On top of this, the Birnin Zana Outpost will be added as well. To detail everything one should know about the expansion, there will be a new War Table stream on August 16th at 10 AM PDT. Overall, it seems that the single-player campaign length – from the base game to the upcoming expansion – will total over 25 hours.

This is especially relevant for those jumping in during the all-access weekend, which starts today and ends on August 1st. Available for PS4, PS5, PC and Google Stadia, it allows for playing the entire game with a 400 percent bonus to XP earned. The game will also be discounted by 40 percent, allowing new users to continue their progress from the free trial. A similar opportunity will be coming to Xbox platforms in the “coming months.”

Chernobylite is set 30 years after the infamous disaster at the nuclear plant and focuses on a physicist that returns to seek out his beloved, Tatiana. Though players will have to deal with hostile soldiers, including Stalkers that roam the zone, they can recruit teammates to their cause. Crafting equipment and weapons is the key to survival but keep in mind that any character can die with a wrong decision.

Not everything is as it seems with the main character either and his grip on reality may be tenuous at best. We’ll find out how the story pans out when Chernobylite releases on July 28th for PC. A release date is yet to be announced for the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 versions so stay tuned in the coming months.

For the most part, an entity – which may be his inner thoughts – hounds Igor, doubting his intentions and questioning the very reasons he came back. The player will apparently need to make some tough choices which extend to “changing the past.” As it stands, Chernobylite already offers quite a lot to manage as you explore the Zone with different squadmates, managing your relationships and equipment, and doing your best to survive.

Currently available in Steam Early Access, Chernobylite releases in full on July 28th for PS4, Xbox One and PC. It will launch for Xbox Series X/S and PS5 later this year. The final release includes new content like the “Final Heist”. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

The trio discussed the development of each game and the stories behind them. It was also confirmed that each title’s pixel art characters have been fully remastered courtesy of pixel artist Kazuko Shibuya, a veteran who’s been working on the franchise since Final Fantasy 1. The mention of “pixel art characters” seems to indicate that the backgrounds won’t be in the same style but that’s just conjecture.

A new trailer was revealed at the end of the presentation so expect that to go live sometime soon. Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster includes re-releases of Final Fantasy 1 to 6 with each title being available individually and in a complete bundle. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Most of the time when IPs like this go for more than a handful of years without a new sequel getting announced we get don’t get another one, but with this IP it appears we will have an exception on our hands as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl was recently announced to be coming from the same studio to Windows and Xbox in April of 2022. From the vertical slice trailer that we saw for the game’s announcement, there appears to be a lot in the game that is praiseworthy. From what sounds like pretty good voice acting, an interesting story that expands on the ideas of the original game, to the audio design we have plenty to be excited for with this upcoming game. However it’s really the graphics that were the standout characteristic here. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is arguably the best-looking game announced for E3 this year as it currently stands, and if you watch the trailer a couple of times you’ll see a lot of reasons to think that.

First the environmental stuff. From what we see in the trailer, there appears to be a lot of emphasis placed on the time period and just general state of affairs in the world for the game. Most of the vegetation “in the Zone” looks appropriately fried, most of the technology shown seems either constricted by its time period or fancifully evolved from it with a 1980’s technology gone awry aesthetic, and it all looks good together, adding up to a convincingly appropriate look and tone for a game based on the area and time period of the Chernobyl disaster. With that setting would obviously come a lot of dilapidated buildings, crumbling infrastructure, and of course a desolate landscape that nobody of sound mind would ever want to hang around in unless they had to.

The outside environments vary greatly from the interior ones as well. In the trailer we see inside a couple different types of buildings, with older decaying structures that have entire sections of walls missing and broken floorboards that give way when characters step on them. Whether those animations are canned and structured or dynamic and actually reacting to weight being pressed upon them in real-time is ultimately immaterial to the effect they provide. Subtle things like that go a long way to establishing the unkempt nature of the structures that you’ll be visiting in this game. These are buildings that have obviously been through some catastrophic events and haven’t been maintained well since then. As a result, they feel adequately battered and decrepit. One internal structure during the trailer takes on more of the game’s science fiction aesthetics with toxic green light spilling out and over the rusty browns and reds of the rest of the room and looks really interesting as a result. So aside from the graphical prowess and realism of the presentation, it’s also looking like the game is going out of its way to have a nice variety of locations that all look distinct but still appropriate for the story and setting, which is exactly what you want in a game like this.

