The RAID's Summer Games Fest Opening Weekend Wrap-Up
- Mack Flett
- Jun 15, 2021
- 7 min read
While we may now be in the middle of E3, 2021’s trailer season kicked off with a smartly-produced showcase put together and hosted by veteran industry journalist Geoff Keighley in collaboration with Amazon’s Prime Gaming division. Keighley is mostly known these days for his work producing and hosting The Game Awards, but his work on this new summer showcase has been welcomed by the community.
There were more than a few announcements during the opening conference that directly impact several major eSports titles, as well as a couple of world premieres that may yet establish themselves in the competitive scene down the line, so buckle up for our Summer Games Fest recap!
Battlefield 2042
While we’re cheating here as the Battlefield 2042 reveal trailer went up a day before Summer Games Fest officially began, we’d be remiss to not at least mention it.
DICE’s setting of a dystopian near-future battleground devastated by international conflict spurred-on by environmental catastrophe almost feels a little too believable. While future soldiers probably won’t be airdropping tanks in the middle of a firefight or using rifle-mounted grappling hooks to swing around like Spiderman, the high concept of militaries displaced by climate change and fighting furiously for control of scarce resources amid locales like a sandblasted metropolis (hearkening back to Spec Ops: The Line’s post catastrophe Dubai) or a polar power station is compelling in its own right.
Couple that with Battlefield’s inherent massive scale and a new dynamic weather system capable of generating enormous dust storms and tornadoes capable of swallowing the map and sucking scenery, vehicles and players up into the maelstrom, and you have a uniquely frightening, nigh-apocalyptic vision of warfare that really feels like a world we could find ourselves in years from now.
For those eager to immerse themselves in that bleak future, you won't have to wait years as Battlefield 2042 is due out on October 22nd this year.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt
This one came way out of left field, but a battle-royale set in Vampire: The Masquerade’s “World of Darkness” is actually kind of a brilliant idea when you think about it. Most games in the genre define and differentiate themselves from others by three factors: environment, movement systems, and gunplay. That’s not to say those are the only ones as other aspects like character customization and unique game modes can also be major appeals which titles like Warzone and the ubiquitous Fortnite can attest to, but it’s definitely these facets that Bloodhunt uses to set itself apart.
The neon-drenched streets of its contemporary setting are striking, and its freedom of movement demonstrated is a step above even a titan like Apex Legends. Leaping from the ground to low-rise rooftops in a single bound with superhuman agility, sprinting and teleporting between and behind foes to take them by surprise, and a surprising focus on melee combat and character abilities make the trailer (set to the underrated tune of ‘FEEL NOTHING’ by electronica outfit HEALTH) a standout of the conference’s first day.
Some of the details have yet to be explained, including the presence of NPC’s on the map including some power armoured special-forces types, but it’s been speculated that the mechanics may include the ability to feed on bystanders for health and resources, as well as possibly incorporating stealth elements requiring players to drain victims out of sight lest they reveal their existence and violate the laws of The Masquerade, which is a big no-no in the setting.
Overall Bloodhunt seems like a bold vision for a battle royale, blending an unusual modern gothic horror aesthetic with gameplay that looks thrilling and engaging and a customization system that takes several cues from the source material allowing for huge variety in player expression both visually and mechanically, so we’re definitely looking forward to its release later this year.
Call of Duty: Black Ops - Warzone Season 4 Battle Pass
Warzone’s Black Ops Season 4 trailer gave viewers a peek at some incoming changes to the Verdansk map, including new Warsaw Pact operator Jackal, new guns like the C58 assault rifle and MG82 machine gun, and a new point-of-interest in the form of a crashed communications satellite that has completely demolished the bridge connecting the Downtown Fairgrounds to the Stadium.
Bridges in Verdansk (that bridge in particular) have always been difficult spots to navigate for teams lacking a set of wheels, and even with a vehicle the lack of hard cover for those attempting a crossing can make it a near-suicidal endeavor as players can fall prey to mines, RPG teams and any snipers who may have taken up residence in one of the dozens of the elevated positions overlooking the river from either side.
It’s a rough spot and normally best avoided altogether, to be sure, but once it’s in the wild players will be able to find out whether the wreckage left by its destruction has made it more survivable or even more of a death sentence for those unlucky enough to find themselves in its shadow.
On the multiplayer end, several new maps are being added including the 2v2 rooftops of Amsterdam, and a revamped version of the much-beloved Hijacked, the 6v6 luxury yacht arena returning from Black Ops 2, and all of the Season 4 content launches today, June 15th.
