With Intel supplanting AMD as the lead sponsor for PC Gamer’s conference, hosted by Sean “Day9” Plott as he returns for the third installment of the PC Gaming Show at E3. A whole list of games, some new reveals and a few surprises all make for a good conference, and this year’s PC centric event doesn’t disappoint. Let’s get right into it, shall we?

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

Teased a few days prior to the show proper, XCOM 2 gets its first expansion pack, named “War of the Chosen.” Introducing a new enemy type, new factions and hero units, and of course, a new alien threat. War of the Chosen looks to bolster the otherwise anemic post-launch content offering that XCOM 2 has currently. Additional features can be previewed over on the Steam page, and while it doesn’t list a price, War of the Chosen is set to be released on August 29^th.

Ooblets

The passion project from Rebecca Cordingly and Ben Wasser, Ooblets is a stylish game that combines Harvest Moon, Pokemon, and a love for everything sickeningly cute. After a move to a new, unfamiliar town, you begin your journey as an ‘ooblet’ trainer by planting seeds in a garden and growing some friends. Ooblets can be battled with, fed, led as companions to exploration, and more. A Steam page is currently live, with no price, as Ooblets is set to be released sometime in 2018.

Battletech

Harebrained Schemes’ Battletech appeared at the show, touting some new customization features and having some information on the plot of the game. Heavily modeled after the tabletop experience, Battletech will come with a fully functional campaign where you take the reins as the commander of a mercenary company, hired by a member of the political elite to solve some personal conflicts. A number of multiplayer modes will also come with Battletech, which is set to be released later this year.

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord

Tale Worlds’ long-developed medieval RPG, Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord showed up again this year at E3, though with no release date in sight… again. This time, we got a glimpse of some excellent-looking mounted combat, plus leading a cavalry charge. Another video posted by Tale Worlds showcases archery from horseback as well. Still, no release date hurts.

Total War: Warhammer II

You know, I’m still upset this game and its predecessor aren’t called “Total Warhammer.” In any case, Creative Assembly’s second installment in the Total War: Warhammer trilogy appeared at the show, showing off a battle between the High Elves and the Lizardmen. With such a short release window between the two games (16 months!), Total War: Warhammer II hopefully has improved before its September 28^th release.

Shadowverse

The fourth expansion for Shadowverse CCG, best described as “anime Hearthstone, but without scummy pay-to-play mechanics” is titled “Wonderland Dreams,” and arrives on June 29^th. Shadowverse‘s latest expansion adds in 104 new cards, all of which are centered around Alice in Wonderland or something similar. With constant pack giveaways and less awful mechanics, and if you can look past the anime, Shadowverse is an excellent collectible card game.

Tunic

Previously known as “Secret Legend,” the first game from Andrew Shouldice, is now called Tunic. Featuring a small, adorable fox who dodges, rolls, and hacks his way through the isometric levels. Tunic is being published by indie partner Finji, who previously published Night in the Woods, Panoramical, and are publishing Overland. Tunic is set to launch sometime next year.

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds

Removed from yesterday’s goofy trailer during the Microsoft press conference, Brendan “PLAYERUNKNOWN” Greene appeared onstage to talk about some upcoming features to his battle royale game tearing up the Twitch.tv and Steam charts. Climbing, vaulting, weather effects, and two new maps round out the upcoming features, all set to drop before the game moves to the Xbox One X later this year. PUBG can be picked up on Steam now, and stay tuned for our preview coming soon.

Killing Floor 2

Tripwire Interactive’s zed-blasting wave shooter, Killing Floor 2, comes up on its first seasonal event: the Summer Sideshow. With a free week and 50% discount kicking off on June 13^th, the ‘Summer Sideshow’ adds two new weapons, new customization options, a new map, “The Tragic Kingdom,” and some new outfits for the zeds as well. Killing Floor 2‘s Summer Sideshow kicks off on June 13^th, and runs for a whole month.

Forza Motorsport 7

Turn 10’s first PC foray for the Forza series comes with some added features, and some you’d expect of a racing game. Creative Director, Bill Giese, said that every sort of USB controller imaginable was used to play the game: a Guitar Hero guitar, DDR dancepad, and more. Full 4K support, unlocked framerate and 21:9 resolution support are all coming to Forza Motorsport 7, which launches on October 3^rd.

Sea of Thieves

The other pirate game appearing at E3 this year, Rare’s ‘Sea of Thieves‘ also made an appearance at the PC Gaming showcase, though mostly to talk about PC exclusive features. Despite the lack of any new gameplay in tow, Microsoft was happy to announce that the game will also support ultrawide resolution ratios, an unlocked framerate, and 4K resolutions. No release date yet for Rare’s co-operative piracy game, but an “early 2018” date was promised.

