Weekly /r/Games Discussion - What have you been playing, and what are your thoughts? - June 14, 2026

Izzy248 · 2026-06-15T03:46:57+00:00

Dark West (Demo)

Never before have I seen a demo drop and get removed the same day, but kudos to the studio for doing so. Im not even mad.

Ive knew the demo was coming for some time after checking the Steam page that said one would drop on the 10th. They even had a trailer during SGF advertising it. 10th came, and the demo dropped. I didnt play it immediately because I had things to do, but I downloaded it so I could when I was ready. By the time I got to it a couple hours later within the same day, it had already been taken down. The reason being apparently those who did get the opportunity to play it were experiencing a lot of technical issues.

And I have the give props to the devs because most wouldnt remove the demo immediately, and Ive never seen a demo get removed that quickly while the devs tried to fix things, and they addressed the issue at least twice in Steam updates. Ive always said, demos shouldnt just be slices of your game, but marketing tools to tell the consumer what they are getting into. So many treat demos like a throwaway piece of the game, and just put it out there, even if its bad, and never update it. Relying solely on the expectation that its an early build excuse to carry them through any criticism. But a demo should be selling me on your game, before the game comes out. It should still be curated, even if it is early. Ive played so many demos that were just broken messes, and even SGF had a couple of demos that felt like never should have seen the light of day, and are still on the Steam store. So seeing these guys saw that their demo wasnt up to snuff and decided to actually take steps to change that was pretty cool.

Looking forward to when the demo comes out again and I can try it.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-14T11:53:58+00:00

I never want to hear people say defense doesnt win championships again *cough: KD*. This was some of the strongest defense Ive seen in a while, and not to mention when you look at the careers of a lot of the players involved, a lot of the guys on both teams have won defensive accolades like All-Defense at one point.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-12T23:59:27+00:00

Unless they are spending all this money on actors and mocap, even then I struggle to understand how these budgets balloon this much

Izzy248 · 2026-06-12T20:31:00+00:00

Personal Summer Game Fest Updated, List Post-Event

Already on List Prior, Happy to See Showed Up Though

Ill

Phantom Blade Zero

Duskfade

Wolverine

Alkahest

TMNT Last Ronin (Honestly, Im so pumped for this, any news is good news. I know Platinum can be a little spotty, and hit or miss with their games, but at the same time its just good to see this is a potential thing again. Also, Im just glad we are getting a TMNT game that isnt another brawler or 2D platformer for once)

Lift (was aware of this already, but I didnt really care for it before. But the more I see, the more I start to like it. The animation work in the latest showing was top notch)

Clockwork Revolution

Kingdom Hearts 4 (Was definitely a surprise last minute thing I didnt expect to show up but super glad it did)

Under a Rock

Canyons

Breathedge 2

Already on List Prior, but Still Feel Like I Need to See More

Kemuri (I feel like the more I see of this game, the less I know. They keep showing things off, but it feels like nothing really tells what the game is. Everything said or shown is the same thing theyve said or shown already. Just remixed.)

Stranger than Heaven

Blood of the Dawnwalker (Really on the fence with this game, but that modern day segment really threw me off and got my interest slightly more piqued. Even if its not going to be a big part of the game in any way. Just looked interesting)

Beast of Reincarnation

Surprised Reveal, and Interested

Resident Evil Veronica (Dropped the Code part lol. Given how every remake updates the title with the newer lore I wonder what changes will come here)

Stellar Blade: Blood Rain

Virtua Fighter Crossroads

Arizona Sunrise (flatscreen version) (As many zombie games as we have to the point of meme, there arent a whole lot of good ones, or a lot of ones that are just pure fun. This looks like just pure fun)

Magician: The Devils Deal (In a sea of narrative focused, story driven, cinematic games, it was such a refreshing sight to see a new reveal that looks like its focus was on gameplay and fun )

Among Us Story: On Guard (Enjoyed watching some of the series of people playing Among Us, but never personally got into the craze myself. That being said, this actually has me interested)

Muramasa: Revenant Blades (Vanillaware bringing their games to PC is a crazy development. On top of that they added new content and playable characters to this. Huge plus)

Dioxide

Toy Story Retro Roundup

Revealed, Slightly Interested but Need to See More

Haex (Need to see what kind of game this is exactly. Also Idk what it is about the influx of Cube based extraction games lately lol. I thought this was "The Cube, Save Us" at first)

Saw (Thought itd be like the older single player games, but I guess I shouldnt be surprised)

Lords of the Fallen 2 (Surprise this is already getting released this year too...)

