Xbox and Sony's games all looked the same this year. Here's why the PC Gaming Show won

As the dedicated News Editor I am, I tuned into all of Summer Game Fest’s major showcases this year. Wolverine stunned me at State of Play; Stranger Than Heaven’s post-war Japan infected me with its smooth jazz and contemporary style. Guild Wars 3 exists; nuff said. Yet, a part of me was holding out for the Xbox Games Showcase – partly because Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard, the developer behind most of my favorite videogames, but also because I suspected we’d see a little bit more of Fable. In many ways, it delivered – Spyro, Halo, and most importantly, Natasia Demetriou shouting at a campfire. It had all of my childhood favorites in one place, yet, for some reason, none of the sparkle.

I’ve said it before, and I’ve said it again: games all look the same these days, especially at triple-A level. The gritty, infested world of Gears of War E-Day quickly melded into the zombieverse of State of Decay 3. While Fable’s stellar casting calls are exciting, and it really does feel like it’s nailing the ye olde British humor of the originals, in terms of visuals, I don’t know if it’s doing anything revolutionary. Post-Showcase, I found that everything – bar the intriguing looking Magicians: The Devil’s Deal – had blurred into one. I realized, more generally, that this was a complaint I’d had across all of the weekend’s showcases.

I’ll caveat by saying that this doesn’t mean Xbox’s roster looks bad; if anything, it’s the familiar, blast-from-the-past nostalgia hit I’ve come to expect from gaming of late. Everything is either a remaster, remake, or return to a classic franchise, reimagining them for a modern-day audience, for better or for worse. I’ll play Fable, I’ll play Halo, even if I know what to expect from their looks and their gameplay. But, of this weekend, several of the indie games and double-A titles showcased at IGN Live, the Future Games Show, or the PC Gaming Show are the ones that have their claws in me. And no, it’s not just because of Vampire: The Masquerade – Eternal Whispers.

Indie and double-A has always been where the innovation is, and if 2025 didn’t prove that with the likes of Expedition 33, Silksong, and Hades 2, this year’s PC Gaming Show certainly did.

I have a penchant for vampire games and visual novels, so let’s use those as my examples. VTM: Eternal Whispers is a relatively straightforward, Disco Elysium-esque affair: you wander around, look for clues, and unearth a mystery. Red Kiss, by comparison, seems to borrow some mechanics from AdHoc’s hit, Dispatch, and uses V-Tuber tech to bring its colorful, anime-style models to life.

I’ll contrast each of these with Where Birds Sleep which, while it doesn’t directly include vampires, has Neil Newbon as its leading actor. Again oozing visual novel, Where Birds Sleep’s flagship mechanic is that you’re not in control of the action: Cormo, your particularly unlikeable protagonist is. With its unique notice system (that requires you to engage with the dialog in order to spot things you’d otherwise miss), override systems (Cormo can simply say no to your requests), and innovative approach to morality and decision-making, it yet again challenges visual novel conventions.

All three of these games were revealed this weekend: Eternal Whispers and Red Kiss via the PC Gaming Show, and Where Birds Sleep at IGN Live. They’re all based on the same formula – text-heavy, narrative-driven, investigation focused games. Yet, they’re all so unique. Visually, Red Kiss is vibrant and neon, while Where Birds Sleep is an eerie watercolor. Eternal Whispers, by contrast, taps into that signature Disco Elysium style, where grime and grit reign supreme.

As a whole, they prove that, even within the same genre, there’s room for experimentation and innovation. The triple-A, open-world format has grown tiresome, and while single-player adventures do feel like they’re on the rise again, it’s the likes of Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Expedition 33 that have left people talking, not Doom: The Dark Ages or even perceived heavy-hitters like Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

While Xbox, PlayStation, and myriad triple-A games are stunning in terms of their visual clarity, they all look the same. Rolling emerald fields, rocky plains with glittering streams: they’re pretty, but uninspiring. Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess was, perhaps, its most impressive departure from the standard Unreal Engine 5 affair, but given that it failed to attract a mass audience, I can understand why it’s moved away from that style.

Sci-fi, fantasy, apocalypse, horror: it feels like games can be visually split these days. The PC Gaming Show proved that doesn’t need to be the case. PC won out at Summer Game Fest already – Guild Wars 3 topped r/gaming, and has been the most-talked about title on my X timeline. PC gaming is where the innovation is; it’s in the indie and double-A sphere, and the PC Gaming Show celebrated that perfectly. So yes, I’m excited for Fable – I want to meet Jack Of Blades again. But I’m more excited for all of the indie games the PC Gaming Showcase has served me, and that’s a fact.