Yo gamers, I watched Jane Douglas host the entire Galaxies Autumn Showcase on 15 October. And when I tell you this was a bumper event, I’m not kidding. The showcase gave us updates on more than 50 games, and by the end, I felt like my brain was fried. I could almost smell the smoke.
That is perhaps the problem with gaming showcases today. You want plenty of announcements. But when organisers squeeze too many games into one presentation, those games begin fighting for attention in a way that does none of them any favours. Unfortunately, not every small indie title can win a battle against Dracula. The showcase included new trailers, world premieres, release dates, demos and games that arrived on the same day.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse was one of the biggest names in the line-up. Konami released a new trailer alongside the game’s launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC. The story takes place 23 years after Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse and follows Rose Belmont, Trevor Belmont’s daughter. So there you have it, the Belmont family is still fighting monsters. And clearly, nobody in that family has considered a less stressful career.
Fans of The Finals also received their first gameplay trailer for Prime Time. The new season begins on 20 October and will include the biggest upgrade to the game’s destruction system since its launch. Now I thought players were already doing a perfectly good job of destroying everything. Apparently, Embark Studios believes they can do better.
But wait, there’s more.
The showcase also featured Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, Planet Zoo 2 and the full release of Frosthaven. Also, Team17 announced The Escapists 3, which takes the prison-break series into 3D and arrives in 2027.
Several smaller games caught my attention too, like My Penguin Friend. The story follows Dindim, a penguin exploring a coastal village after a storm washes him away from home. This one’s a hoot, ’cos players can splash, peck and poop their way through the environment.
And when I say poop, I mean it literally. Because sometimes, a game knows exactly what its audience wants.
Then there is Voidwood, a co-operative horror game that uses proximity chat. The creature can hear players speaking, which means the friend who refuses to stop talking will finally become everybody’s problem.
According to the official Galaxies announcement, several demos and public tests became available during the event. Thee demos and public tests included Gravity Circuit 2, Tinker Islands, Appa and We Are So Cooked. PlayStation 5 players can also try the free alpha for Squad from 16 to 25 October.
Now, that might be a neat approach, but giving players something they can try immediately helps a game remain in their minds long after the trailer has ended. But when you are competing with more than 50 other titles, things get complicated.You know what I mean?
The Galaxies Showcase gave large publishers and smaller studios the same stage, which is worth celebrating. But perhaps the next event could give everyone some breathing space. Because I remember Castlevania, The Finals and naturally, the pooping penguin.
But the mayhem seems to have buried the other 47 games.
