Here’s every game, DLC, announcement, and reveal, shown at the Future Games Show: Summer Showcase 2023, part of Summer Game Fest 2023. We watched the whole stream, in case you couldn’t, or even if you did, but just wanted to know more about that one game you thought looked really cool.
Highwater
The show kicked off with a lovely song from Highwater, a game previously only available via Netflix, now coming to consoles.
Resistor
A gorgeously animated gear-head’s dream, Resistor was the first world premiere shown. It features frenetic racing in a post-apocalyptic CarPG (nice).
Instinction
Next up is first-person dinosaur adventure, Instinction. It looks like absolutely everything in the world of Instinction wants to kill you, either ripping you apart with huge teeth or razor-sharp claws. Unfortunately, technical difficulties meant the stream froze and we skipped ahead to…
Star Trucker
Optimus Prime in space? Not quite, but that’s what it looks like. The technical difficulties mean we only saw half the trailer, but it looks rad. Think Eurotruck Simulator but in space.
Lords of the Fallen
An RPG with two over-lapping worlds to explore, Axiom looks like a fresh take on the whole day/night cycle. Rather than just passing the time, sacrifice yourself to teleport between the upper and lower worlds. There are souls to flay, spectral terrors to flee from, and bosses to best. Coming October 13, 2023.
Head Bangers: Rhythm Royale
From Team17, Head Bangers is an… interesting-looking bird game. It looks like it’ll be a couch party game, something I think we’re sorely lacking these days.
The Last Faith
Referred to as a pixelated take on Bloodborne, The Last Faith looks like a gruesome, twisted affair. Right up my alley. A 2D side-scroller with a gothic aesthetic and devilish monstrosities, it’s easy to see why it’s being compared to FromSoftware’s masterpiece. Can it live up to it? We’ll find out in October.
Steal Seed
A stealth-action platformer set in the wake of a climate catastrophe. AI has taken over, and protagonist Zoe is searching for her lost father. Steel Seed switches from 3D to 2D sections, and will see you planning out your route to slip by enemies undetected. Or you can try to tear right through them. It’s got skill trees, hacking, and gorgeous views.
Distant Bloom
A cutesy looking title that may have been more at home in the Wholesome Direct hosted just before this showcase, Distant Bloom looks like a cross between a farming sim and Terra Nil.
Go Fight Fantastic
A slick, drawn art style, multiple planets, and hack ‘n’ slash combat? Yes, please.
En Garde
Another world premiere, En Garde is the first pirate game of the show. 25 minutes too late if you ask me. It looks like a comedic fusion of Fortnite’s art style with early Assassin’s Creed‘s combat and parkour.
Alaskan Road Truckers
Trucks again, but this time on the ground, like normal. I think this should have come first, because after seeing trucks in space, how can we be expected to come back down to Earth? Build a truck business in Alaskan Road Truckers in Q3 2023.
The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales
A scribe sentenced to 30 years of writer’s block? That’s far too relatable. It’s coming to PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, and you can play a demo now.
Deceit 2
This looks creepy, and that’s all I can really say. It’s a bit Dead By Daylight, a bit Saw, all horror. You can play the beta now to find out more about this first-person game.
Life by You
Life by You is being touted as a The Sims-killer by many. It’s designed to be one of the most moddable sims ever, with the tools the devs used to make the game being made available to all you clever modders. It’s coming to early access on PC on September 12, and you can control every single character in the game, so get creative.
C-Smash VRS
The first VR game of the show, C-Smash VRS was up next. You can play Squash in space. Not sure how that would work without gravity, but games are about imagination, not facts. Chart a path through the stars and play multiple different modes of squash against other players, all in VR.
Madison VR
Psychological horror Madison is making its way to VR sometime soon. This terrifying title was released on consoles and PC last year and sees you making your way through the house of possible witch/local scary lady Madison Hale, armed with nothing but a polaroid camera. Imagine PT meets Fatal Frame. My housemate reckons VR games are the future of horror. The freaky trailer showed what appears to be protagonist Luca’s (frankly, filthy) hands brutally twisted by some unknown force.
