E3 2014 – Sony Press Conference

Well, its finally time. The final conference of the night. Hopefully trying to end big, Sony Computer Entertainment’s Press Conference is up.

sonypress

Predictions: Uncharted 4, The Last Guardian (finally), Maybe something from The Order 1886.

Sony opened big with Destiny, revealing The Traveler, stating we’re Earth’s last hope. This game has everything: its big, its a FPS, it’s an RPG, it’s got a MMO style campaign. It’s gonna be huge. Bungie’s new world is going to be a big investment, and it’s obvious that PlayStation is backing them pretty hard.

Andrew House – President and Group CEO of SCE comes out and describes how the PlayStation brand caters to gamers, releasing the best games on the best console. July 17th will be the Destiny Playstation beta, and PS4 owners will get a first-look alpha on Thursday, June 12th, 2014. They also announced an exclusive Destiny White PS4 Bundle on September 9th, 2014 for the full launch of the game.

The Order 1886 is up next, and we get a nice reveal trailer/ gameplay blend. PS4 exclusive. Dark setting with our hero getting attacked by a zombie-like man who transforms into a werewolf. Very cinematic, very dark, very cool setting.

Indy IP up next – Entwined. Shows two very vibrant origami like creatures. Brought to us by the dev Pixel Opus, their first game. You control both characters at once, using both joysticks, in a tunnel-like obstacle based game. Available now on PS4.

SuckerPunch’s Infamous: Second Son announced stand-alone DLC featuring a female lead. Doesn’t require the original copy of the game. Infamous Second Son: First Light. August 2014.

Blazing along with new exclusives, Little Big Planet 3 announced. 4 player co-op with 3 new character: Oddsock, a dog which can jump off walls, Toggle, a fat guy who’s strong enough to push object or weigh them down, but can shrink to fit through tight spaces, and Swoop, a parrot that can fly, and carry other players. November release.

Shuehei Yoshida announced that LBP1 and LBP 2 user created levels will be transferable to LBP 3 which enhanced graphics.

From Software announced Bloodborne, a new gruesome creepy title. Gory fighting, zombie dogs. Coming 2015.

Next up is the big Far Cry 4 gameplay reveal. Ubisoft’s conference gave us the opening introductory sequence, now we get to explore. Location is Kyrat, high in the mountains. Very much a Far Cry game, and it looks gorgeous. much improved engine. You’re fitted with a wingsuit and grappling hook, which allows you to swing over gaps or scale the side of cliffs. You can shoot and drive, hi-jack other cars while driving, and wing-suit out of the vehicle if you happen to plummet off a cliff. Very bright and colourful locale. Looks like there’s 2 player co-op options as well. Second player is introduced and arrives on a little helicopter to pick you up. Definitely new uses for the wildlife and an elephant helps you attack a secured fortress. Tagline “every second is a story” November 2014. Exclusive to the PS4, a friend can join your game even if they don’t own a copy.

Adam Boyes – Publisher and Developer Relations comes out and talks about letters from the fans and what they want:

Zombies: a very fun, colourful trailer is before us showing a zombie outbreak, as a runner with headphones misses all the events behind him, as he slowly turns himself. Very cool. Pretty gross. Dead Island 2. Deep Silver does cool trailers.

Diablo 3 PS4 edition announced, gets bundled with exclusive The Last Of Us enemies and themed dungeon, and exclusive character class.

We get another montage trailer for Battlefield: Hardline, basically summarizing the gameplay heist reveal we got from EA earlier today. Highlights on the zipline and grapple gameplay mechanics.

Fans want exclusives: Disney Infinity 2.0 will have Hulk on Playstation. Destiny will have lots of PlayStation exclusive maps and guns.

Jumping into more from the indy developer section of the conference. Paradox Interactive announces Magicka 2 – Learn to Spell, again. Should probably learn to spell magic first. Tim Schafer and Double Fine remastering Grim Fandango, exclusive to PS4 and Vita. Devolver announced some indy games coming exclusively to PlayStation console: Broforce, Not a Hero, Hotline Miami 2, Titan Souls, The TALOS Principal, and others. Journey’s dev, Giant Squid announced their new game too: an underwater setting with a scuba guy: ABZU. Looks incredible.

