E3: the PS4 Show

Sony’s conference has just finished, it’s 3:16 am and I’ve had loads of sugar. This blog may be nonsense. 

Holy fricking Spider-Man!!! That looked gorgeous and fluid, like a cross between the Batman titles and Uncharted which could be a blooming lovely combo. Swinging and quipping, that is definitely a Spider-Man game and I want it right now. 

Ok, calm down Joe… Let’s talk about the rest of the show. It’s a tricky one to describe. In many ways it was a lot better for me than the Xbox conference but then it also happened to be disappointing. Which it shouldn’t have been, as I literally blogged a few days ago how I predicted few surprises as they had a lot to show for what was already announced. That’s exactly what this was. It felt like part two of last year’s show, an update on the big surprises from then but lacking in any new reveals to get me excited. 

Last year they announced God of War, Days Gone and Spider-Man with all three getting extended looks this time. As noted above, Spidey was my favourite and easily the best showing of this e3 for me. God of War also looked epic. I was never in to the series and barely played any of them for more than an hour but this looked different. Brutal and lush, it’s definitely a technical showcase but I’m hoping it’s fun to play too. 

Days Gone looked ok but it didn’t offer anything new. More open world, more zombies. I feel like I’ve played it already. Uncharted Lost Legacy was a brilliant opener and after 4 thrilled me I’m all set for more. I’m letting that one off for lacking originality because its going to be faster paced and shorter and because I just like it, dammit. Let me contradict myself. Horizon DLC is another thing I’ll buy but I haven’t even finished the main game yet.

Surprises? Hmm... Monster Hunter World is technically a big one but I’ve never been a fan of that series. Still a good reveal of course, it’s a popular series and it’s returning to a non-Nintendo console. Being a Nintendo fan my first thought was about Nintendo losing a third party exclusive as opposed to the game itself (although I know there’s more to it, looks like two different Monster Hunter series?) Same thing happened when I saw Skyrim VR, that’ll take the wind out of the portable versions sails a bit. 

VR had a big section which is nice for VR owners. That doesn’t include me so I got bored here, but hey it’s doing well and Sony want to sell more. I shouldn’t really complain. Call of Duty and Destiny were other boring bits but again that says more about my tastes since I’m not interested in what will be the biggest two games still to come this year.

That feeling seems to be the main one here. This wasn’t a bad show at all, it just had a lot that wasn’t for me personally. At the same time it had games which are exactly what I want, big exclusive single player titles. I was unimpressed by Xbox because they had nothing like this but yet here I am being down on Sony for only showing like five exclusives I want and not announcing five more. I’ve just got greedy, but that’s their fault for putting on such a good show last year. This stuck to what I’ll be playing in the next 18 months and I should be pleased with that. A sensible E3 for a man who should have had more tea and less sugar.

E3: the Xbox show

I’ll start by reconfirming that I don’t own an Xbox and I’m a Sony/Nintendo boy… So a good conference would have been one that made me look in envy at all the games I’ll not be able to play unless I buy a new Microsoft box of tricks. This conference did not do that at all.

However… It was a decent conference. Contradiction? Nope. It was a strong showcase for upcoming games and there was plenty that I want to play but the problem for Microsoft is that I’ll able to do so on my PS4. The marketing approach here was that the shiny new Xbox One X will be the best place to play these games, with everything looking even prettier than smoother. As geeky as I may be I’m not the sort to be impressed about more pixels or frames. Probably a side-effect of being a Nintendo fanboy. Still, that new box will have an audience and it does sound like impressive tech.

Games then! Exclusives first… Crackdown 3 looked like a lot of fun. I liked the comic style visuals and the whole super-powered cop gameplay. I did not like Terry Crewes introducing it but then I just want to see the fricking games and would be happier if there were no humans during these shows. Blooming people. Sea of Thieves is one I want to like as I have fond memories of Rare from their Nintendo days but this game does nothing for me. Parts of it looked fun but I’d rather it was a 3^rd person solo adventure as opposed to an online teamwork shenanigan. Forza 7 is more Forza so that’s that. State of Decay 2 is more zombies and survival but despite coming out in an over-saturated genre it didn’t look like it was the best at anything. 

Third party multi-plats made up the bulk of the show and there was plenty shown. The new Assassins Creed got demoed but got to admit that I found it slightly disappointing. Two years since the last entry and all pre-reveal talk was of how the series would be revamped. Origins looked decent but I didn’t see anything really new or unique to the franchise. Metro Exodus was a stunning trailer visually but as it went on it became more obvious that it was scripted as opposed to being gameplay. I get why developers do it but don’t most of us viewers just want to see real gameplay? 