VR Skater
Remember those little skateboards you were meant to do tricks with with your fingers? Well this is that, but in VR and with some cool environments and a banging hip-hop, metal, and emo-rock soundtrack. This was made for us kids who grew up in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Firewall Ultra
This is the first VR game of the show that’s an FPS. Funny how trends change, they used to be all the rage on VR a few years ago. This is a tactical shooter that uses eye-tracking and haptics to really make you feel like you’re shooting the guns in your virtual hands. Is that a good thing? Who knows.
Wallace and Gromit: The Grand Getaway
To round off the VR part of the show, we have another world premiere. Wallace and Gromit in the Grand Getaway is the VR game I never knew I needed until right now.
Surviving Deponia
Back to the more traditional games now. Surviving Deponia gives me Outer Wilds vibes. A sort of country space adventure, space station Elysium crashes toward the planet of Deponia. It’s a survival twist on the cult classic point-and-click series.
Homeseek
A post-apocalyptic city-builder where water has become rarer than gold. Oh no, this seems like a dire look into our future. Homeseek is coming July 20, 2023, and hopefully it’ll stay on PC and not act as a premonition for the real future.
Laika: Aged Through Blood
The very first Motorvania, Laika sees you take control of a little animal riding a motorbike through a Wild West setting. There are cool bone creatures, mysterious townsfolk, and a cute little motorbike.
Space Gears
A strategy mech game where you get to terraform Mars as well as see big robots fight. This is a strategy game coming to mobile, and is also the point in the show where my hands really started to hurt from trying to type and keep up so I could publish this as soon as possible. Still got pictures to format though… oh man.
Layers of Fear
This Lighthouse-esque game has all the hallmarks of a great horror game. Twisted psychological narrative merges with puzzle and action gameplay. Also, the protagonist’s (I think dead) son calls her. Love it. Coming June 15.
Enchanted Portals
This looks like Cup Head but way less difficult. There will be a variety of animated styles, which is likely where those titular portals come into play. A sort of multiversal old-school side-scrolling shooter vibe to it. It’s co-op though, so grab a friend and get stuck in together later this year.
Shattered Heaven
A dark fantasy deck-building RPG with procedural dungeons and branching narratives. Those sure are a lot of buzz terms that were popular a couple years ago. That may be a cynical take, and Shattered Heaven could actually be great. You can find out for yourself, as it’s out now on PC.
Moving Out 2
The sequel to 2020’s Moving Out, Moving Out 2 looks like a fun time. It’s got quirky, diverse cartoon characters but no gameplay, so we can’t say much more about it. I will add though that F.A.R.T. Squad made me laugh way more than I should have.
Indie Montage
A lot of outlets don’t really care about indie games, so these were all thrown in together. Here they all are, rattled off as a list because we barely got to see anything of any of them. Odinfall, Punch Club 2, Deathground, Venture to the Ville, Unrecord, and Cross Blitz.
Warhaven
I do love a man with a long sword. I can’t tell if this is a PvE brawler or a Monster Hunter-esque game. All I know is it looks rad and you can play it for free from June 19-26.
SteamWorld Build
This looks cool. Trains, theme parks, Utah, it’s got it all. Build up a neat little town and turn it into a sprawling fun fair, complete with farming and machinery. This looks like it’s got a little bit of every popular building game.
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle
What a weird name… “A third-person survival horror that’s nostalgic for the ’90s.” Daymare looks gruesome, if a little rough around the edges. Take on nasty monsters with elemental powers and bullets, the two genders.
New Cycle
This is a diesel-punk city builder set after a big solar flare. Why can’t any of these games have nice settings, huh? It’s all doom and gloom. New Cycle certainly looks gloomy with it’s grey color palette and harsh weather conditions, including dust and heavy snow.
Ruffy and the Riverside
I’m not too convinced by the titular mascot, Ruffy, but the mechanics are a fresh take on the kind of 3D platformers we all grew up loving. Ruffy has swapping powers which allow him to turn waterfalls into vines and trees into tapestries. This is probably the most creative game I’ve seen so far, evoking the past but still bringing new ideas to the table.
Unreal Engine 5 Reel
Updated June 12, 1:47pm CT: I previously sarcastically wrote this was an Unreal advert, but an Epic representative reached out to let me know that Epic did not pay to have this reel included in the Future Games Show. I didn’t mean it in the paid sense, more the exposure sense, but tone often gets lost in translation and it’s good to have the clarification.
Everything looked incredibly realistic. I just hope this isn’t a trend everyone chases for too long. Give me stylish games every couple of years of hyperealistic games ever eight years.