Inside all of those environments of course are the little things that anybody who likes a good looking game will appreciate. Shadows are dynamic and subtle. Heat from the campfire warps the environment behind it in real-time, and the character models themselves are quite a step up from most current gen models you are likely to see with plenty of detail and independent objects on their outfits moving in real-time.

There are several moments where the other non-playable characters are conversing with the main protagonist and all of them look great. Mouth movements are smooth and seem to have lots of points of animation while also matching up with the dialogue in ways that seem more genuine than a lot of the mouth movements that we’ve gotten accustomed to from most games that often look robotic outside of cutscenes.

It might seem like a small thing, and perhaps it is, but having believable real-time animations with NPC’s can absolutely go a long way to helping you feel more invested in that character and what they are doing, which of course creates a more immersive experience overall. Even more striking is the gunplay, showcasing some extremely good looking weapons, the more interesting of which with intricate moving parts and subtle particle effects spraying out of the muzzle as it’s fires, as well as some eye-catching animations of things being blown apart by grenades and fragments of boxes flying towards you.

This really seems to emphasize just how visually messy an actual firefight can be with things breaking apart and explosions impacting more than just their immediate area of effect. One can only imagine what these systems might be able to visually pull off in some of the game’s later sections when combat gets more complex and involves more enemies at once. The enemies themselves aren’t seen much, but the recognizable squid-mouthed monster design from the original game does seem to make an appearance here which is nice to see, as a close up shot of the monster is shown that really takes that grotesque design to a whole new level. Blowing these things away as well as some of the other creatures that are surely in store for us in this game should be a feast for the eyes for anyone looking to enjoy a good roster of horrible monsters and disfigured humanoid designs.

Surely we still have a lot to learn about the newest game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise as there do seem to be some other gameplay mechanics at work here. This franchise might have been on ice for a while but it does appear to be heating back up with this newest entry. Interacting with this world’s cast of incredulous, eccentric characters and battling with its horrifying abominations should, if nothing else, be a visual showcase for current gen consoles. Hopefully we’ll get to learn more about it soon, because if these graphics are any indication then the game surely has more than a few more tricks up its sleeve.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Strange of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin aka Chaos Reigns

You could point to other titles in Square Enix’s showcase as being disliked but Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin is on top. This is a combination that should have made an immediate impression – Team Ninja of Nioh fame working on a hack and slash Souls-like set in Final Fantasy 1’s universe. Plus, it was a surprise announcement – it had to make an impact regardless. It certainly made an impact and unfortunately, it wasn’t quite what Square Enix had in mind. From the cheesy dialogue and meme-rific spouting of “CHAOS” to the unimpressive aesthetic and blandly designed main character, Stranger of Paradise garnered mixed reactions. And unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it.

The trial went live on PS5 right after the debut trailer – surely the gameplay was solid, right? No sooner had fans downloaded it than they discovered the trial was corrupted and wouldn’t play. Square Enix would release an update to get it working and even then, impressions have been mixed. From what should have been a bright new debut to a floundering on all fronts, Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin’s arrival has been painful to witness.

Redfall

Arkane Studios’ rumored Omen was finally revealed as open world co-op shooter Redfall. The story sees an island in Massachusetts cut off from the rest of the world after vampires block out the sun. Naturally, as a survivor, you need to kill them and escape. Though gameplay wasn’t revealed, there will be multiple playable characters, each with their own unique abilities and gadgets. And though it may seem akin to Back 4 Blood, Bethesda’s Pete Hines says that a more methodical approach will be needed instead of running and gunning. Redfall is slated to release in Summer 2022 for Xbox Series X/S and PC.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHERNOBYL

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl had a significant showing at E3, not only revealing a subtitle and confirming an exact release date, but also showcasing quite a bit of gameplay footage- which looked absolutely incredible. The environments are looking incredibly detailed, the character models and animations look top-notch. All in all, the open world horror shooter definitely looks set to be one of the most visually impressive games of 2022.

