The Playstation showcase started off on quite a literal high note as a massive orchestra filled the hall with epic music. The sound was very familiar to those well-acquainted with the God of War franchise. And as the orchestra’s sound grew furious with each passing second, and as the vocals bellowed and soared, the audience knew where this heading.
Then the music gradually slowed down, and the curtains behind rolled open. Fade to Black. This is the introduction to the new God of War.
For the first time ever, viewers were given the chance to see a gameplay demo of the rebooted God of War. The most observable change is that it no longer centres around Greek mythology, it seems to have more a focus towards Nordic lore and design style. The next observable change is that the camera is angled from behind the shoulder as opposed to the usual third-person fixed camera style that the franchise consistently used. Thinking about it now, Santa Monica Studios have given it a massive overhaul – not just in terms of visuals but even gameplay and narrative. As the demo progressed, you’ll notice that the gameplay is a lot more methodic and paced as opposed to the usual fast-paced Kratos style of slicing and dicing multiple enemies in one shot. This isn’t to say that the gameplay isn’t brutal; the reboot’s penchant for brutality was made evident when it showed that players could beat enemies to a bloody pulp with their bare hands. The game also seemed to have some partial free-roam incorporated into it, with what looked like players could take multiple routes to take when reaching an objective or area. However, the most noticeable aspect of the whole trailer was that Kratos has a son now. The interaction during gameplay and cinematics opened up a lot of avenues for narratives and story-telling, which is good because the overused story of revenge from the previous games was getting tiresome.
Up next, Sony showed off their new IP from Bend Studios, titled Days Gone. It was a cinematic trailer with very little gameplay to show off but it did set the premise. It takes places years after an epidemic has wiped out most of humanity. You play as a Deacon St. John, a bounty hunter, who drifts from place to place, all while avoiding the zombie horde that scours most of the land. The game seems oddly similar to The Last of us but that’s not such a bad thing because that means it will be narrative driven rather than just focusing on the banal tactic of running and shooting zombies till you get bored and put down the controller.
Following this was the ever so tear-jerking, stomach-wrenching The Last Guardian. All I can say for this trailer is that if that magnificent creature dies at the end of the game, I am going to be so angry! Oh, and they also announced the release date – October 25, 2016. So, yay to that!
One of the most memorable moments from last year’s Playstation E3 was unveiling of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Ever since then fans have only been getting little glimpses here and there. But now we get a proper eight-minute video showing off some important aspects of the game. One of them being free-roam with a sizeable map to boot. Coupled with this is the ability to craft various items – ranging from weapons to medicine. This means that exploration is going to be a vital part of the game. Honestly, you don’t need a reason to motivate you to explore the gorgeous setting of Horizon. Also, layers can tame and ride the machine-animal-thingies in the game which would make for some interesting gameplay mechanics because I assume each type of animal will be useful in their own way when you mount them; some being combat-focused while others are more for traversal.
Following the theme of cybernetics and shiny parts, the next teaser trailer to be revealed was for a game titled Detroit Become Human. The gameplay seems to be focused on choices and consequences, as you take the role of Connor – a cyborg negotiator. The way the trailer played out, it seems as though each encounter can play out in multiple ways which could even mean multiple storylines. The most intriguing part is the hint of a robot-existentialist narrative, personally, I love when mediums touch upon that topic.
Now time to spice things up with something creepy. Capcom revealed Resident Evil 7, and I know that as you read that your eyes rolled into the back of your skull and into an alternate universe. The Resident Evil franchise has been anything but creepy or scary for the last few instalments. At some point, their design team thought that ‘boring’ and ‘repetitive’ were great concepts to base entire games upon. Surprisingly, RS7 takes a completely different route. It seems to follow in the footsteps of P.T with more emphasis being put on survival-exploration aspects. For those of you intrigued enough by the trailer, you can try out the demo on PSN. The full game is set to release January 24, 2017.
After a slew of trailers back-to-back, things slowed down a little bit as Shawn Layden, president of SIE, took to the stage to talk a little bit about PlayStation VR. The biggest takeaway was that the VR is set to be released on October 13, 2016, across multiple countries including the U.A.E. The price is set at $399. He added that there will be more than 50 games available for VR within the first year of launch – a mix of existing titles and original IPs.
