The PC Game Show is certainly not the highest-profile conference at E3 every year, but it is a thrill for PC gaming enthusiasts. More PC games get announced exclusively at this show than anywhere else during the year, so it’s always a good time to see what’s coming next. Big titles like Borderlands 3 and Baldur’s Gate 3 made cameo appearances, but the show is really more about new launches and sneak previews at future games.
A total of 30 games were shown off, though only in trailer form, as is the norm at the PC Game Show. Here are the five that really have us excited.
Midnight Ghost Hunt
This multiplayer game made by a one-man team had a particularly interesting launch trailer. It’s described as a ghost-hunting hide-and-seek game, which sounds like quite the unique premise, despite that it’s based on a popular mod.
In the game, players join one of two teams of four: The ghosts on one side and the ghost hunters on the other. In the first half of a match, ghosts are on the defense, hiding in furniture and sneaking around the haunted mansion until midnight.
On the ghost hunters team, the first half of the match is like a detective game, where the players use gear like a footprint tracker or radar to find the ghost team. All that changes at midnight. If only one ghost survives, all the lights flicker, and all the ghosts that were destroyed return as vengeful spirits. If the hunters can survive until their help shows up, they can still win — but the developer says it won’t be easy. A release date was not announced, but an alpha will be released later this year.
Chivalry II
Although it eventually made it to other platforms, the original Chivalry instantly became a classic PC hit when it launched in 2012. Now, developer Torn Banner has collaborated with TripWire to release a proper sequel.
The game is still focused on re-creating both the brutality and Monty Python-esque silliness of medieval warfare — but this time around, Chivalry II has completely revamped the combat, movement, and animation. The developers mentioned from the stage that they wanted every action to feel “readable and fair,” while also offering a quicker pace to the battles. Chivalry II will also increase the number of players in a single match, now allowing up to 64 players to fight to the death in any given battle.
The game will launch sometime in early 2020, and will be coming first to the Epic Games Store.
Songs of Conquest
There are plenty of games these days that use retro pixel art, but Songs of Conquest really tugs on the nostalgic heartstrings beyond just looks. Inspired by the Heroes of Might and Magic series, Songs of Conquest is a mix of adventure and strategy where you’re both building out your empire and going out on quests with your adventurers.
The combat is still delightfully old school and turn-based, and the developer compared it to chess in terms of tactics between warring armies.
The game is still pretty far out, shooting for a launch in late 2020. There will, however, be early access in the form of an alpha version.
Telling Lies
For something completely different, the creator of Her Story showed off the latest trailer for his next experimental storytelling game, Telling Lies. Like Her Story, this new game uses nonlinear storytelling as a gameplay concept, and lets players sleuth through recorded video clips to uncover the game’s story.
We don’t have a great idea of what the themes or story of the game are, but the basic premise is how having access to stolen NSA video files will affect the lives of our four main characters. The creator says more than 10 hours of video content was recorded and wants the experience to feel like an “open world” game.
Telling Lies doesn’t yet have a release date, but is scheduled for release sometime in 2019. It was originally announced in 2017 and has been over three years in the making.
Remnant: From the Ashes
This third-person cooperative shooter was first announced almost a year ago, and we’ve seen plenty of the game as its launch date approaches. At the PC Gaming Show, we got a look at the apocalyptic story behind the dark, monster-filled setting of the game.
The developers emphasize the dynamic-generation system, which aims to give every player a very different experience in terms of bosses, loot, and even environments.
Unlike a lot of the games shown off at E3, Remnant: From The Ashes will launch relatively soon — in August — on PC, Xbox, and PS4.