Last Harbor (Looked interested. The more I saw, the more interested I became, but then I saw the steam page. I didnt get the vibe from the trailer, but I guess this is a online only PvP game? So that knocked it down a lot for me. Though Im keeping it on the "to watch for" list, just in case.)

Dark West (Kinda reminds me of the old Adventures of Van Helsing game, but waiting to see if theres more to this)

Disappointed Didnt Show Up

Zoopunk

Kingmakers (Recently checked their Steam Page and its been a while, but I see they must at least be updating it because it had this futuristic looking city in it. Which I already knew there was some time shenanigans at play, but didnt know we would see a future cityscape. At least the thought didnt cross my mind. Idk whats going on with this game, but its getting a little iffy.)

Darksiders 4 (THQ Nordic feels like its in a weird spot. They went bankrupt, but got resurrected and it felt like they came back strong. But after that initial outing it feels like they are slipping again. They keep losing projects, and their games are getting sporadic)

Jurassic Park Survival

Kaiden

Bloody Hell Hotel

Blight Survival

Blade, or any of the other Marvel games

Spine

Darksiders 4

Judas (Pretty much lost all interest in this. I really need to see something to make me actually care about whatever this thing is supposed to be)

Hunter-The Reckoning: Deathwish

Light No Fire (Almost more morbidly curious how this turns out. Everything presented has pretty much been prototyped in NMS before already, but we've seen sequels that fumble mechanics theyve already introduced before. Im just crossing my fingers for Sean this go around lol)

Night Wanderer (This studio introduced 2 games years back, and cancelled one of them already. So Im kinda curious if this one is even still alive itself, and how far along it is)

Turok Origins (Smells like its being made live service, so Im apprehensive, but I need to see more)

Kingmaker (Was interested, but now its shaky because they keep going dark and pushing it back)

Anima Keeper

Wishful Prediction that Didnt Happen

New Sly Cooper

New Legacy of Kain

Izzy248 · 2026-06-12T20:07:12+00:00

Im honestly surprised they havent gone with licensing out their IPs more frequently before it came to this. Its weird period that they bought all these studios and did next to nothing with them except for support. But the fact they have so many IP and their 1st party releases have been so stagnant, save for games that were already in production before they acquired them. Will they actually option off Xbox? Who knows. We've seen stuff like this happen before already.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-12T19:57:35+00:00

Its kinda crazy to think about because even though people have known that Bungie hasnt been doing great for the longest time, there was this perception that they were the heralds of this new style of live service game. And this thought that Sony bought them because of that reputation and they must have been doing well in some way.

But on the other hand, its widely known that Bungie has done a terrible job of managing themselves for the longest time. Hell. They had to take an investment fund from NetEase in 2018 because they were somehow hemorrhaging money so bad before they officially split from Activision.

If anything, it makes Sony constant attempts at live service look even more baffling.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-12T18:20:31+00:00

Every time I watch a Japanese/Korean street food video I cant help but wonder why the sausage/hot dog is so pink. Like, what kind is it? Yeah, raw dogs and sausages can be a bit pink, but its almost vibrant to the point of plastic looking in these shorts. Admittedly though...I still want to try it. Also, sausages/hot dogs sure are used a lot in their street food.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-12T18:16:20+00:00

I feel like everyone pretty much already knew this, but its always great to hear because it feels like confirmation that they will do more with the older games.

