Month: June 2021

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  A Super Dodgeball RPG? We are there for Dodgeball Academia

Between the more-than-three-hour combined running time of the PC Gaming Show and the Future Games Show Sunday evening, over 80 games were featured in the form of trailers, interviews, or just new feature announcements. We know because we sat through them all and counted as our butts got increasingly numb.

Rather than recapping every single one of those games, we're chosen 16 titles that stood out from the crowd and have made it onto our radar for one reason or another. While it's hard to fully judge these games based on a few minutes of slickly cut footage (and zero hands-on time), we'll be watching out for them as they work their way towards release in the coming months.

• Dodgeball Academia seems to mix the basic gameplay and perspective of NES gem Super Dodgeball with the progression of an RPG and the storyline of a schoolyard anime. This Humble Games production hits PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and Windows in August.

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  Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) relishes the challenge of stealing a Peruvian fertility idol. [credit: Lucasfilm ]

I still remember the thrill of watching Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time in the summer of 1981. I spilled my popcorn at the very first jump scare: our hero, Indiana Jones, triggered a booby trap while tracking a Peruvian fertility idol, and a skewered, decaying skeleton popped into the frame. From then on, it was a nonstop ride of thrills, chills, and more than a few spills, with enough humor, romance, and supernatural mysticism thrown in to capture anyone's imagination. Snakes! Spiders! A Nazi monkey spy! Plus plenty of explosions and a gross-out melting face! Next to the first Star Wars movie, it was the best movie I had yet seen in my relatively young life.

I wasn't alone in my enthusiasm, despite a tepid trailer that captured none of the action/adventure flick's enduring magic. Critics (mostly) raved, and audiences flocked to theaters to see Raiders again and again for several months after its release on June 12, 1981. It was the top-grossing film of that year and didn't leave theaters until the following March, ultimately grossing $354 million globally.  Raiders was nominated for multiple Oscars, winning five (for film editing, art direction, sound, sound editing, and visual effects). The Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, and it is widely considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time. Even director Steven Spielberg has said he considers it the most perfect film in the franchise.

(Major spoilers below because it's been 40 years, and who even are you if you haven't seen this movie yet?)

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  Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) relishes the challenge of stealing a Peruvian fertility idol. [credit: Lucasfilm ]

I still remember the thrill of watching Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time in the summer of 1981. I spilled my popcorn at the very first jump scare: our hero, Indiana Jones, triggered a booby trap while tracking a Peruvian fertility idol, and a skewered, decaying skeleton popped into the frame. From then on, it was a nonstop ride of thrills, chills, and more than a few spills, with enough humor, romance, and supernatural mysticism thrown in to capture anyone's imagination. Snakes! Spiders! A Nazi monkey spy! Plus plenty of explosions and a gross-out melting face! Next to the first Star Wars movie, it was the best movie I had yet seen in my relatively young life.

I wasn't alone in my enthusiasm, despite a tepid trailer that captured none of the action/adventure flick's enduring magic. Critics (mostly) raved, and audiences flocked to theaters to see Raiders again and again for several months after its release on June 12, 1981. It was the top-grossing film of that year and didn't leave theaters until the following March, ultimately grossing $354 million globally.  Raiders was nominated for multiple Oscars, winning five (for film editing, art direction, sound, sound editing, and visual effects). The Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, and it is widely considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time. Even director Steven Spielberg has said he considers it the most perfect film in the franchise.

(Major spoilers below because it's been 40 years, and who even are you if you haven't seen this movie yet?)

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  Curvy reflections on spaceship interiors in Starfield

Microsoft packed 30 different games into its hour-and-a-half-long presentation at this year's completely virtual E3 show. Most of those games will be available on Game Pass and many will be Xbox console exclusives.

If you didn't have a chance to sit through the lengthy, bombastic presentation live, here's a quick recap of every trailer and announcement that graced the streaming "stage."

Upcoming games

• Starfield got its first extensive teaser trailer, which we covered in more detail in a separate post. It's an Xbox Series X/S and PC exclusive coming Nov. 11, 2022.