Steam Next Fest: October 2021 Edition - Gaben's own Master Race e3

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ZMOT

ZMOT

wat
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Sep 7, 2019
Next Fest October just started, and since the feburary/june events had some great games (ymmv), might as well update this thread for some more shilling:

what is Next Fest? "a celebration of upcoming games": featured games offer a demo for the week meaning you can actually play whatever looks interesting, no bullshots or cgi "totally real gamplay". also devs holding livestreams and being active on the forums (if you want to tell them their game sucks, now you can do that directly and tell them why - might get a better game out of it),

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/nextfest

Announcement:

Airhead: https://store.steampowered.com/app/771700/Airhead/
Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1095040/Unexplored_2_The_Wayfarers_Legacy/
ANNO: Mutationem: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1368030/ANNO_Mutationem/
Biwar Legend of Dragon Slayer: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1680800/Biwar_Legend_of_Dragon_Slayer/
Mahokenshi: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1717640/Mahokenshi/
Decoherence: https://store.steampowered.com/app/561660/Decoherence/
Inscryption: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/Inscryption/
Negative Nancy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1276750/Negative_Nancy/
Starship Troopers - Terran Command: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1202130/Starship_Troopers__Terran_Command/
Tunic: https://store.steampowered.com/app/553420/TUNIC/
Itorah: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1132910/ITORAH/

Opening Livestream:
(content warning: streamers, already heard dark souls at least 2 times in the first 20 minutes and metroidvania in the last 10...):

inb4 >indieshit
While true, this also means:
- lower price, smaller game. no $60 + tip GAAS crap that overstays it's welcome.
- gameplay over graphics, they can't bury you in 4k AAA assets, they have to make up with a distinctive artstyle and good gameplay.
- solo devs/small teams doing what they want, no focus tested committee approved designs targeting the lowest common denominator.
- niche stuff you won't find elsewhere targeting a niche market (lucky if you're part of it).
- it's also surprisingly unpozzed, hardly anything I've seen so far isn't anywhere near the level of sony or other AA+ dev virtue-signaling (if they don't outright go all "fuck you").


With e3 being a dumpster fire (again), Valve is doing their own thing with blackjack & hookers demos and streams (over 700, according to the announcement):


Post hidden gems and other fine stuff like Chinese Final Fantasy, Summer of Love Simulator, Beat Saber Noir, "I can't breef": The Game and games snoys couldn't handle (because sony wouldn't let them).

Also including demos of:
Ys IX: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1351630/Ys_IX_Monstrum_Nox/
New Syberia: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1410640/Syberia_The_World_Before/
Warhammer 40k: Battlesector: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295500/Warhammer_40000_Battlesector/

Currently grabbing Song of Iron, solely based on the visuals and the metroid announcement getting me into the mood of another metroidvania.
 
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New Siberia game?! They are rebooting it or doing another installment in the series?
 
Just Dont said:
New Siberia game?! They are rebooting it or doing another installment in the series?
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The old dude that did the art to the previous games apparently posted new shit. So I imagine it's all new. It was a bunch of prehistoric looking animals. So it could be something relating to Hyperborea.
 
So far the only game that piqued my interest was the one called Severed Steel.
 
Thus far I've enjoyed
  • Severed Steel, Sci-fi FPS with lots of dive and bullet time manipulation, and a solid arcade mode. Just feels very fluid and snappy. Pretty much the darling of this year's fest, by most accounts.
  • Dread Templar, Boomer Shooter developed by T19 Games and published by 1C in their new-retro FPS line.. Originally it was called HellHunt and I've been following it since then. That demo is no longer up but I'd bet if you tweeted the dev he'd probably offer it up to do a comparison, unless 1C told him not to or he doesn't have it.
  • Super Dream Dasher, 2d hop n bop designed for IL competition and repetitive level play. Cute, lighthearted, I can see the levels getting pretty demanding later on, too. Something about it reminds me of Kirby Canvas Curse, the DS game, too.
  • Everlasting Guilt, FPS boss rush. The bosses have some gimmick or unique quirk that change up the fights to not all be too samey, makes sense, it directly claims influences like Furi and Titan Souls.
  • Chernobyl Liquidators Simulator, you're in Chernobyl, you're fixing shit up shortly after the meltdowns. Pretty narrative driven, and very much so an interesting change from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R./Metro-esque flood of ruskie games we've seen as of late. Dunno if I'd buy it but the demo is totally worth a download and playthrough.
  • Gloomwood AKA "Thief With Guns" AKA "It's Not Bloodborne!" and the other meme redirects the publisher (New Blood Interactive, who also publish Ultrakill, Amid Evil, and DUSK) are pretty well known for. More an honorable mention as the demo is the same one from last year, but a few optimization touchups, and a couple fun new secrets. If you haven't tried this one, give it a look.
  • Tormented Souls. Survival Horror, clearly inspired heavily by early resi titles, I'm no expert on horror games, but I thought it was fun.
Honestly this year is pretty good, a lot of titles caught my eye right out the gate.
 
