I neglected to cover this show last year as I was mainly focused on the main console and developer shows, although Will did cover this summary in 2015. Given the show was on at a respectable time and I was home from work I decided to watch and cover the PC Gaming show. Here’s how it went:
After partaking in 15 minutes of trivia via the twitch stream the conference starts with a montage on what PC gaming means to us. Coming up we’ll get some VR games, announcements from Xbox, first look at Battletech campaign, A new look at Mordor, new gameplay from Total Warhammer 2, announcements from Tripwire Interactive and announcements from Battlegrounds to come.
First up we get a world exclusive first look at the expansion to XCOM 2. XCOM 2 War of the chosen. Coming August 29th. Creative director Jake Solomon is brought to the stage to discuss the expansion. New enemies, strategies, this expansion is twice the size of previous XCOM expansions. There are 3 different chosen, an Assassin. Combat wise she is stealth based. There the Hunter who is long ranged sniper, and the Warlock, who’s … a Warlock. In war of the chosen there are 3 factions, not just the XCOM unit. There is the Reaper, The Skirmishes who are half alien and human hybrid and The Templars. They build up power over multiple attacks that can be used once built up. The Lost are a kind of zombie that are more powerful in large swarms. In cities swarms are drawn to the sound of combat. Silver lining The Chosen don’t like the Lost either so there’s potential large multi factional battles.
Next up we have a change of host, Sonja Reid is on next. She introduces Ooblets which is a game I got to try at EGX Rezzed and was very keen on. Coming to PC & XBOX One in 2018.
Straight to another game trailer from Ooblets to Battletech. Jordan Weisemen and Mitch are invited to the stage to discuss Battletech. Single player content is shown. Inside the Argo. The Argo is a broken down bulk of a space ship. It’s your mercenary command centre which you can move around space accepting contracts. Mechs can be upgraded and customised. Mech’s need to repaired after work. You need to be careful taking Mech’s down in battle in order to salvage pieces in better condition. Environment counts in Battletech. Mountains, trees are all going to interrupt attacks. The idea is to strip off armour of opposition mech is a specific location and keep working it till you can cause mass damage. If you keep targeting the arm you can keep going till you destroy it. You can also get behind a Mech and Penetrate it! Yeah take that as you will.
Onto the next game Sonja is reintroduced. We’re looking at Mount & Blade 2: Banner Lord.
Next up, Total War: Warhammer 2. Al Bickham is on stage to discuss. There are 4 new factions. Dark Elves are announced as the 3rd race. High Elves and the Lizardsmen are the original 2. The 4th faction will be revealed at another date. We’ll be looking at a quest battle between the High Elves and the Lizardsmen. September 28th is the release date. Plenty of new campaign features. After launch a free update will be released for the game, combining the landmass of Warhammer 1 and Warhammer 2.
Next game is in the carded game genre. It’s the expansion for Shadowverse. Kripparrian is introduced to discuss it. We get a debut of the Wonderland Dreams trailer.
Moving on to hardware and tech in games. Doug Fisher Intel’s “Software guy” is brought to the stage. This looks like it’ll be about the new core I9 reveal. Intel worked with Bungie and Activision to bring Destiny 2 to PC. Tefty Teft is introduced who’s a little bit of a Destiny fan. He’s here to big up the PC version of Destiny 2 based on the hours he’s spent on the original on console. There is a competition for indie developers to create the next big thing for PC. The winner will be announced at PAX.
Doug went on to discuss numerous eSport tournaments and challenges that Intel are sponsoring. I have to admit there were lots of tournaments and eSport challenges that it was difficult to keep up with it. Other than the Masters series prize is $1m.
And we’re back to games, and back with Sonja, who is joined by Felix Kramer from Secret Legend. We are shown a trailer for a new quirky looking game called Tunic. You play as a fox in a world that looks reminiscent Tearaway.
Next title has surpassed 3 million sales. It’s Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds. Brenden Green the creative director is on stage now. New weapons to be arriving. Climbing is being introduced to the game. Vaulting (which gets a ripple of applause). There are new weather settings being introduced to the game. And one last thing a new gun. It’s a short to medium range weapon. 2 new maps coming. One based in Peru.
Next guest is creative director Bill Munk from Tripwire Interactive is onstage. He’s discussing Killing Floor 2: Incursion. Over to a trailer for Killing Floor 2: Summer Sideshow. 2 new weapons. Weekly outbreak, each week challenges are issued. It’s free on steam all week and playable as of tomorrow.
Onto a little bit of Microsoft reminders. Turn 10’s creative director Bill Giese is onstage to discuss Forza 7. They discuss the reveal of the Porsche 911 from yesterday’s event again. The trailer shown is the same one from yesterday’s Microsoft event. Next onto the stage is Ted Timmins from RARE to discuss Sea of Thieves and give us another look at it. Technical Alpha available to sign up to. The Last Night is discussed next by Tim Soret the creative director. This was another game that had it’s introduction at the Microsoft event the previous night. Tim tries to apologise on stage before discussing the game about his tweets with regards to #Gamergate. It’s batted off pretty quick and he discusses the his game.
Next up is a game from the makers of DayZ and Arma. Bohemia Interactive’s latest game is revealed. It looks like a survival game crossed with Minecraft in a very familiar graphical style. It also looks like you progress through time with castles being built, motor cars. The game is called Ylands (pronounced Islands). Ales Ulm the creative director is on the stage. It’s a sandbox game. Alpha version is available now to play. Later this year it’s due to hit steam.
Onto another world exclusive with Sonja, from developers Klei. They made Don’t Starve, and Oxygen not included. Their next game is an RPG Scifi game. It’s called GriftLands. It look’s pretty awesome.
Onto the next game, a VR game. Ready at Dawn’s creative director Ru Weerasuriya is on the stage to discuss. Lone Echo. It’s also got a multiplayer mode too. Echo Arena is the name of the multiplayer mode. Intel is sponsoring a pre-release of Echo Arena. Coming out on July 20th.
Another guest now, Cliff Bleszinski of Law Breakers is on stage next. He’s here to discuss BETA’s and announces June 28th Closed and June 30th Open BETA’s. The game will launch on August 8th on PC & PS4. It looks like really frantic, fast paced PVP game. The players they interview express their joy at the speed and action from it.
Straight to the next game from ChuckleFish Games. Their new game is called WarGroove, It reminds me of Fire Emblem or Advanced Wars. Jay Baylis the designer from Chucklefish is on stage to give a demo of the content creation mode. The game ships with content creation to create their own scenarios.
Next game Middle Earth Shadow of War is next. It’ll be released on October 10th. Michael De Plater the vice president of creative Is on stage to discuss it. Demo’s will be given during E3, but due to the nemesis system, each demo shown will have a different result and output. We get a look at a 2 minute cinematic from the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2SmUH1eBiM
And onto the final game. A game to be announced from Microsoft. Adam Isgreen creative director from Microsoft Studios is on stage to reveal and announce this new game. Straight to a world exclusive trailer of the unnamed game. Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. It’s fully remastered Age of Empires. You can sign up for the BETA now. Age of Empires is 20 years old. At Gamescom in Germany there will be a large Age of Empires event in celebration of the 20 years.
And that’s the final game of the show, A lot of games shown here today. We’re finished just in time to prepare for Ubisoft’s showing next.
– Murr
Yeeeees. More XCOM! Also, I Kickstarted Battletech so I’m happy to see that coming along nicely.