That said, it’s not like there was nothing of note at this year’s E3. Though far from perfect, E3 2021 still had quite a few exciting new announcements and meaty new updates spread out across its several showcases and events. But the question, as it ever is, is who had the best show out of all the attendees. Who should off the best, most interesting games, and promised exciting things for the future? Let’s talk about the events of E3 in the order that they happened, and take a look at how each of them turned out (for the purposes of this feature, we’re only talking about the publisher showcases).

Before E3 even technically began, Elden Ring had already taken the industry by storm, impressing with its first gameplay showing and with its promise of a game with that trademark FromSoftware depth and mechanical polish, but set in a massive, ambitious open world, and with the collective strength of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin backing its story and lore. It’s hard not to salivate at that prospect, and we’d be remiss no to mention the waves Elden Ring made before E3 even technically began, with a January release date announcement to boot.

The next day, however, E3 proper did begin. First, we had Ubisoft- which was a decent yet tame way to kick off the festivities. The biggest and most exciting new announcement at the Ubisoft Forward was Mario + Rabbit Sparks of Hope. The game’s leak prior to E3 may have dampened the impact of the announcement somewhat, but nothing can take away from how good the game looks. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was one of the best games of 2017, completely contrary to initial expectations, and from what we’ve seen of it so far, it definitely seems like Sparks of Hope is looking to deliver an even better experience.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was also announced. We’ve known about Ubisoft Massive’s Avatar game for quite some time (it was first confirmed to be in the works way back in 2017), but honestly, it’s announcement here came as a bit of a surprise. We saw a purely cinematic trailer, of course, and it didn’t tell us much about the actual game or its gameplay, other than the fact that it’s going be a first person open world action-adventure game. Still the potential of a well-made open world Avatar game is exciting, and it’s good to know that the game is actually coming not long from now.

The other major reveal was Rainbow Six Extraction, which was known as Rainbow Six Quarantine not that long ago. Unfortunately, it looks… not that great. It doesn’t look terrible, that’s for sure, but it doesn’t look all that exciting. Its risk-and-reward style progression mechanics and roguelike elements are certainly interesting, but it was a pretty tepid first showing nonetheless. Riders Republic also confirmed a September launch, and it showed an extended look of its gameplay, which looked solid. The concept of a social open world where you can jump into various extreme sports is an interesting one, and Riders Republic certainly seems to have some good ideas about how to deliver that.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft also showed off the upcoming Bloodline DLC for Watch Dogs: Legion, showed another Far Cry 6 trailer, and announced that they’ll be supporting Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with more content in 2022. There was also a Just Dance segment, because of course there was. So a decent showcase, all in all, with one exciting reveal and a few more good showings, interspersed with a couple somewhat low points.

Then came Devolver Digital- and yes, of course it was an amazing show. Devolver consistently puts on hilarious shows year after year, and 2021 was no different. But it wasn’t great just because it was funny- it also showed quite a few interesting things. Trek to Yomi looks like a beautiful sidescrolling Ghost of Tsushima, Death’s Door is looking promising, Shadow Warrior 3 once again showed off blistering combat, Phantom Abyss was given an early access release date. Then there was Wizard with a Gun, Inscryption, Demon Throttle, each of which had impressive debuts at the show. Devolver’s event may not have had massive names, but it was constantly entertaining, and shed light on more than a few games that are probably going to end up surprise people.

The next day, we got the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase- and this was a big one. The best and most impressive game shown off was, without the shadow of a double, Forza Horizon 5. True to rumours, it is set in Mexico, which promises to be a stunning open world. It looks vast and varied and full of excellent activities, both solo and multiplayer. Meanwhile, on a technical level, Forza Horizon 5 is clearly leveraging the Xbox Series X/S’ hardware to great effect- the game looks ridiculously good. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it has the potential to be probably one of the best games of 2021 when it launches in November.

Halo Infinite multiplayer game was also shown off, and for Halo fans, the footage definitely hits the spot. It remains to be seen how the game’s campaign will fare, but its multiplayer is definitely headed in the right direction. And that wasn’t the only other game with a meaty gameplay showing. Battlefield 2042’s gameplay debut was solid, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl looked amazing and confirmed an April 2022 launch, Far Cry 6 showed off more gameplay and continued to look more great.

