Nominally an event celebrating the PlayStation’s 20th anniversary, the PlayStation Experience, or PSX, was sort of E3 or PAX for all things PlayStation, was a 2 day Sony trade show in Las Vegas, and probably a brilliant move on their part. Now, we aren’t children here, Sony charged good money for people to attend an event that could be called a super bowl of self promotion, but I expect those that participated would call it well spent. For everyone else, it was still a great excuse to get excited about games we love, and games we didn’t know we loved until they showed us a trailer. Though not an annual event ‘per se’, Sony top executive Shawn Layden pretty much showed his hand when he added ‘annual’ in his speech on accident. Creating a destination on the calendar and the map is just good business sense, and its as good for the community as it is for the entertainment giant.
I have to hand it to them, however much Sony benefits from this, its engaging the fans and welcoming them in. It helps Putting games in hands, and getting people excited about the year to come. Demos, trailers and early access, the PlayStation Experience had it all, and it gives the players a part to play in the development cycle of the games they will be playing. As you might expect, there was a lot of stuff covered over the course of the show, with a whole gang of different game titles being represented in some way or fashion. Highlights include
Opening the show on a big note, the new Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is, no surprise, one of the flagships of both the Sony brand, as it is the hardware itself. Ominously titled, will the fourth be the last? Who knows, it certainly looks the best, seriously, the facial animation in these things is getting frighteningly real. Oh, and there’s an island full of pirates and treasure (maybe he’ll bump into Lara)
Dark Souls cousin, Bloodborne got some stage time at the keynote. As well as a partial walkthroughs of one of the games dungeons, fans of the Souls franchise were excited to get a few new details. Co-op was announced, , as well as the games procedurally generated dungeons system. From Software President Hidetaka Miyazaki said that the dungeons would change themselves to the player, though, that might be fancy talk, as no actual mechanics were explained. The baddies looked suitably horrible, and the boss reveal, appropriately giant and challenging.
A sucker for all things apocalypse and survival, The Forest is for everyone who ever wanted a minecraft-like survival experience taken more seriously. In a forest (no surprise there) filled with the ordinary ‘find food or shelter or die’ peril, as well as mutated freaks who’d like to eat you. Survive, or don’t. Sounds awesome right?
Batman: Arkham Knight. It’s a Batman Arkham game, pretty sure that’s all I need to say.
Street Fighter V. Looking a lot like a next gen SFIV with some pretty awesome FXs. Its ‘console’ exclusive to the PS4, but with cross platform (thank goodness) competition enabled across the PC and PS4. That’s actually pretty huge. Kinda a bummer for fans who prefer the Xbox, I have to say. If we’re doin the cross platform thing, then I kinda feel like everyone should be invited to the party. Footage still gave me goosebumps though.
The Order 1886 is a steam punky monster hunter, its beautiful, and really hits the nerd buttons, Victorian age with advanced tech, and lots of beasts to use it against. You need only watch and see. This thing has me very excited.
No Man’s Sky is one I have wanted for a very long time. Another of the ‘procedurally generated’ variety, No Man’s Sky boasts a proper universe filled with planets that are simply too numerous for anyone to explore. A staggering concept when you think about the implications, I am very eager to play this game.
No Man’s Sky is one I have wanted for a very long time. Another of the ‘procedurally generated’ variety, No Man’s Sky boasts a proper universe filled with planets that are simply too numerous for anyone to explore. A staggering concept when you think about the implications, I am very eager to play this game.
And a special mention goes to The Indie Darlings. PlayStation is making it clear that every type of game is welcome, and the smaller quirky experiences as much, or more than the blockbuster. They were too many to list, but rest assured friends, there is an immense amount of grassroots sorts of games from small studios that are very interesting.
I think the lesson here, at the end of the day, or, PlayStation Experience, is that things are shiny for games in general, and PS4 owners especially. Games and content of all descriptions, from the blockbuster to the free to play and all points in between, Sony is making us complicit in our own gaming future, and the future looks bright. It’s an all in together sort of mentality, which makes a lot more sense than the ‘us versus them’ we so often see.
There was more, a whole lot more (still no Last Guardian though) which makes for a packed 2015 which near as I can tell is lining up to be better than 2014, which was one of the best years to date. Stick to Best Buy and the Plug-in blog for all your PlayStation news and info.
