Playstation’s E3 Conference: Redux
In-depth look at Sony’s Paris Games Week press conference.
So, Playstation held a press conference Monday in Paris, and revealed a lot of new indie and VR games along with new trailers for games previously announced. The weird thing, though, is that this was being called the second half of Playstation’s E3 conference, when it really felt like a recap more than anything.
Starting with the new stuff, a lot of smaller indie games were announced in the conference’s pre-show, which again was weird because there was more new games in that hour than the actual conference.
The games announced included Guacamelee! 2, a sequel to the side-scrolling lucha beat-em-up, Gardens Between, a strange time bending puzzler with Ant-Man sized characters, and the beautiful, but horribly titled, Oure (pronounced “oh ray,” or someshit) where you play as a kid who transforms into a flying dragon.
The big announcement for the pre-show was Spelunky 2, which had a kind of depressing, but moving, trailer showing that the character from the first game has passed away and you’re playing his daughter.
PSVR had a major showing throughout both parts of the show. A good variety was shown, like the flight game Ultrawings, Megalith, a first person hero shooter, Sprint Vector, a super fast roller skating racing game, and Bow to Blood, which looks like a co-op ship combat game like Star Trek but with airships.
There was also some new trailers and gameplay for the Resident Evil 7 and Final Fantasy 15 DLCs. Resident Evil’s free Not A Hero DLC brings Chris Redfield to the first person game, which is playable in VR. Final Fantasy showed off some more of the VR fishing spin off, which is cool, I guess, if you’re into that sort of thing. There was also a new trailer and a December 13 release date for the Ignis story DLC.
Now, let's get to the actual conference, which did not have nearly as many new games. That being said, however, the one big announcement they did have looks bad ass. The game is an awesome looking samurai game called, Ghost of Tsushima. This is Sucker Punch’s new IP, the studio is known for the Sly Cooper and Infamous franchises.
Another interesting new game was Concrete Genie, where you play as a kid with a magic brush who draws creatures that come to life on the walls he’s vandalizing!! But it looks pretty fun and has a great art style.
A new thing Playstation has recently been pushing something called PlayLink, where groups of friends can connect their smartphones to a Playstation and have an affect on what happens in the game. Playstation showcased a new game called Erica that literally looks like an interactive live action movie.
The only new VR game announced in the main conference is called Blood and Truth. I’m actually pretty excited for this because it lets you play as a James Bond-esque badass who tears through the London underground.
Then there’s all the old news that came with the bulk of the conference. Like all the shooters and things coming out that have Playstation exclusive content. The one surprise from this was that Monster Hunter World will be getting a playable Aloy character from Horizon Zero Dawn. Destiny 2 also got a release date for the first expansion called Curse of Osiris, though this release isn’t exclusive to Playstation.
Speaking of release dates, the big console exclusives that were announced a year ago or more, still don't have release dates. All are still slated for 2018, except for Detroit: Become Human, which was given a Spring 2018 release window. So, that’s something I guess. Though, Shadow of the Colossus didn’t get a release date during the show, it was revealed in the description of a new trailer on Youtube that was released after the conference.
All that being said, this was a pretty solid conference, when you add all the stuff that happened before the conference. Highlights for me would have to be the trailer for Ghost of Tsushima, and the Spider-Man trailer that showed a lot more action and had a very quick shot revealing Shocker.
Also, The Last of Us 2 had a trailer that left everyone guessing what it was because neither Ellie or Joel showed up at all. This trailer was also probably the goriest fucking thing ever shown at a press conference in recent memory. Showing a woman getting her arm broken by a hammer and never cutting away is ballsy as hell. The trailer also followed that hammer’s journey into a woman’s skull and I cannot wait for this game. If only I had a damn release date to look forward to...