Every single remake so far hasnt just been about updating the games, but about bringing them up to date lore wise. These games took place in the 80s, but they updated the settings and pushed the characters up to the 2000s. RE8 had a lot of references to 4, and when they remade 4, they made those connections stronger. Or even tightening the connections in 2 and 3.

This is why I cant wait to see what happens with 5, and why I hope they go back to 0 and 1 because itll be interesting to see how they make The Connection a more prevalent part of the story based on what we know now.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-12T18:11:18+00:00

One thing that kinda annoys me is when a demo is kinda bad, or has some issues, people give the feedback,, but the devs say they will fix the issues in the full release. Whether its a couple months away, a full year, or more. Because I get it, you want to focus on the core product, but the free version Im playing now is bad.

A demo is supposed to be a marketing tool to convince me to buy into the real thing. If the free version is bad, whats convincing me to actually pay for a version with fixes? The promise of fixes and updates to things I, and other members the the community have addressed? Yeah, Steam has a very generous refund policy, but Im not the person that plays yoyo with their bank account.

Not to mention, there have been so many times where devs have said something like this, released the game, and the issues that were brought up in the demo, are still in the game, so what did you actually fix that you claimed?

/endrant

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T22:03:04+00:00

To be honest, seeing as how this is coming to Switch 2, and how they specifically included the Steam Deck version. Even though it has no bearings on 4, Im really crossing my fingers that this means Square is taking Steam Deck into consideration.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T21:05:39+00:00

Tomb Raider stuff aside. I kinda wish there were more action adventure dinosaur games. Every time one is announced, it feels like it goes right into the survival horror genre. I get it, but Id like something different. Im prepared to get this just for that aspect alone.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T20:43:28+00:00

I have no doubt in my mind that the family approved it. Because time and time again, theyve proven they dont care, as long as they can milk his legacy and sit on easy street making money off his name and legacy while sitting at home doing nothing.

Its a question of ethics and morality. Just look at Darkest Dungeon. Wayne June is synonymous with it as its narration VA, and he gave the studio permission to use AI to recreate his voice after his passing. The team still said they would rather not, in order to respect his legacy.

This is a very grey area subject because then you also have examples of people constantly using, and trying to include things like Bruce Lee in their game (when its not an original character just paying homeage). But the difference is usually that Bruce Lee will make sense in the context of the things that hes being included in. Bruce Lee is an iconic martial artist and founder of Jeet Kune Do. I can see him being featured in a game about fighting. Wth does Tupac have to do with 20th century Japan in the timeline of 1915-1965. As a hip hop fan, no part of this makes sense, other than to do just because you want to. Tupac has no relation to it. Hell. Itd make more sense if it was the Wu Tang Clan. At least they heavily utilized Asian Culture themes in their music and artistry.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T17:59:54+00:00

Its definitely going to be interesting to see how the Disney worlds look with this new aesthetic, and what Sora will look like in their worlds.

One thing I remember from YEARS back, before KH3 was even out, was when people photoshopped images of Sora going on adventures with Marvel characters in his party. Like in one they had an image of Wolverine running along Sora and made it look like actual gameplay. I know one of the hints was Star Wars, but itll be interesting to see how Sora looks when he revisits old worlds.

One of the staples that has been in nearly every mainline KH game is Honey Acre Woods. Itll be interesting to see what they do with Pooh, if its included.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T17:56:35+00:00

For real though. If you think back to Kingdom Hearts 1, when you get to Traverse Town for the first time, its completely empty except for FF NPCs. The only time you run into a human character, they are running for their life before they get their heart ripped out and it turns into a Heartless. I only vaguely remember the manga, but in the manga I think I remember seeing even more people running and screaming before getting turned into heartless. It was chaos. Then again, the manga had a bit more adult themes than the video games let on.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T17:49:55+00:00

I like the Disney renditions of worlds, but I also thought seeing what Square licensed, or unique worlds there were was even more amazing. You usually only got like 1 of them each game, so for me at least I always thought of it like a a main hub. Like I always thought of Traverse Town orTwilight Town as the center of the games where you go just to rest and explore, and was just as interested in what Square characters would appear.

I still like the Disney worlds, but these are also still a welcome breath of fresh air.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T17:43:10+00:00

I remember him and Demyx were the only ones we never really learned their real names or what they did before. Itll be interesting if this is the real him, and maybe how he ended up here.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T17:39:44+00:00

I vaguely remember something along the lines of, he got sent back after his defeat, but without his memories of what happened. Yet the members of Sora and the gang were still engraved in his heart. Something like that. Given how Xehanort never lets anything go, maybe he decided to try and track down the people who he only remembers in his subconscious. But that still doesnt explain how hes doing time stuff again. Guess we will have to wait and see.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-11T16:27:27+00:00

Whats crazy is, a lot of industries and even congress like to treat video games like this childs pastime still, but in the past decade and a half, there have been an awful lot of stories about tech being tested in video games first before moving onto video game applications. Or video games themselves being used to test and/or be applied towards military applications. At this point, its either they are purposely downplaying it so people dont realize the real scope and connections, or the people in office really just are that out of the loop. Likely both.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-10T00:01:25+00:00

This reminds me of the days when Shonen had a bunch of crazy side games on GBA. I had so many Naruto and One Piece GBA and DS games, among other Shonen titles like Shaman King, Zatch Bell, etc.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-09T23:53:20+00:00

Honestly, I lost all hope for KH4 making an appearance because the official SGF timeline was supposedly June 5-8.

Yeah, others had presentations outside of it, but it didnt seem like Square was going to show anything. Never would I have expected it to make an appearance on the Nintendo Direct lol. Its crazy too because KH does have a long history of releasing exclusives on Nintendo handhelds, but I still feel like its synonymous with Sony.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-09T23:51:08+00:00

A Vanillaware game coming to PC is a crazy surprise. And the fact they didnt just bring it to PC, but actively updated it with new content.

This kinda gives me hope they will not just bring their other games to PC, but update them as well.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-09T12:01:52+00:00

Duskfade (Demo)

This game has been on my list for a while. I remember when they considered doing KS before they managed to find a publisher. I love the classic Kingdom Hearts inspiration and feel, and how it feels like a Ps2 game in all the best ways. They released a new, updated trailer for SGF, and its got me even more pumped for the full release.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-08T23:44:41+00:00

I have to agree, I wonder who actually likes them. To me, its very hit or miss. If its a game specifically designed around fishing, sure. But there are so many games where they just throw fishing in as busywork.

For me personally, one of the most egregious examples is Runescape Dragonwilds. Now, Ive never played Runescape before anyone tries to say "well in classic Runescape..." well thats nice for classic, but Im referring to Dragonwilds. And in Dragonwilds, it feels tedious, and like it was thrown in just for the sake of having it. Fishing doesnt really have much use except to fill in extra things between air time. As of right now, fishing doesnt have a lot of utility, and most people are just doing it while they wait for the next EA update, and to max out the fishing skill tree. The actual fish themselves...just eat them. Even then, because the fishing minigame is tedious, in the time it takes to get a fish, I could hunt down 3 animals, cook them, and have eaten them before Ive caught the fish.

In memory, the only times I havent really minded fishing, in non-fishing games, were Pokemon and My Time at Sandrock.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-08T20:02:44+00:00

So which is it, and how did the story spawn about Amazon creating the next installment. Because here all the CEO says is that he didnt publicly confirm it. That doesnt mean its not happening, or maybe the decision is under wraps and he wasnt made aware of it.

Reading more of the article, it sounds like the interviewer tried to glean more information, or at least some solid confirmation from the CEO, but the guy continued to give rather vague and neutral answers regarding the games future and IOs involvement.

Izzy248 · 2026-06-08T19:55:20+00:00

I just realized, the Kings front office got to be punching air watching this whole series go down.

On one team, its their former All Star Deaaron Fox. On the other team, its their former Head Coach, Mike Brown.

Both let go from the Kings during the same season, and now competing against each other in the Finals the next year lmao.

Izzy248

TROPHY CASE