Kaser Focus: It’s all space horror, Boss

The Summer Gaming Brouhaha is officially upon us. After last week’s State of Play, we now transition this week to the Summer Game Fest and its accompanying conga line of smaller shows. This will eventually culminate in the Xbox showcase on Sunday. The Summer Game Fest, which kicked off yesterday, featured a few fun game reveals, but . . . well, you may have noticed a pattern. I certainly did.

For who knows what reason, the Summer Game Fest was absolutely lousy with space-based sci-fi horror titles. These include Aliens: The Dark Descent, The Callisto Protocol, Fort Solis, and Routine. Apparently several game developers got collectively nostalgic for Dead Space/Alien Isolation/System Shock a few years ago. In the non-space-based horror realm, we also saw the reveal of Layers of Fears, Bloober Team’s new project — not exactly the Silent Hill 2 remake everyone thought they were working on, but oh well.

We also got a look at the remake of The Last of Us, properly called The Last of Us Part 1. The game’s details were accidentally revealed ahead of the big show, but we also got some comparison shots between the two titles. The environments and lighting look like they’ve received a modest, but beautiful upgrade. As for the character models, I’m not so sure the remake is very much of an upgrade. We also saw titles like Goat Simulator 3, which delighted with a trailer parodying that of development-hellbound Dead Island 2. I also enjoyed seeing Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and, between it and Gotham Knights, October is going to be a feast for comic book fans.

I spent a bit of time playing with the Boss Factory, the demo for the upcoming Saints Row. Announced at the Summer Game Fest, it allows players to test the customization features and build their Bosses ahead of the game’s launch on August 23. You can see the results above: I managed to make myself with some respect to reality, because I wish to personally bully the people of Santo Ileso. It’s a great customization tool, but of course it’s only a small part of the whole game. I’m also playing the demo for the upcoming Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, but I’ll keep my thoughts on it to myself for the time being.

What to play this week

What’s new:

• The Quarry
• Mario Strikers: Battle League
• Tour de France 2022
• Spacelines from Far Out
• SpellForce III: Reforced

New on subscription services:

• Assassin’s Creed Origins (Xbox Game Pass)
• Chorus (Xbox Game Pass)
• Disc Room (Xbox Game Pass)
• God of War (PlayStation Plus)
• Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker (PlayStation Plus)
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (PlayStation Plus)
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition (GeForce Now)
• It Takes Two (GeForce Now)
• Silt (GeForce Now)
• Pro Cycling Manager 2022 (GeForce Now)
• The Cycle: Frontier (GeForce Now)
• No Straight Roads: Encore Edition (GeForce Now)
• KeyWe (GeForce Now)
• Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries (GeForce Now)
• Core Keeper (GeForce Now)