I think Sony just became Microsoft. I'm still calculating it all in my head, but, yeah they kind of just became Microsoft, in their own twisted way.
To start off with, let me just say how disappointed I was at the complete lack of Vita at the show. It's clear now the Vita really is dead, and this was the final nail in it's coffin. Over the last 90 minutes it was only mentioned twice.
Ok, you know the deal, let's take a look and see what transpired:
The Last Guardian
Starting their show off with the mother of all big bangs, an actual confirmation that the long thought dead Last Guardian not only exists, but will be coming out within a year or so.
Last Guardian is a follow-up to Team Ico's Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, two PS2 classics. The last time we saw anything about the Last Guardian was it's announcement as a PS3 game in 2007.
Regardless, it looks like standard Team Ico fare, that is, minimalist as hell and with a focus on emergent story telling. It's way to early to tell how the monster works as a gameplay mechanic, but as Last Guardian a companion he's cute, in a sort of dog/bird thing kind of way.
Horizon: Zero Dawn
I'm skeptical that what was shown is final build gameplay, but what I'm not skeptical about is the idea of hunting robot dinosaurs like a future cave woman.
I like the open ended stealth and the monster-hunter-esque gameplay that puts a focus on dodging attacks and exploiting weaknesses. Best of all I'm an absolute sucker for post-apocalyptic, and this seems to be dissimilar enough from Fallout 4 to keep my attention.
Hitman and Street Fighter 5
There's a new Hitman, but it's just called Hitman, despite being like, the seventh entry into the series now. It involves killing people and sneaking. I don't know what more you want, except maybe for this one to be better then the last Hitman game.
Also, there's Street Fighter 5. They announced two characters, although I blinked and only saw the return of Cammy. Her legs have not made the transition to next-gen very well.
I was always a Mortal Kombat guy myself. Fatalities are my Viagara.
No Man's Sky
We finally got to see some honest to god gameplay and... it's still hard to tell. The game looks great, and it's clear that there's lot to see and explore, but is there stuff to do? If you're selling me on just non-stop radio towers from Far Cry 3, then I'll stick with the dozen or so games that offer that with an actual plot.
Flying the ship and walking around seemed pretty neat. There was also some footage of a space battle as well as the destructible terrain planetside. I guess, once again, we'll have to wait and see, as no release date was announced.
Dreams
Oh god, someone made a game out of Tool's Sober music video? That's what the first moments of this game(?) looked like. Apparently it's a creative tool, but they didn't show it in action very well.
Countdown to the first dick-based creation has already started.
Firewatch
I get more and more excited about Firewatch every time it gets talked about. It looks less and less like a walking around game, and more like a horror adventure game. The demo was short, but it looked awesome, like a Pixar movie, and was just mysterious enough to make me want to discover what's hidden.
Destiny: The Fallen King
First, I didn't know Destiny was on PS4. For some reason I actually thought it was an X1 exclusive. I know now that's foolish.
Second, does anyone want more Destiny? I've heard good things about the previous DLC packs, but there never seems to be anyone talking about this game anymore.
AssCreed Syndicate
Ubisoft teased a female protagonist at their conference earlier, so it was nice to see her in action. Footage was still pre-rendered, but it did show off some of the new tools like a cane-sword and throwing daggers.
I guess Ubisoft figured out that animation issue then huh?
Final Fantasy World and 7 remake
The only Vita game with actual footage. I have no idea what it is, but there was plenty of Final Fantasy fan service stuffed into an overly cute package. The story concerns two shape-shifting siblings, and will involve monsters.
Speaking of Final Fantasy Fan Service, rather then talk about the new Final Fantasy, Sony instead revealed the long requested remake of Final Fantasy 7. It's unknown far of a remake this will be, but 7 is usually regarded as one of the best FF games, and it's a favorite for a lot of people.
It's a good bet we'll get more info, as well as info on the upcoming Final Fantasy XV at the Square conference tomorrow.
Devolver titles
Devolver is a producer I love, and they're bringing four of their new titles over to the PS4.
First is Ronin, a game on Early Access now. From what I've read it's a turn based platformer, so points for originality.
Next is Eitr, a Diablo 2 style isometric hack-and-slash about vikings, all done in a stylish lo-fi pixel art.
I think this was supposed to be the splash for Eitr, but the image is fucked up.
Then there's Mother Russia Bleeds, an arcade style brawler about beating the fuck out of Russians. Info on this one is scant, but this is top of my list for sure.
Finally is Crossing Souls, a coming of age story about kids getting in over their head. Has a lot of potential, and a lot of heart.
Shenmue 3
I've always wanted to play the old Shenmue games, but I can't get a hold of them anywhere. Regardless, a lot of people did play them and so the original creator announced his kickstarter at the show. And promptly crashed Kickstarter. I'm not sure I agree with this trend of AAA developers going to Kickstarter, as it seems like it's taking money away from smaller dev teams.
Batman: Arkham Knight
No footage of the actual game, but an exclusive pack of PS4 missions based around the Scarecrow. It also set up cryptically for the main game by giving us details about Joker's cremation and the line "This is how the Batman died" If this means the last Batman game for a while then I'm all in, as I feel the series is outgrowing it's welcome.
Things that aren't games
I cared so little about this part I forgot screenshots. Skip to the next section for the interesting bits again.
Sony talked about their upcoming Morpheus VR headset. Honestly, if you put Morphus and Oculus Rift next to each other I would not be able to tell them apart. There were some games flashed in the background, inlcuding Eve Valkrie and Riggs, a new IP specifically for Morpheus, but that's it.
Then Sony talked about all their TV streaming shit. I like the idea of individual pick and choose cable channels, and I hope that catches on, but everything else was really boring.
Blops 3
First they talk about non-gaming stuff, then they announce a new Call of Duty, complete with PS4 exclusive content. That's why I called Sony the new Microsoft, and that's not a good thing.
Anyway, yes, new Black Ops. It has shooting, there are now women and minorities in multiplayer, and the singleplayer campaign has co-op. They also promised that singleplayer is less shit, but that's probably a lie.
Star Wars
Sony announced two new Star Wars additions to the already immensely profitable Disney Infinity kit, which allows kids to play games through the use of plastic figurines. Amiibos before Nintendo did it.
There's two new games, one for each trilogy, plus an exclusive PS4 Bobba Fett character. These games are geared to kids, and in that respect it looks pretty ok to me.
Finally, as I predicted, we saw a second bit of gameplay from Battlefront 3, and yes I'm still calling it that. This time we saw the co-op mode, which looked like a very linear version of the multiplayer. No word yet on whether they'll be an actual overarching story like in BF2, but all signs point to no.
Uncharted 4
The game so great they showed it twice. Seriously, I can't imagine how embarrassing it was to restart the demo. Despite that, we finally got a look at some Uncharted 4 gameplay and... it looks mostly the same. There wasn't anything strikingly new, save maybe the driving.
What was nice to see was the well written and human feeling banter between Drake and Sully. Naughty Dog have always been great at this, and the tradition continues.
There was plenty of destruction, both during the beginning shoot-out and the extended driving scene, showing off the game's new destructible terrain. Other than that details are slim right now.
That's all for day one. Join me tomorrow for the back-to-back Nintendo and Square shows, because there's no fucking way I'll have time to write a post between them. Then we'll cap it off with the big PC gaming show tomorrow night.
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