Last but not least from the indies – No Man’s Sky from Hello Games, an infinite space and planet procedure game. Every player starts on their own unique plants. Vast and boundless. Planets have wildlife, and water habitats, players get an X-Wing to fly around, there’s space ships and dinosaurs, and then you can leave the planet’s atmosphere and there’s space battles, and you can fly right into another generated planet’s atmosphere. Pretty incredible showing from this tiny team. #mind_blown. Colourful and vibrant, no two planets alike.

Hardware time: Sony’s PS Camera solo sales exceed their expectation, announced their VR, Project Morpheus. And then outcome the sales and social numbers. Later this year, utilizing the sharing functionality, PS4 users will be able to publish videos right to Youtube.

A quick sizzle reel is shown advertising all the free to play titles coming to the Playstation consoles, and Vita. 25 titles coming. Truly free to play, doesn’t require PS+.

Playstation Now: open Beta starts July 31st for PS4 in Canada and US. PS3 and Vita shortly after, later to Sony TVs. 100 titles during the beta to test rental duration and pricing.

Sony still showing strong support for Vita, with 100 titles in development, and the ability for remote play a huge selling point, and cross title purchases. Playstation TV, their little peripheral, that allows sharing over 2 TVs, and streaming Playstation Now, remote play, $99.

The conference is getting a little stale at this point. Sony, as a company, is more than just the games, so they have to sell us on their other hardware endeavors, and services. But wrap it up.

We get a gameplay reveal of Mortal Kombat X. Looks great. Sub and Scorpion of course, and two new characters. Not as smooth as the rendered reveal, but looks real good. More brutal x-ray moves, smooth fluid, BRUTAL animations and effects, and new environmental interactions, and weapons.

Back to Sony Services to wrap up the hardware side of the company. Brian Michael Bendis comes out to reveal Powers TV show, 2 seasons green lit. Sony original, only on Playstation. Rachet and Clank the movie, 2015 and a remastering of the original game, for PS4.

Alright, moving on, time to bring out the heavy hitters, Sony, to wrap the show.

Last of Us Remastered, included Left Behind DLC, July 29th, 2014.

Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain trailer. The game looks incredible. The story, as always is confusing and convoluted, and jumps around. Hard to follow, but I’m stoked. Kojima was right a couple weeks ago when he said the trailer was a little hard to watch. There’s some gruesome looking parts. No announce date of course.

Rockstar, an E3 rarity, announced GTA V for PS4 this fall. Online profile will carry over from 360 and PS3. I’m sure this will be available on Xbox 1 too, but Sony got the right to announce it.

Finally closing in on the end of the show now: Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham Knight. Recently delayed, and thank god for that. Extra time is a blessing well deserved to polish this masterpiece. Visuals – incredible. Gameplay with the Batmobile – amazing. Scope of the city – Daunting. Batman’s new suit is ridiculously high-tech. Armored batmobile that goes into a tank-like mode, and can strafe. Batman wrecks this city. Rocksteady said this game would be faster paced, no more climbing through vents, you shoot through vents, and you can launch yourself out of the car, and it’s AI will patrol the city while you fly around. Fast maneuverability is key in this show-case. Next gen only – Playstation gets exclusive Scarecrow nightmare missions. Can’t wait.

Alright, the time has come, what will Sony close the show on?

You guess it, Uncharted 4. Nathan Drake and Sulley, one last time. Back to the jungle, and Drake’s model and face looks damn near real. A very dark and ominous feeling to the trailer, but he’s still wearing that wedding ring. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. 2015.

Sizzle reel to close the show. Thanks for coming everyone. 19 games shown.

No The Last Guardian from Team ICO. There’s always E3 2015.

Thanks for hanging with my today, it’s been tiring.
Stick around for new reviews and previews coming soon.

iRogan signing off.