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Watch all the most interesting trailers from the biggest summer preview event of the year, including Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Code Vein 2, and Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver.

You never know what you’re going to get with Summer Game Fest, the would-be replacement for E3 hosted by The Games Awards creator Geoff Keighley. Some years there’s tons of big name reveals and some years it’s mostly just AA and indie titles. This is one of those years.

That doesn’t mean there was nothing of interest, but the mic drop reveal at the end of the two hour long show was Resident Evil Requiem, and it was by far the biggest game to be featured.

Despite being only a day after the Nintendo Switch 2 launch, and Nintendo registered as a partner, the only time the console was even mentioned was a brief ad for Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Although that does probably increase the chances of a Nintendo Direct later in the month.

There were a few notable trends for the games at this year’s Summer Game Fest: a lot of Soulslike titles with dark grey visuals, a lot of anime games, and plenty of live service titles still trying their luck at hitting the big time. So, if the thought of that doesn’t appeal you may find the pickings relatively thin. Although there’s also Jurassic World Evolution 3 and the Deadpool VR game if you fancy something different.

Mortal Shell 2

The first annoucement was Mortal Shell 2, a sequel to the 2020 Dark Souls clone that is still one of our favourite Soulslikes not made by FromSoftware. Developed by a mere 30-man team (Keighley was keen to highlight that many of the games were by surprisingly small developers) the sequel seems to be going for a more overt horror atmosphere, while there was a lot more gun combat than usual for the genre. It’s out sometime in 2026.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

It’s never a surprise to see Hideo Kojima at a Geoff Keighley event but the cut scene he decided to show for Death Stranding 2 was not exactly the most enthralling. It featured Luca Marinelli as Neil and his real-life wife Alyssa Jung as therapist Lucy, arguing about the fact that he’s forgotten who she is. Neil is apparently the villain of the piece, and the one dressed up in Solid Snake cosplay in some of the previous images. The game itself is out in just a few weeks, on June 26.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

Sega had a strange little dig at Mario Kart World during their reveal of Sonic’s latest kart racer, pointing out that it has cross-play… even though Mario Kart is obviously only on Nintendo formats. The game looked good, but the focus of the demonstration was crossover characters from other games, including Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga from Like A Dragon, Joker from Persona 5, and Steve from Minecraft. The game will be released on September 25 for every format imaginable.

Code Vein 2

We’re really not sure the art style in this unexpected sequel to the 2019 Soulslike works very well, with its anime characters and realistic backdrops, but at least it’s something a bit different. The original didn’t seem quite successful enough to justify a follow-up, but the action looks good and at least it’s one Soulslike that’s not copying FromSoftware’s visuals as well as its gameplay. It’ll be released for Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and PC sometime next year.

Game Of Thrones: War For Westeros

It does seem madness that there’s never been a console action game based on Game Of Thrones. There still isn’t, but at least this real-time strategy game isn’t just some seedy mobile title. Unfortunately, the pre-rendered trailer never showed a hint of any gameplay, so there’s no clue as to what it’s actually like, but apparently it involves ‘ruthless free-for-all battles where trust is fleeting and power is everything’. It’s out next year and seems to be PC-only, which is a shame as it could have worked as a spiritual sequel to EA’s old Lord Of The Rings real-time strategies.

Onimusha: Way Of The Sword

It’s been a very busy week for Capcom this week, with Pragmata re-unveiled at the State of Play on Wednesday and Resident Evil Requiem being the big reveal at the end of Summer Game Fest. But we also got a new gameplay trailer for the reboot of Onimusha, which looks extremely pretty and continued the series’ tradition of not even trying to have anyone sound like they’re actually from Japan (like Resident Evil, the originals only had English voiceovers). There’s no release date yet, but it’s out next year on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Felt That: Boxing

One of the strangest reveals of the show was what seems to be a Muppet version of Punch-Out!!, with the potty-mouthed puppets taking part in what also probably counts as a homage to Rocky. The gameplay does seem almost identical to Nintendo’s old boxing game but hopefully there’s a bit more to it than that. The game doesn’t have a release date and is currently scheduled only for PC.

