Remember this game? It’s Griftlands, one of the indies shown off at last year’s PC Gaming Show. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy covering the slightly awkward and quirky conference every year, because there’s a ton of offbeat titles.
Basic housekeeping: if you want to watch a good dose of awkward and Day9 crack a joke or two, below you’ll find the links required:
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2018/06/e3-2018-watch-the-pc-gaming-show-here/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/06/2016-06-14_0622041-410×231.jpg” title=”E3 2018: Watch The PC Gaming Show Here” excerpt=”Sean “Day9” Plott and co. are returning for another year. Let’s tune in.”]
Now, let’s cover the main bits and pieces.
Monday 2130: I’ll be doing the bulk of this tomorrow, but something worth impressing straight up: Star Citizen will be there.
It’s a little weird that they’re at E3, given that they have CitizenCon and a better line of communication with their fans than pretty much most developers around. It’s a little too open, for some. But they can get their message out to the devoted when they need to.
People watching E3 aren’t that devoted. So this, to me, smells like an opportunity to bring the masses back.
Which smells like Squadron 42.
So that’s a big reason alone to tune in tomorrow. Another one for me is the game in the feature image: Griftlands, the sci-fi RPG from stealth masters Klei Entertainment (Mark of the Ninja, Invisible, Inc.).
Whether there’s a stealth/roguelike/tactics element to Griftlands, we don’t know. The artstyle is just smashing, though, so I want to know more.
Give me more of this.
The confirmed list also includes a studio called Modern Storyteller, which a quick Google search says is based in Melbourne. There’s not been an Aussie presence on the stage at the E3 Gaming Show before – keep an eye out for that one.
Frontier will also be showing off a bit more Jurassic World: Evolution – it’s out this week – and presumably talking a bit about Elite: Dangerous. There’s also a studio called Drake’s Cakes.
I can’t find a studio called Drake’s Cakes on Google. There’s the American baked goods brand, but not a video game developer. Surely they’re not doing a Cooking Mama or something. Either that, or a studio’s gonna need a new name.
There’s a bunch of unannounced guests as well. We’ll find out more about those in the morning. I’ll return just at the tailend of the Ubisoft conference, because they’ll undoubtedly run over, meaning I have to run two blogs at once. Pray for me, fam.
Tuesday 0735: From Ubisoft, to everything PC.
Star Citizen. I’m looking at you. Give me my Freelancer dream.
Time for another coffee, I think. While that happens, what games is everyone looking forward to from the PC showcase?
0745: Before the PC shenanigans begin, huge chunks of AC: Odyssey footage has dropped online. Like, 45 minutes worth:
And for those coming over from the Ubisoft blog, here’s an important update from Joseph Gordon-Levitt re. the Beyond Good & Evil 2 collaboration:
You are super right. Huge oversight. I think script got trimmed at last minute and we fucked that up. It’s hugely important to me that @hitrecord pays artists fairly. Since 2010 we’ve paid community almost $3 million https://t.co/oauU4IUiyE
— Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) June 11, 2018
Interesting.
0755: As was the case last year, the pre-show show is trivia.
I don’t know what the duck is doing there.
0759: Third one of the day, less than a minute to go. Let’s see what’s in store.
0801: No Day9 moniker for Sean Plott this time around. Much shorter haircut this time.
0803: Coffee Stain’s Satisfactory is leading the charge. This is gonna be sick.
Plott makes a giant hand motion to bring the developer out on stage. Ah, this show.
So Satisfactory is basically a building and crafting game in space of sorts. You build autonomous vehicles that go and fetch resources, and it’s all in first-person which helps the sense of scale. “About 30 square kilometres in size,” the developer says.
It’s a co-op game as well, which should be a blast.
0808: NeoCab‘s first gameplay trailer appears: it’s all about being a cab driver for hire.
0811: Plott says there will be “several” battle royale games. The first, Maverick’s Proving Grounds, supports up to 1000 concurrent players.
0813: Already streets ahead of Square’s conference early this morning. Apparently Maverick’s Proving Grounds has a mode with 400 concurrent players; the 5-player squad mode has 1000 concurrents.
The dev is talking about footsteps left behind, destructible buildings and entering games through a persistent social hub rather than just joining a server. Sign-ups for a closed beta is live now; around 100,000 slots for the first round.
0815: Ah, it’s The Forgotten City.
As in, the Skyrim mod from the Aussie writer Nick Pearce. The one that won an Australian Writers Guild award two years ago.
That’s followed by Star Control: Origins, which is an action-RPG.
0823: Crytek’s Hunt: Showdown gets star billing now. I was literally talking to someone about this on Saturday night, funnily enough.
Now, we’re about to talk about Archangel: Hellfire – fighting in mech suits.
As an FYI: Star Control: Origins launches September 20 this year. Also, Frankie Ward can co-host every year as far as I’m concerned. It’s taken four years, but her and Plott are a perfect pair.
