chalice (Xbox Game Pass)
- Super Mario Advance (Nintendo Switch Online)
- Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (Nintendo Switch Online)
- Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (Nintendo Switch Online)
- Beasts of Maravilla Island (Prime Gaming)
- Calico (prime gaming)
- DKO: Divine Knockout (Prime Gaming)
- Double Kick Heroes (Prime Gaming)
- Shattered: Tale of the Forgotten King (Prime Gaming)
- Small robots charged (Prime Gaming)
- Tandem: A Tale of Shadows (Prime Gaming)
- Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (Prime Gaming)
- Deathloop (GeForce now)
- Grounded (GeForce Now)
- Lawn Mowing Simulator (GeForce Now)
- Pentiments (GeForce Now)
- The Ascent (GeForce Now)
- Patch Quest (GeForce Now)
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