tried so far:
song of iron - really dig the basic artstyle and how he uses lightning, but the controls are a bit clunky for my taste. might write some feedback later (another perk of the whole thing is that lot of devs are actively watching the forums etc for feedback during the week)
tiny thor - so classic it hurts, feels like og gianna sisters (in a good way), with soundtrack by no other than chris hülsbeck :story:
sable - probably the most eye-catching, would've never expected someone to use ligne claire for a video game. they even use the same font as tintin.

still got some platformers to go through like grime (interesting boss design), glimmer in mirror (for the child of light vibe), greak (although that's published by team17, and those are on my shitlist), tandem, frontier hunter - and outside of those little witch in the woods, because fuck you I like it.
those are just the ones I noticed at first glance, really feels they overdid it this time with the amount of games, or should've picked 2 weeks for it.

Just Dont said:
New Siberia game?! They are rebooting it or doing another installment in the series?
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from the title would assume prequel/spinoff, but haven't really looked into it.
bigger question is how pozzed it's gonna be.

SSF2T Old User said:
Holy shit, you weren't kidding about that.
>No English Support
So it's literal chink pandering... great.
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is it pandering if they pander to themselves? it's literally chinese final fantasy (first it was a joke, then I looked into it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Sword_and_Fairy

gave the game a spin out of curiosity, looks damn good while running fine, and apparently it's gonna have english subs at launch according to a developer post in the forums, which bumped it pretty far up on my "might check it out later" list. of course it's wuxia2themax, which means it's an acquired taste.
 
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Smaug's Smokey Hole said:
I'm kind of psyched about Unmetal, I watched a couple of minutes of a stream and the tone seems right.
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Gay_Frog said:
Unmetal https://store.steampowered.com/app/1203710/UnMetal/
It's metal gear from super nintendo that some one read the script and tried to spin as a joke.
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There's a similar game called Never Stop Sneakin'. From the guy that made Dust: An Elysian Tale. It's a parody of the PS1 MGS. Never played it myself, but I thought I'd mention it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/792880/Never_Stop_Sneakin/

The trailer for Never Stop Sneakin' makes it look like pure cringe. Ditto Unmetal. But then I have a hatred of rogue-like mechanics, references, and "lol-so-random/quirky!" humour.

Finder of Games said:
Dread Templar, Boomer Shooter developed by T19 Games and published by 1C in their new-retro FPS line.. Originally it was called HellHunt and I've been following it since then. That demo is no longer up but I'd bet if you tweeted the dev he'd probably offer it up to do a comparison, unless 1C told him not to or he doesn't have it.
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Played the demo. It's ok. Graphics are nice, but is a bit stingy with the ammo and bullet time (at least for me, maybe this changes in the late game).
 
updated the OP.

personal picks I'll definitely gonna check out:
ANNO: Mutationem - sidescroller adventure/action. demo's been out a few weeks already, combat still feels a bit off and could be an issue later, but presentation and everything else drew me in right away.
Starship Troopers - Terran Command - RTS. probably the biggest name and the most production value this time, so just for that (EDIT: scratch that, there's this)
Tunic - isometric zelda clone. looks like the game with the most hype so far, you can clearly see where it comes from, but that doesn't have to mean it's bad.
Itorah - platformer. just for the graphics really (sucker for those).
Mahokenshi - deck builder. boardgamer in me is curious how it's implemented.
not mentioned so far:
Wisper - walking sim. fuck you, sometimes I just want to chill.
Succubus With Guns - third person shooter that's gonna cause soybois and dangerhairs anal anguish. curious how much is meme and how much is game.

that's just the ones I noticed at first glance, way too many games every time...
 
Archived before it inevitably (maybe?) gets deleted. I saw this gem in the Action section.

"Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque® is a game which addresses the Israel x Palestine conflict from a Palestinian perspective, breaking the cliché of portraying Muslim and Arabs as Terrorists, Bandits, Villains and the Americans/Israelis as the "Good Guys" and "Heroes" of History. This is the first game in the games industry which addresses such a sensitive topic, in a realistic way, showing the other side of history, which is very unknown by people, mostly here on west."

The discussion section is predictably all sorts of fun too.
 
Poop A Loop said:
Archived before it inevitably (maybe?) gets deleted. I saw this gem in the Action section.

"Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque® is a game which addresses the Israel x Palestine conflict from a Palestinian perspective, breaking the cliché of portraying Muslim and Arabs as Terrorists, Bandits, Villains and the Americans/Israelis as the "Good Guys" and "Heroes" of History. This is the first game in the games industry which addresses such a sensitive topic, in a realistic way, showing the other side of history, which is very unknown by people, mostly here on west."

The discussion section is predictably all sorts of fun too.
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So, it's a Hatred re-skin, got it.
 
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