There were also quite a few major reveals. Redfall is promising what Arkane is best at, this time in an open world co-op experience brimming with vampires. A Plague Tale: Requiem was announced, and as the sequel to one of 2019’s best and biggest surprises, it’s hard not to be excited about that. The Outer Worlds 2 was unveiled as well, with a hilarious trailer that was very well aware of how little it showed. Then there’s Contraband, Avalanche’s Xbox-exclusive co-op open world game, which, frankly, didn’t really give us many reasons to be excited- but we’re still curious to learn more about it. Meanwhile, some solid like indie titles like Somerville, Replaced, and Hades – which is finally coming to Xbox and PlayStation – also got some of the spotlight.

But that’s not all. We also got release dates for several major upcoming games, including the likes of Starfield, Microsoft Flight Simulator’s Xbox Series X/S version, Psychonauts 2, Age of Empires 4, Diablo 2: Resurrected, and Twelve Minutes. The Xbox show was also packed full of Game Pass announcements- on top of all first party Microsoft games announced at the show, third part titles like A Plague Tale: Requiem, Back 4 Blood, Atomic Heart, Twelve Minutes, Somervile, and both Eiyuden Chronicle games are all confirmed as day one Xbox Game Pass releases as well.

So yeah, the Xbox show was pretty packed. Full of new reveals like Redfall, impressive gameplay showings like Forza Horizon 5, solid victories for Game Pass like A Plague Tale: Requiem, promising indies like Somerville, and major release date announcements like Starfield. It was a well-rounded, well-paced show, and it might very well be one of Microsoft’s best E3 event ever, if not the best. While the last few years have felt transitional, like Xbox was laying down the foundations for big plays, at E3 2021, we saw that beginning to come to fruition. Where past E3s have spoken about things coming far down the road, this year we got to see a bunch of games we’re going to be playing within the next year, a year and a half at most. It’s all tangible, as opposed to, say, CG trailers for Fable and Perfect Dark and other games that are not going to release for several years. What we saw at the Xbox show this year is all very easy to be excited about.

Sadly, the next couple of events after the Xbox show were less than stellar. Square Enix went next, and started things off with Guardians of the Galaxy, which certainly looks promising. It’s a story-driven single player action adventure game, and from what we’ve seen so far, it looks like it’s capturing the fun and spirit of the source material very well. It might just succeed in all the way Avengers didn’t. The other major new reveal was Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, which was a terrible way to reveal what might just be a good game. A Nioh-style action RPG set in the world of Final Fantasy 1 and developed by Team Ninja has the potential to be special, but that reveal definitely wasn’t.

Babylon’s Fall also finally resurfaced- but not how we would have hoped. It’s adopted a weird new art style, and it’s being billed as a co-op live service game. So far, it neither sounds interesting nor looks interesting, in spite of the fact that it’s being developed by PlatinumGames, which is really saying something. A whole section of the Square Enix event was also dedicated to mobile games, which seems weird for an E3 event, while that Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster announcement was also incredibly misguided. Fans have been demanding good remasters of the first six Final Fantasy games on consoles, so Square Enix decides to… announce them for mobile?

Though it started off fine with Guardians of the Galaxy, Square Enix’s E3 event was extremely uneven, and at times, even downright painful. It was then followed by a Capcom show, which… yeah, why was that a whole show again? They talked about exactly what they said they would, so at least they set the expectations, but that was all they talked about. They confirmed Resident Evil Village DLC with a line of text, which, as exciting as that is for Resident Evil fans, didn’t really tell us much. There were updates for The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and Monster Hunter Stories 2 (which, honestly, had a much better showing during the Nintendo Treehouse livestream the next day), and measly announcements for Monster Hunter Rise. All of this should probably have been just, you know, regular announcements. Capcom didn’t have to do any of this at E3, and it’s hard not to wonder why they even bothered this year.

