Well, team, the wait of twelve years is over: On December 1 of this year, Microïds and Anuman Interactive will release Syberia III! Yes, that’s not a misprint. It’s actually happening. Benoît Sokal is returning as the game’s writer!

The game will once again feature Kate Walker as the main character. It begins directly after the events at the conclusion of Syberia II. Rescued by a group of northern nomads called Youkol, Kate becomes involved with their desire to help their snow ostriches (!) on a once-every-twenty-five-year migration to their breeding grounds.

The demo I watched is from early in the game. Kate finds herself in a hospital. A creepy, run-down hospital. And, as she discovers more and more as she explores it, a possibly very dodgy hospital. I mean… why would you be asked to take a lie detector test in a hospital? It also is quickly called into question whether Kate is actually going to be allowed to leave…

Unlike the first two games, Syberia III is in full real-time rendered 3D. The version of the game I was watching was being played with an Xbox One controller (the game will be for Windows, OS X, PS4, Xbox One and Android). 

The game is a new story, and is designed to make both old fans of the series and new players comfortable. 

I only saw one puzzle, but it was a fun-looking one involving a rather crazy-looking key.

And, hey, as I said earlier: Snow Ostriches. Let’s not forget how good the fanciful creatures were in Amerzone.

We’ll let you know more about Syberia III as its release date approaches!

Microïds is teaming up with Pendulo Studios (the Runaway trilogy) to bring us Yesterday Origins, a sequel to Pendulo’s Yesterday. The game deals with themes of immortality resurrection and memory loss.

I didn’t play Yesterday, but the new game looks fun. You play two characters. The one I saw in the demo starts off as a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. It’s a third-person point-and-click adventure with inventory-based puzzles. The puzzle they showed me involved a large pig that was sharing the prison with you. A hog? Yeah. The hog is actually about to go on trial. (And yes, this really happened back then… children and animals were tried for crimes.)

While the game has mature content, the visual style is a very fetching, cartoony, 2D look with 3D character models, similar to the approach used in Broken Sword 5. 

Close-ups aid in exploring the environment. In an interesting twist, you cannot simply blindly use items in your inventory. You have to learn about your inventory items and actually understand them before you can use them. I hope this will make the inventory puzzles feel like they’re making more sense than they do in some games.[1]

All of the dialog in the game is fully voiced, and the game will take place in lots of international locations. It also will take place in the present as well as the past. Game saves will be automatic. At this point in the build, there are times in the game where the player can switch between the two characters at will, and times in which the switch is scripted.

Yesterday Origins will be released for PC, Max, Xbox One, PS4 (all September), iOS and Android (later in 2016).

Square Enix had an amazingly huge and impressive lineup of games at the show. Their upcoming Final Fantasy projects alone were amazing:

I’m personally extremely excited about this one, as FFXII is my all-time favorite Final Fantasy game. This is a remaster and a tweak, not a complete remake, but I don’t care. I look forward to diving into the complex, beautiful and exciting world of Ivalice again! 

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age.  PS4 2017

On September 30 Square Enix will finally release FFXV, which has only been in development for ten years. I’m crossing my fingers that it will be better than the wretched Final Fantasy XIII, but I have to tell you, the demo boss battle I played at the show didn’t do much to alleviate my fears. I hope I’m wrong. I’d love to love this game, but I’m still smarting from the crushing disappointment of XIII.

Final Fantasy XV.  PS4 Xbox One, September 30

Or, as I call it: Muppet Babies Final Fantasy. It literally looks like a roleplaying game featuring toddlers. I’m not particularly interested in it.

World of Final Fantasy.  PS4 and PlayStation Vita, October

Not a game, but an animated feature film that tells a story parallel to the story of Final Fantasy XV. I’m the only person in the universe who sort of liked Square’s first FF movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, so who knows?  Maybe I’ll go for this one, too.

Kingslave Final Fantasy XV.  In US theaters August 16

Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a very pretty top-down party-based action/RPG. It’s a “fully voiced pause-for-tactics” RPG which takes place in a sort of fantasy version of Venice. I’ll be curious to learn more about this lovely Kickstarter game.

Release TBA

There were game I simply was not able to get in front of or see the demos for, and for that I apologize, dear readers. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t on my mind. Here’s a round-up of the Games I Didn’t See at E3 2016 That I Still Will Be Paying Attention To Over the Coming Months.

Not only does it have a great name, but the last South Park game (The Stick of Truth) was simply divine. I have high hopes for this one as well.

South Park:  The Fractured But Whole.  PS4, Xbox one, Windows, December 6

This gorgeous, big-budget PS4 exclusive is an action-roleplaying adventure set in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by large robot animals. Yes, robot dinosaurs!!  The heroine is like a cross between Merida of Pixar’s Brave and Ygritte from Game of Thrones.

Horizon Zero Dawn.  PS4, February 2017 (North America), March 2017 (Europe)

So that’s another E3 in the can, readers!  This year’s themes were increased government surveillance, live bands and VR everywhere you look.  Who knows what next year will bring?  Here’s what I hope to see:

VR Colonoscopy Tycoon – Experience the thrill of a lower GI videocam as never before!

And

Lego Spotlight – 2015’s Oscar-Winning Best Picture becomes the next rollicking Lego Adventure!