Impressions from the MIX Summer Showcase, The Witcher IV, Hotel Barcelona, and Prison of Husks
Death Howl by 11 bit studios and The Outer Zone
My German Shepherd secretary is getting restless. Don’t tell her we have at least 15 more showcases to cover over the course of the next few days.
If this is your first article at the site, I’m doing my best to keep these impressions short because everything looks so good and I want to get to as many titles as possible. Plus, the less time you spend reading my rambling is more time you can dedicate to watching trailers (and, hopefully, adding games to your Wishlists).
Here’s what stood out to me from an excellent MIX event:
Never’s End
Who said we weren’t going to get any Bloodborne this event season?
I’ll be making a second bad joke about this later, so prepare yourself.
Never’s End is a spooky little tactics game with an elemental system and fantastic style (and Bloodborne adjacent hats).
Becrowned
Oh, hello Top Hat Studios. I haven’t sung your praises in at least 24 hours. I suppose I should fix that.
This trailer is Silent Hill and The Evil Within to its very bones. Survival horror continues to be my favorite genre and this looks like it has the potential to be a great entry in the tradition of going to hell to search for your loved ones.
Dead Finger Dice: The Billionaire Killing Game
One part Balatro.
Two parts Inscryption.
And just a sprinkling of 1-bit style on top.
Airframe Ultra
Airframe Ultra is a PSX inspired hover cycle racing game. The tone looks gritty and the polygons are chunky.
This is another project I’ve been following on social media for a while and I’m excited that we’re Akira sliding closer to release.
Are the power-ups pills?
Autonomica
I usually don’t include very many farming sims in my event coverage (what will this mean for my write-up of the Wholesome Games showcase? I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to find out). However, Autonomica wore me down because there is just SO MUCH STUFF in this trailer.
I committed to talking about it when the player began to build their spiral staircase and I saw how easy it was to adjust fences–and then there was beekeeping–and then there was an alligator mount–and then there was a Kalashnikov–and then there were mechs…
Big Hops
I grew up in the ‘90s, so I’ll always celebrate when a team throws themself at the 3D platformer genre. I was a little disappointed when I saw that some of the levels are obstacle courses suspended in a void instead of being grounded in a location, but I’ve come around on it.
It’s more Frog Galaxy and less Frog Sunshine.
As soon as that lily pad stamina gauge made an appearance, I knew I had to write about it.
Critterrupters
God, I hate how this title is spelled.
Imagine if Animal Crossing had a healthy dose of Pokemon GO. I also have a thing for ocean trains–and I’m already in love with Team Rockoon.
Pathologic 3
I haven’t played a Pathologic game before, and like the doctor fighting the plague in this trailer, I feel I should remedy that.
Silly Polly Beast
As the official president of the unofficial Silly Polly Beast fan club, I have a duty to share every new trailer that drops until it releases (it’s currently slated for fall–so that could be sooner rather than later).
Motorslice
We’re also cheerleaders for Motorslice at Tactical Reload and I’ll continue to promote it every chance I get.
This trailer gives us the first look at a new boss (bosses in Motorslice are Shadow of the Colossus style spectacles). The vibes here continue to be immaculate.
Esoteric Ebb
Playing as a civil servant in a fantasy metropolis, your critical successes and many failures are determined by d20 dice rolls (I identify with this protagonist’s fate as being the worst at something). I got just a taste of this style of virtual tabletop while playing Citizen Sleeper, but I feel like I might actually stick with this one.
For the record, those are good games–but their settings/characters/stories just aren’t for me.
Wild Tactics
Wild Tactics is furry XCOM dipped in neo-noir sauce.
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can join a playtest next month.
Death Howl
A dark, bleak, Soulsike deck builder.
I love how poetic and moody this trailer is. Its limited color palette also reminds me of some sort of cursed Game Boy Color title.
I won’t be talking about the tech side of the Unreal showcase because I’m the wrong person to do it. The tools are impressive, and as someone who is just beginning to get into game development it made me want to buy a PC that can, you know, actually run Unreal.
However, it needs to be said repeatedly that generative AI is trash. The demo where an AI voice bantered with the developer onstage about pressing a button is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. That sounds like an exaggeration–but it really did suck.
And I just don’t care about any Disney collabs until someone decides to put a Split/Second sequel in Fortnite…
…but I do care about The Witcher.
The Witcher IV
The usual, online bad actors have been waving this tech demo around like it’s some kind of gotcha–even though this footage was presented as a tech demo from the beginning of the show. I went back to make sure I didn’t hallucinate it–yup, the developers on stage confirmed it just past the four minute mark.
Look, games are for everyone–but if you don’t play or make them, maybe don’t talk about them so much? And if you absolutely insist on running your mouth, consider being less loud about it?
Anyway.
It is a tech demo–a VERY good one.
The crowds are dense, npcs are varied in their dress and actions, and the animation is fantastic. Of course, Ciri looks wonderful showing off these facial animations. Even if the final product can come close to what’s being shown here with the scope we expect from a Witcher title, you can book that Game of the Year nomination now.
Here are a couple other random things that are worth your time:
Hotel Barcelona
Hotel Barcelona hasn’t been included in any of these summer showcases yet, but it still deserves your attention (especially if you’re the same kind of sicko as me). The project is a collab between industry iconoclasts Suda 51 (Killer 7 and No more Heroes) and Swery 65 (Deadly Premonition). It’s a roguelike set in a hotel full of murderers.
You know I’ll be there day one.
Prison of Husks
I have one more trailer for you today!
Prison of Husks is a Soulslike set in a very Fumito Ueda castle (think ICO and Shadow of the Colossus). This is the first time I’ve seen it and it immediately captured my imagination. I’m choosing to talk about this game now because you can sign up for influencer and press access. Visit the developer’s Bluesky for more details (@prisonofhusks.bsky.social).
Sony’s State of Play is the only event we currently have scheduled for Wednesday. This isn’t a huge surprise–I figured it would arrive today or in exactly one week. However, the “free” time I was going to use to recuperate is now going to be spent writing even more than usual. I’ll still find a few moments to breathe in between–it will just be more like hyperventilating.
Will we finally see Resident Evil 9? What about Final Fantasy Tactics? Final Fantasy IX? How will you personally deal with the disappointment when nothing Bloodborne related is announced?
I told you I was going to make that joke again.