ARC Raiders

Expected to be the next big thing in online shooters, the only thing ARC Raiders has been missing is a release date, but it finally got that at Summer Game Fest. It’ll be out on October 30 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, which is interesting because that’s right around the time you’d expect this year’s Call Of Duty to come out – and the new Battlefield, if EA launches it this year. ARC Raiders’ strong word of mouth gives it a head start though, which could make for an interesting autumn shootout.

Out Of Words

When we interviewed Jospeh Fares about Split Fiction, we asked him why he thought no one had ever tried to copy his games, despite their huge success. He didn’t know but finally another developer seems to have wondered the same thing and Out Of Words does look very reminiscent of It Takes Two in particular. The hand-crafted, stop motion visuals are neat though and it’s definitely one to watch, even if it doesn’t have a release date yet.

Lego Voyagers

Another game taking inspiration from Split Fiction, at least in the sense that it has a friend pass that means only one person has to own a copy of the game to play online co-op. It’s by the creators of the very good Lego Builder’s Journey and rather than being based on Lego licensed sets, or any other established toy line, it’s all about solving puzzles by building Lego structures. If it’s as good as Lego Builder’s Journey it’ll be doing very well indeed, although there’s no release date yet.

Mixtape

Between South Of Midnight and The Midnight Walk, and Out Of Words, stop motion animation Is suddenly very popular for video games. The art style in this new game from Annapurna was notably different though, and while we’re not entirely sure what’s going on in terms of the gameplay the 80s soundtrack sounds like it’ll be the best thing since GTA: Vice City.

Acts Of Blood

Made by just nine people in Indonesia, this very bloody looking beat ‘em-up looked extremely impressive, and also very reminiscent of the violence in Oldboy. We didn’t quite gather what was going on in terms of the story but we’re sure revenge has something to do with it, as you beat down hordes of goons and get a Mortal Kombat style view of an opponent’s skeleton, when you manage to put a big enough dent in it. It’ll be out on PC next summer.

Scott Pilgrim EX

We can’t say we’ve ever been fans of Scott Pilgrim, either the comics or the film, but the 2D graphics for this new scrolling beat ‘em-up look gorgeous. It’s clearly intended as follow-up to Ubisoft’s film tie-in from 2010, which was well received by many, and is by the same team behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion (which was also at Summer Game Fest and announced Rocket Racoon and She-Hulk as characters). It’ll be out on current and last gen consoles and PC next year.

Hitman: World of Assassination

Although 007 First Light did get a quick name check on stage, developer and publisher IO Interactive instead spent their time talking about Agent 47 in MindsEye and Mads Mikkelsen in Hitman: World of Assassination (aka Hitman 3). He’ll be reprising the role of Le Chiffre as the latest elusive target in the game – a special character, usually played by a famous actor, that is only available to assassinate for 30 days, starting from today. That’s neat but it’s also interesting that it implied IO has a considerable amount of leeway with the Bond licence and what they can do with it.

Lego Party!

The other Lego game to be unveiled was an outrageously obvious clone of Mario Party, only with 300 different minifigures instead of the Mushroom Kingdom crew. These can be rearranged in trillions of different combinations, in order to compete for stars golden bricks and play 60 different mini-games. We’re big fans of Mario Party (and Lego) so if this manages to be as fun as Nintendo’s games then we’re all for it. It’ll be release for both consoles and PC this year.

Blighted

A new game from Drinkbox Studios, makers of Guacamelee! and Nobody Saves The World is immediately of interest but this Diablo-esque role-player looks a bit more serious and horror tinged than their previous games. It also seems to be channelling Hades creator Supergiant Games, none of which is a bad thing. Whether it’s a Metroidvania or not isn’t clear but at certainly points in the trailer it definitely seems to have co-op. It’s not certain which formats it’s coming to but it’s out on PC next year.

Infinitesimals

A lot of people are probably going to compare this to online survival game Grounded, but the plot makes it sound like a more serious version of Pikmin, with aliens visiting Earth and battling with both insects and some sort of mechanical robot menace, as you search for your lost crew. It’s out for consoles and PC next year and while there’s very little concrete information on the gameplay the visuals certainly look impressive.

Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver

Whether you care about the Wu-Tang Clan or not this had some of the nicest visuals of any game at the show. They seemed fairly obviously influenced by the Into The Spider-Verse movies, but that’s no bad thing, and we’re only surprised that hasn’t happened before. The idea of a Wu-Tan action role-playing game was leaked quite a while ago, where it was described as Diablo meets Hi-Fi Rush, which does seem to fit with what you see in the trailer. There’s no release date so far.

Into The Unwell

There were a lot of great looking games at the show, but this might have been our favourite, with its 40s style animation reminiscent of a 3D Cuphead. It’s a bit hard to tell exactly what’s going on with the story but you seem to be playing an alcohol abusing cartoon character who’s been tricked by the Devil into… taking part in a third person action roguelite, that also has three-player co-op. There’s no release date but if it looks as good as it plays it’ll be doing very well indeed.

Stranger than Heaven

The final reveal before Resident Evil Requiem was what was previously codenamed Project Century and while it looks like a Yakuza spin-off it’s not actually part of the franchise, even though it’s by the same developer. Sega didn’t explain much, but when the game was first introduced it was set in Japan in 1915 and yet this trailer is set in 1943 (i.e. in the middle of the Second World War).

Given the codename that probably implies you’re playing in multiple time periods across the whole century. There was no mention of formats or a release date though, so it’s probably still quite a while away from release.

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The game previously known only as Resident Evil 9 has finally been revealed and it features a deep cut reference to Resident Evil Outbreak.

Summer Game Fest 2025 was a very low-key affair, with hardly any new AAA game reveals. There was still lots of interesting looking titles, such as Mortal Shell 2 and Stranger than Heaven, but the biggest title by far was Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem, aka Resident Evil 9.

Technically, the game was announced last summer but nothing had been seen of it up till now and even the reveal trailer left a lot more questions than answers… except when it comes to the release date.

Requiem will be out on February 27, just a few weeks before the franchise’s 30th anniversary, and the new game is promising a shift in ‘tone and gameplay’, as well as a return to Racoon City.

Capcom didn’t detail what the changes would entail but rumours have long suggested the game will be ditching the first person view of the last couple of titles and going back to the traditional third person, over the shoulder view.

That wasn’t confirmed by the reveal, but it did seem to imply that. As for the tone, it’s hard to say but it appeared to be more serious, when compared to the schlocky, more fantastical nature of Resident Evil Village.

Resident Evil’s ability to change and evolve is one of the secrets of its success but it was still nice to see the police station from Racoon City again, or at least what’s left of if after the place got nuked at the end of Resident Evil 2.

It was impossible to tell what’s going on with the plot, but the trailer focused on new character Grace Ashcroft, a ‘technical analyst’ at the FBI whose mother seems to be Alyssa Ashcroft.

If that doesn’t ring a bell then don’t worry, as she was only ever in the two Resident Evil Outbreak games – online co-op titles from the PlayStation 2 era, that weren’t particularly successful (the first one wasn’t even online in Europe).

The trailer refers to Alyssa being killed in a hotel eight years earlier, which was not a part of Outbreak’s story. As the trailer begins, Grace is writing a report on an ‘unidentified disease’ that has claimed a fourth victim, with Alyssa presumably being the fifth.

It’s hard to draw anything too conclusive from the rest of the trailer, but there’s a new monster dropping down from the ceiling in one shot, a possible shot of a zombie at the end, and what looks like the Raincoat Killer from Deadly Premonition at one point.

There’s also a guy with an obviously evil voice, who could be Albert Wesker, who’s describing someone – possibly Grace – as the ‘chosen one’.

Previous rumours have suggested that Leon S. Kennedy and/or Jill Valentine are the main playable characters in Requiem but there was no sign of that in the teaser. Rumours have also claimed the game will be open world but the trailer didn’t even hint at that, although it didn’t rule it out either.

No doubt all that will be the subject of the next trailer, which is presumably coming relatively soon, given the game is due out in a little over eight months.

There’s a small possibility it could be at the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday but that’s unlikely, as it wasn’t at the State of Play on Wednesday and Capcom probably don’t want to play favourites. The trailer confirms the game for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

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Marvel has announced a new VR game centred around Deadpool, from the studio behind ‘Splosion Man and Comic Jumper.

