(k)E(igh)3 2025 wrap-up

Welcome to the first real post of the GWN Blog! 'Tis the season for all game announcements, so I decided to gather my thoughts about the last week of "press conferences" and game announcements and package up the things that I liked and that I'm looking forward to play in the next year or two, and the actors/groups that I believe had a down week (and, thus, a pretty grim few months ahead)

Exciting games coming up

I wanted to shout out below a handful of games that were shown that tickled my fancy. I've included a steam link and the screenshots from the steam page (or official website) for every game.

Bloodstained: the Scarlet Engagement

 

Only notable mention from the Sony State of Play (Marvel Tokon looks good, but I’m not a fighting game guy), I’m stoked at the idea of a Bloodstained sequel, mostly because the world could always use more good Metroidvania games. It’s gonna be a long time before we see more of it, but it can cook until it’s ready.

Mina the Hollower

I’ve had my eye on this one for quite a while. This is the next game from Yacht Club, the Hollow Knight developers, and is expected to merge Castlevania with Link’s awakening. It looks gorgeous and I can’t wait to get my hands on it this October. Check out the demo for yourselves!

Resident Evil Re9uiem

I’m a big fan of Resident Evil, and basically loved all of the Capcom output in the franchise since RE7. The fakeout halfway through Summer Gamefest was a masterpiece, and I can’t wait to return to a semi-destroyed Racoon City on 02/27/2026.

Super Meat Boy 3D

More curious than convinced, but I believe the Meat Boy formula deserves a proper 3D outing, and the action in the trailer made it seem like the game had a solid base  excited to see more in early 2026. Being on Xbox Gamepass (the PC version of which is a fantastic deal) day one makes it a no-brainer.

Clockwork Revolution

This one caught me by surprise. They had announced it two years ago, and being made by inXile (of Wasteland and Fallout lineage) I expected a cRPG in that vein. Instead, the team cooked a single-player FPS with choices and time-mechanics, and is presenting it as a Bioshock heir of sorts. I’m sure they’ll do a deeper dive when the game is closer to release (TBD at the moment), but if it stays on track I’m excited to check this one when it releases.

There are no Ghosts at the Grand

I was sold on this game when it seemed a cozy game aping Powerwash Simulator; then the trailer pulls a Blue Prince and seems to have a deeper secret plot to follow along. I get the feeling it’s probably thinner than you’d like (call it a premonition), but the release on Game Pass again means it’s a no-brainer install.

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound

I do not care for the 3D Ninja Gaiden series (though that’s a blind spot I should take care of at some point…), so Ninja Gaiden 4 did nothing for me, but Ragebound looks like a dope 2D action game, and made me want to immediately replay The Messenger (check out that indie gem if you missed it), which was really a spiritual successor to the NES Ninja Gaiden Games, with a metroidvania spin. Thank goodness they came out with a demo too! Check the demo out for yourselves, and get the game on 07/31 if you like what you see.

Xbox RoG Ally

I love, love, LOVE my Steam Deck, but it’s starting to show its age, and to be mostly used as an emulation machine. Assuming the price of this product is reasonable and it runs Xbox Game Pass games well, it might be worth an upgrade. Mildly optimistic, with reservations.

Persona 4 Revival

P4 Golden was a formative game for me, despite its shortcomings. We don’t know much about this remake as of yet, and it’ll be a long wait (rumors say it’s more than a year away) but the team would really have to fumble the ball for me to not get this one. Also, shout out to the Giant Bomb P4 endurance run.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Enhanced Edition

This might be a little silly, but I always heard that NWN2 was a fantastic game with some jagged edges (like a lot of Obsidian-developed games of the time), so an Enhanced Edition that fixes the issues and makes the game run smoothly on today’s PCs is very welcome. It releases on 07/15.

Skyrig

This one gave me Factorio vibes in an original setting, where height plays a role. Not much else to say at the time, but I expect it to be in early access for a while when it launches.

The losers

First of all, I want to say that I miss the old days of back-to-back press conferences, when you could pit Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft against each other to determine who "won E3", or relish at the insane guests that Ubisoft stunt-cast to try and sell you on the same game in three different flavors, or learn more about the Devolver insane lore. But maybe I’m just missing the time when we were not assaulted by a constant stream of new games with endless updates, and you could reasonably have a bird’s eye view of the whole industry, instead of mastering a specific niche. Or maybe I just yearn for how much simpler my own life was back in the day…

In that spirit, let’s rank the losers of (k)E(igh)3 2025! (according to me, naturally)

Geoff Keighley and Summer Game Fest

More like summer snooze/gacha fest. I admire his work for being able to arrange a pseudo-E3 (hence the name of this post), especially the days when gaming press can check out upcoming games; but the cost of it for the average consumer is a 2-hour long advertisement for multiplayer games with predatory practices or yet another squad-based games-as-a-service shooter, with maybe one or two interesting or surprising announcements. Unlike in the December Game Awards, too many publishers have their own events in this time, so Geoff gets whatever scraps he can and has to fill the time fluffing up bad stuff. Not worth the watch if you've missed it, and north worth missing a social occasion for.

Silksong

Either announced a release date for it already, or don't showcase it in these presentations. We've been edged TWICE in two months about the game existing and coming out this year, but no date exists for it yet. TBH I'm not even sure it will ever be able to live up to the Hollow Knight sequel hype. The sooner we get it over with, the better.

Pc Gaming Show

This really plays it up for the European crowd, with a ton of niche games that are very hard to get excited about unless you like the genre (in my case, Anno 117). Also, the overall presentation is always EXTREMELY cringe, and I would rather have the trailers back to back to back than have the hosts be forced to do their best with an underbaked script.

Ubisoft

Feels a little mean to bag on them while they’re down, but this is one of the few years in my memory when Ubisoft didn’t have a show, and besides a couple of games in partner showcases they had nothing to show. Feels like the bell is tolling for the Guillemot brothers. 

Nintendo

Sure, Nintendo had a direct in April, but there is still essentially no information about upcoming games, for switch or switch 2. Add to that the very tepid reaction of review outlets to the switch 2 and its games, and Nintendo is clearly a loser this week. Not that it matters, given how fast the Switch 2 has sold at launch…

Final thoughts

The events were overall underwhelming, with only a couple of surprise announcements living up to the hype expectations of the season. Microsoft had, by a mile, the better event, with lots of interesting announcements and re-reveals, as well as a bunch of games that are mildly interesting but not enough to make it on the list (like the Gears remake, Keeper, or Planet of Lana 2). It was, however, a victory by forfeit, with Sony having announced too many 2026 games already to have anything juicy left besides the Marvel fighting game, and Nintendo being Nintendo and not even having the decency to give us a release date for Metroid Prime 4. 

Geoff Keighley will have another birthday in three months at the opening night of Gamescom, but again don't expect much from it except maybe the release date of Silksong, if that game is even real... Look out for a blog post after that event (or the next State of Play/Nintendo Direct/Xbox Showcase); in the meantime, keep checking this space and youtube.com/@Retro-GamesWithNic for new exciting updates.

-Nic