The first of those IPs mentioned was Farpoint. It looks like your run-of-the-mill exploration shooter game but set in space. It looks intriguing and I really want to see how they properly develop the exploration bits using VR. Oh, and they also have you fighting giant alien spiders…so, this wouldn’t be the ideal purchase for an arachnophobic.
This was followed by a 40-second clip for a VR-based X-Wing mission in Star Wars Battlefront. The trailer itself did very little to showcase how it would look in VR but instead carried on the EA E3 Star Wars theme of being awfully ambiguous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEnSVG4PWW0
Following this ambiguousness was something less ambiguous and more hopeful. It was the announcement and teaser trailer for Batman Arkham VR. Now the only reason I don’t see this being a massive fiery trainwreck is being it’s being developed by Rocksteady and I have faith in them to deliver a well-rounded final product. Hopefully, we hear more details soon because I am definitely intrigued to see how they pull this off (can you imagine detective mode using VR?!). It is set to release October 2016.
Next up, was the music video for an Afrojack song. Oh wait, no I meant to say that it was the trailer for Final Fantasy XV. I will admit I have never played any of the titles in the Final Fantasy series, partly because they did not appeal to me or because the ones that did were turn-based combat, of which I’m not a fan. But I would be lying through my teeth if I didn’t say that this oddly looked interesting. It’s weird and energetic, and the combat looks great. No, the music did not make it better, I actually had to lower the volume just saw I could focus more on the trailer.
Hey guys, remember when Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare made its not-so-surprising debut, and then to Activision’s dismay it ended up tanking amongst the consumers. Well, I guess they wanted to try again to impress us and decided to show us some footage from one of the space missions in the game. Yes, I was even surprised that there was an actual mission in which you battle in space and it wasn’t just a cinematic or quick time event. It looks quite impressive, kind of. Just imagine call of Duty in space and this is kind of what you get. The flight bits of it looked quite fantastic but I do hope that you actually get to pilot those ships and it’s not one of those automated gameplays where you’re only in charge of the turrets.
Once again, Shawn Layden took to the stage to announce a bit of news that brought smiles to everyone’s faces. They announced that they will be working on a remastered version of Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2, and Warped for the PS4. After the crowd got riled up, they followed up with a trailer showcasing the induction of Crash Bandicoot into the Skylander’s game.
Up next, we get to see the trailer for LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This was coupled with a trailer for a demo for one of the missions. What baffles me is that there is even such a thing as making trailers for demos. It’s as pointless as making a teaser for a trailer. But that’s a rant for another day. Personally, I would never play any of the LEGO games but one thing I’ve always admired is their humour, and this game is nothing short of that.
We all knew about Hideo Kojima and SIE teaming up, and it was big news. What did they have planned? Would we hear any news about the project they are working on? Even a screenshot would suffice. But Sony and Kojima went above and beyond. As Kojima took to the stage, and as cheers and applause filled the hall, he revealed footage from their upcoming game – Death Stranding. Now, you should know that it isn’t what you would expect. It’s definitely Kojima-esque but still, somehow, very peculiar. All I can say to summarise this reveal is – a naked Norman Reedus holding a fetus while surrounded by dead fish. Enjoy.
So what could top that? What could get the crowd and viewers even more riled up than Kojima walking onto the stage and showing us footage for his weird, weird, weird game? Well, what if I said all it took was a visit from your friendly neighbourhood Spider-man? That’s right, there is a fresh new Spiderman game being worked on by none other than Insomniac studios. I trust them to do right by it. The trailer showed us glimpses of gameplay and cinematics; it looks marvellous! Insomniac did a great job of making it comical but at the same time not so comical that it comes off as goofy. Most importantly, the redesigned suit – it’s a perfect blend of old and new. It’s vibrant but still gives you the nostalgic feel of the old-school Spider-man.
So, that was the PlayStation E3 conference. It was an absolute delight with back-to-back trailers with no fluff in between to slow it down. Most of all, it’s great to see some new IPs come out of the woodwork.This should keep our satiated for a couple more months till we start yearning again for more information about these games, especially Death Stranding. Personally, I’m looking forward to Horizon and Spiderman the most. Fingers crossed that we get to see more footage in the weeks to come, especially from the latter.
