This Week In Gaming 6-16-20 (Part 1)

Sony's PS5 event, IGN's Summer of Gaming expo, The Guerrilla Collective, and PCGamer's PC Gaming Show all reveal new trailers, previews, interviews, and announcements. Game Assist's essay on the representation of racism in Life Is Strange 2 and how it is woven into all our lives, reviews that show very different takes on The Last of Us 2, Dia Lacina highlights overlooked black composers, itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality ends having raises over eight million, Kevin Cortez interviews James Rolfe (Angry Video Game Nerd) discussing remaining a classic over time and maintaining a private life, Elizabeth Henges on the art of the blindfolded speedrun, PAX Australia cancelled, George Yang speaks to voice actors about the challenges facing Asian-Americans in casting, Jess Cogswell's history of immersing herself in the worlds of loved ones and how Animal Crossing allows her to do that, Gearbox suing over Duke Nukem again, and more.

Too many new videos and previews to have one post this week, find part two here.

Gaming News (Announcements, previews, release dates, interviews and writing on upcoming games, DLC and game updates, company and developer news, country news, tech, mods)

Itch.io’s massive games bundle raised over $8 million in support of Black Lives Matter

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Indie games marketplace Itch.io has launched a games bundle that features over 1,000 games, and counting, in support of Black Lives Matter. The package, dubbed ‘Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality’, includes all manner of beloved titles and cult hits, all for the low, low price of five dollars.

ICYMI: Every New Game Announced During Today’s PlayStation 5 Reveal

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Well folks, we made it. The PlayStation 5 was officially unveiled today during a two-hour livestream event, wherein we all learned that its design is a lot more, uh, interesting than many of us (read: me) anticipated, and that Sony is still leaning heavily on the whole “console exclusive” thing to make its case for PlayStation ownership.

Here's What The PS5 Looks Like

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Today, Sony showed off the PlayStation 5, which spits in the face of the idea of non-rounded corners.

The PC Gaming Show 2020

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PC Gamer presents the 2020 PC Gaming Show, the sixth annual event for PC gaming.

Everything that happened at the PC Gaming Show 2020

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The PC Gaming Show at notE3 is done and dusted for another year, and boy howdy were there a lot of new PC games to inhale. From Persona 4 Golden to new trailers (and early access release dates) for Ooblets, Torchlight 3 and loads more, there’s a lot of ground to cover. If you missed the show or need a refresher of what’s coming out and when, then help is at hand, as here’s a big list of everything announced at The PC Gaming Show 2020.

Guerrilla Collective Day 1: Everything Announced and Revealed

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The Guerrilla Collective is a new online digital festival that is hosted by Kinda Funny Games' Greg Miller and is produced by Media Indie Exchange (The MIX) with Kinda Funny Games Showcase.

Everything you missed from Guerrilla Collective Day Two

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Just in case you’re in need of more new PC games for your calendar, indie stream extravaganza The Guerrilla Collective is back for a second day of announcements. If you missed what happened yesterday, you can catch up on everything that happened on Day One of the Guerrilla Collective by clicking that link there, but here’s everything that went down on Day Two.

Watch all the new gameplay demos from Day Three of the Guerrilla Collective right here

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The new PC games train just keeps on chugging, as indie extravaganza The Guerrilla Collective is back for a third and final day of announcements. Today was all about taking a closer look at some of the more interesting games of the festival, with lengthy gameplay demos and interesting developer chats. If you missed what happened earlier in the Guerrilla Collective, you can catch up on everything that happened on Day One and Day Two right here, but today we’re all about the new PC announcements from Day Three.

Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition puts more than 900 free demos at your fingertips

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There's tons of stuff to play, and you've got a week to get through as much of it as you can.