Escape from Tarkov – Streets of Tarkov
Developer Battlestate’s new trailer for the hyper-realistic battle royale Escape From Tarkov showcased the incoming content update that features expanded indoor and outdoor urban environments, graphical improvements, and even what appears to be drivable vehicles including APC’s against the backdrop of the game’s new location called the Streets of Tarkov.
While there aren’t many specifics yet, EFT’s mechanical complexity means even these few changes will have an enormous impact on gameplay, altering the flow of engagements and the usual course of the match while adding new options for winning firefights and new threats for players to consider when interacting with the battlespace when the update launches, though with no release date given it may not be this year.
Valorant – Episode Three Trailer Teases Robotic Agent 16
Tactical team hero-shooter Valorant is now just a week away from its third season of content, and after a fun in-universe social campaign in which Killjoy took over control of the game’s official Twitter account (that was a bit reminiscent of Sombra’s reveal in Overwatch so many years ago) fans were gifted with a hint at the identity of the 16th playable character, who appears to be a synthetic lifeform created by the hacker herself.
Codenamed ‘Grenadier’ in the game’s files, the running theory is that the new hero is a demolition-focused android built to protect Killjoy as she goes about her business, and they don’t have long to wait to find out just what this killer robot can do when the update drops on June 22nd alongside balance changes and new weapon and operator skins.
Overwatch 2 – Redesigned Sombra and Baptiste Revealed
After the recent announcement that the sequel to 2016’s Overwatch would be switching to a 5v5 format, fans clamoring for more concrete details about Overwatch 2 will have to content themselves with a preview of two more redesigned heroes.
While both violet-clad cyberpunk hacker Sombra and the charismatic healer Baptiste sport updated looks, it is hard not to notice that these feel less like redesigns and more like alternate costumes that they could have been wearing in Overwatch.
It’s important to consider that for competitive players migrating from the original to the sequel, familiar characters really shouldn’t look so different that their all-important silhouettes become unrecognizable, but these new models certainly feel on the safer side even in comparison to some of the other redesigns Blizzard has shown off previously.
SMITE – Stranger Things crossover brings themed skins
While there aren’t any game-changing balance updates here, the new Stranger Things battle pass brings several cosmetics into the mythologically-themed MOBA, with characters Scylla and Apollo each receiving two skins based on the characters Eleven and Chief Hopper, while Bakasura and Sylvanus getting a skin each, transforming them into the Demogorgon and Mindflayer respectively.
Additionally, an unlockable skin for the arena itself converts the map into the nightmarish world of the Upside-Down, and most of the new content is free for all players as of June 13th with a few rewards like the alternate Eleven and Hopper costumes locked behind the premium pass.
That about does it for us as there was plenty of news out of SGF 2021, just not all to do with the realm of eSports.
Before we go though, there may be a few people out there wondering why these reveals happened at a non-E3 conference just days, even hours before E3, and for those people we’ve drafted a bit of a recent-history lesson to provide some context.
This is the second year running that Summer Games Fest has occupied the June trailer block, a time of year that for decades was monopolized by E3 which Keighley himself was frequently a part of as both a host and producer, but the event’s 2020 cancellation provided an opening for a digital press event that Keighley was quick to fill. This year is the first time both events find themselves in direct competition, but they aren’t the only conferences on the docket this month either.
The growing trend of “Direct-style” press releases pioneered by Nintendo has been swiftly adopted by Sony which pulled any official presence out of E3 entirely, and while Microsoft is still unveiling first-party titles at the event it’s in a far-reduced capacity than in years past.
It’s a weird year for summer conferences as the major companies look to produce their own presentations in-house and stray away from the established format E3 represents. SGF has thus far been the winner on that front, its day-one reveal of hotly-anticipated titles including From Software’s Elden Ring scoring points among viewers, and at the time of this article’s publication the highlight of a very lackluster E3 so far has been the Nintendo Direct, which stole the show only by virtue of being a competent production with more than two non-DLC announcements to unveil.
That said, E3 hasn’t wrapped quite yet and may have more bombshell reveals to pull from it’s sleeves, so stay tuned for our E3 wrap-up once the conference has concluded, so keep an eye out for our upcoming coverage! In the meantime, Summer Games Fest continues through the end of June with individual events still being added, so stick with us for more news from SGF 2021, and from everyone at The RAID: take care.
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