Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Spider-Man 2 video games get new trailers!

Summer Games Fest kicked off this week, which means that a whole lot of new trailers, announcements, and teases just dropped for a slew of upcoming video games. Among them was a brand new trailer for the Final Fantasy VII Remake sequel Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

This latest trailer gives us our best look yet at the highly-anticipated game, with some sweeping gameplay footage as well as teases at some pretty big changes from the original Final Fantasy VII, released way back in 1997. Some spoilers for the first Final Fantasy VII Remake below.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth trailer teases multiversal changes

The remake of Squaresoft’s massively popular Final Fantasy VII video game shook things up in a pretty major way: while it stuck fairly close to the events as the seminal original, by the end of the game it became clear that the developers were going to change the events of the original.

While that’d normally make me pretty nervous, Remake handled it all well enough, and I’m curious for more. In the trailer, we get hints that Shinra — the mega-corporation responsible for slowly destroying the planet — may have covered up the climactic clash at the end of the first remake game, and that Tifa’s traumatic backstory may play out differently in Rebirth than it did in FF7.

And of course, the incidental stuff from the trailer is all pretty stunning as well. Chocobo riding! Playable Red XIII! Yuffie mixing it up with the rest of the gang! There’s a lot to get excited about.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is out exclusively on the PlayStation 5 in early 2024.

Spider-Man 2 gets a release date and stunning symbiote gameplay reveal

Next up, we check in with Marvel and Insomniac Games, whose newest superhero game Spider-Man 2 also got some serious love at the event. 2018’s Spider-Man game was a huge hit that went over extremely well with fans. The follow-up Spider-Man: Miles Morales was also a hit in 2020. Anticipation has been through the rough for Spider-Man 2, and now we finally know when it will swing onto consoles: October 20, 2023.

Spider-Man 2 will feature both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, so there will be multiple Spider-Men on the loose this time around. The video above includes a brief teaser which announces the release date, as well as an interview with the game’s creative director Bryan Intihar. Both Kraven the Hunter and Venom will appear as major villains. In an intriguing twist, Intihar teased that Venom will not be Eddy Brock in this game, but someone else who comes into contact with the symbiote. While Brock isn’t the only person to merge with a symbiote in the Spider-Man comics, he’s by far the most famous. Who will Spider-Man 2 use as the hulking baddie instead?

We also got a look at some gameplay of Peter Parker himself wearing the black symbiote suit, which is pretty wild. Clearly a lot of love and attention to detail has gone into this sequel.

Like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Spider-Man 2 will release exclusively for the PlayStation 5. Get ready to explore an expanded New York City in October.

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