Intergalactic (the Naughty Dog game) really did not speak to me at all. Product placement is huge turndown for me, I'd be fine with just Sony as an easteregg but also placing Porsche and Adidas in the short teaser was a big nope for me. Hate advertisement in games, especially when it's as in-your-face and in as high a frequency as this. The snarky babyfaced teenager in the polished designer spaceship as a bounty hunter, no thanks. Give me that other lady that she was in a call with as a player character instead. And then the final seconds of the teaser against legally-distinct-not-General-Grievous with the not-a-lightsaber, no. Just no. Melee weapons in sci-fi settings will forever be moronic to me. As a silent ambush weapon or in a melee brawl, sure, grab a knife or even a short sword. But trying to run up to an enemy with a big glowy neon twohander in an open field should always end with an reenactment of the famous sword duel scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Overall the project looks to me like they are trying to get onto the Guardians of the Galaxy hypetrain years after it has passed. The retro design language mixed with far future elements, the snarky immature main character, the music, the entire setting seeming to not taking itself seriously, all seems very similar.
The big question for me will be the gameplay. Naughty Dog are promising the deepest gameplay they've ever made, and I'll be interested to see what that means to them. Because to me, this has always been the big weakness of their games. They've got incredible writing, outstanding stories with mostly great characters, an exciting score, engaging cutscenes, everything brought across believably and powerfully - but their actual gameplay has always been rather weak, shallow and repetitive. There are very few games where I can say that I was looking forward to whenever the action was out of my hands way more than getting to actually play it, but The Last of Us were definitely two of those. Made me wish those games were actually interactive movies. I'm looking forward to see what gameplay they're cooking up, from those last seconds I'd suspect something souls-like.
So yeah, not very hyped for Intergalactic despite or maybe because I'm loving Sci-Fi settings, but what I'm totally hyped for is The Witcher 4. The trailer was visually great, I loved all the character and monster designs, and I'm really looking forward to getting to play Ciri. If they can keep the quality and ambience at where the third game was they've already got their next Game of the Year award in the bag. CD Project Red might have botched Cyberpunk 2077 at its release, but they fixed it, gave it an amazing DLC, and now it's imho an outstanding game. I'm sure they'll deliver once again, sooner or later, especially since the path is leading them back to The Witcher.
The biggest highlight to me however wasn't even a game. It was Swen Vincke of Larian (Divinity Original Sin, Baldur's Gate 3)
calling out the industry. Telling them how to make good games that win the Game of the Year. By making games that they themselves would love to play. By leaving out anything that is designed not to enhance the actual game, but to raise profit. It was glorious to see him stand there on the stage and roast them on all that and more. And it is disheartening to know that none of those who make the actual decisions in the big studios will give a damn.
. There doesn't seem to be much coming out early next year.