There are a lot of games-related events happening this summer, from Sony’s upcoming State of Play, to Summer Game Fest, to the Wholesome Direct, to the always-anticipated Xbox/Bethesda showcase.
As of the morning hours of May 30th, though, no Devolver news, and that’s a bummer.
With all of this games goodness soon to hit us, here’s a list of five things I’d like to see over the coming months. (This includes gamescom, which is happening later n August.)
1) Release Dates! (Or windows, I’m not picky)
I’d love to see some release dates announced at Summer Game Fest and its associated events. There are a lot of things that are still lacking dates that are supposedly coming out by the end of the year, like Hogwarts Legacy and The Callisto Protocol. Please let me plan how to spend my money. (lol)
On the flip side, at least give me a window. For games like A Plague Tale: Requiem and God of War: Ragnarok, I’m not expecting those in 2022 at all. But by the first half of 2023? (Something like that.)
2) Indiana Jones!
LucasFilm Games returned to existence in January of 2021, when they announced that Machine Games (Wolfenstein: The New Order/The Old Blood, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus) would be crafting an Indiana Jones adventure.
All we’ve seen is a 30-second cinematic video, and this huge action-adventure fan would love to see more.
3) Deck Nine’s Current Project
After Life is Strange: Before the Storm and Life is Strange: True Colors, Deck Nine Games has positioned themselves as a AAA studio. I wrote about my love for both True Colors and Wavelengths, if you want to give those a read.
At The Game Awards in December, it was announced that the reestablished Telltale Games was also working on a game set in the universe of The Expanse and that Deck Nine would be involved. This is a stellar decision – as I wrote in the beginning of the year:
“To me and many others, science fiction stories exist to tell stories about what makes us human and what humans could be (whether good or bad). They’re my favorite tales; growing up with Star Trek and Star Wars led me to love Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Fringe, and The Expanse. You may think that science fiction movies, shows, and books are just about aliens or epic space battles, but I challenge you to go beyond that. A common thread between these stories are familial bonds, memorable characters, and excellent writing, which are foils to the greater conflicts at hand.”
4) Tomb Raider (Pretty, pretty please?)
Tomb Raider is 25 (well, actually 26 in 2022). Lara’s been through a lot in that time…A LOT. Tomb Raider was one of my first non-Mario gaming memories, and the character will always hold a special place for me. ALL VERSIONS of that character.
The reboot has been controversial, to say the least. There are a lot of people who say the rebooted Lara Croft isn’t really Lara Croft because Crystal Dynamics dared to show a vulnerability to her we hadn’t seen before. I think that’s bunk.
All we know about the new game coming out is that it’s going to “unify” the original games and the reboot trilogy. You don’t have to show me anything because it just started development, but I for one would like to know more about what that actually means.
5) Skydance Games, where art thou?
Amy Hennig’s departure from Naughty Dog, in the middle of development for Uncharted 4, rocked the video game industry for a while. (And I’m still salty about Neil’s take on Uncharted 4, but whatever.) She ended up at Visceral Games creating a new Star Wars game, but we all know how that ended up. (RIP Project Ragtag, you sounded incredible.)
After Visceral closed down, there was talk that she went to work on VR games, but then, ended up at Skydance Media to start a new division called Skydance New Media. (Working on games and other interactive experiences!) In 2021, it was announced that they were working on a Marvel game, and here in 2022, Skydance and Lucasfilm Games announced that a Star Wars game was also something in the works. It’s probably too early to see anything about either, but even if Geoff were to get Amy on stage just to show off some concept art, I’d die of happiness.