Geoff Keighley is back together with Hideo Kojima, and that can only mean one thing—Summer Game Fest has come and gone. With it, nearly 20 showcases and spotlights—including our very own PC Gaming Show and the Future Game Show by our pals over at GamesRadar—and hundreds of games to gorge upon. Ones that will inevitably flood our Steam wishlists.
Now that all of the chaos and trailer soup is finally abating, it's a good time to think about which games have really got us all giddy with excitement. We're an eclectic bunch here at PC Gamer, from FPS fanatics to JRPG junkies, and Summer Game Fest really felt like it had a little something for all of us.
So here's the stuff we're feeling particularly stoked about. And if you reckon we've made a glaring omission—or simply want to share in our enthusiasm—feel free to drop a comment letting us know which Summer Game Fest showings have you all amped up.
Persona 6Mollie Taylor, Features Producer: As much as I love Persona, I've been feeling a bit of Phantom Thief fatigue in the last… half-decade or so. Which makes it all the more exciting that we finally have confirmation a new Persona game is on the way.
It's looking a whole lot darker than the last couple entries based on the very brief teaser—almost SMT-adjacent, which I am totally here for. It's all graveyards and dark vibes with flashes of green, and I can't help but think maybe we're veering into the occult with this one. Whatever it might be, I'm already eager to learn more—and, y'know, finally let Joker have some much-needed rest for how much Atlus has milked the poor bloke.
Tenebris SomniaJoshua Wolens, News Writer: Tenebris Somnia is a 2D survival horror game hot out of Argentina, and it asks players a question no one else dares to: "Hey, remember Resident Evil 1 for the PlayStation?"
I do! I do remember Resident Evil 1 for the PlayStation, and TS' mix of puzzle-solving, zombie blasting, and some incredibly high-commitment FMV cutscenes bring back a lot of very warm memories of the Spencer Mansion in its original incarnation. The studio looks like it's gone hard on practical effects for those FMV sequences—there's some truly messed up stuff in the Steam screenshots that I am very eager to get more context for when the game hits this October.
Alien: Isolation 2Sean Martin, Senior Guides Writer: One of the reasons Alien: Isolation feels like such an authentic Alien game is that it's made by diehard fans of the films. I remember speaking to Al Hope, Creative Director on the first (and now the second), years back, and it immediately became clear just how much of an alien nerd he and the rest of their team at Creative Assembly were. It's no wonder that the game's 1970s sci-fi vibes are so utterly impeccable, even to the point that Alien Romulus easter-egged one of its save stations.
It's sad that it took over a decade for it to happen, but I'm excited a sequel finally has. Though the trailer didn't give much away, our very own Wes Fenlon managed to interview Al Hope and James Green at SGF. It's early doors, but it sounds like the main difference is that we'll be evading the alien in outdoor spaces now too, though I'm sure there'll still be plenty of claustrophobic areas we'll have to fearfully inch our way around.
Thief: The Dark Project RemasteredTed Litchfield, Associate Editor: Thief: The Dark Project is one of my very favorite videogames, so a remaster from the wiz kids at Nightdive? You better believe I'm excited for it. The remaster has a planned launch window of this winter, so we don't even have that long to wait. If you want an idea of what to expect, you can read my review of Nightdive's System Shock 2 remaster, a game that was originally built on Thief's Dark Engine.
Andy Chalk, NA News Lead: Ted started early today so he got to Thief before I did but you know what? I'm so excited for this we're doing it twice. Thief (specifically Thief Gold, in my case) was a truly foundational game for me, up there with Doom and Baldur's Gate, and I basically haven't touched it for a quarter century. So the remaster maestros at Nightdive doing their thing with it—and Stephen Russell is back, and Terri Brosius is back, and baby we are back!—makes this the one must-play game to come out of SGF for me.
MythologousJoshua Wolens, News Writer: It is the year 2026 and someone is making a MUD. This is not a drill. This is not a jape. The text RPG is back and it's being made by a guy called Grant Medlyn, whose fantasy game Mythologous is getting a little bit Bethesda with its NPCs that have "jobs, needs, personal lives, and problems," and whose world continues to shift and change whether you're online or not.
