Continuing the trend began a few years back, PC Gamer were once again in attendance, representing, well, PC Gaming. Hosted by Sean ‘Day[9]’ Plott and Frankie Ward, this year it’s ‘powered by’ the Epic Games Store, which already sets out leaving a sour taste in many mouths. But let’s put all that aside and focus on what really matters, shall we? The games.

Evil Genius 2

First up is Rebellion with Evil Genius 2, subtitled World Domination; it tasks you with building enormous multi-storey evil lairs. The trailer doesn’t show a whole hell of a lot, acting more as a quick teaser. But it does show an intrepid, female intruder dodging laser grids, before ultimately falling into a water trap and being eaten by a shark. Your minions also seem to be evil clones of Mister Incredible, for some reason.

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2

Now then, this is something special. Not just a few tidbits, but actual gameplay from Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2. You will start off at the most auspicious moment of your own death, being instructed in the rules of vampirism, known as the Masquerade. A series of rules enforced by the vampire elders to ensure that a new crusade doesn’t rise up and start staking everyone in the face. Playing from a first person perspective, it’s a very dark and brooding (shock-horror) experience about skulking in the shadows and, uhm, murdering everyone else in the face. This is supposed to be an extremely harrowing experience, and I’m sure it is from a thematic perspective. But let’s be honest, that’s all the fun. Still no Sabbat clans on offer though, so this game is going to suck balls. Cough.

Starmancer

From developer Chucklefish, Starmancer is an isometric colony builder. The art style immediately put me in mind of Alundra (remember that?) which is never a bad thing. Though the gameplay is a tad different, of course. Styled as Dwarf Fortress in space. Coming to Steam, Beta access is already available so you won’t have to wait long to give it a try.

Chivalry II

From Torn Banner and TripWire, Chivalry II continues the recent trend of brutal melee combat typified by For Honor, Kingdom Come and Mordhau. This features first-person battles for up to 64 players. With many a decapitation and limb severed, the animations look a bit wooden at the moment, but it’s not due until some time next year so I’m sure they’ll be cleaned up by then. They’re aiming for a very fast and fluid experience, allowing one to effectively fight against not just one, or even two, but successfully battle against three people at a time. ‘Cause they know a lot of their playbase plays when absolutely bladdered. An interesting thing to note is that they’ve taken influence from Monty Python?! Looks good, not gonna’ lie. Coming ‘first’ to the Epic Games Store was not something I wanted to hear, but at least it’ll only be a timed exclusive.

Mosaic

Not sure exactly what this one is all about. The art style is very monorishromatic and angular, but the trailer offsets that with a mobile game about collecting ‘blops’. Possibly a commentary on how people lose themselves in their mobile phone, rather than dealing with the realities of the world around them? I’m rather intrigued.

Midnight Ghost Hunt

Radioactive lamps, possessed furniture. What the hell is going on here? Being developed by one man team Sam Malone, it’s an asymmetric battle game pitting hunters against ghosts. As a ghost, your goal is to stay hidden until midnight. As a hunter, you have to hunt ghosts. It seems a lot like a deeper version of Prop Hunt, which was openly stated by the dev. Though the gameplay has been shifted up to allow the ‘props’ to fight back, even if that’s not the ideal approach for them. Not until midnight at least, when all ghosts respawn as vengeful spirits and turn the tables.

Unexplored 2

A Roguelike about exploring and dying, redundant description is redundant. Featuring a very spooky but also serenely beautiful, isometric view of much cel shading. It’s far more open than most Roguelikes, featuring a world, rather than a series of rooms. We don’t know much beyond that at this stage, but Open Access is now available, so you can jump in and check it out for yourself.

Funcom

Funcom had a fair few things to show, including more stuff for Mutant Year Zero, Conan Unconquered and Moons of Madness (this looks pretty frikkin’ sweet) which is very Lovecraft in space. They also detailed some of their publishing endeavours, such as Conan Chop Chop, which was originally believed to be an April Fools joke, but no, it’s a real game. About chopping things in a cartoony, Conan environment. It’s another roguelike, and it’s looks stupid in all the right ways.

