I finally got my hands on 2XKO, the promising 2D fighter set in the League of Legends universe. With approachable controls, a gorgeous art style, and an established roster of Champions, 2XKO is all about finding the fun as fast as possible. On top of that, 2XKO uses the tag-team mechanic in unique and engaging ways. Though I’ve never been a League of Legends player, I’m looking forward to experiencing this universe through the 2v2 fighter that Riot has confidently created.

Read our full preview here. – Brian Shea

Developers Treyarch and Raven Software are taking big swings with the next installment in the long-running Black Ops series. Set in 1991, the campaign serves as a true successor to the Black Ops Cold War campaign. The story promises to be full of paranoia and espionage intrigue, with a mysterious entity infiltrating the United States government and the Black Ops squad going rogue. The multiplayer promises a compelling package, with 16 new maps and a ton of new weapons, as well as the return of Classic Prestige. Add in round-based Zombies and an ambitious Omnimovement system, and Black Ops 6 is the most excited I’ve been for a Call of Duty game in 2019’s Modern Warfare. 

Read our full preview here. – Brian Shea

If you’ve ever tried to get into birdwatching, you know the most fun part is figuring out exactly which bird is which. That’s the basic idea behind Flock, a game where you identify cute and weird made-up creatures. When you encounter one of the game’s little animals, you have the opportunity to observe its markings and behavior, and then attempt to identify it as one of the animals in a certain family. For example, the first little guy I encounter is a Gleeb, and based on its hopping, I’m able to identify it as a Gallus Gleeb, a chicken-like variant of the creature. As you progress, this identification progresses in complexity, and I’m excited to play more and fill out my personal catalog of these funky dudes. – Charles Harte

Since the dawn of video games, music has been a crucial part of the experience, so it’s always exciting to see a game manage to reinvent the way the player interacts with the soundtrack. In Harmonium, you play as Melody, a deaf girl who goes on an Alice in Wonderland-style journey to recover her grandmother’s sheet music. Her experience with music is unique, relying on visuals and rhythm, and her method of communication is just as fascinating. Melody speaks American Sign Language, signing through each conversation, but with some of the magic people in this new world, she finds other ways to nonverbally communicate by creating new gestures to describe her surroundings. I may have come for the music, but I stuck around for the sign-based puzzle-solving. – Charles Harte

The hero shooter genre has evolved in myriad ways over the last decade, and Marvel Rivals hopes to have learned all the right lessons from the rapidly changing category of games. Marvel Rivals brings 19 iconic heroes and villains for you to control as you duke it out across established locations in the Marvel Universe. I really enjoyed playing through several matches as characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Storm, Doctor Strange, and Groot. If you’re a fan of Overwatch-style gameplay or just the vast Marvel Multiverse, Marvel Rivals is one to watch. 

Read our full Marvel Rivals preview here. – Brian Shea

The duo primarily responsible for the beloved Persona series – Katsura Hashino and Shigenori Soejima – is branching out to create an all-new IP with more than a few familiar elements. Metaphor: ReFantazio takes the Persona formula and evolves it in numerous ways. On top of taking place in a fantasy world, Metaphor also introduces new action-style elements to start some of the game’s turn-based battles, plus a line-based positioning system that encourages you to think strategically in battles. Add in the charming cast of characters, grotesque boss battles, and summonable entities known as Archetypes (and throw in the trademark penchant for stylish UI and cutscenes for good measure), and Metaphor: ReFantazio could very well be just familiar enough for Persona fans to give it a look, but just different enough to provide a breath of fresh air to those who have spent the last several years playing through the developers’ long RPGs. – Brian Shea

Sonic Generations, the 2011 greatest-hits style remake meant to celebrate the series’ 20th anniversary, is finally receiving the remaster treatment, but this Sonic Team has higher ambitions than just giving players better performance and visual fidelity and calling it a day. Sonic X Shadow Generations adds an entirely separate, standalone campaign starring everyone’s favorite broody Sonic doppelganger, Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow tackles various stages and bosses from across his history with special powers, like Chaos Control, in tow. And for those who want to experience Sonic Generations in a modern setting, the original story and stages have been remastered with 60 FPS performance and added Chao Rescue objectives.

For more on Sonic X Shadow Generations, check out our full preview here. – Brian Shea

In the lead-up to Summer Game Fest, I visited League of Legends developer Riot Games to get my hands on the upcoming console version of Valorant. The game has been available on PC for four years now, and Riot is bringing all the content it has released in that span to its newly announced console version. This being the acclaimed studio’s first time appearing on consoles, the developers have done a terrific job of adapting the mouse and keyboard controls to gamepads, and with excellent performance, cross-play between consoles, and a still-ambitious content plan, Riot could inject even more life into its popular hero shooter.

Read our full preview here. – Brian Shea