Summer Game Fest 2021 Summary

[Moonface]

The show is currently ongoing, but I'm posting the thread up front for anyone who wants to comment on any announcements being made during it. If you haven't tuned in yet, here's an in progress rundown of what was announced so far:

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Tiny Tina's Wonderlands | Trailer
Borderlands developer Gearbox is making a brand-new standalone spinoff from the series called Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, which features the titular character as dungeon-master in an adventure to defeat a Dragon Lord (DL, you're in a game!). The game is inspired by the Borderlands 2 DLC "Assault on Dragon Keep", and will feature both guns and magic, as well as character customization.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands will release in Early 2022 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.

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Metal Slug Tactics | Trailer
From the developers of Street's of Rage 4 comes a new twist on the Metal Slug franchise with Metal Slug Tactics. As stated in the games press release, "Metal Slug Tactics reunites Marco, Eri, Fio, and Tarma as they lead the Peregrine Falcon Squad into a new battlefield through dynamic, strategic combat. Players wield classic METAL SLUG weaponry, leveraging skill trees, perks, and a super attack-fueling adrenaline system to outwit and demolish flanks of the series’ signature villains.

"Metal Slug Tactics’ challenging missions build levels from different combinations of hand-crafted terrain tiles, keeping battle layouts unpredictable and ensuring clashes are won through calculated strategy rather than memorization. Roguelite elements make missions highly replayable and victories feel truly earned, but should a cunning squad or fiendish boss persevere, rounds are quick to jump back into."

Metal Slug Tactics is coming to PC on release, of which no information was given at this time.

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A New Game by Kojima?
During an interview, Hideo Kojima discussed what his plans are for coming up with ideas for his next game, but no hints were given as to what the game could be in any capacity. All we'll have for now is hopes and speculation until we learn more.

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Death Stranding: Director's Cut | Trailer
Death Stranding is coming soon to PlayStation 5 with a Director's Cut, which will presumably have new content that was not detailed at this time. All we got was a trailer that had heavy references to Metal Gear Solid, as Norman Reedus was depicted emptying a box of oranges and seeing if he could fit inside it, as guards patrolled a large room on a lower floor.

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Jurassic World Evolution 2 | Trailer
It wouldn't be the season of summer game conferences without a celebrity, and Jeff Goldblum got to be the first of what will surely be many more to come to present Jurassic World Evolution 2, a sequel to Frontier Development's park builder sim. According to a press release, players will be able to build their parks outside of the Muertes Archipelago. The story for Evolution 2 also takes place directly after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and will integrate into the Jurassic World canon.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 will be released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.

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Lost Ark | Trailer
Lost Ark, the popular Korean MMO, is finally getting a western release this fall. The game, developed by Tripod Studios, launched in Korean regions back in 2018, but has only existed in beta form in Russia and Japan. However, the game was revealed to be launching in North America in Fall 2021.

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Sable
Initially announced back at E3 2018, the hoverbike gliding adventure game Sable finally got a release date today at Summer Game Fest. The game follows the story of the titular character Sable, who explores an open desert world with 3D platforming, choice-driven conversations, and a lot of gliding around on a really cool hoverbike.

Sable is finally headed to PC and Xbox platforms on September 23.

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Among Us | Trailer
Among Us will be adding a new Hide & Seek mode, new roles, new colors, a new map, and much more in future updates.

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Salt and Sacrifice | Trailer
Salt and Sacrifice is the upcoming follow-up to the hardcore action RPG platformer, Salt and Sanctuary. Explore a new era and region, as well as a new role: a Marked Inquisitor. A Marked Inquisitor is a criminal condemned, yet spared the hand of justice in exchange for a lifetime of service in the unending war against Mages: twisted, irredeemable creatures of elemental malice.

Salt and Sacrifice is currently confirmed for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, with currently no release date or window.

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Two Point Campus | Trailer
From the creators of Two Point Hospital comes Two Point Campus! This twist on management sims has players building a university, encouraging students to follow their interests, and developing a beautiful or very weird campus. We see various creations like fairgrounds, a giant pizza cooker, places to eat, and more types of developments.

Two Point Campus will release in 2022 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

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Smite x Stranger Things | Trailer
Things are about to get stranger in Smite with a new battle pass featuring characters and enemies from Stranger Things, including Eleven, Hopper, and the Demagorgon.

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The Anacrusis | Trailer
Set in a "far, far future" in which aliens have invaded, Anacrusis will feature four ordinary people who are forced to fight back with pulse rifles, stasis grenades, and other tools. Taking a page from Left 4 Dead, Anacrusis will feature a much more powerful version of The Director, with its version being capable of placing every item, weapon, and creature. It will also be an episodic adventure, with each release telling a new part of the story.

Anacrusis will be an Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One console exclusive, and will feature cross-play with the PC version, which will be available on Steam and Epic Game Store.

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt | Trailer
The upcoming vampire battle royale game from Sharkmob is now accepting registrations for the closed alpha PC test on the official Bloodhunt website.

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Tales of Arise | Trailer
The newest Tales of Arise trailer is here and it showcases the game's characters, abilities, and more!

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Rocket League x Fast & Furious | Trailer
In celebration of F9, Rocket League will be getting Fast & Furious vehicles on June 17, 2021.

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Sky: Children of the Light | Trailer
First released for mobile back in 2019, Sky: Children of the Light is an online game by the creators of Journey, and today, thatgamecompany confirmed that Sky: Children of the Light will be coming to Nintendo Switch on June 29.

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Overwatch 2 | Trailer
Get your first look at Baptiste and Sombra's redesigns in Overwatch 2.