The Last Night

The artistic darling from E3 comes from Odd Tales, who are making a 2.5D post-cyberpunk adventure in, The Last Night. With backing tracks by American musician Lorn, The Last Night tells the tale of a society where its inhabitants are judged not by what they produce, but what they consume instead. We follow a second-class citizen as he attempts to eke out a living, unable to enhance his own live with mechanical upgrades. Touted as a “platformer adventure” game, The Last Night is set to release sometime in 2018.

Ylands

The next game from ARMA developers, Bohemia Interactive, Ylands looks to be a Minecraft and Garry’s Mod fusion, complete with sandbox freedom included. With the option to create entirely new games and game worlds to inhabit, Ylands (short for “your lands”) hopes to introduce us to our more creative side, in between all of the realistic military action. Ylands is set to launch via Steam Early Access this summer.

Griftlands

Griftlands, the next stylish game coming from Klei places a heavy emphasis on negotiating everything you could think of, while adventuring across a futuristic world. With turn-based action and characters that wouldn’t look out of place in a Shining Force game. We know little else about Griftlands, even when considering it has an expected release date of late 2017/early 2018.

Lone Echo/Echo Arena

The first game coming from the team at Ready At Dawn (former Naughty Dog and Blizzard developers), is a fully VR experience with separate single player and multiplayer components. The single player portion, Lone Echo, seems to place you on a deep-space research vessel, investigating an electromagnetic anomaly. The anomaly warps, and an unidentified ship warps in, causing chaos. Further details were kept hidden, as it would have spoiled the story.

The multiplayer portion, Echo Arena, has been described as “ultimate frisbee meets Ender’s Game,” and after seeing the footage, I can safely say I agree. Zipping around in zero-g and punch the opposing team’s robots in the head to stun them, all while trying to throw a disc into the goal seems like a great start for VR sports. Thanks to a partnership with Intel, Echo Arena will be free to all Oculus owners, and it, along with Lone Echo, launch on June 20^th.

LawBreakers

LawBreakers, the fast-and-furious shooter from Boss Key Productions, helmed by Cliff Bleszinski, has a new trailer, and a release date. In the video, various gaming personalities (streamers, YouTubers, etc.) talk about their experiences playing Boss Key’s gravity-defying FPS. While that may not be very interesting, LawBreakers was one of the few games to get a release date revealed at the show: August 8^th. Coming to Steam via Nexon, and with a price tag of $29.99 USD, LawBreakers hopes to scratch the itch of twitch-shooter fans worldwide later this summer.

Wargroove

Though announced previously, the first game in a while for indie publisher Chucklefish, looks to be a cross between Advance Wars and Fire Emblem. Wargroove is a strategy RPG in which you command an entire army: land, sea and air units, as you attempt to complete any one of four different campaigns. During the stage demo, Chucklefish developers showed off the custom campaign creator, as well as the map creator, which one uses via painting mountains, lakes, roads and more onto the landscape. With local and online multiplayer, Wargroove looks to groove onto PC and Switch later this year.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

Monolith’s sequel to 2014’s Shadow of Mordor, also made an appearance at the PC Games show, but with no new gameplay in sight. Instead, developers opted to talk briefly about the story elements and major players that feature in Shadow of War, plus a few of the colorful characters you might encounter along the way. Shadow of War launches later this year, on October 10^th.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition

The final announcement was a massive surprise for just about everyone. Coming from Microsoft Game Studios, on the 20^th anniversary of the initial release of Age of Empires, the Definitive Edition brings 4K resolution support, updated textures, greater zoom levels, improved AI, a new soundtrack, and other improvements to the RTS genre developed in the last 20 years. No release date yet for Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, but beta periods are set to start rolling out later this month, with the game reportedly going to cost $19.99 USD on launch. Wololo, indeed.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it. Far removed from the marathon sessions of years past, Day9 and his co-hosts kept the questions short, and the audience/Twitter interaction to a bare minimum. Though they trotted out a lot of game trailers, there’s been some interesting titles thrown in the mix this year. Who knows when we’ll see most of these games, since handing out release dates was a crime it seems, but for now, I’m finding a lot to keep my eyes on and plenty to add to my wishlist when applicable.

With the conclusion of the PC Gaming Show, Ubisoft, Microsoft, EA, Sony and Bethesda E3 conferences, all that is left is to enjoy the actual Electronic Entertainment Expo in all its glory later today until June 15th, so get out there and enjoy the gaming festivities!