What upcoming games from TGA piqued your interest?

Boy did they announce a bunch of stuff at TGA, some of which I'm pretty excited to play:

• Armored Core 6. I remember playing the original Armored Core back in the late 90s, and I've played all the other mainline entries. Generally speaking my interest in the series waned as time went on, though Armored Core: For Answer revitalized it a bit with the Arms Forts idea and expanded mobility. It's not really clear to me what exactly FS is planning on doing to update the series with this entry, the first one in a decade. But then again, I pretty much trust FS implicitly at this point to make something worthwhile.
• Hades 2. I mean, the first one was friggin' amazing, hard to imagine the sequel being anything less than great, even if it doesn't end up topping the original.
• Remnant 2. I played the hell out of that first game, so I'm ready to see what a sequel might look like. I hope it's more than just a new story with new areas and new equipment, but we'll see.
• Lords of the Fallen reboot. This was actually announced back in August, but we did get the first look at gameplay here. Man, what a weird one. The original was awful, but then Deck13 went on to make two other Souls-likes--The Surge and The Surge 2--which were much better. If they can apply what they learned from the Surge games, maybe this version of Lords of the Fallen won't suck. It's not a game that I'm going to pre-order or anything, but it's just sort of fascinating that this is happening. One would have thought they might have done better to just call it something else rather than tie it to that original game.

Also looking forward to Diablo 4, but of course that one we've known about for a while, the only new info was a release date.

What caught your eye at TGA? FWIW here's IGN's round-up of the announcements.

From its first reveal I've felt a little more excited for Forspoken than the general vibe surrounding that game so dropping a demo definitely was my biggest highlight of the show. Having spent about 30 minutes with it so far (I've seen some say they wrung as much as two hours out of it) I think the combat has potential but it's a little dense mechanically. Or perhaps more smartly there are just so many particle effects firing off from certain spells while so much of the helpful iconography is extremely minimal that I found it remarkably difficult to figure out when I was doing something right or wrong. For most of my time with the game I was having a pretty breezy experience, then suddenly I was in a large marsh fighting three gators that looked just like the handful of gators I'd killed before and yet they hit so damn hard and were spongy as hell.

I had no idea why, so I dropped it for now, but I'm happy to have that demo to mess around with the rest of the week. As for the dialogue issue everyone is worrying about - I personally found it to be in a weird space where it was both quite lame but well acted, so I wound up not being too bothered by the heroine/bracer banter.

Otherwise, as the actual trailers go...

Hades 2 is obviously fascinating because a plebe like me can only assume a sequel to Hades is just more complicated Hades (to that, I don't like the new character's look much, just very busy) but you hear that music and the very specific cadence that Supergiant extracts from its voice performances and it all feels too sleek to fail.

I didn't get much from the Judas sizzle reel other than the Bioshock Infinite brand of strange-real Hanna-Barbera aesthetic will live to see another day and that's exciting. Otherwise, obviously I'd love to see Ken Levine's lego game.

The Kevin Conroy reveal for Suicide Squad was all kinds of heartwarming but that/those cutscenes had a weird feel to them. I remain so, so curious about what's going on with that game.

My hottest takeaway: the PC audience is going to devour Returnal and it'll quickly transcend whatever reputation it had as a PS5 exclusive...though I'll feel bad for the many players who won't feel the DualSense aspect of the game.

Death Stranding 2. I'm not sure it will be a good game but I can't see a scenario where it isn't at least interesting.

Space Marine 2. We need more fun dumb games. (we did get Gungrave Gore & Evil West recently but i'm greedy)

The idea of a great mech game made by modern Fromsoft is exciting but I didn't like the other Armored Core games at all. That being said Sekiro supposedly started as a Tenchu sequel (another series that isn't for me) and I loved it. So maybe this one will be different enough that I can get into it. (Although I wonder if that will piss off OG AC fans) To be honest i'd be more excited for a Metal Wolf Chaos 2.

Hades 2 is a weird one. I really liked Hades, but it was also a game that I never felt like needed a sequel? I'm also a little disappointed that "all" we're getting is a sequel. One of things I've always appreciated about Supergiant is that they're willing to make each game pretty different, even if it ends up not being my cup of tea and I kind of wish they'd just moved on to something else.

Armored Core 6 is something I've been curious/low-key excited about since it leaked that it was what FS was working on. I've never played an Armored Core game, so I'm not coming in with any preconceived notions about what it should be, but I would kind dig a well done giant mech game.

Final Fantasy 16 continues to underwhelm me. Like sure, the trailer is visually impressive, but it seems really close to release to not see any real gameplay. What little they showed in the past has left me deeply concerned. I have not liked - at all - what FF has done with it's combat in recent entries and this looks like they're going even stronger in that direction. They've got a pretty big hurdle to climb to convince me this isn't going to be a lot of style over substance.