A systems-driven MUD is basically all I've ever wanted out of, well, life, so consider me very interested. The only thing that gives me pause is this disclaimer on the game's Steam page: "The game uses some AI-generated text to enhance immersion through short form responsive NPC dialogue and procedurally described events… Generative AI is NOT used for world narrative writing, lore, game logic, audio, images, or calculating outcomes of any kind." That feature is described as "experimental" and not part of the core game. I'm willing to cut a one-man dev team working on a goddamn MUD of all things some slack, but let's be real: it's the non-AI emergent possibilities that really excite me here.
genAtlasJess Kinghorn, Hardware Writer:
Even after having spent a sizeable chunk of my career writing about all things PlayStation, I never thought I'd see gunplay in a game directed by Fumito Ueda. I've loved his games ever since first taking the hand of a ghostly girl I found in a cage on PS2 (to say nothing of all the poor creatures that have fallen by my blade throughout Ueda's dark fairytale oeuvre). The shift to scifi is a notable one—and I can't wait to see what the team at genDesign does with it.
So far, GenAtlas has its fair share of desolate landscapes, filling them with architecture as arcane as it is ancient—that already gets a big tick from me. The twist is that the 'architecture' in question is the discarded husks of giant robots that you can bring back to life with your ship, a disembodied robo-noggin. It's definitely a fresh twist on the theme of collaboration that runs through all of Ueda's games. The most obvious, pithiest comparison is probably something like, "Think Shadow of the Colossus, but scifi and also with giant robots that you can pilot." Now, that I can't wait to play.
Spyro: A Realm BeyondHarvey Randall, Staff Writer: Little-known fact about Harvey—Spyro was one of my first ever videogames. My family had a PS1, and one of my earliest memories was being absolutely terrible at the OG Spyro the Dragon games, spending altogether too much time doing the skateboarding minigame in Spyro 3. So to see Toys for Bob—whose Reignited Trilogy I very much enjoyed—unleashed to make a fully-fledged proper Spyro game? It's hitting me right in my nostalgia bone, and I cannot wait.
Guild Wars 3Phil Savage, Global Editor-in-Chief: What a treat to have a new MMO to look forward to. I've played Guild Wars 2 for over 4,500 hours, so of course I'm looking forward to the sequel. But more than just my familiarity with the series, what ArenaNet is teasing for this one sounds fascinating. A more action focus, the seeming return of GW1's skill collection, and, most importantly, a focus on traversal. "Run, slide, leap, and bound across Orr with a one-of-a-kind movement system that transfers your momentum between modes of travel," touts the Steam page, "providing a free-form joy of movement through a world alive with adventure."
This is my kind of shit, and it makes sense as the direction of travel for the series. Over the years, thanks to the addition of gliding, mounts, and masteries that enhance all three, Guild Wars 2 has built up a solid collection of movement options—joyous little combinations that make traversing a map feel fun. A game built with that at its fore? It could be something special. More than anything, though, I appreciate ArenaNet's continued commitment to Guild Wars 2. If the sequel came at the expense of a game I'd spent so many hours playing, I might be feeling quite different. That both will coexist? Well now I'm just along for the ride.
The Wolf Among Us 2James Bentley, Hardware Writer: The Wolf Among Us has long remained my favourite Telltale Games work, and if I thought about it for another 10 minutes, I think there's a good chance I'd say it's one of the best episodic games ever. The original game blends folklore with a dark, gritty city and manages to not feel so edgy that it throws out the stakes of the story. It feels both fantastical and grounded, with narrative threads just daring you to tug on. So, on the face of it, more The Wolf Among Us is an exciting prospect. But what makes The Wolf Among Us 2 just so special is the story around the game itself.
Telltale and the second game have had a 'Will they, won't they' relationship for a while, in the wake of the studio, well, briefly not existing, then promptly re-existing again. And as such, it's a game that has been in the works for over a decade, sort of. Its on-and-off relationship is one that may serve to enunciate some strife at the core of the title, and AdHoc Studio stepping away from development certainly suggests the project was a tough task, but it's finally almost here, and that feels like a light miracle. A game destined to be video game folklore was actually seen again, and I can't wait to wolf the whole thing down in a single night, as Sheriff Bigby Wolf would want.