Thankfully, E3 2021 at least signed off on a high note. Nintendo went last, as they usually do, and just like Xbox, theirs too was a packed show full of exciting new reveals and meaty new updates. Metroid Dread was easily the best announcement. The first new 2D Metroid game in almost two decades, reviving the fabled Metroid Dread that we’ve been hearing about since as far back as 2005, and looking absolutely incredible in its own right. MercurySteam impressed fans with Samus Returns on the 3DS, and with Dread, it seems like they’re on track to deliver a game that might just be exactly what Metroid fans have been craving for an interminably long time.

But that wasn’t the only crowd-please announcement at the Nintendo Direct. They also unveiled Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, which is yet another beloved Nintendo franchise that has been dormant far too long. Advance Wars have been waiting for a new game in the series for years, so to see the first two games in the series being fully remade from the ground-up and brought to the Switch is incredibly exciting. Shin Megami Tensei 5 also looked excellent, and yet again, years of anticipation are finally going to come to an end when the game, which was announced all the way back in January of 2017, when it releases this November.

Meanwhile, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s still-unnamed sequel showed off what looked like beautiful new gameplay, Mario Party Superstars was announced, WarioWare: Get It Together! was yet another crowd-pleasing announcement, and Tekken’s Kazuya was confirmed as the next character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Quite a few third party games were also confirmed for the Switch, such as Guardians of the Galaxy with a cloud release, Life is Strange: True Colors and Life is Strange: Remastered Collection, and Danganronpa Decadence,  which, in addition to the main trilogy, also includes a new game, the board game style title Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp.

All of this was, of course, followed by a lengthy Treehouse livestream, which showed off extensive gameplay demos for quite a few games, including Metroid Dread, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, all three of which are looking very impressive. Other imminent Switch releases like Monster Hunter Stories 2, Mario Golf: Super Rush, No More Heroes 3, WarioWare: Get it Together!, and Mario Party Superstars also showed off quite a bit of gameplay. Nintendo’s event, then, was an exciting one, to say the very least. Not extraordinarily so, but it definitely had more than a few excellent showings. Until not that long ago, the Switch’s upcoming lineup for the remainder of the year was looking a little scant, but now, not only does 2021 have plenty to look forward to, 2022 is also looking completely packed as well.

If we’re comparing the shows put on by each of publisher, it’s easy to say who had the worst. For starters, let’s not even make Capcom a part of the discussion. Their presentation was literally just a bunch of press releases cobbled together in video form, followed by some esports talk. The less said about Capcom’s show, the better. Of the ones that are left, the Square Enix showcase was definitely the most uneven. Guardians of the Galaxy looks good and Life is Strange: True Colors showed off more promising gameplay, but everything beyond that was disappointing at best, infuriating at worst. Ubisoft’s show was decent- not great, but it showed off plenty of interesting stuff, especially Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. Meanwhile, Devolver Digital’s show was predictably great- constantly entertaining, and full of interesting new games.

The Xbox and Nintendo showcases were clearly the highlights though. Both shows were full of big announcements, reveals, and updates. And honestly, between those two, you can pick either one based on where your tastes lie. Both of them showed off a lot, and the next year and a half is looking exciting for both Switch and Xbox, and their respective E3 shows did a lot to fill out that calendar for them. Personally, I find it hard to separate the two. After this E3, I’m just as excited about Redfall and Forza Horizon 5 as I am about Metroid Dread, Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, and Shin Megami Tensei 5. 

E2 2021, on the whole, wasn’t perfect. Far from it. Given the fact that developers and publishers are having a hard enough time keeping development on track while remote working, it makes sense that most weren’t as prepared with extremely impressive E3 showings, especially with plans for the event coming together later than usual. Even with all the rough edges though, thanks to Microsoft and Nintendo and other promising showings throughout the week, E3 2021 had more than enough to reignite our interest in the remainder of 2021.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

To promote Steam Next Fest, Valve has released several trailers showing off demos of some of the features games. These trailers are marked by genre, with a trailer for RPGs, strategy titles, puzzle games, platformers, adventure games, action games, and so on.

The Steam Game Festival originally started as a spin-off of the 2019 Game Awards. It would return in March, June and October of 2020, and most recently, in February of this year. Xbox also has a similar offering, known as Xbox Summer Game Fest, which is running until June 21st.

You can watch the live stream for Steam Next Fest below: