Sony at E3 2015 – The Highs and Lows

The rollercoaster of excitement is now over, and it’s time to take a good look at the highs and lows of this year’s E3 event. Sony has managed to put the console in a very good position, steaming ahead of the XBOX One, meaning that is was another tremendous opportunity to show gamers why the PlayStation 4 is the number one console. Let’s take a look at how they did just that…

The Games

Sony are infamous, yes pun intended, for announcing unexpected and jaw dropping games. After all, isn’t that ultimately what you want as a gamer? Yes, of course! Let’s take a look at the featured games.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

As the trailer started, it had the crowd puzzled; what could it be? It turned out to be a totally new franchise and an upcoming PS4 exclusive, named Horizon: Zero Dawn, from the same makers of Killzone Shadow Fall. The trailer revealed a jaw dropping environment; the free roam word was totally breathtaking. Aloy was also featured as the main character, who is armed with a bow. Her weaponry might not seem like much of a match, that’s when you consider her enemies will be ginormous robotic dinosaur-type creatures. Can’t wait? The game is set for a 2016 release.

The Last Guardian

Once the suspense was over, it had the crowd cheering, that’s because The Last Guardian has been in high demand by many fans. Sony listened, which is why you’ll be playing The Last Guardian sometime in 2016. How exciting is that? For those who aren’t familiar, the game features a young boy and his giant flying-creature pet companion. Guards are out to get the pair, and it’s your job to prevent that from happening – where puzzles and enemies are your biggest barrier to freedom.

Dreams

Arguably the most unique game announced at this year’s E3 event, this one had eyebrows raised. It was more like a Photoshop PlayStation edition, which will allow you to easily draw things, animate them and then turn your creativity into a mini game. Your DualShock 4 controller will be the paintbrush and your dreams will be the canvas. Doesn’t it all sound kind of awesome? What’s more is that you’ll be able to share your creations with other dreamers, making it a complete community based experience.

Final Fantasy VII

This announcement was probably greeted with the most cheers. It was another highly requested game from fans of the FF series. We’re still yet to learn much at all about this upcoming remake, however, one thing is clear, it’s 100 percent eye candy for Final Fantasy veterans. After all, there’s nothing better than re-playing a pastime in glorious HD. It’s still not clear if VII will venture off into new areas, or strictly keep to the plot as before. Whatever the outcome, it’s going to be awesome!

Shenmue III

Yu Suzuki, the creator, came on stage to explain how Kickstarter was allowing this game to come to fruition. Of course, the announcement and media coverage meant that the $3 million target was reached less than 48 hours later. This all means that the game will go ahead. Suzuki also explained why crowed funding was good for fans, pointing out that it allows the community to get involved and provide essential feedback and suggestions.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

It was more-or-less a guarantee that Sony would feed us a few more juicy details about A Thief’s End, and they did just that. In fact, they ended the conference with nothing other than a gameplay video, although there was a slight glitch, which actually turned out quite well – because we got to see the beauty of the environment without any distractions. It’s fairly obvious though, this game is loaded with action and excitement, the chase encounter was like watching a movie – it had the adrenalin pumping. The big question on the table is: could we be on to a GOTY here?

No Man’s Sky

We were able to learn a little more about No Man’s Sky, with a gameplay video showing a number of new things. So, let’s take a quick look as some of these… Firstly, its gameplay doesn’t feature any loading screens, and that’s because there won’t be any cut scenes or a storyline. All focus is on exploring and collecting items within the infinite universe of the game. Each planet you travel to will be different and feature numerous creatures, however, watch your back as some are nasty enemies. It’s the freedom you have which will place all focus on your actions, and it’s your decisions which will ultimately decide your destiny. The more I see of this game, the better it seems to look.

Headmaster

One of the few games which showed us a little taster about Sony’s VR headset was Headmaster. Soccer is all about using your feet, however, with Headmaster, obviously, it appears as though your head will be doing all of the work. The trailer indicated that the gameplay will consist of you moving your head towards an incoming ball, with the main aim of hitting targets to score points. Headmaster looks like a simple, but welcomed game for Sony’s upcoming VR technology.

RIGs

Have you ever dreamt about becoming a mech robot? If so, this VR title is set to bring you as close to this scenario as possible. Gameplay will feature a competitive 3v3 battle, which will include action packed weaponry. There will also be coins located around the map that you’ll want to collect. Your heads movement will be the dictator of both the direction you travel along with the way you aim with weapons. This one looks amazing.

Project Morpheus

Microsoft made a big point about their VR offerings, and it was expected that Sony would also make their VR headset a main feature, however, whilst it was mentioned, things were very quiet on this front. We expected that the price and real name might be revealed, but this wasn’t the case. Obviously, it seems as though Sony are waiting for a later date to pull away the curtains with full force. But they did leave us all with a few upcoming VR game tasters, which looked very exciting indeed. These included The Deep, Headmaster, Godling and RIGs.

Sony didn’t mention Gran Turismo 7 either, which is something we’ve speculated on in the past – could Project Morpheus and GT7 feature together somehow? Only time will tell, but expect to learn many amazing things about Sony’s future VR headset within the next 12 months.

There wasn’t any new hardware announced either, no Slim edition and no 1TB HDD. Again, expect this to be something that happens in the near future. There may have been a couple of lows, but this was completely off-set by the vast amount of highs.

It should be noted that there was some exciting news from the non-Sony camp too, however, it was obvious that the PS4 was the star of the show, yet again. It wasn’t just the amount of games that were featured, it was the shocks and delights that made this year’s E3 event so special for Sony and PS4 gamers. Well, that’s it for another year, but let us know your views in the comment box below.