Spider-Man's New PS5 Game Stars Miles Morales

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Miles Morales is finally getting his own Spider-Man game, Sony revealed during its PS5 event today. It’s called Spider-Man Miles Morales and is headed to PS5 sometime this holiday season.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Isn't a Sequel, It's an Expansion

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It remains a little unclear exactly what form this expansion will take. Rutter's language makes it sound as though Marvel's Spider-Man could receive a full remaster on PS5 (as hinted at in early showings of the console to press), with a major new component starring Miles Morales. However, it may be that this is a standalone expansion that builds on the mechanics and engine of the original, in the vein of Uncharted: Lost Legacy or Infamous: First Light.

Hitman's Next Job Is On PS5

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Hitman 3 is coming out in January on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC.

Resident Evil 8: Village Announced By Capcom

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Taking place a few years after the events of Resident Evil 7 biohazard, in which protagonist Ethan Winters traveled to Louisiana to search for his missing wife, Mia, Resident Evil Village sees the reunited Mia and Ethan living happily together and putting their shared nightmares of the Baker’s plantation house behind them.

Resident Evil Village - Special Developer Message

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Resident Evil's producers discuss some more interesting details about the upcoming Resident Evil Village.

Horizon Zero Dawn Sequel Forbidden West Is On PS5

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Aloy embarks in a new westward adventure in Horizon Forbidden West.

A first look at Project Athia, designed for PS5

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We are so excited to be able to share a sneak peek at what we have been working on at Luminous Productions with you today. During the PlayStation 5 showcase, we showed a teaser trailer for the upcoming debut game from our studio, Project Athia (working title).

LittleBigPlanet's Sackboy Now Has A PS5 Platformer

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The game is being developed by Sumo Digital and looks like it will feature the Sony mascot hopping around colorful 3D environments in either single-player or with a coop partner. There are changing perspectives and lots of arcadey setpieces.

Source Of Madness uses machine learning to generate eldritch horrors

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One problem with unfathomable and unspeakable horrors in video games, right, is that they’re designed by people. Oh the human brain can do weird and awful, no doubt, but it’s bad at things it can’t itself grasp. So I’m quite into how newly-announced roguelikelike action-platformer Source Of Madness uses machine learning and procedural generation to spit out its “Lovecraftian” levels and monsters, which do have a pleasing weirdness to them. A bit like if you let Google DeepDream munch up a load of dogs and landscapes then spit them back out into a game.

Skeleton Crew — Guerrilla Collective Trailer

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Modern Wolf presents Skeleton Crew,  a gothic platformer with a pinball-like twist coming soon to PC.

30XX - Ace Developer Spotlight

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Jump, shoot, and slash your way through 30XX, the roguelike action platformer you can play with a friend! Explore lush, ever-changing worlds that mix precise platforming with fevered combat. Destroy fearsome Guardians. Master unique Powers. Rediscover the thousand years we've lost.

Demon's Souls Is Being Remade On PS5

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The game was introduced by Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida as something “something very near and dear to me.” It’s apparently being rebuilt “from the ground up” and getting a new “Fractured Mode.” Sony also confirmed players will have the option of choosing to play in two different graphics mode with one focused on visual quality while the other optimizes for frame rate.

Gran Turismo 7 - Announcement Trailer | PS5

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Gran Turismo™ 7 builds on 22 years of experience to bring you the best features from the history of the franchise Whether you’re a competitive racer, collector, fine-tuning builder, livery designer, photographer or arcade fan – ignite your personal passion for cars with features inspired by the past, present and future of Gran Turismo™.

Evil Genius 2: World Domination - Development Update

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Join Lead Designer Rich Edwards as he shares never before revealed secrets and insights about the recent Gameplay trailer from, returning and new Evil Geniuses, creating rooms, new traps, powerful henchmen, DOOMSDAY DEVICES!, and so much more!

EA announces Star Wars: Squadrons, a new first-person starfighter dogfighting game

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EA has announced a new Star Wars game, Star Wars: Squadrons, a first-person space combat game that will have players flying the series’s famous starfighters in head-to-head single-player and multiplayer battles.