0826: Time for The Sinking City, an open-world third person Lovecraftian investigation game.
“We will not give you any clear objectives in your diary,” the dev says. Sounds a little bit like The Secret World‘s mysteries.
Not a fan of the shooting mechanics they’re showing off so far, but I like the idea of making investigations central.
Archangel: Hellfire drops July 17, incidentally. As for the next game, it’s Warframe. Specifically Sacrifice, which is the next quest in the ever-evolving loot MMO.
0834: SEGA’s bringing a whole bunch of stuff to PC, so cue PC montage. Bayonetta appears briefly, but that’s out already.
New games: Shenmue 1 & 2, Shining Resonance: Refrain, Yakuza 0, and a bunch more.
Overkill’s take on The Walking Dead is due up later, but for now Tripwire Interactive are back. Killing Floor 2, presumably.
Quick look at those SEGA games coming to PC:
Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami both coming to PC. Also, Road Redemption is being published by Tripwire Interactive – the Killing Floor devs – and they’ll help bring that game to other platforms.
0842: The bloke who made Depth, and the original Killing Floor mod, is making a new game that Tripwire are helping develop.
Man-Eater Game. It’s an open-world action RPG where you play as a shark.
Oh my god.
0845: An Untitled Publisher with three new games: Bravery Network, Morning Star, and a pixel-art platformer called Overwhelm, the latter of which just released now.
0849: YES. DINOSAUR TIME.
Jurassic World: Evolution, I mean.
We’ll have more on that in the coming weeks.
Insomniac appears with Stormland, their VR game.
Insonmniac’s chief creative officer explains that it’s an open-world game, and that the in-game world gets adjusted once a week courtesy of something called the Tempest. “You never know what you’re going to discover; every single island you find has the potential to hide an enemy stronghold,” they add.
0859: Night Call appears, with a cracking art style. That’s followed by Sable. I’ll update shortly with a ton of screens for both.
0903: Star Citizen time.
If this is just a patch, I will scream at the monitor.
So far, it’s a montage of a whole different bits of Star Citizen things you can do. “Prepare for Alpha 3.2, update coming soon.”
ARGH
0906: An Acer product manager comes on stage to talk about hardware. Basically a straight chat about Acer Predator monitors, although Plott gets a joke in about how you shut a 21″ laptop with a curved monitor.
And then Acer says the laptop sells for $US9000. And they sold every one. o_O
Bloody hell.
0908: Right, back to games. Genesis: Alpha One pops up for a bit. I also got an email about The Quiet Man from Square:
THE QUIET MAN takes players beyond sound to deliver an immersive story driven cinematic action experience, which can be completed in one sitting.
Interesting.
We’re talking about other stuff, because this:
OK. Back on track. Klei’s working on Don’t Starve: Hamlet. Looks very neat, due out December.
0915: Hitting the 75 minute mark now. Avalanche Studios takes the stage to talk about Just Cause 4. They’re followed by Starbreeze and Overkill with footage of The Walking Dead – we’re also told to keep an eye out for the release date.
Telltale then talk about the final season of The Walking Dead and some of the mechanical changes. There’s more room to explore, the engine’s been tweaked. Final season ships August 14.
0924: an RPG where every pixel is physically simulated. That’s Noita:
The Twopoint Hospital devs come on stage, only for their fake stethoscopes to feedback into the mic.
So Plott hugs the dev and asks him to talk into his mic instead. Amazing.
The devs then talk about Twopoint Hospital‘s mechanics and late game, showing different diseases and infestations. There’s a turtlehead condition, a crosshair that comes up when you need to kill vermin, and lots of building.
Realm Royale is another battle royale game, from Hi-Rez Studios. There’s different classes, like Engineer and so on, and you can summon a horse as soon as you drop.
0934: Ooblets returns to the show, and we’re given a look at Anno: 1800. Screenshots incoming.
Discussion continues with the Ubisoft developers about how they work with the community, what ships people can vote on to have them, and how the community can contribute to development. A bit like the LEGO ideas: submit, win public support, have your submission added to the game.
0939: TinyBuild is bringing the final battle royale game of the day (or publishing).
It’s Rapture Rejects – inspired by Cyanide & Happiness.
I can’t believe this is a thing. Hitman 2 developers take the stage to close off the conference, which has been the longest so far.
Hitman 2 drops November 13, for reference. There’s co-op too, which should be neat.
0949: So that’s the end of the PC Gaming Show for another year. By *far* and away the best version of this they’ve done. Frankie was also the best co-host, and Plott was great as always bridging the nerves of some of the developers.
The games were a good mix. Didn’t expect an isometric, Cyanide & Happiness-style battle royale game. Or an open world RPG about a shark getting revenge on humans for killing its mother. Yakuza 0 coming to the PC as well is a great move.
All in all, that’s one of the best conferences of E3 so far for me. We’ll see how Sony does, however, when they kick off in just over an hour.
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