The new Mordor title had one of the longest sections but filled it well. Looks like more of the first game but expanded and improved upon. Luckily the last game was pretty good and when playing it I kept thinking ‘a sequel will be nice, that they can expand and improve upon…’ Well here we are. The nemesis system returns and even produced some laughs in this demo. How that whole concept hasn’t been copied is beyond me but I look forward to more of it in this world. Going to be an entertaining game.

Other stuff…Ori looks beautiful. PlayerUnknowns was a good announcement and a well-timed get for the console considering its popularity on Steam currently. Backwards compatibility felt like a big deal and I’m sure Xbox fans will be loving it. There’s that problem again though, everything shown here would please folk who already own an Xbox One. There was nothing that would convince the majority of PS4 owners to change their console of choice and that’s the task Microsoft have ahead of them.

The last game shown was Anthem, Biowares new sci-fi franchise. It looked superb. Visually the best title of the show and the player’s jetpack aided movement through the world came across as a lot of fun to play. Looking forward to giving it a go when it releases on the PS4 as well…. So that’s the first big conference done and it wasn’t bad at all by Microsoft. Next up are Bethesda and Ubisoft but for me they’re just filling the day out until we get to Sony’s show. Hurrah!

Pre-E3: PlayStation and Xbox

Last blog was spent hyper-ventilating over how much I love E3. And it had Nintendo stuff. This time… Xbox and PlayStation predictions, and a little bit of why this E3 might not be that exciting.

I own a PS4 but not an Xbox which you should know in case you think I’m coming across as biased. You’d be right. I love my PS4 and would take their list of exclusives over Microsofts any day. I’ll be watching the Xbox conference with intrigue but I won’t care a jot about the new Forza reveal or if there’s surprise announcements relating to Halo or Gears. If you’re in to those then hey I’ll be happy for you, but surely there’s some fatigue? Microsoft seem reluctant to diversify and the recent cancellation of Scalebound only adds to that. 

Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3 are the exceptions and admittedly two games that I do like the look of. I’m expecting big gameplay presentations of those and release dates. They’re a good start at breaking up the monotony of the big three Xbox franchises. But they also need more! More new ip and more risks. The problem is that it’s hard to see were its going to come from. We know what studios they have and they’ve all either had games recently released or their next games already been announced. Rare have hinted at having something else in the works and if its Banjo-Kazooie related I will look on in envy. Outside of that how are they going to surprise us? Third party deals? Limited time exclusives aren’t going to convince anyone and they won’t change the perception of a limited portfolio. 

Of course we’re also getting new hardware with the Xbox One Scorpio or whatever they end up calling it. I talked about the game’s first because really that’s all I care about. I’ve no interest just yet in 4K or talking about enhanced pixels etc No intention of buying a Pro or this just so some games look a bit prettier. I’ll be swayed by exclusives alone and so far the only Xbox games I’d like to play are Rare Replay and Ori. They surely have to come out this Sunday and make big game reveals, otherwise only the minority are ditching their current console. 

PlayStation then… As much as I love them and despite last year’s conference being probably my favourite ever, I have low expectations. The reason is purely that I don’t see many surprises coming. A lot has been announced already and there’s a large list of games that are bound to get time at the show. Last year’s reveals of Spider-Man, God of War and Days Gone haven’t been seen since and I’m expecting big trailers and release windows for all three. Dreams, Detroit, Gran Turismo Sport and Knack 2 are games I’m predicting will all be released between September and February so they’re due space. Even if Sony do spring some surprises my first thought will be “when the hell is it coming out?” Their schedule is packed already.

The marketing deals Sony have are my biggest mood dampener. Destiny 2, Call of Duty and Star Wars Battlefront are massive titles for them that will outsell everything I’ll be buying but I couldn’t care less. The inevitable trailers for those will give me time for tweeting. Crash Bandicoot will likely get one last trailer before its June 30^th release but I’ve already got it pre-ordered so that’ll be more boredom. After they’ve shown all that then how much time will they have left? 

There will be some surprises of course but it’s hard to think of what exciting tricks they could have up their sleeve. The next title from Sucker Punch feels like a safe bet and people are begging for Devil May Cry 5. I’m mostly just looking forward to more Spider-Man footage and keeping my hype levels reasonable. 

Of course I had similar thoughts last year and then came a beauty of a show. The announcements for Crash, Resi 7, Death Stranding and that Spider-Man trailer were all entertaining. Maybe next Tuesday morning I’ll be trying to word my glee after a great show and a plethora of Haribo. If not then I’ll just go back to playing the stack of games I’ve already got. Days off will be gaming filled and fun either way.