Fight Crab will come to fight crabs on July 30th

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From the studio which brought you Neo Aquarium: The King Of Crustaceans and Ace Of Seafood comes a game whose name tells you everything: Fight Crab. We’ve marvelled before at the series about heavily-armed crustaceans having a square go, and now we have a release date for the latest, July 30th. This series has been running for eight years and I still laugh at the idea. Fight Crab!

Iron Harvest - Official Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2020

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Control giant dieselpunk mechs in this upcoming real-time strategy game (RTS) set in the alternate reality of 1920+, just after the end of the Great War. Iron Harvest launches on September 1, 2020 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Speed Limit demo out now on Steam!

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Speed Limit is an old-school, ode-to-90s-when-demos-were-a-thing retro shooter boiled down to its core elements: Hard. Fast. Addictive. Play the demo and wishlist the game!

Ex-Witcher devs announce Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart Of The Forest

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It’s all getting a bit cramped in the World Of Darkness, but it seems there’s space to squeeze in at least one more wolf. Putting the other White Wolf behind them, two former Witcher devs today announced Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart Of The Forest – an upcoming tale of anger, activism and global warming as told through the lens of the big bad wolf. Not that any of that’s in the teaser, mind. We’ll just have to make do with this rather lovely owl.

Night In The Woods creators are teasing their next spooky-looking project

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The Glory Society, the new worker cooperative founded by some of the creators of Night In The Woods, have started summoning their next project. Glory Society have awoken on Twitter to post this spooky gif of a crow on a gravestone. No, it’s not Night In The Woods 2, they say. Just getting that out of the way.

New Blood Presents... "ULTRAKILL"

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Insane gameplay by CabalCrow

GoNNER 2 - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch

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The IGF winning game GoNNER is getting a sequel! GoNNER 2 is coming late 2020. Journey your way through deep dark chaotic places with unimaginable sparks of colour as you go on a mission to help Death rid a mysterious presence from her lair. Battle crazy bosses, lose your head (a lot), in this messy, cute, fast-paced procedurally-generated platformer.

Swimsanity - Official Reveal Trailer

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Swimsanity takes multiplayer underwater. Coming this summer to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Gori: Cuddly Carnage - Alpha Teaser

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Angry Demon Studio presents our next upcoming game

Calico - Guerrilla Collective Trailer

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Calico is a day-in-the-life community sim game where you are given an important and adorable task: rebuild the town’s cat café and fill it with cute and cuddly creatures! You will journey to a small village filled with magical girls and other fantastical friends, where you are placed in charge of a run down cat café. Build up your café by filling it with cute furniture, fun decorations, yummy pastries, and get it bustling with animals again!

Nuts demo lets you spy on squirrels and their secrets

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Squirrels: they’re hiding something. No matter how cute they look, they’re keeping something from us and maybe it’s more than just food. Perhaps you’ll see some of their secrets in the new demo for Nuts, a game about surveilling the goings-on of squirrels. By day, carefully place your cameras. By night, sit back to watch where the blighters go. It’s a first-person puzzle game of sorts, about the daily cycle of tweaking camera locations to follow the furry fiends, but also has a story about squirrely secrets. I’m interested.

Lost At Sea - Announcement Trailer

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Lost At Sea is a game about life. A game about every one of us and the incredible adventure we all take part in.

Love, friendship, family, career, freedom. No matter who we are or where we come from, these are the things that make life worth living for all of us. And we are all afraid that something will take these things away or take us away, before we have experienced every single bit of it. But death is inevitable, to be afraid of it doesn't make sense. And the more we experience, the more we know and remember - the more the fear of death loses its power.

Vigil: The Longest Night Teaser Trailer

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Vigil: The Longest Night will be available on PC, Xbox, PS4 and Nintendo Switch soon.

Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch - Gameplay Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2020

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This upcoming 2D brawler from the mind of Kevin Smith channels classic in the genre with a View Askew twist.

Gestalt Steam and Cinder - Official Announcement Trailer

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Check out the latest trailer of Gestalt Steam and Cinder from Guerilla Collective's Live Showcase Event The MIX!

Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse Gameplay Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2020

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Set in the huge webcomic's universe Freakpocalypse has you playing a weird, unpopular, ginger-headed orphan... who has to save the world.

Cardaclysm - Announcement Trailer

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Face the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in epic card battles! Cardaclysm: Shards of the Four is a procedurally generated collectible card game mixed with action RPG elements. Collect creature and spell cards throughout your journey and unleash their power if anyone opposes you!

West of Dead - Official Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2020

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West of Dead is a dark western set in Purgatory, Wyoming. Mystic enemies, dark powers, and the desert sun all come into play in this gritty western shooter. West of Dead is part of Day 1 of Guerrilla Collective.

Ghostrunner is a first-person platformer that makes you feel like a ninja

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Ghostrunner is a first-person action game that puts you in control of a titular Ghostrunner, a samurai-like peacekeeper, in a bleak, dystopian mega-city called Dharma Tower. The tower is a massive structure that houses everything a city would need to survive, with the poorest people and manufacturing units on the bottom and the richest residents living high above everything else. When the Ghostrunner wakes up at the bottom with no memory, a mysterious AI tells him he must climb the tower to take out the evil Keymaster who runs the city. It’s not exactly the most original story, but it gets the job done and sets the mood.

Genesis Noir - Behind the Scenes with Feral Cat Den

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A noir adventure spanning time and space. When a love triangle between cosmic beings becomes a bitter confrontation, you'll witness a gunshot fired by a jealous god—otherwise known as The Big Bang. Jump into the expanding universe and search for a way to destroy creation and save your love.

Röki - Pre-Launch Trailer

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Röki is a game of adventure, courage and folklore. It’s a game about monsters that shouldn’t exist, but do. Join Tove on a fantastical journey to save her family by confronting her own past. Explore a dark forgotten fairy tail world, filled with riddles, strange locations and even stranger characters.

Solve murders as a supernatural detective in Lucifer Within Us

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Examine. Deduce. Interrogate. Accuse.

The Last Campfire segment | PC Gaming Show 2020

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The Last Campfire segment from the PC Gaming Show 2020

Cris Tales Uses Classic RPGs as Inspirational Markers on Its Wildly Ambitious Course

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It's common for RPGs to use time travel as a gameplay mechanic, a background narrative, or both. 1995's Chrono Trigger for the SNES is probably the best-known example. Chrono Trigger's exciting travels across the past, present, and future made it an easy choice for USG's Best RPG of All Time. It's not surprising, then, to learn Dreams Uncorporated's own RPG about time travel, a lovely-looking adventure called Cris Tales, names Chrono Trigger as one of its main inspirations.

FULL Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 Presentation | Paradox Interactive Showcase

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Check out the full Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 presentation from the Paradox Interactive Showcase including the reveal of Damsel reveal trailer.

Goodbye Volcano High - Reveal Trailer | PS5

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Goodbye Volcano High is a cinematic narrative adventure about the end of an era… and the beginning of a love story. Coming 2021 to PS5 & PS4.

Persona 4 Golden - Official Steam Trailer | Summer of Gaming

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Persona 4 Golden, Atlus' updated version of its popular PS2 JRPG is available on Steam.

Dwarf Fortress Steam Version - First Look Gameplay & Dev Commentary

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The deepest, most intricate simulation of a world that's ever been created. The legendary Dwarf Fortress is now on Steam. Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive, OR adventure as a single hero against a deeply generated world. As seen on the 2020 Guerrilla Collective Showcase.

Valheim Guerilla Collective Trailer

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Welcome to the Tenth World!