Jedi Survivor is one I'm kind excited about. I wasn't the biggest fan of the first one, but I said at release I would like to see a sequel because it felt like it could be something really special if the team behind it refined a lot of the gameplay issues from the first one (e.g. better parry feel and timing and for god's sake no more slides).

Lords of the Fallen is just bizarre. I played that one back in the day and it was the most "whatever" souls clone. But this remake looks like they've completely redone everything about the game. Which is good, because it needed it. But if that's the case, why not just make a new IP? It's not exactly like the Lords of the Fallen name has a lot of oomph behind it.

I'd laugh my ass off if they didn't update Armored Core's control scheme and kept it the way that it was. At the same time, I'll also not be happy if they use Dark Souls' scheme either. Not sure what I would want from it, but they were already really good games in concept but were held back by clunky controls, which is an issue with almost all Fromsoft games until Dark Souls. I'm interested but cautious.

Mildly curious about a handful of things. Hades, Star Wars, Lords of the Fallen, Final Fantasy, Bayonetta, Death Stranding. But the only one I genuinely excited for is Earthblade.

That dumb crime boss thing, Lords of the Fallen. That might be it.

Street Fighter 6: It seems to be coming along very well

Space Marine 2: The first game was a great Gears of War clone

Hades 2: Because the first game was great.

The Lords of the Fallen. I thought the first game was a decent Souls clone that wasn't too difficult once I got used to the gameplay.

Armored Core 6: I was never a big Armored Core fan, but the game being developed by From Software has got me interested.

Final Fantasy 16: Looks like the first really solid entry in years, even though I still liked 15 and some of 13, mainly the spinoff games. And the idea of a war between Summons seems pretty epic.

I used to be able to play Armored Core in the PSOne days without much issue, I leaned the controls and once learned I was fairly proficient at aiming at what I wanted to shoot. But, it is NOT like riding a bike, everytime you go backs to such games you need to re-learn all the controls and re-developed the muscle memory.

It may be apocryphile*; but if I can make Nathan Drake run around shooting a gu while hoping over a ledge I think games like Armored Core could adapt to so that running direction, head direction and waits turn to bring weapons' to bear on enemies didn't need to take holding ten buttons at once. And...to be honest Tomb Raider solved the run one direction while shooting in a 180s degree arc using a PSX digital controller in 1996 - FROM Software and Armored Core have no excuse.

* apocryphal adjective being of questionable authenticity; i.e. a apocryphal control scheme is one that game purists would find not "authentic".

Mecha is supposed to transfer a pilot's body like motions into the mecha-robots motions; while do it seamlessly for quick fludi battles. Games like Armored Core do no make it seamless - they are wrong.

Hades 2, because Hades is one of the all time great games so I wanna play more.

I am very excited for the idea of new Armored Core but much less so about actually playing it because Armored Core can be a good time and it can also be an absolute pain in the ass.

I do think what you're describing here is Super Robot and people who are way into Armored Core will challenge you to pistols at dawn for that comparison.

You're not wrong. I'm excited to see what they do with it now that it's announced, but that first game was basically perfect and hence didn't really seem like it needed a follow-up.

You've echoed my sentiments exactly.

I do expect that the control scheme will be updated, but I remember back in the day thinking that the "tank controls" made sense for a mech game in a way they didn't for, say, King's Field, FS's other early effort. Both were games that had you looking up and down with L2 and R2. IMO controlling something that's building-sized being a little awkward actually added to a feeling of authenticity, which is part of what I liked about it. I've never been a fan of the mecha anime genre, I don't really care what Evangelion or anything else has to say about it.

Although, here's a bit of geek trivia for you. To the best of my recollection, Gundam SEED begins with Kira entering a mecha and going, "WTF is this UI, this is all terrible, I'm going to reprogram it now so it doesn't suck." Maybe just pretend the FS mecha are designed and piloted by Naturals rather than Coordinators, eh?

So I never played an Armored Core, but I love mechs. So I'm down for that.

Inject Hades 2 directly into my veins.

I love me some BioShock, so Judas is a must.

@atheistpreacher: I understand why you say that it makes sense for the mech to be clunky, but I just don't think that it translates to fun gameplay, and it also sort of undermines the story point of why are mechs even being built in the first place. It was more understandable on the PSX because the Dual Shock hadn't been developed yet, but since then, it desperately needed updating. Logically reasonable or not, I found it very frustrating.

I mean, yeah, the thing with tank controls is that the right stick didn't exist yet, so there weren't a lot of great options for where your "look" controls could be mapped. As you say, once the right stick was a thing, there was an obviously better way to do it, and I'm sure that's what they'll do. But personally, at the time I didn't mind it at all.

Street Fighter and Tekken are no brainers for me. Even without seeing anything I knew I will be getting those regardless.

Hades 2 was a great surprise and I will happily jump back in to that world. Think I only need a few more things to check off for the true ending in the first as well.

