Unfortunately I had to get up to work this morning, so I was not able to stay up and watch Sony’s E3 conference. When/if I can ever do this as a full-time job, then I will happily stay awake all night if need be (or better yet, be at E3 in person). But for the time being, this is all you are going to get from us.

So yesterday we saw Ubisoft show off some amazing looking games, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Mario + Rabbids (Super Mario XCOM?), Far Cry 5, and Beyond Good and Evil 2 to name a few. But in the wee hours of last night, Sony took to the E3 stage and threw out some solid titles that are coming out over the next year or so. Although it is worth noting that there were no new hardware announcements from Sony, meaning that it is looking as if the XBOX One X might have taken them a little by surprise. I was half expecting a Scorpio-esc console announcement from them, even if it was just a little hint to something that was coming in the future, but alas there was nothing. I would not be surprised if in the next few months, Sony decide to suddenly declare their new next-gen console, if in fact they are even working on one.

Anyway, this year Sony focused purely on the games. Being their tag-line is “For the Gamers”, ever since a few years ago when Microsoft tried their hardest to label the Xbox as anything but a games console, Sony seem to have taken this as their way of life, and so here are the major titles that were revealed last night:

First up is Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Although no actual gameplay footage was shown, only CGI cinematic, you can bet that the graphics will not be far off. This Uncharted game shifts focus from Nathan Drake, and shows the adventures of Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross, whom were both key characters in the previous game, and the entire thing looked brilliant. I am sure it will have a very similar feel to Uncharted 3, but will the shift in focus mix up the formula.
It is worth noting that this is a DLC for Uncharted 3 and I am unsure, at this time, if it is available as a standalone title or if it requires Uncharted 3 to play.


Another DLC next with Horizon Zero Dawn’s: The Frozen Wilds. Here we saw a dramatic change in location from the base game of Horizon Zero Dawn from the ruins and lush brightly coloured jungles, to an icy tundra, complete with tribes all looking for the great hunt. Again although no gameplay footage was found (a very Ubisoft way of doing things Sony), we can see from the original Horizon Zero Dawn, that the graphics will not be far of. It would be interesting to see if we are playing as the same character or if we are playing as someone completely new.

Days Gone might have been the reason that there was no The Last of Us 2 shown there last night. Revealed last year at E3, Sony finally showed us some game footage and it did not disappoint. I personally thought that this was my favourite title that was shown in their conference. A post apocalyptic open world (assuming) survival game where you are fighting your fellow man as well as the living dead. Okay it is a very tried and tested formula, as well as a story we have seen a million times before, but sometimes popular things are popular for a reason.
An impressive moment was when the protagonist discovered a large camp of bandits and used an enormous nearby horde of undead (again… assuming) to his advantage, destroying a barricade and unleashing them onto the group to thin out their numbers, as well as distract them so that he could get up to the leader and finish the job. After which he was attacked by some messed up looking zombie-bear thing. With the prospect of more animals (wolves were in the trailer) as well as a hinting of a dark and gritty storyline, Days Gone is definitely one to keep an eye out for.


Next we have Monster Hunter World. Another Monster Hunter game set to release in early 2018 on all platforms, this game left me feeling a little unimpressed. Although the graphics of the environments looked amazing, the foliage especially as the protagonist crept through it to reach his mark, the actual monster themselves looked quite dated, especially when the player attacked it. Maybe it is because I am not a fan of this series, so perhaps it will appeal to them more than I, but new comers to Monster Hunter will not be eager to pick it up in my opinion.
Although that might be a little harsh as it could easily be pushed back from its early 2018 window and so the developers could have a lot more time to tweak these issues and make the monsters the impressive beasts that they should be.

Speaking of impressive beasts, the next revealed game is one that did this brilliantly. It was remastered and made for the previous generation of consoles, but Sony have decided to cash in on this amazing title, and as a huge fan of this game, I am inclined to let them do as they will with it without a bad word. Of course I am talking about Shadow of the Colossus.
Now SotC is one of my all time favourite games. I am currently running through the PS2 version with my fellow Bearded Robot; Peter, and I am absolutely loving replaying it. Had I of known that a PS4 version was coming out later this year or possibly early next, then I might have waited to replay it and show him it with amazing PS4 graphics, as the graphics from this trailer made the game look jaw-dropping.
It will be interesting to see if this is a remaster or a remake and if so, will they add any new content into the game, as the PS3 version was a polished version of the PS2 classic. Prospect of a 17th Colossi is enough to make me play this title the second it is available in stores.

Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite looked great, more so as it seems that this title is more than a fighting game, it appears that Capcom have spent the time in giving it a deep and interesting story mode, complete with the story demo which is available now to download now.

