Gaming Bonanza: Summer Games Fest and More!

 Well, Summer is in swing, and that's brought a whole bunch of gaming news and upcoming releases.  Geoff Keighley, the founder and host of the annual Game Awards show, runs a show during the summer, the aptly named Summer Games Fest, though more shows air during that time, like Day of the Devs and others.  I didn't catch all of them, but I certainly caught a few, and I figured now that they've ended but are still fresh, I'd go through the 4 shows I saw, take a good look at the shows and what was shown and provide my own grad for the show!  I'll try to cover as much of each show as I can, so let's dive in starting with:

SUMMER GAMES FEST:

This one aired on June 5th, 2026.  This is Geoff Keighley's annual Summer show.  If you've ever watched any of the Game Award shows, the format of this show works pretty much the same- Gaming announcements followed by segments on stage that either end up funny or groan-worthy.  There were some pretty good announcements at this one.  We got a look at Capcom's upcoming remake of Code Veronica-Simply titled Resident Evil: Veronica, as well as a look at the upcoming Year 4 of Street Fighter 6 featuring New characters Yasmine and Arjun, Bosch from World Tour mode, and Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII.  There was yet another look at Control: Resonant, which is looking pretty awesome, honestly.  The biggest surprise for me went to the reveal of the 3 vs 1 horror game Saw: Genesis, a game set 100 years before the events of the first movie.  It's not bringing the first game back but it looks very interesting, considering that unlike Dead By Daylight, the killer here isn't physically capable of fighting the 3 in a physical fight.  We also got looks at an upcoming sequel to Stellar Blade- Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. A remaster for The Wolf Among Us and the reveal of a sequel game, and an open world Hot Wheels game- Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush.  That reveal pile grew more impressive with a new Gundam game, Gundam: Rogue Orbit and the reveal of not only a new, upcoming Cuphead sequel, but a retro style game called Mighty Cuphead Adventure that's even getting a release on the Sega Master System!  Unexpected but very cool, as was the puppet newscast they did for the trailer.  To top this off, We got a reveal for Guild Wars 3, The confirmation of the third and final part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy, Titled Revelation, and a new look at Sega and RGG Studios' upcoming fighter, Virtua Fighter Crossroads!  There was a decent amount of fun stuff in this show and it was well worth checking out.  If you're looking for new games, definitely check the highlights out!

Grade: B

XBOX SHOWCASE:

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, given XBOX's hit or miss track record and the recent not only reshuffling of the company and new CEO in Asha Sharma, but also the truly sad and reprehensible amount of layoffs that's been happening, but XBOX managed to put on what I thought was a pretty good event with a few surprises.  Starting off, they had a decent look at the upcoming prequel game Gears of War: E-Day. showing us Marcus and Dom before they became COG soldiers.  The game actually looks pretty good.  We also got to see a look at some new content for Halo: Campaign Evolved, showing off some brand new missions taking place before the events of the game truly started.  The expanded and redone content seem fitting for the series first foray onto new consoles with a PS5 version releasing.  Alongside a new trailer for Castlevania: Belmomt's Curse, XBOX showed us an extended look at Modern Warfare 4's new updated DMZ mode, showing off the mechanics and the fact that it will have a story.  A big surprise this show was the reveal of a brand new Spyro game, A Realm Beyond.  Of all the things I thought of, a new entry here made by Toys For Bob was not on my list!  We got a brief teaser of the fact that Persona 6 is real, and it's coming-and it looks like it may be horror oriented if the trailer is anything to go by.  Sega also game in with a surprise by showing off a brand new entry in an old series, Crazy Taxi: World Tour.  There wasn't as much to see here as there was for the main Summer Games Fest show, but there was still some real neat and interesting stuff shown off here to get your wishlist growing (Mine certainly has).

Grade: B

PC GAMING SHOW:

This one always manages to show off some fun interesting things in between their skits, and this year was no slouch either.  Hosts Micah Burton and Sean "Day" Plott hosted the main part of the show, presented as a sitcom style setting inside a house referred to as "PC Gaming Neighbors".  The usual talk show portion was hosted by Esports host Frankie Ward and new host this year, Youtuber and host of the BAFTA Games Awards, Elz the Witch (I thought she did great!).  There really was such a big amount shown off during this show, so I'll try to jump right in.  Our first big reveal was a city builder game with a space twist- Star Trek: Outposts Unknown.  Company of Heroes is now getting its own Definitive Edition, Fatshark gave us a look at the upcoming Skitarii class for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and a new retro VHS looking assassination game called Gone Feral looks kind of amazing.  Among the many, many games shown that you may want to look out for as well were Virtue and a Sledgehammer, the Tactical game Happy Bastards, the Rogue-lite Darkest Dungeon style AfterQuest, where your team gets resurrected upon death, and the odd and interesting cooking games Arcane Eats and Sated.  We got a look at a very interesting looking game that evokes Nintendo's Pokémon, called Cassette Beasts 2002, as well as a shadow drop for an unexpected sequel- 2 Fights 2 Tight Spaces!  The upcoming music/ cartoon looking game Maximum Thunderness also looked kind of awesome.  A new narrative RPG called Signet City also looked like something to keep an eye on.  One of the biggest announcement of the show, among the many many shown, was the announcement of Thief: The Dark Project Remastered, which even got main character Garrett's original VA back to voice him again.  If you're a fan of the old series that started in the 90's, You're going to be very happy about this one.  El Paso, Elsewhere 2  was also announced, which certainly made me super happy to see.  There was simply so much shown during this show to keep an eye out for and be excited about and I'm still thinking about all the cool stuff!  This one was definitely a top tier show, so definitely check the replay if you can!

Grade: A

NINTENDO DIRECT 6/9/26:

This one I sadly rank the lowest out of the shows I saw.  Nintendo had a few big things in there, but noe nearly enough to raise this up to more than a mid level show.  While a new Fire Emblem game Fortune's Weave, and the new Xenoblade Genesis are exciting to see, much of the presentation was announcements that games from the past few years are finally making their way to the Switch 2.  The Big Walk, which I believe was seen at Sony's last State of Play, was also shown to be coming.  The biggest reveals game later and near the end of the show.  First, three collections of Kingdom Hearts games are making their way physically to the Switch 2, and we got a great extended look at Kingdom Hearts 4.  The by far biggest reveal came right at the end-a small teaser for a remake of fan-beloved game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  For a Direct airing so early, Nintendo really didn't bring their A-Game on this one.  A few neat things to be sure, but mostly catching up.

Grade: C