This week saw the all digital edition of E3, one of the largest gaming conventions. Over the course of the event many new (and old) games were announced, or recent releases were put in the spotlight. So in this bulletin, we will go over all the past-related games coming to us in the future, or the games you should definitely play! Prepare for plenty of trailers.

Contraband

The first game in this overview is Contraband, developed by Avalanche Studios. It’s a co-op smuggler game set in 1970s Bayan, a Southeast Asian (?) fictional country, by the makers of Just Cause. You just know you’ll be blowing up some stuff in this. The trailer makers went to Antiquarian Archaeology school and said :”What if we don’t think about moving and breathing things, but focus on showing a not entirely random bunch of artefacts!” We’ve got no release date yet, but we know it will come to Xbox Game Pass and to PC!

Sea of Thieves – A Pirate’s Life

Now this is something evaporaptor of our Streaming the Past team will probably enjoy very much, but we’re getting Pirates of the Caribean in Sea of Thieves. Yes, you can finally play together with the best pirate you’ve ever seen: Captain Jack Sparrow! Coming as part of the Season Three update, it will feature a new story campain where you’ll need to rescue the good captain (told you he was the best pirate ever). Even the tentacle-faced Davy Jones makes an appereance! Season Three will drop the 22nd of June, so you won’t have to wait long. Check out more on the Sea of Thieves website.

Hades coming to Playstation and Xbox

More good news for the lovers of roguelike Hades. The multiple award winning game is available on PC and Nintendo Switch, but from 13 August onward you can also play this amazing hellish game on your PS4 or PS5 and your Xbox Series or Xbox One! It seemed like fighting your way out of hell with Prince Z. is so popular, Supergiant took the step to make this amazing game available for even more people! It will be coming to Xbox Game Pass, but there’s no indication on prices for any console.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

If you loved A Plague Tale: Innocence then you should keep your eyes open for the sequel called Requiem! Coming to us somewhere in 2022, the rats will be all over you once again. Looking at the trailer, it seems like Hugo and Amicia are split up after the events of last game, so what happened? It also seems we’ll be getting more sneaking and stealthing, but perhaps also some more open-ended conflict? Anyway, if you haven’t played the first game, now is the time to do so. It’s absolutely amazing!

Atomic Heart

The Era of the Atom, but then if atomic power actually led to cool tech, rather than world destroying bombs. Scratch that, this alt-past cool tech also seems to want to kill as we’re being attacked by cyborgs and robots, while time freezes to the tune of some Sovietty EDM. We’ve got no release date yet, though, but these beats be blasting.

Babylon’s Fall

A game about the Fall of Babylon? Nope! Square Enix shows once again that doing things with actual history is not their cup of tea. They’ll gladly use that cool sounding name they just found accidentally in that Wikipedia article of the day, though! Coming to you on Playstation and PC, somewhere in 2021. Also, this will be live-service game…

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Siege of Paris & updated Discovery Mode!

So Ubisoft not only showed us some stuff of the upcoming Summer DLC The Siege of Paris, but also the updated Discovery Tour. First off, the DLC! That poor unfortunate Raven clan! All they wanted is to settle in peace, but somehow they just HAVE to invade Francia and lay siege to Paris. Something to do with the survival of the clan…. Lol, who are you kidding Eivor? You are just a basic raider, after all! DLC out this summer.

Secondly, the Discovery Tour just levelled up! In this new upcoming mode, you’ll get to tour the expansive and expanding (see above) world of Valhalla by playing as and following in the footsteps of different people and follow them in their endaveours big and small. This seems like the interactive move beyond the diorama that we were waiting for. Free if you own Valhalla, but, ominoulsy, you’ll get to ‘earn exclusive rewards’ as you go through this tour.

The Avatar game we didn’t need

Remember that one film that broke all the box office records more than 10 years back? The one with the blue creatures? It’s mostly forgotten now, but Ubisoft has excavated a licensing deal and insists that this Avatar thing can be resurrected, so we’re getting a game about them! Called Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, it will be a FPS action-adventure game. I mean, the open world is kinda cool, but I’m not sure it’s anything people really wanted. Anyway, it will launch somewhere in 2022.

Jurassic World Evolution 2

How many times do we have to say this? Archaeologists (or historians) do not do dinosaurs! A new version of that management game where you get to manage your own dino park? Ok, then… Our nature will find a way to play this! Runner-up dino games: Instinction or… Project Ferocious. In the mean time, Jurassic World will come somewhere in 2021!

Two Point Campus

So… For those of you who finished/droppped out of college this may be an ironic take on the past, but this… this is OUR present! Two Point Campus already seems better funded than most universities, though, so we’re sure it’ll live up to expectations. If Two Point Hospital was anything to go by, this game will also be an absolute banger. The game was already leaked a while back (Kotaku), but it will eventually launch somewhere in 2022!