Next we saw Call of Duty: WW2 in a superb trailer showing some great gameplay footage. Having fallen out of love with CoD ever since they removed Hardcore Search and Destroy from Black Ops 2 and effectively ending my league days and dispersing my clan, I have tried to get back into it at times, only for it to get more and more ludicrous. And I know I am not the only one who feels the same way. Ever since the announcement that they were going back to World War 2, I have been eagerly anticipating its release. I hope that this is a true return to its roots and will once again rekindle the flame that I had once felt for this franchise.
The trailer shown at Sony’s conference did not rely on vehicles or the Zombie mode, or even the multiplayer! Which is what CoD has become the prime focus of in recent years (or more like the last seven), but instead shifted the focus over to the single player story mode. It seems that our requests of storming the beaches of Normandy in 4K have finally been answered and it is good to see (and hope) that Activision will be putting more of an effort into their single player campaign, rather than just throwing in a few well known actors and giving us an average first person shooter.

After that we saw a bunch of PSVR games such as Skyrim, Final Fantasy 15: Monsters of the Deep (some damn Final Fantasy finishing game! Where the hell is FF7?!), and a few others.
I am afraid that I am not overly a massive fan of VR in any format, and so I have yet to be bothered to watch the actual trailers for these. To be, VR has not yet been perfected, and although I am sure that these games look good, playing them might be another thing entirely. Besides I want to play games the same way I watch films; sitting in my pants and leaning back with a bag of crisps and a beer at hand. I don’t want to muck around turning my head.
Of course this is purely just my opinion and I am sure that most people do not agree with me on this, but that is the thing about Bearded Robot; we are not a gaming news website. We are bloggers. We are just here to give our own personal opinions on things, and unfortunately, for me, VR is something that I hope will just go away and stop wasting developers’ time.

Anyway, after that, Sony showed us the new God of War (no subtitle or anything? So I am not sure if this is called just God of War, or if there is suppose to be a number or something afterwards). This game looked impressive. Fans cheered the moment they caught a glimpse of Kratos’ tattoo. Although Kratos looks badass now with his enormous beard, it was the gameplay footage itself that really stood out for me. The graphics really did shine brilliantly as we saw Kratos tear into enemies with beautiful backdrops all around. The enormous monsters and beasts were the highlights of previous titles, and it looked as if this God of War game will not disappoint. At the end we are greeted by a tremendously large sea serpent, however, it is worth noting that it appears to be an ally rather than a boss, but we will have to wait and see. This is a must by for any PS4 owners.

Detroit: Becoming Human looked interesting. Although no gameplay was shown (at least I did not notice) it is from creator David Cage, and so we know that the gameplay of these games are very minimalistic. Detroit looked like another interactive story, which in my eyes is never a bad thing. I loved Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, so I will no doubt be playing Detroit: BH when it finally comes out.
The story of this game is one that is intriguing to me. A classic story of an android uprising but with a David Cage choices and morality thrown into the mix will no doubt create a very enjoyable experience. The only issue I have with these games are the replay factor. Although you can make different decisions on the next run-through, it kind of defeats the purpose in my eyes. It will be another title to have a great play-through, but then never pick it up again, unless you are showing it to some friends.

Destiny 2 showed us a sneak peek at what millions of gamers wanted to see: more Destiny. I never really got into Destiny, but I am interested to see what this game offers from the original, given that DLC for the original is still pretty fresh.
I know that this game has a whole bunch of Playstation exclusive content, so it is clear that Sony have gone well with scooping up this franchise. Although the game is going to be released across all formats, it wouldn’t surprise me if Playstation players are treated to an exclusive beta or demo in the next few months.

Finally we have Spider-Man. Created by Insomniac (of Resistance fame), this unknown Spider-Man titled game looks as if it might be trying to bring back what was amazing about the Spider-Man 2 game back on the PS2 many moons ago.
Any comic book fans can see that they have shifted from Peter Parker to Miles Morales, so it will be interesting to see if the new protagonist will change up any of the game play. We also got to see Wilson Fisk, and I think Electro right near the end, but I am not 100% on that.
The game itself looked as if it has borrowed elements from the Batman Arkham games, which is never a bad thing so long as it is gone correctly and just isn’t a completely rip-off.
Although the game did have a lot of Quick-Time-Events in the trailer, I hope that they are not too frequent throughout it. Handling a Spider-Man game is a delicate situation and I hope that Insomniac can pull it off. As with great power does come great responsibility.

Overall Sony gave us some great titles to get excited about. I was disappointed that there was no The Last of Us 2, or Final Fantasy 7 remake footage or trailers, but what Sony did show was impressive. It will be interested to see what their play is with regards to the Xbox One X and even the Scorpio, given that Microsoft did show us a lot of hardware (although greatly overpriced), and so I would love to see some big reveal of the new Sony console. Perhaps they are saving it for the PSX in December, but for the time being there are enough titles for us to chew on for now.

 

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