There are a huge number of Marvel games in development at the moment, including Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra and a new fighting game from Arc System Works, but now another has been added to the pile at Summer Game Fest.

Surprisingly, it’s a VR game starring quippy anti-hero Deadpool, created by Twisted Pixel (‘Splosion Man) and Oculus Studios in collaboration with Marvel Games.

Even more surprisingly, Deadpool has a brand new voice, in Neil Patrick Harris, best known for starring in How I Met Your Mother, Netflix’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events, and Doogie Howser, M.D.

Marvel’s Deadpool VR features a new original story, where the superhero is pulled into a portal to Mojoworld. After he signs a dodgy contract without reading the fine print, he’s sent off to visit a bunch of locations from across the Marvel universe, facing villains both iconic and, as noted by the developers, ‘not-so-iconic’.

The gameplay blends parkour and combat, with a style described as ‘if you can imagine it, you can probably do it’. Based on the trailer, you can shoot, throw your gun, wield enemies in a grappling beam, shove people against propellers, and skewer heads with your swords.

As you’d expect from Deadpool, it’s all appropriately meta, with one nod levelled at a certain web-slinger on PlayStation: ‘Spider-Man gets Insomniac, and I get this sh*t?’

If you’re a fan of Deadpool, this seems to be hitting all the right notes and Harris seems like a perfect fit for the character. We’ll have to see though, if it can match the heights of fellow superhero VR title, Batman: Arkham Shadow.

While Twisted Pixel were originally known for games like ‘Splosion Man and Comic Jumper on the Xbox 360, in recent years the studio has created VR titles. The combat in Deadpool appears to be an evolution of their last action game, 2019’s Path Of The Warrior.

Marvel’s Deadpool VR is slated to release late 2025 and is exclusive to Meta Quest 3 and 3S.

If you fancy more Marvel games, Insomniac is working on a Wolverine project, an Iron Man game is in development at EA, and a throwback beat ’em up titled Marvel Cosmic Invasion is set to launch this year.

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A new entry in the Jurassic World Evolution series has been announced, with baby dinosaurs and the return of Jeff Goldblum.

While there have been plenty of games based on Jurassic Park over the years, the best is easily its translation into a management sim in Jurassic World Evolution 2.

Developed by Frontier, the series is basically RollerCoaster Tycoon spun through a Jurassic Park lens, where you have to build a park and keep profits ticking over, while managing the satisfaction of customers and the dinosaurs themselves.

During Summer Game Fest, Frontier announced a third entry in the series, and the key hook this time around is the ability to breed and nurture baby dinosaurs.

As shown in the trailer, Jurassic World Evolution 3 boasts a new breeding system which allows you to house families of dinosaurs within your park. There are over 80 dinosaur species in the sequel, 75 of which players can breed.

The sequel promises a new globe-trotting campaign, with maps spanning from Japan to Hawaii. Jeff Goldblum reprises his role as Dr Ian Malcolm too, after lending his voice to the prior two instalments. There’s no word though on whether anyone else from the franchise will return.

As noted in a press release, Jurassic World Evolution 3 features expanded customisation for your parks, with new terrain tools to create mountain peaks and canyons, while texture brushes can help you add extra detail to landscapes.

For the first time in the series, you can share your parks, dinosaur enclosures, and scenery creations with others via the cross-platform Frontier Workshop.

Jurassic World Evolution 3 is set to launch on October 21 across PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S for £49.99. A deluxe edition, which includes four extra dinosaurs (Protoceratops, Guanlong, Thanatosdrakon, and Concavenator), scenery items, and exclusive ATV vehicle skins, will be available for £64.99.

If you pre-order the sequel, players will receive a Badlands set at launch which includes scenery items inspired by the original Jurassic Park’s dig site, along with scenery blueprints from the Montana Badlands, and a Badlands ATV skin for the maintenance crew.

This isn’t the only Jurassic Park game in development, with Jurassic Park: Survival also in the works at Saber Interactive. A new film, titled Jurassic World: Rebirth, is set to hit cinemas on July 2, 2025.

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