E3 2017: Sony PlayStation showcase

You know how everyone else started with some strong, out-of-the-gates shit. PlayStation decided the start of their presser would be ideal to display some ads for their limited edition gold PS4 & PlayStation Vue.

With that out of the way they launched into a live, Indian sitar lead, drum-circle. Seated in front of one of those giant indoor water-droplet signage things (and I thought Ubisoft were the crazy ones?!) the group played to introduce the very soon to arrive Uncharted: The Lost Legacy digital title.

The expansions didn’t stop there with a trailer shown for new DLC for the wildly successful Horizon: Zero Dawn. ”The Frozen Wilds” is slated to be released later in the year.


 

The first full title, and a PlayStation exclusive, was one of my personal favourites from last year; Days Gone. Today’s new demo showed even more gameplay set amongst the beautifully rendered Pacific North West.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQj5s7k3GxU

In contrast to last year’s gameplay demo this new footage focused heavily on human enemies surviving in groups, remnants of the world before. Also shown were further elements of stealth, environmental interaction, problem solving and hand to hand combat before ending on a reveal with some of the more natural enemies you’re likely to encounter.

It looks like Days Gone will be slotted in for release mid next year but there’s no fixed date or quarter mentioned thus far.


 

The new God of War (Fatherhood edition) was shown off again. It came with a new trailer that had gameplay mixed into it similar to last year. There’s a solid offering of the Kratos of old and his unmistakable fighting style but now with a far more in-depth story line compared to versions past.

The new version is set to release early in the new year, much to the everyone’s excitement but does miss an important holiday window that we’d originally thought it might hit.

Also appearing for a second time was David Cage’s Detroit: Become Human. It’s trailer was a solid five minutes – potentially the longest of the whole show. The extra time helped to highlight the many ways to progress through its story and its ability to ”craft your own” based on your decisions.


 

PlayStation VR earned itself a hefty block during the showcase too, as it rightly should selling over a million units since its release.

We saw a new thriller/horror type game The Inpatient, which as it turns out is an Until Dawn prequel. As well as Star Child, a third person puzzle platformer and possibly the craziest thing to come out of the Final Fantasy franchise yet; Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV – a VR fishing title.

That Aim controller you bought with Farpoint will also be re-used in first person, real-world shooter Bravo Team but the new title that grabbed my attention the most had to be Moss.

Touted as a “Zelda-like” adventure game in VR, Moss had an air of wonderment about it that definitely grabbed my attention.

It wasn’t the biggest bombshell for PSVR though. That came courtesy of Bethesda who remarkably kept this little tid-bit out of their own conference the day before.

Skyrim will be coming out for the PSVR taking the Switch’s motion control just that little bit further. The fact it’s a seven year old game meaning it should have no problems at all pushing through on a PS4 and it’s VR offering.


 

PlayStation’s partnered franchises too were given the floor for their moment in the spotlight. Call of Duty WWII’s new trailer showed off more of what we can expect – which is, well… Call of Duty.

Similar too, Destiny 2 – although their trailer was largely comprised of actual in-game footage. Moved up to now be available on September 6th (for both Xbox & PS) it will of course include PlayStation exclusive content in the form of weaponry, a PvP map and skins. It also offered us our first look at Destiny 2’s antagonist, Dominus Ghaul.

We also saw announcements for another re-release of cult classic Shadow of the Colossus, Monster Hunter: World and the newest iteration of fighter Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite.


 

PlayStation finished their show with a ”true” exclusive, the Insomniac developed Spiderman. Combat gameplay is heavily lifted from the Rocksteady developed Batman Arkham series with added ability to interact with the environment seamlessly. It looks extremely well done.

World traversal is simple and as fluid as it needed to be with a snapping reticle essentially hovering over every surface in more closed environments whilst in more open settings seems to simply just work with a tap of the “web” button that basically just keeps you swinging in the direction you want to go.

The sequence shown seemed to also be littered with quick-time-events throughout it that unfortunately appear to quickly put an end to things should they be mistimed.

We’ll have to wait until the hands-on reports start rolling in for confirmation on all the details of course.


 

Can’t help but feel that Sony, while focused on the games – that’s for sure, was kind of flat today.

Many of the titles, were ones we knew of well in advance and just like last year when they were first announced are still a ways off.

Their partnership titles were no more than gap fillers with impending releases on the cards and with zero hardware to spout Microsoft in conjunction with their Anthem (Bioware/EA) partnership may have stolen this one out from under them.