By Ronald Gordon

Hello and welcome back to the Roundup! It’s the column where we spotlight the stories of members and interns alike! This week has been a fascinating one with many new game announcements sprouting from Summer Game Fest, the Xbox Showcase, and many more announcements taking the center stage in a lot of people’s minds. Luckily, we’ve got articles covering these recent events like The Iron Lords on Steam Next Fest, Stephen Totilo’s impressions from the Xbox 2024 showcase, lots of stories from Summer Game Fest, a review of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remake, Minecraft BOTB 2024, and so much more! 

To start us off, I’d like to highlight the monumental Minecraft Battle of the Boroughs Tournament, which came back to NYC for its second year! Being one of the few partnerships between the NYCDOE, MOME, and the gaming industry – and our Playing With Purpose nonprofit, Minecraft BOTB is more than just a competition. It’s an opportunity for students to challenge themselves to think outside of the box and learn skills they can carry on into future endeavors, and maybe even pursue a career in gaming later on. It took the combined might of Jade, Ryan, and Myself to tackle such an event, and you can read all about our time in the Brooklyn Public Library in our article! We even snagged an interview with MOME Commissioner Pat Swinney Kaufman.

Moving onto reviews, Isaac Espinosa found himself enthralled by Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remake, which reignited a love for the Nintendo offering that hadn’t burned as hot in years. As a long time fan who has played through likely all of the released games for the series, Isaac was ecstatic to finally get to see The Thousand Year Door remade. His thoughts begin with reflections on recent Paper Mario games, “While games like Paper Mario: The Origami King made some strides toward rekindling the spark of the old Paper Mario, it was clear that there were many restrictions imposed on modern Paper Mario that limited its developers’ creative freedom.” Mentioning the small toolset that developers had to work with when it came to recent Paper Mario games, it’s no wonder that Nintendo has taken the time to rework one of their most ambitious titles, saying, “That’s what made the anticipation so high this time, the revitalized hope that Paper Mario would be as great as it once was. Not only would this be a way for a new generation of gamers to discover the series, but it would also be a chance for Paper Mario to reclaim the glory of its golden era.” 

Stephen Totilo brings news of his firsthand look at Xbox’s recent showcase and a Black Ops 6 interview. Taking the trip all the way down to Los Angeles to see it in person, Stephen took in the sights and sounds of what could’ve been the most games Xbox has showcased in a long time, doing so by changing formulas, writing, “Gone are the days of Microsoft doing these presentations live on stage with executives and developers in the flesh, queuing up trailers. Now they pop in to greet the crowd (I missed it!), the lights go down and the show begins. It’s a movie, complete with complimentary boxes of popcorn available before you enter.” Rather than having producers or executives talk the viewers through the trailers, Microsoft pieced together their own theater-like showing at the Academy Museum’s high tech David Geffen Hall. A film made of many quick-cut snippets isn’t the only thing highlighted in his article. Stephen also managed to get an interview with the Director of Production and Assistant Director of Design (Matt Scronce and Yale Miller) from Treyarch to discuss the newly announced COD: Black Ops 6. Reflects Totilo, “The upcoming first-person shooter is set in the early ‘90s and will include a campaign, multiplayer and a new chapter in Treyarch’s supernatural Zombies co-op mode. It’s also the first Call of Duty after Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard and the first that’ll be offered via the Game Pass subscription on day one.” His talk is heavily edited on Stephen’s Game File newsletter, but still features plenty of interesting tidbits related to the incoming title that I suggest checking out for yourself!

Our friends at The Iron Lords podcast have been posting nonstop about the various new games set to come out. Mahmood Ghaffar of the Lords of Gaming talks about Enotria: The Last Song, a Steam Next Fest feature with a competition behind it. “Enotria was recently shown off at this year’s Summer Games Fest. The game’s demo is live during the Steam Next Fest. Developers, Jyamma Games, wanted to celebrate by running a couple of contests for players for some additional challenges that can net you some great rewards.” Aside from demoing on Steam Next Fest, Enotria: The Last Song decided to draw people in by giving its players something to win something outside of the game. By taking part in various speedrunning challenges, participants will have a chance to win a t-shirt, a key to the game, Enotria branded controllers, and even an Enotria branded PS5 console! “The contest runs from June 10-20 and will be in the nature of timings of speed runs and other challenges for players to test their skills.” If you’re interested in entering the contest, please go check out Mahmood’s article, where a link to the contest sign up is available. 

Newly released RPG Greedfall 2: The Dying World found its way into Giovanni Colantonio’s hands, and he couldn’t help but get Dragon Age vibes from this interesting sequel, which diverges greatly from its predecessor. Relating his initial thoughts on the game, Giovanni writes, “While I never played the original GreedFall, I’d had it described to me enough that I thought I knew its deal. Friends described it to me as an action RPG in line with The Witcher. I had a pretty clear picture of it in my head, but I second-guessed myself the moment I sat down to play two hours of GreedFall 2: The Dying World. It was nothing like I was expecting. Had I been lied to?” Though the original Greedfall may have been Witcher-esque, Greedfall 2: The Dying World takes more from Dragon Age than it does any other RPG, all for the sake of fans and their beloved NPCs. Writes Giovanni, “It’s not just a shake-up for the sake of change. A developer on hand explained that the decision came from fan feedback. GreedFall fans loved the first game’s companions, but some wanted more control over them in combat. Spiders agreed with that feedback and looked to make a sequel that would better emphasize teamwork, rather than making companions feel like braindead AI pawns. Considering that GreedFall‘s fanbase held a general appreciation of Bioware games like Dragon Age, Spiders felt like the combat change would be a natural fit.” 

While there may have been many people covering the events of Summer Game Fest, Alyssa Mercante is the only one bringing us the story of Trooper, the Dog that met Phil Spencer. “On the first day, moments after settling into a seat at one of the outdoor workstations, a tiny, tan-and-white dog trotted past me, his every step a perfect little bounce. He had no leash, but was wearing a Summer Game Fest collar and followed dutifully behind a tan gentleman with long, surfer-blonde hair, always just a few steps behind him.” While the showcases of many new games were happening, Trooper was discovered to be wandering around SGF and making sure everyone was having a great time. Alyssa didn’t pass up the chance to interview Trooper’s owner, retelling the backstory behind this loveable pup when she writes, “Trooper is a 12-year-old rescue mutt, a Jack Russell Terrier and chihuahua mix whose owner, Sean (a yoga instructor and was part of the design team at Summer Game Fest), adopted him from a New York City shelter when the dog was about three. Sean was volunteering as a dog walker at a local shelter, and Trooper had recently been hit by a car and brought in as a stray. “We went for a walk and he told me that we were going home,”” The heartwarming story of Trooper is just one of many great moments from Summer Game Fest, but one that I don’t think I’ll forget learning about thanks to Alyssa’s coverage of him. Trooper, the unofficial Mascot of SGF, is too adorable to be forgotten so easily. It’s great. Even the headline is brilliant, a riff on the best viral video of the year, “Can I Pet That Dog?“

Ronald Gordon is a New York Videogame Critics Circle Member & Mentor. He was the first of our writers – or any intern anywhere – to complete an internship at Rockstar Games.

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