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Planet of Lana | Trailer
A young girl and her loyal friend embark on a rescue mission through a colorful world full of cold machines and unfamiliar creatures. Planet of Lana is a cinematic puzzle adventure game framed by an epic sci-fi saga that stretches across centuries and galaxies.

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Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin | Trailer
Ahead of its July 9 release date, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin received a new story trailer.

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Endless Dungeon | Trailer
Amplitude's next game in its unconnected Endless series, Endless Dungeon, has been shown off for the very first time at Summer Game Fest. The gameplay trailer reveals the four 'rules' of surviving Endless Dungeon. The first is that certain weapons work better on certain monsters, which suggests a rock-paper-scissors approach to weaponry, and a requirement to equip the right loadouts depending on the threats heading your way. Those threats will be hunting your crystal, which must be defended at all costs as its destruction means game over. Thankfully, you'll have turrets to use as a defence option.

Endless Dungeon is a team game, and so your squad is vitally important. Regardless of if you're playing alone or in co-op, you'll want to make sure your AI or real-life buddies are okay. If everyone goes down, it's game over.

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Fall Guys x NieR Automata | Trailer
One of today's crazier announcements is a crossover between Fall Guys and NieR Automata, with 2B featuring as a player costume!

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Evil Dead: The Game | Trailer
Get your first look at Evil Dead: The Game, narrated by Ash Williams himself, Bruce Campbell.

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Back 4 Blood | Trailer
Take a look at this new horrifying enemy in the upcoming 4 player co-op shooter from the makers of Left 4 Dead.

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Elden Ring | Discussion Thread
To close out today's show, we finally got to see the long awaited Elden Ring in action, and it will be releasing on January 21, 2022!

[Dragon Lord]

Oh, I just posted about Salt & Sacrifice in the General Game Chat, haha. Didn't see this post had been updated with it. Oh well!

Anyways, Elden Ring and Salt & Sacrifice make this a pretty good start to the event for me. I had a feeling we'd see something about Elden Ring. They couldn't push off any type of showing any longer, or else they'd probably but a huge dagger in the hype over the game.

Salt & Sacrifice was a complete surprise though, and I'm very excited to know we're getting another game. Cannot wait to play that one.

[Moonface]

I knew Elden Ring was coming in this event when the official YouTube channel updated their Elden Ring playlist with a hidden video just before SGF started. XD
I've never paid attention to Salt & Sanctuary, but I might look into it to see if I'd be interested in playing it. I really don't know much about it at all.

[Dragon Lord]

Salt & Sanctuary is a Souls-like 2D action RPG/Platformer game. Really awesome game and I highly recommend trying it out. Might be a bit frustrating at first because the game does have a bit of difficulty to it, but stick with it and you will not regret it.

[Moonface]

On paper it sounds like a harder Dead Cells type experience, but I don't know how accurate I am with that assessment. XD
Still, I'm not bothered by it being difficult since it's probably no worse than when I had to learn Bloodborne or Sekiro.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, if you can beat Sekiro, you shouldn't find Salt & Sanctuary to be too bad. So definitely give it a go, and hopefully you'll love it and be excited for Salt & Sacrifice as much as I am.

[ShiraNoMai]

There were also a few games shown off in the "Day of the Devs" show that aired after this, like Axiom Verge 2, Death's Door (which looks really cool for the record), Garden Story, Phantom Abyss (which ALSO looks really cool), and TOEM.

Speaking on those, Death's Door looks really neat. It reminds me of Hyper Light Drifter or even Hades/Bastion style of isometric action game. It looks SO fluid and tight, the level design is nice and open and not cramped.



Phantom Abyss is also really cool. Think Mirror's Edge/Dying Light parkour platforming but you're Indiana Jones, racing against a bunch of other Indiana Jones to reach the treasure at the end of the temple. It's asynchronous multiplayer, meaning you can see other's ghosts but aren't playing the same room as them physically. The cool thing though is all the temples are procedurally made and once they're pillaged, they're no longer playable again by anyone. Race to the end, get the treasure, then escape!




Honestly felt those two games felt more compelling than the whole of the earlier showcase. It was largely a snoozefest, with bits and pieces being interesting like Salt and Sacrifice's reveal, or that really strange Metal Gear reference in the Death Stranding SOMEHOW EVEN LONGER Cut. They showed off more Tunic, which I'm ecstatic over, but the demo's only on Xbox, which I don't have, so I don't get to play more of it in the near future. Sad that that was the only piece of news we got on it after a long drought of nothing.

[Dragon Lord]

I have to kind of laugh at the Among Us Hide and Seek mode as well. Obviously shows that the devs were paying attention to how popular the Among Us Zombies mod became. Not that I think there's anything wrong with them copying it. Adding it as an official game mode makes it much more accessible to all players. Especially the console players who don't have access to mods. I just always find it a little humorous when devs copy a popular mod as an official game mode.

Kind of makes me wonder if we'll ever see them implement other popular mods as official game features, such as the proximity chat mod.

[Moonface]

Yeah, if you can beat Sekiro, you shouldn't find Salt & Sanctuary to be too bad. So definitely give it a go, and hopefully you'll love it and be excited for Salt & Sacrifice as much as I am.

I watched someone playing the first few moments of the game just to get an idea of how it plays, and I'm heavily considering the game now. It is definitely Souls inspired though, even down to having a boss at the start that kicks your head in but can be beaten if you know what you're doing. XD

[Mr EliteL]

Eldan Ring was the main thing I cared about here and as we got something then I was happy. Thought Tales of Arise looked good as I haven't looked at anything about that game myself yet.

[Moonface]

As an update to one of the games announced in this event, an extended gameplay video for Salt and Sacrifice was released yesterday as part of Play For All 2021: