Sony | E3 Recap

What a huge E3 it has been so far. Yesterday we had Bethesda and their great conference. Today we had very impressive conferences from Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft. To finish the day proceedings we got the Sony conference. Here are some of the highlights from the day, be sure to check out our two Game Over Podcasts on Wednesday and Friday this week.

The Exclusive

Sony came out firing to start the conference. Even though it had been heavily rumoured and all but confirmed, The Last Guardian was showcased with a beautiful gameplay trailer. Not to mention the tease at the end that the game will arrive in 2016.

Following directly after that was a new game by Sony’s first-party studio Guerilla Games unveiled their newest game, Horizen Zero Dawn. On a personal note this is by far the game that most appealed to yours truly. This is a game which has a female protagonist using a bow and arrow to fight robotic dinosaurs. Place those attributes in a vibrant overgrown world instead of the grey-and-brown barren wastelands we usually see. That sounds right up my alley.

Street Fighter 5 was also showcased and revealed new characters. Being published by Sony it will come out exclusively to PlayStation 4and also PC. It was also revealed that people who pre-order the game will be allowed to participate in the beta on July 23^rd.

We finally also got to see what Media Molecule have been up to since LittleBig Planet 2. It’s a game called Dreams. A game where the player creates anything they want. The player can create a world, a character, a play and a Dream. The game will also allow other players to come into your dream and you can visit other peoples. Yes, it’s hard to explain. Be sure to watch the presentation to get the full list.

Lastly what we got to see was an outstanding look at the upcoming Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Once again there was a slight technical difficulty just like last year. The controller froze or something. Once they restarted it and started going through the world. It was what you expect from Naughty Dog game. The gorgeous graphics, attention to detail, and the action packed gameplay. It all comes together to make something exceptional.

Betas, Exclusive Content and the Console exclusives… For now.

Continuing on from the Street Fighter 5 and the Beta access, there are other games which have been given access to PlayStation members. At the conference we saw our first look at the new Hitman game simply called, Hitman. Along with a trailer it was announced a Beta would be accessible only to PlayStation players.

Quite possibly the biggest shock of the conference was when representatives from Treyarch/Activision came out onto the stage. The makers of the Call of Duty Franchise have always appeared with Microsoft and their conference at E3. With the exceptional sales of the PlayStation 4 it seems Activision is willing to follow the market share then be affiliated with one specific console. After the presentation of the co-operative play and multiplayer modes, it was announced that map packs and beta access would be first on PlayStation.

Another big reveal was Final Fantasy VII Remake. Before you role your eye’s in disgust, this is NOT a remaster. This is not just some upgraded textures. This is a full game made from the ground up following the original Final Fantasy VII.

There were also showings of No Mans Sky and Firewatch which are being advertised as PlayStation games. To myself and others here at Novastream, there are signs that it will be on PS4 first, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see that on the Xbox One eventually.

Morpheus who?

Project Morpheus is a technology that Sony had seemingly been pushing into a release for next year. In our predictions article a few of us thought we would get either a release date or even a price. We didn’t get any of that. After announcing that Sony won’t be appearing at Gamescom later this year, hopefully there will be more info at TGS (Tokyo Game Show).

Conclusion

Overall I had a good time watching the conference this year. Was it the best I’ve seen? No. Was it bad? No. The thing players want to see at these conferences is games. Sony spent probably no more than 10 minutes on the Morpheus and their Music and TV products. It may have been more exciting to Americans then the rest of the world. In terms of games however, we saw over 22 games either coming out or in development to come mostly within the next year. Not to mention other Studios we haven’t heard from such as Santa Monica, Quantic Dream etc. I’m sure we all will be looking forward to the games on the show floor this week.