Not-E3 2022 Recap
We’re about a month beyond the big, bombastic E3 week I look forward to every year…and I’m still not sure how I feel about the fact that E3 2022 was canceled. It’s been such a reliable part of my summer (and a pillar of my blog content) for so long that June just feels weird without it.
Thankfully, we still had some gaming news. Geoff Keighley (he of The Game Awards fame, aka “The Keighleys”) used his contacts to try and salvage E3 week with his own Summer Game Fest. And while Geoff has a habit of trying to claim every piece of gaming-related news as part of his show — including completely different events — it’s still nice to have a centralized hub to carry on what E3 was known for.
However: “E3 season” underwhelmed this year. There weren’t any big surprises or reveals, at least in the blockbuster sense we’ve come to expect. But as an outspoken lover of indie games, that lack of heavy-hitters created more breathing room for smaller gems that might otherwise go undiscovered.
All that being said, I wanted to call out the 10 games I am looking forward to most after Not-E3 2022. Some of them are coming sooner rather than later (every game at the Xbox-Bethesda Showcase is due out in the next 12 months). Some may never come out at all.
But for now, these are 10 titles from Not-E3 2022 that stood out to me and sparked conversations around my go-to gaming watercoolers. (Also, yes, we’re going in chronological order like I’m reading attendance in middle school homeroom.)
American Arcadia
American Arcadia somehow copies the gorgeous 2.5D animated style of INSIDE while leaning deep into American utopia vibes from the 1970s. Add in the fact that the entire “perfect retro world” presentation is all a farce (a la The Truman Show), add in some hacking puzzles, and you’ve got something that is pretty much perfect for me. It’s weird and unique, but I’m in.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Once a year, I restart Hollow Knight. It’s a game I’ve always wanted to enjoy, because the story and the worldbuilding and the music and the design all resonate with me.
So, after watching a new trailer for the sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong (and discovering that it’s launching in Xbox Game Pass within the next 12 months), I booted up Hollow Knight and tried again. I’m sure I won’t beat it, but I can’t help but try again.
Nivalis
Okay, so Nivalis is a game where you manage and improve a bar/restaurant…while also living in and exploring an immersive cyberpunk world. It’s is a weird combination of genres and ideas, but I’m ready to dive in and see if it’s as cool as the trailer looked.
Pentiment
I was really, really looking forward to Pentiment. Knowing that Josh Sawyer, the creative director/vision behind Pillars of Eternity, was working on his “dream game”… Man, I’d been excited for months.
Seeing the game was a bit of a shock, however. (Take one glance at the trailer and you’ll see why.) It’s not what I expected at all, but I have faith in Josh’s creative vision as well as Obsidian’s ability to make an RPG I enjoy. And after hearing some interviews, I’m actually more excited than ever.
Persona 3/4/5
I’ve been on the “Persona 5 to Xbox” train for awhile now. To be fair, I fully expected it was just a pipe dream, a recurring prediction destined to be wrong forever.
So color me surprised to discover that the definitive versions of Persona 3, 4, and 5 are coming to PC, Switch, and even Xbox. And on Xbox, they’re launching straight into Game Pass, which is a huge get for the entire Xbox community.
On a personal note, I can’t wait to see how Persona 3 and 4 line up against one of my all-time favorite games, the strange-but-irresistible Persona 5.
Planet of Lana
I’ve been talking about Planet of Lana for what feels like 5 years now. It has a little Studio Ghibli tone to the art direction, and it’s another 2D puzzle-platformer (but with a sort of beautiful, watercolor-ish art style?). It was nice to see some of the actual gameplay, rather than another worldbuilding trailer. And the fact that it was at the Xbox Showcase means it’s coming soon.
Redfall
I have strong but mixed feelings about Redfall. I loved Dishonored and Prey, and am still looking forward to getting my hands on Deathloop whenever it finally comes to Xbox. In other words: I’m a pretty devout Arkane Studios fan.
But Redfall is stepping outside of the immersive sim genre and becoming something else entirely: a Borderlands-style cooperative looter shooter, which… I don’t know. Seeing the game in action and hearing more details helped, but I’m still going to temper my expectations.
Starfield
Starfield was the biggest game on Xbox and Bethesda’s shared docket, and probably among the three biggest games on the horizon for the entire industry (behind God of War: Ragnarok and the Breath of the Wild sequel).
Getting a much deeper look at the gameplay, visuals, and design concepts actually told me a lot about what to expect from Starfield. I’ve got a strong suspicion I’ll spend at least 100 hours in this game, and I can’t wait to explore a new galaxy next spring.
Summit Kingdom
I do enjoy small, stylized management games. Summit Kingdom feels like the next Airborne Kingdom (which I finally played and loved after months of waiting for it to go on sale). It won’t be a game I put dozens of hours into, but it has the look of a smaller strategy sim that I’ll be obsessed with for a couple weeks. Sometimes that’s better than a giant time-sink game.
The Callisto Protocol
I do not play horror games and never have. Period. (And yes, I know I’m a weenie.)
However, the sheer level of polish in The Callisto Protocol is unbelievable, and it’s got me interested in spite of my lifelong aversion to horror. I also appreciate the fact that people who worked on Dead Space (rest in peace, Visceral Games) got back together years later and made a spiritual sequel that EA never wanted to fund. Good for them.
Final thoughts on Not-E3 2022
I can’t stress enough how underwhelming this all was. Most major publishers either didn’t have an event, or scheduled it at odd times to avoid the fact that they had nothing to show. And while I love that Xbox spent almost two hours focused only on games coming in the next 12 months, there was a lack of any surprises or even any jaw-droppers.
But it is what it is. We’re still in a post-pandemic world where studios are still in limbo, still trying to recover from what feels like a lost 20+ months. Hopefully 2023 sees the return of the E3, and with it all of the pomp and circumstance this year lacked.
Author’s note: Also, my “Game of the Show” award goes to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. It’s a throwback in the best way, with devs getting back together to create a sequel to a 30-year-old arcade cabinet. And the game got a release date in the middle of the show: June 16. Yes, the game’s already out. Yes, I already played and beat it. And yes, you can expect to see more about it when I do my Backlog Awards coverage this December.