Boyfriend Dungeon - Gameplay & Dev Commentary

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Gameplay footage from the Guerrilla Collective Showcase! Romance your swords in this dating simulator, dungeon crawler adventure mash up.

Colt Canyon Release Teaser Trailer

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Take your revolver and rescue your partner in this atmospheric and punchy roguelike game.

Punishing boss-rush game Eldest Souls drops a new trailer at Guerrilla Collective

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Eldest Souls is a "challenging pixel art boss-rush game," according to its Steam listing—so challenging that it took our man 15 minutes and 12 deaths to beat the first enemy he ran into. If that sounds like your cup of punishment, then you're going to want to check out the new trailer that debuted today at the Guerrilla Collective livestream, showcasing a warrior with a sword that's way too big, facing off against enemies that are much, much bigger.

ACE Team's The Eternal Cylinder still looks wild

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It feels very 2020 to wish for a vast annihilating cylinder to flatten the world, but goodness me I am so up for The Eternal Cylinder. The latest game from ACE Team, the makers of Zeno Clash and Rock Of Ages, is about cute critters trying to escape a monolothic planet-pulverising tube rolling over the landscape. They’ll eat other life to gain new abilities aiding their escape, which sounds fun but… I’m still in the stage of being wowed by how wild it looks. ACE Team’s surreal style is such a treat, and a new trailer shows off more of the weird life we’ll meet.

Icarus - Official Trailer | Summer of Gaming

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Explore a hostile planet and survive in a new survival game from the DayZ developer.

Midnight Ghost Hunt - Gameplay Teaser

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MIDNIGHT GHOST HUNT is a ghostly hide-and-seek multiplayer game!

Wolfstride Reveal Trailer

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Compete in the Ultimate Mech Tournament in Wolfstride.  Fight epic battles, perform repairs and upgrades, make friends, earn money, and look good doing it.

Floppy Knights | Official Announcement Trailer (Coming Soon!)

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What do you get when you bring a microprocessor to a knight-fight? A deck-building, sword-swinging, tactical adventure! Meet the Floppy Knights: tangible projections summoned from floppy disks. They’ll help Phoebe and Carlton earn cash and perhaps even save the world in the process.

Per Aspera - Trespassing Trailer

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Per Aspera is a narrative-driven strategy game with the goal of overcoming the challenge of terraforming Mars. Explore the planet, gather resources, and make strategic decisions as you live the fantasy of scientifically-based interplanetary expansion. Hardship awaits in 2020.

Serial Cleaners will continue sneakily cleaning for the mob next year

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Quietly grab your mop bucket, select your least squeaky soap, and bring a whole load of bin bags, for soon we’ll again be called on by the mob to clean up crime scenes before cops get the evidence. Serial Cleaners, announced today and coming next year, is a follow-up to 2017’s Serial Cleaner. I still like the sound of the concept. I hope that its realisation is less frustrating this time.

No Straight Roads - Guerrilla Collective - Sneak Peak of Vinyl City

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Long version of the Guerrilla Collective Day 2 Presentation narrated by Wan Hazmer, CEO and Game Director of No Straight Roads.

Skate Story's underworld kickflips get technical in a new trailer

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It is time, once again, to scream about Skate Story. Sam Eng’s crystalline kickflipper made a fleeting appearance during this weekend’s second Guerrilla Collective stream-a-thon. The new trailer flaunted more of the game’s stunning concrete underworlds while laying out the technical footwork that’ll get you there. To paraphrase a truly well-worn phrase, one doesn’t simply ollie their way into hell – and lord, do I long for the day when I can carve my way into Skate Story’s abyss.

Deliver 80s post in 80s postal delivery story Lake, due out this year

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Our VidBud Colm used to be a postman back in the old country, and from what he’s said it was a job he very much enjoyed. Small wonder, then, that big city slicker Meredith would want a go of it for a couple of weeks in Lake, an open world explore-a-town game due out by the end of the year (and a poor SEO optimisation if you ask me, since if I ever forget the name of it I’m going to have to Google things like “post delivery woman video game small town” to find it again).

