E3: Nacon Connect 2020

Posted on 07 Jul 2020 by
Jay Shaw

It’s been a quiet couple of weeks since the glut of shows last month but streaming season is far from over. Starting off this month’s major streams are Nacon who will be showing more of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Vampire: The Masquerade, and some as-yet unknown games including one by Spiders, a studio you likely either love or hate. As usual the whole stream is embedded above and you can find individual games sections below.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swangsong

First up we have Big Bad Wolf Studio’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong. We’re treated to a new CGI trailer introducing the game’s setting, a united Camarilla in Boston and Hartford, the fancy soiree announcing such, and presumably the assassination of one of the major players. Quest Designer, Eliott Hipeau gives us a bit more information; in Swansong you’ll be playing three different vampires from different clans, each with their own backgrounds, histories and views. You’ll be able to customise the skills and character sheets of your three characters and the game will have multiple endings.

RiMS Racing

Marco Ponte, CEO of RaceWard Studio introduced the studio’s new racing simulator, RiMS Racing. The game will be running on Kylotonn’s (now a pedigree racing game developer but also Iron Storm and Bet on Soldier) racing engine, likely the same one powering the TT Isle of Man games. The game will be aimed as a hardcore simulation of racing bikes but will also have a more accessible mode too. Bikes will be customizable also. Sadly there’s not really any footage of this one apart from a couple of very brief snippets in the footage of Ponte talking.

Rogue Lords

Rogue Lords made its debut at the PC Gaming Show last month but we’re treated to a new animatic style trailer for the game where a demon lord narrates over images of the game’s two factions explaining how the mortal demon hunters defeated the demonic faction. Artistic Director, Camille Lisoir, further explains that the game will take place in a world similar to seventeenth century New England, the period of the Salem Witch Trials, and you’ll take on the role of the freshly-returned-to-earth devil and his disciples such as Dracula and Bloody Mary. Rogue Lords will be a rogue-like with turn-based combat where you’ll play a team of three of the devil’s disciples whose skills will work together for combo attacks. Because you’re also playing the devil, you can cheat and do things like pause the game in combat and take damage in place of your minions.

Steelrising

Spiders revealed their new game to be Steelrising. The CGI trailer showed off a bunch of advanced looking automata and French Imperial era equipment, uniforms, and hair styles. CEO of Spiders, Jehanne Rousseau, explained that the game will take place in a new universe and you’ll play a female automata named Aegis who serves as bodyguard to Queen Mary-Antoinette. On the orders of Mary-Antoinette, Aegis must seek out her creator to put an end to the massacres being perpetrated by the robot armies of King Louis XVI. The game will take place in Paris, including some major landmarks like the Grand Chatelet and Tour du Temple. Main character Aegis will be upgradable with parts you find along the way contributing to her becoming more powerful, mobile, or durable. She will also wield weapons from seven categories ranging from small melee weapons to alchemical rifles.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood

Earthblood got another very industrial trailer that shows off a bunch of new gameplay and areas from the game and a release date of 4 February 2021. We also get a brief look at some werewolf on werewolf combat and what may be a finishing move. Unfortunately, that’s all there is for this one so we’re going to point out that some of the footage looks really rough – like PlayStation 2 game rough – thankfully it’s still early days and the game isn’t due out for over six months so hopefully it’s just some very early footage.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown

Alain Jarniou, Creative Director at KT Racing Studio, took the stage next to introduce the big new reveal driving fans have been looking for: Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. As Jarniou explains, Solar Crown was the name of the championship in the previous Test Drive Unlimited game and will take a similar structure in Solar Crown, an open world championship where players can choose their own events. We see some racing footage of driving on snowy mountain roads, dirt, gravel, and asphalt. Jarniou talks about buying cars like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Bugattis as well as customizing your player avatar with clothes and accessories. Solar Crown will take place on an island.

Roguebook

Jean-Michel Vilain, CEO of Abrakam Studio, introduces our last game of the evening: Roguebook. The game is a rogue-lite deck builder that looks like it’s oozing the style that helped make the studios previous title Faeria such a hit. You’ll choose two heroes, and can even continue after losing one in a run. Runs will be split between exploring a randomly generated overworld and completing a run will unlock more difficulty settings. It’s not just the Roguebook and style returning from Faeria; heroes Sharra, Sorocco, Seifer, and Aurora will be the four main heroes you’ll get to choose two of each run. Richard Garfield (designer of Magic: the Gathering) is co-designer for Roguebook and talks about what he calls the Fat Deck system, or how the game won’t have such a large focus on removing cards from the deck like other deck builder type games. This system will reward players for reaching certain deck sizes by giving them skills from a skill tree, giving an alternative to a small, tight deck by giving up predictability for other rewards.

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