Earthblade. Glad it's a way off yet given everything currently being shoved into 2023, but Celeste hit me in a big way at the right time as someone who deals with anxiety and the kind of depression that can stem from it. While the trailer didn't show off the dynamic movement that Celeste was known for, if the story hits even in the same ballpark it is a must play for me.

Armored Core 6. While I am not a major mech game fan, I have dabbled off and on. I think my primary interest is in seeing what a new Armored Core looks like after all the design lessons and philosophies that FromSoft has learned since Demon's Souls.

I haven't checked out the actual news about it yet, but I love that Death Stranding 2 is coming. But I kind of feel like we kjnew that already, so when I learned that Hades 2 was coming, I fucking lost it for a second.

It just looks so stunning and cool and sexy as fuck.

Hades 2 - Mostly positive on this, at first glance I thought it was DLC or a remastered edition of Hades with new content. I've enjoyed all of Supergiant Games except for Pyre, so I'm eager to see more of this game.

Judas - Curious what the hell Ken Levine has been up to ever since Bioshock Infinite which was released a whopping 9 years ago. A bit concerned because there was no actual gameplay, but from the looks of it, it sure has that Bioshock DNA.

Replaced - I'm a sucker for the HD-2D trend that started with Octopath Traveler and this game's trailer sure caught my attention.

Final Fantasy XVI - Not SquareEnix's strongest trailer, (their Dominance Trailer was the best) because of lack of gameplay footage, but still eager to see how the giant summon fights play out.

Street Fighter, Tekken, Diablo 4, and Returnal on PC are probably mine. I'm curious what actual gameplay for Armored Core will look like, as I really enjoyed one of those games.

Bayonetta Origins: Cerera and the Lost Demon

I'm certainly interested in how well a trip back to the Okami well can Platinum manage.

Post Trauma looks sick and I'm also intrigued by Atomic Heart.

Aside from that it's a toss between DS2 and Judas

Also definitely going to try Armored Core because it's From, but I've literally never touched a mech game so we'll see!

I'm happy to see From Software making a game that isn't a Souls game and I'm curious to know what Judas is actually going to be, though honestly from the trailer I get the sense that it's going to be Bioshock, again, and I'll play through another one of those.

I'm happy to see Respawn continuing to get work but I will always believe that one of humanity's greatest failings is that Titanfall 2 didn't sell well enough to justify Titanfall 3. Anyway, I liked what I played of Jedi Fallen Order enough to A) go finish that game at some point and B) pick up its sequel at some point.

I watched IGN's video on Diablo IV, which was a glowing review of some alpha build that they played. Apparently there's a bigger focus on quests and story in it? I'm 99.9% certain that game is going to be "more Diablo", but a Diablo-ish game that has a CRPG-level story with a Blizzard level budget would be really interesting. It isn't going to be that - Blizzard could spend that money on more cutscenes that look pretty but mean little rather than put it towards enough writers to give a memorable story - but one can hope.

Is Earthblade supposed to be a Metroidvania? That's the sense I got from the trailer and I'd be happy to play a Metroidvania that's as good as Celeste.

I really want to know what series of events led someone to believe that Lords of the Fallen was something worth digging up, and I'd really like to know how that person managed to get enough people with enough money to believe that this is worth investing in. And I hope it's either absolutely incredible or baffling garbage.

Replaced continues to look absolutely stunning and I can only hope that it plays half as well as it looks, though honestly it looks like it's supposed to be more of an atmospheric thing. Whatever it is, I am all-fucking-for it. Since no one's talking about it, I can only assume that everyone collectively took bathroom breaks when it was shown, so here's a Youtube link.

And, finally, the thing I am most excited about, the one thing I am looking forward to far above all other things mentioned at the game awards, is Crime Boss. Who wouldn't want to play a game with that kind of 80's and 90's star power!?

...OK, really, it's Baldur's Gate 3. I'm super-excited for Baldur's Gate 3. My writing on forums and such has never been particularly energetic so I know it doesn't show up here, but I could not be happier that "one of these" has received what is basically a AAA budget, time on big-budget award show presentations with half a million viewers, and it's coming out in less than a year. I mean, I could play the Early Access right now, and I have, but I'm very excited for final release. I think the only game coming out anytime soon that has me as excited is Starfield, but that game comes with a giant "made by Bethesda and probably too buggy to really enjoy on release" asterisk.

The older I get the better that games look...but I'm tired of playing them. The controls are too complex, the length of the games is too long, and just looking at modern games makes me crabby.

@monkeyking1969: I mean you may be tired of games that's fine but these reasons are pretty flimsy. Controls have only simplified and standardized and there is a more diverse selection of shorter games and longer games and all manner of between than ever before.

I think what's happened is they've settled into produce. Games are a thing to sell rather than a thing to make these days. Not that there isn't ingenuity but the focus is now on making a project that keeps people in work. And there's definitely a sense that games need long tails because their next thing is years away.

There's some good stuff out there but it's found on Steam by absolute maniacs. The AAA space is all premium experiences and live services now.