The 2019 PC Gaming Show Recap

The PC Gaming Show featured a ton of games this year. From first person shooters and indie roguelikes to exciting sims and survival horror titles, there was a little something for everyone.

This year’s show was pretty good. It was full of exciting announcements from various studios. It was also rather lengthy; they’re typically some of the longer press conferences each year. Because of this, we decided to only highlight certain games in hopes of representing the wide range of experiences on display. Like always, we’ve embedded the show on another page. That way you can watch it in its entirety.

Things started out on a high note with Rebellion’s Evil Genius 2: World Domination. The first one was an extremely fun villain simulator; players were tasked with protecting their secret base from heroes/rival villains while developing a means of taking over the world. This long-awaited sequel features the same thematic elements.

Players will build their own base of operations and engineer deadly traps to protect it, train soldiers minions to complete various tasks, complete silly missions (like selling the British Royal Family) and more. It’s essentially the world domination sim that fans have been clamoring for. Or rather, that’s what it should be when it’s released sometime next year.

Next up was a snazzy trailer for the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Developed by Hardsuit Labs, the game takes place in 21st-century Seattle amid political turmoil. A vampire attack on several humans (including the game’s protagonist) has caused some friction between the ruling factions; apparently, the sudden influx of new vampires really did a number on the status quo.

Players will have to deal with these underworld politics while getting accustomed to being a vampire. They’ll be able to use a range of weapons/special abilities to fight off rival vampires, werewolves and so on. Fighting, of course, isn’t the only option. Every choice players make will have a lasting impact on the world around them; how you speak to people, what faction you align with, and how you maintain your humanity, if at all, changes what happens in the story.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 looked and sounded impressive. The same could be said about Vaulted Sky’s Midnight Ghost Hunt. This online multiplayer game puts two teams of four against each other in a haunted house. One team, composed of ghost hunters, will need to use various gadgets to track down ghosts. Once found, they’ll then use what looks like a proton pack/shotgun to blast the ghosts to pieces before sucking them into their pack.

The other team, playing as the ghosts, are tasked with hiding until midnight. This is done by possessing furniture and other objects. If the hunters get to close, the ghosts can toss themselves – as the furniture or whatever – in order to confuse or hurt their pursuers. If even one of them is able to make it to midnight (four minutes into the match) the tables flip in their favor. At this point, they’ll become vengeful spirits that are capable of wiping out the other team. The Hunters will then need to do whatever they can to survive the final four minutes of the match, at which point they’ll be able to flee via their getaway van.

The premise sounds awesome. Vaulted Sky Games is promising to add unlockables – skins, emotes, taunt sound effects, etc. – and additional maps post-launch, something that seems far off; they’re currently gearing up for an Alpha test later this summer. We’ll of course, keep an eye out as development continues.

Moving past some titles, we eventually got to Conan Chop Chop – a roguelike hack and slash game that many thought was an April Fools joke. Funcom made sure to set things straight during the show. Developed by Mighty Kingdom, the game sees players control stick figure versions of Conan and co. as they go about slaying monsters and such.

Up to four friends can traverse the world of Hyboria via couch co-op; they’ll need to work together in order to defeat the evil wizard Thoth-Amon. Randomly generated maps and unlockable weapons (for future playthroughs) help in keeping things interesting gameplay wise, while the game’s overall tone and comical aesthetics seemingly provide buckets of humor. Players will be able to get their hands on the Conan Chop Chop on PC (as well as the Switch, PS4, and Xbox One) come September 3rd.

Moving along, we got to see a bunch of interesting games. Age of Wonders: Planetfall, Zombie Army: Dead War 4, Griftlands, Remnant: From the Ashes and Planet Zoo were some of the standouts. What really caught my eye though, was Shenmue III. I just didn’t expect to see it during the PC focused show.

That’s not to say that we wouldn’t see such a title; there are plenty of games being shown that aren’t exclusive to Steam or whatever. While it was a surprise to see it on display, I did expect its release date to be pushed back. Fans will now have to wait until November 19th to play the highly anticipated game.

Shenmue III looks ok. And by that, I mean it looks more or less like the other games in the series. This isn’t a bad thing (depending on who you ask). Things seem to be progressing well though. Hopefully, it won’t be delayed again.

The rest of the show was full of awesomeness. Too much to cover fully here; we’ll dig deeper into select games throughout the week. What we can say is that this year’s PC Game Show was worth our time. There were even some good hardware announcements – there is a certain curved monitor from Samsung with my name on it!