Fretless: The Wrath of Riffson
What started off looking like a cute, rhythm game with docile music quickly shifted an octave as the rock soundtrack kicked in. This feels like a pixel art version of The Artful Escape, only with more actual game in there.
Hammerwatch 2 and Paleo Pines
These were shown as a double feature so I felt like I should pop them in the same subheading. Felt wrong to tear them apart.
Paleo Pines sees you recruiting dinos to a cozy little ranch. You can ride them, feed them, and care for them. Use them to help you plant crops to feed even more dinos. What a lovely little community. Coming September 26.
Hammerwatch 2 looks about as different as you can get. The art style is reminiscent of an old PC game. You can customize your hero and battle dragons and huge spiders using magic. It’s a classic “save the kingdom” affair.
Ones to Play montage
Another montage. These just feel mean to all us journos trying to keep up with everything being shown. These are all games you can play right now. Deep breath people, say the names with me. World’s Worst Handyman, Paper Trail, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, Stick It to the Stickman, Remedium, and Laysara: Summit Kingdom.
Puzzles for Clef
This game is being made by a Ukrainian team and now has a release date: July 27. It’s a cozy puzzle platform in a magical world, a balm to all in uncertain times.
Station to Station
*Insert Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV meme here* This was shown at the Wholesome Direct just before this, but this is our first look at the actual gameplay. The color of the world is brought back as you connect different stations and build out your network of train tracks. Placing them looks simple, but apparently there are combos? So maybe you have to plan a route and try to build everything in one go. Find out by playing the demo, available now.
Reka
This atmospheric base builder gives me creepy Scandinavian folklore vibes, I love it. There’s a huge chicken cottage that functions as the base you’re building. In a saturated genre, it pays to stand out, and stand up and walk to a different spot in the misty forest.
Company of Heroes 3: Console Edition
Company of Heroes 3 is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on May 30, Yuri said. Kind of spoils the illusion as that means it’s clear this show was recorded well ahead of time. It’s available now.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
This has a gorgeous visual novel art style and a sort of grungey-noir vibe. Like everyone in it is 20-something and doesn’t quite have their shit together. It’s got romancable Greek gods and mythological figures, so it’s certainly a great game to show off during Pride month.
Reveil
There sure are a lot of horror games being shown today. As you’d expect, it’s first-person, got puzzles to solve, the usual horror stuff. That isn’t fair, I’m just tired. There is some freshness here in that a lot of Reveil looks like it takes place during the day. In a creepy carnival though, so we’re back to horror tropes, folks.
Pacific Drive
Now this is horror that I can get behind. Set in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Drive includes resource management, taking care of your trusty station wagon, finding scrap, and modding your ride. There’s a space ominously named The Zone where weird anomalies like electrical storms, strange beasties, and even sawblades just flying straight at you trying to slice you and your car in half.
You’ll be able to brave it with different equipment slots on your car for parts that can get wear and tear or fall off. The relationship between you and the car is integral to the game, coming to Steam and PS5.
Cookie Cutter
This hand-drawn pop-punk Metroidvania looks very cool. I know writers don’t like to use words like fun or cool, but seriously, it’s an android beating people up. It’s cool. It seems the android has a bone to pick with her maker, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be in her way.
The Precinct
A semi-top-down action sandbox, The Precinct sees you step into the shoes of a cop as you fight crime in the ’80s. Maybe that means bribes and cocaine will be on the table too. Deal with bank robberies, car chases, helicopter rides, and more.
Luto
FINALLY! THE LAST TRAILER. My hands hurt so much. Described as a little bit PT and a little bit Edith Finch, Luto is a horror game about someone trapped in their own house. There’s a palpable sense of unease woven throughout the trailer, as realities shift and bend. This is a fantastic horror game to finish the show on.
The Spirit of the Samurai
Game journos everywhere, take up arms. The show is, in fact, not over. You don’t lie about the end of a 90-minute live show. Anyway, rage aside, the side-scrolling Spirit of the Samurai looks rad. It’s a stop-motion adventure with samurai, spirits, and kitties. The stop-motion animation fives it a real uncanny feeling and horror aspect. Inspired by Japanese mythology, it looks like an absolute treat and would have been the perfect show-ender if not for that darn fakeout.