The Last Oasis

An open world, multiplayer, player lead economy about murdering everything and ravaging the already quite desolate environment for resources. The Last Oasis is a third person mass battle for survival and dominance that has done something quite rare indeed. It’s made a world of browns and oranges look like a great place to be. Aside from all the murder…or maybe because of it.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall

From good ole boys Paradox, Planetfall is a world building sim with lots of huge monsters and big robots hellbent on murdering everything in the face. So you’re going to, of course, have to murder them first. 4X gameplay, it’s turn based and you play as a survivor of a now defunct galactic empire. Kind of like Kevin Sorbo, but with less anti-semitism, and less time in space. Your one, remaining spaceship becomes your home base after you make the titular planetfall. Also, dinosaurs with lasers. What more could a growing boy need?

Zombie Army: Dead War 4

The latest Nazi zombie slaughtering simulator debuted with a trailer that does not feature gameplay, but promises to be representative of in game mechanics. As such, we should expect traps, electrified fences and the ability to pick up weapons from fallen enemies. I mean, really, if you’re played any of the Zombie Army games, I think we all know what to expect. This will just be more of the same, with a few tweaks here and there, and I am absolutely fine with that. Another one coming to Epic though, so make of that what you will.

Remnant: From the Ashes

Grab your gun and shoot everything, absolutely everything. Featuring twisted, mutated monstrosities with big bellies and smashy hammers. Set on an apocalyptic Earth, and other planets, the player is tasked with nothing less than saving the world. By murdering everything. Boasting a dynamic creation system (so, procedural generation then) the Gunfire Games promise that there will be massive replay value. As well as the ability to jump into other people’s games and see the same thing, but in different ways. At its core, it’s a looter shooter than aims to be tailored to each player individually.

Griftlands

The lastest game from Klei is a deck-building game that will be available soon (on Epic of course) in an Alpha form. The card based gameplay belies a more traditional RPG system, but with the cards standing in for things like your combat skills and even chat options. Allowing you to try each encounter in pretty much any way you could want. If it lives up to its potential, it will be the closest we’ve ever come to genuine player agency in a video-game.

Planet Zoo

You build a zoo, across an entire planet pretty much. Not much more to say really. Building on the systems of Planet Coaster, Frontiers’ latest offering lets us all live out the fantasy of mingling with all the animals we could ever want. Each will have its own wants, needs and desires. So get ready for people building a zoo consisting of fifty tigers, with a tiny pen in the middle containing a single gazelle, and all the usual craziness things like this lead to. I mean, they want it to be a learning tool at conservation and respect for the environment, but we all know we’re going to make things as messed up as possible.

Shenmue III

Shenmue III showed a new trailer and announced Epic Games Store exclusivity. [Editors note: Aside from the divisive voice acting present in the trailer, the switch to Epic Games Store has been seen as a serious betrayal by backers of Shenmue 3 and is really the big take-away from this showing.]

Songs of Conquest

Coffee Stain Studios and Lavapotion are working together on this game based on Might & Magic. It’s a pixelart strategy game about sending your troops off to explore and gather new resources. So you can build bigger stuff, and send out more people for more resources. The usual fair, you should know exactly what you’re getting into. Everyone’s guts as your army slaughters anything that gets in its way. You can sign up for the closed alpha, and the game is due some time next year.

Vermintide 2

The latest addition to the Warhammer action romp brings a 4v4 game mode, allowing players to take on the reigns of the Skaven or the usual heroes. Because not only do these stairs go up, but so too does the kill count. Beta sign-up is available now.

Per Aspera

Another game about colonising Mars. Not that that’s a bad thing, there’s a lot of potential on the red planet, both in game and out. What sets Per Aspera apart is that the colonisation efforts are directed by an AI called AMI this time, and is narrative driven, rather than open ended. AMI (and by extension, the player) is tasked with making Mars habitable for Humans. And yes, that is Mars, the entire planet, not just some small sections of it. Oh my.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Patrice Desilets had a few things to say about his upcoming history romp that starts with you pressing F to give birth. Well, maybe not F, but seriously, you have to manually give birth. Ancestors is about going from our oldest, confirmed genetic ancestor, and evolving your way up through the millennia to become a Human being. Due for release on August 22th, I’ve had my eye on this for a while, but shall be waiting for the Steam release next year.

Auto Chess

A well established mobile game already, Dragonest are bringing this Chinese developed game to the PC with cross-play capabilities. This version is being rebuilt in Unreal 4, which seems a bit redundant, because it’s clearly not making use of the engine’s full potential. I mean, it looks good, very colourful and cartoony. But the switch to Unreal is clearly an attempt to get some extra money out of the Epic exclusivity.

