Yeah, compressing both together for my own convenience and because i really don’t have much to say about the Koch Primetime Stream (originally aired on Twitch) they had. I can say it was quite bad as a showcase for Koch Media new gaming label, named “Prime Matter”, 2 hours of mostly boredom thanks to the shit format of having basically an awkward interview relay race between various developers, with a lot of very dry talk and very little footage shown.
Mind you, what it’s shown isn’t bad or completely boring, but come on, this really should have lasted 30 minutes instead of 2 hours, i don’t blame people skimming through it for the footage and trailers of the actual games, because really, it’s not interesting or well presented, at all, to the point i was confused as to what game these developers were refering to, like, no visual clues of the games cover art, no brief video reminder, just don’t expect people to know all the videogames, especially from middle range, niche or old franchises most people have forgotten or just don’t know about.
While we knew beforehand to not expect any reveal from any major franchises hold by Koch Media, like a new Timesplitters, Dead Island 2 actually existing as a game, a new Metro or Saints Row game… it didn’t have to be this boring and fairly pointless to watch, but worth skipping and just reading the bullet points in a post.
The only one who piqued my interested it’s definitely Encased, very 90s inspired sci.-fi rpg, as i’m a sucker for these alternative retro-futuristic scenario, in this case an alternate 1976 where a giant dome like structure is discovered, and various research teams investigate it to figure out where it came from and why it’s there.
Oh, yes, they also announced Payday 3. Sorry, the series just don’t do it for me.
OK, the IGN EXPO, let’s talk about it.
Still a 2 hour block, but this time presented as a melting pot of old videoreviews, hands-on gameplay footage, trailers, teasers, some exclusives too, and minor announcements (like GOTY/complete edition of “old” videogames)… this before the actual conference begins, making the actual feature presentation/showcase actually just 70 minutes long, but already this is more like it, at least you’re showing, not just telling, if you’re putting up a visual showcase, show stuff, i wanna see stuff.
The actual IGN EXPO is more of that, with host segments by the IGN staff, some commercial for IGN’s own stuff and paid sponsorship (which repeat a bit too much)… and trailers that you’ve seen before without much new stuff to see, but i was intrigued by The Forgotten City (never heard of it before) and Tunic. I really didn’t expect to say Tunic is one of the games i’m looking forward to, as i’m not THAT big on Zelda-likes, and we already got plenty of those, between the Ittle Dew games, Oceanhorn, Blossom King, etc. Still, intrigued more than i expected.
But overall the most standout one for me was awkwardly titled Inkulinati, that looks to be a comical turn based strategy rpg with a medieval theme, featuring ink drawn rabbit archers, donkey bards, all with an art style modeled after religious illustrations (so called “marginalia”, as they were added often at the margin of the page to accompany the text) found in european medieval manuscripts, with 4th wall breaking intervention from the ones drawing the “living ink” animals or saints. Interest picked big time.
Overall, a bit better but still, too much padding or bullshit most people don’t care about.
Wise Cafe (International) 