Swords, spaceships and a paintbrush: Here are some of Summer Game Fest's best

Summer Game Fest did not disappoint for those hoping for sheer volume of video game news and reveals.

Movers and shakers of the game industry converged on Los Angeles this week to build hype over the coming year for dozens of upcoming games, big and small.

Hundreds of games were shown off with new trailers and interviews with developers and executives from companies like Microsoft, Ubisoft and Square Enix. Excited gamers could follow via livestream or at several theatre showcases packed with fans, influencers and industry watchers.

Press didn't have hands-on time with every game on display. Some developers piloted a small slice of the game, while other games were fully playable for about 30 minutes. Others still were only shown in pre-made trailers or recorded demonstrations.

That said, here's what stood out in the Summer Game Fest smorgasbord.

Hands-on | Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Jan. 17, 2024: PC, Xbox, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, Amazon Luna

The Prince of Persia series has been on the down-low for the last few years — some people's most recent memories may unfortunately be of the 2010 film flop starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

But Ubisoft Montpellier appears on track for a triumphant revival with The Lost Crown. The series goes back to its 2D platforming roots, but infuses it with snappy run-and-jump movement and precise hack-and-slash combat with new character Sargon's swords and bow.

Fans of the Castlevania series and indie darling game Dead Cells will feel right at home in this game. And the return of time manipulation powers from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (think rewinding time to assemble long-crumbled ruins, or reversing an error that led to your death) should offer some clever ways to think about the in-game environment.

Hands-on | Été

Early 2024: PC

It wasn't hard to find Canadian creators at Summer Game Fest, but Été was the only game this writer could find that prominently featured a Canadian setting and characters.

You play a travelling painter visiting Montreal for the summer. Painting the world as you explore, you bring colour and vibrancy to the neighbourhood while meeting other artists and creatives in the city.

In addition to colouring in the world, you'll get to make paintings of your own by arranging items you've previously seen onto a blank canvas.

Impossible Games' Lazlo Bonin, who was born and raised in Montreal, called Été "a love letter to the city" in game form. 

"It's about that fleeting time where everything is so beautiful and you really want to go out and enjoy the world," he said.

Hands-on | Thirsty Suitors

Release date TBA: PC, Xbox, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch

Outerloop Games' Thirsty Suitors has won praise this past year in previews, and it's easy to see why after finally getting some hands-on time with it.

You play as Jala, a young woman of South Asian descent who returns to her hometown in Washington after a bad breakup. There she'll have to try to repair her strained relationships with her family and friends, while also engaging in (mostly verbal) battles of wit and scorn with her multiple ex-lovers.

Battles resemble those from turn-based games like Final Fantasy, but Jala will dole out verbal jabs (or flirts) in between attacking and defending. Powered-up attacks require precisely-timed button presses with the same ingenuity found in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

But the game's biggest strength lies in its writing, with the whip-smart Jala talking herself into as many problems as she can out of them. It gives voice to a distinctly South Asian perspective on family and relationships we see too little of in games today.

Hands-on | Mortal Kombat 1

Sept. 19, 2023: PC, Xbox Series X&S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch

Don't be fooled by the title, this is (at least) the 12th main entry in the fighting game series infamous for its bloody, bone-crunching visuals and cast filled with martial arts stereotypes.

It's still a game about one-on-one fights that end in grindhouse-level explosions of blood and sinew. The fisticuffs demand tight timing and anticipation from its players. Previous entries added layers of complexity to each character with multiple move sets and variations. MK1 simplifies the idea, by letting you choose a "Kameo" character who can assist your main character by jumping into battle at your command. 

While playing as ice-wielding ninja Sub-Zero, I called in classic fighter Sonya Blade to juggle the enemy in the air with her kicks, letting me string together attacks in a way that felt more flexible and accessible than previous entries.

Hands-on | Magic: The Gathering's The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth

June 23, 2023: Tabletop

Wizards of the Coast showed off the only game played without a controller or keyboard. Magic: The Gathering has been the granddaddy of competitive card games since 1993, but recent new sets and expansions have delved into crossovers with brands like The Walking Dead and Warhammer 40,000.

Tales of Middle-Earth is its most ambitious crossover yet, with a full set of more than 300 cards depicting characters, battles and landscapes from J.R.R. Tolkien's literature.

In a quick game with art director Ovidio Cartagena, I amassed an army of orc warriors while his hobbits used food tokens to gain life and generally be a nuisance to my goblin attackers. The Lord of the Rings IP fits in naturally with Magic's core mechanics, and the gorgeous art commissioned by Cartagena might be enough to entice total newcomers to tabletop card games.

Hands-off | Assassin's Creed Mirage

Oct. 12, 2023: PC, Xbox, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, Amazon Luna

Who would have thought sitting on a bench would excite gamers so much? Ubisoft's premier stealth action series has changed dramatically since 2007. Recent entries have become much bigger in scope, shed many of the hallmarks of its early entries and are simply too long to sustain interest in a story that stretches into dozens of hours per instalment.

Mirage is an attempt to get back to the franchise's roots, taking place once again in a single city — Baghdad — instead of an entire continent. A preview showed main character Basim (voiced by Lebanese-born Canadian actor Lee Majdoub) clambering over low rooftops and blending in crowds before assassinating ne'er do wells with trademark wrist-mounted blades. 

Hands-off | Starfield

Sept. 6, 2023: PC, Xbox Series X&S

The most anticipated game was probably Bethesda's Starfield, and the 45-minute presentation promised a vast science-fiction sandbox with a dizzying array of things to do.

You can customize your character's appearance. You can build your own spaceship. You can fight other ships in space as you travel between 1,000 different planets. You can visit a Star Trek-like space colony, or learn more about spacefaring corporations with fuzzy pasts. Oh, and you can run-and-gun in first-person shooter modes like Halo or Destiny.

Bethesda promises a game of near-unheard of scope. But the studio's reputation for sprawling games also came with a legacy of launching titles filled with bugs and glitches. Time will tell whether Starfield truly delivers on all its promises when it lands later this year.