Doors of Insanity - Reveal Trailer

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Reveal Trailer of Doors of Insanity.

A Juggler's Tale - Announcement Trailer

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A poetic 3D side-scrolling adventure about hope and empowerment - on PC & Consoles 2021!

Amazon's MMO New World is getting a closed beta next month

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Amazon are going all-in on the gaming scene this year. First they jumped onto the hero-shooter trend with Crucible, and now their MMORPG, New World, is next. At the PC Gaming Show today they revealed a gameplay trailer showing off some of PvP combat, and treated us to some info on its closed beta coming this July.

Baldur's Gate 3 - Official Early Access Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2020

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A brand new trailer for Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studio's fantasy RPG set in the popular Baldur's Gate universe has been revealed as part of Guerrilla Collective.

Fantastical action-RPG No Place For Bravery is out early next year, gets blood all over its trailer

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No Place For Bravery was revealed an entire four years ago, which is a long time, as it goes. NPFB (if you’ll allow me an inelegant abbreviation) has shyly peeked around the PC Gaming Show curtain with a new trailer. Alice0 remarked on the sense of terrible scale on display when it was first announced, and though that hasn’t changed, a few other things have. In any case, this top-down, fast paced and extremely gory action-RPG is about ready to take itself out of the oven: it’s coming Q1 2021.

Torchlight 3 - Official Early Access Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2020

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Torchlight 3 is the latest dungeon crawler in the Torchlight series and it's available now on Steam for Early Access.

Torchlight 3 dev talks unsustainable crunch on Diablo 2

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Although the team behind Torchlight 3 is somewhat different from the crew that made the previous two Torchlight games, Max Schaefer remains a constant. As Torchlight 3 finally hits Early Access after eight years, the former Blizzard dev says his time crunching on Diablo 2 was a great teacher in what not to do to sustainably make great RPG games.

Dungeon of Naheulbeuk gameplay trailer | PC Gaming Show 2020

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Dungeon of Naheulbeuk gameplay trailer, revealed at the PC Gaming Show 2020

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town segment | PC Gaming Show 2020

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Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town trailer, revealed at the PC Gaming Show 2020

Trash Sailors trailer｜PC Gaming Show 2020

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New trailer for Trash Sailors, revealed at PC Gaming Show 2020

Alaloth: Champion of the Four Kingdoms trailer｜PC Gaming Show

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New trailer for Alaloth: Champion of the Four Kingdoms, revealed at PC Gaming Show 2020

System Shock - Official Alpha Demo Teaser Trailer

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Check out the Alpha Demo for System Shock a limited time!

Uragun - Weapons Gameplay Trailer

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Uragun is a top-down shooter, which puts you in an all-powerful mech unit challenged with annihilating swarms of smart AI bots flooding the streets of familiar cities. Coming Q2/Q3 to Steam Early Access with console versions to follow sometime in 2020!

Exo One Gameplay Trailer

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Go on an interplanetary, gravity-defying journey through space and time. For Windows PC on Steam.

The Iron Oath promises turn-based fights in a dynamic world

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Manage your own mercenary company in this bloody tactical RPG featuring gruesome spells and attacks, a dynamic and shifting overworld, and many mysteries to be uncovered.

Just Die Already (Death Stranding Parody) - Official Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2020

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Just Die Already spoofs the debut trailer for Death Stranding in its own announcement trailer. What does it mean? Who knows!

Bomber Crew gets sequel Space Crew later this year

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Curve Digital and Runner Duck's flight strategy game Bomber Crew is getting a sequel later this year.

Dustborn is about smashing cops with words, bats

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Red Thread Games, the studio behind Dreamfall Chapters and Draugen, have announced a new action adventure game, Dustborn, with a shiny trailer.