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Supermassive’s Dark Pictures Anthology games are among the best of interactive narratives. A game set in Iraq during the American invasion, in which troops are tasked to find WMDs, which, surprise, they will not find. Instead they find themselves surrounded by some monstrous evil in some ancient underground temple. This could be tropey as all, or it could be pretty neat! It will launch on October 22, 2021.

Tribes of Midgard

We have a Valheim-shaped hole in our hearts, and Tribes of Midgard seems like it basically looked at that game and says, we can do fun Viking survival too. This game was already in development when Valheim came out and it looks a bit more Diablo-esque, so perhaps this game will feel just different enough. Coming to you on PC or Playstation, launching on July 27!

Dordogne

No, they’re not just releasing the French region as a game. But Dordogne is a narrative adventure game in which you relieve a woman’s childhood summers by puzzling through letters and other hints left by your grandmother. We are already suckers for such memory-games, but just look at how glorious this looks! More information on this amazing game on Steam or on the website.

The Gecko Gods

An island, puzzles, ancient temples. Wait, don’t stop us, you have not heard this before… because you’re playing as a gecko! It’s all part of a mega-stylish indie game called The Gecko Gods. Just look at how cute they are! It launches somewhere in 2022.

Unpacking

Well, there is a lot to unpack in this bulletin (sorry, I’ll let myself out), but Unpacking is definitely one of them! Unpacking is a game where you basically do the archaeology of someone’s life as you unpack their possessions through a series of house moves. Previously on Apple Arcade, it is now coming to Switch and Steam.

Two WW2 multiplayer games

WW2 has always been a much used theme for FPS. Take that with some squad based gameplay, and you’ll get these two games: Hell Let Loose and Enlisted (there are more but they weren’t on E3 so yeah). First of all, Hell Let Loose. With a name like Hell Let Loose, if your game is not a hardcore war simulator, you’re not doing it right. 100 player battles with historically accurate details, bar the one where you get to (rage)quit this hill with Alt+F4. After over 2 years in EA, it will have a full release on July 27!

Enlisted is again a multiplayer game, but with a different vibe. Being free-to-play (to an extent), it is an extension of War Thunder, coming from the same devs. Another realisticky, WW2 shooter, but this one is ‘unique’, because it has squads… or something! With guns and buildings and uniforms all period accurate (“No neon pink sten guns and mohawks here”), this game is meant for all of those who cried bitter tears while playing the inauthentic Battlefield V for hundreds of hours. If we are to believe Reddit, we’re sure millions of history-buffs will play this (sarcasm)! It’s already out, so you can jump right into the action.

Age of Empires IV

History is… all around us and history also seems to be mostly about micromanaging army men to smash against each other. Also, building! So that you can smash more army men against each other! Is history more than military history, you ask? Not in this Age of Empires IV trailer! Fortunately there will also be historical documentaries in this game! About how people fought each other in History! All coming to you from October 28 onwards!

Chernobylite

If you always wanted to tour Chernobyl, but were afraid of deadly radiation then you’re not only smart, but now you also get to do this in Chernobylite, which features an accurate 3D-scan of the Exclusion Zone. Dark Heritage Tourism galore! It’s been in EA for quite some time, but is almost finished, so it’ll probably launch pretty soon!

Conway Dissapearance at Dahlia View

This sounds like a proper British Detective, and it is! A little girl is missing and it is up to you, retired detective Robert Conway to find her. It’s noire, it’s England, it’s the 1950s… Jolly! Coming to you in the fall of 2021.

IMMORTALITY

From the developer behind Her Story and Telling Lies, this game has you sift through three movies that were never released to piece together the story of filmstart Marissa Marcel, who was not an actual filmstar… or maybe she was and history has actually forgotten about her! Creepy! Out somewhere in 2022.

Chivalry 2

Some thoughts from the devs about the just launched Chivarly 2 game in which you act as unchivalrous as possible, but hitting people in the face with swords. This video has some post-launch plans ideas to be found here.

Humankind Open Dev Open Beta Closed Beta

This announcement made oomzer very happy (plot twist, it didn’t)! Gone are the days when Humankind Open Dev was actually just a closed Beta! Enter the days where Humankind is now an actual Closed Beta, for all you humankinders who pre-order this game. It is still set to launch August 17, but I’d want to see that first before I believe it.

Lakeburg Legacies

Wait… We already thought Crusader Kings 3 was a medieval Facebook simulator, but then Isthar Games goes and puts even a bit more dating sim in this this up a bit more where you run a kingdom by playing matchmaker . We don’t know if the song in the trailer is an actual medieval language, but this Lakeburg certainly looks medievalish! Available somewhere in 2022.

That was all we had to share with you! Normal bulletins resume next week, probably. In the mean time, come watch one of our streams on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday on streamingthepast.com!