Cris Tales

Now this one really caught my eye. Boasting itself as a love letter to classic RPG fans, you can see three time zones all at the same time. Past, Present and Future, allowing you to immediately see what the effects your choices will have on things to come. Featuring an art style straight out of the mind of Lewis Caroll. I’d advise everyone keep an eye on this. And yes, it’s coming to Steam.

Valfaris

An over the top 2D shooter inspired by Contra, this is all about guns, guns and more guns. Also heavy metal and, yes, you can actually headbang along to it in game. Kill everything, rip and tear, crush your foes, lamentations of the women and all that good stuff.

Borderlands 3

Well, it’s Borderlands, so I don’t think we need to say anything else. You know what it’s all about. There are multiple planets this time, and big mechs you can jump into as at least one of the characters. Also, a grenade that fires guns. Yes, you read that right.

Maneater

An open-world game about a shark eating people. The players are tasked with, well, eating everything and evolving into a bigger shark, so you can eat more people. Developed by Tripwire, it features are caricatured art style and, did we mention you eat people? It has an actual story to it though, which is a bit more complex than you might expect, though not much. You start off being disfigured by the best fisherman in the world, and one would expect this chap becomes the final boss. I’m looking forward to eating his arse, quite literally. Coming to Epic first, with a Steam release further down the line.

Terraria

One of the best selling PC games ever released, this is still being updated, though not for much longer. This year we’re being given a look at their second to last update, Journey’s End. This will take players into even more biomes, with minecarts, even more new items and even more new creatures to brutally massacre. Time to jump back in methinks. Assuming you’ve ever stopped.

Telling Lies

A new game from the people behind Her Story, this is about a woman who stole an HDD from the NSA. Featuring their trademark live action video, and starring (among others) Logan Marshall-Green, who you might recognise from Prometheus, the Alien prequel. You have a mystery to unravel, but watching, rewinding and cross checking dozens of video clips that take place over a period of two years and lasts more than ten hours. If you’re played Her Story you’ll be right at home. Coming ‘very soon’ this will be available on Steam. I love the passive-aggressive comment by developer Sam Logan, yes, we do all love Steam.

Warframe

Now this one is big. Warframe just keeps going from strength to strength. Even more new features are on their way, including expanded space combat that now lets you engage directly from the bridge of your ship, not just from your Arcwing. Titled Empyrean, this comes with a Nekron Prime for free just for watching the full reveal on July 6th. That’s a damn fine frame, not gonna’ lie. Won’t replace my Valkyr, but I sure ain’t going to turn it down.

Genesis Noir

An existential odyssey set during the big bang? Uhm, okay. Not sure that to make of that one. But it seems to be implying that the universe created because someone fired a gun. Pfft, yeah right. We all know everything began when two Chuck Norris’s roundhouse kicked Mister T’s gold medallions at the same time. Anyway, not overtly stated, but pretty obviously taking some inspiration from Douglas Adams…this won’t be a game for everyone. But pretentious swines like me are going to be all over it.

El Hijo

A spaghetti western inspired stealth-action game. Now that is a sentence I never would have ever expected to write. You play a six year old desperately trying to escape from a monastery in Mexico. The art style reminds me, a lot, of The Mysterious Cities of Gold, and that is never a bad thing.

Baldur’s Gate III

You know it’s actually spelled Baldr, right? Anyway, fans of the Wizards of the Coast franchise already know everything they need to know about this. It’s being developed by Larian, which is never a bad thing, and it’s going to be, well, it’s Baldur’s Gate III. Based on the 5th Edition rules, it’s not a spin-off, like Dark Alliance, it’s a full blown sequel and it looks very, very nice.

All in all, this was actually a pretty darn good show. There were a lot of great games, and some interesting other developments on the tech side of thing, with Samsung talking about a 240hz monitor that will retail for a quite reasonable $400. Being sponsored by Epic, we unsurprisingly saw a lot of exclusive horseshit and I think I speak for most of us when I say we’re sick to our back teeth of it. But only time will tell if anything significant changes in the coming months. The bait and switch with Shenmue III hit me especially hard, as I have been an avid fan of the franchise from the very beginning. Even going so far as to name my second child after one of the characters. But that is a conversation for another time.