Playstation Press Conference - Gi E32018 Recap #6

With the rest of this year’s E3 coming to a close, Sony, who didn’t have a ton of major announcements up their sleeve, still made the most of their time slot nonetheless. The conference began just the way we had all expected, with the unveiling of the most anticipated surprise that 2018’s E3 had in store... some guy shredding on a banjo inside of a church. Typical Sony stuff. Turns out, that some guy is the composer of the Last Of Us Part II score, so he gets a pass, but knowing that we weren’t getting a PS5 reveal or anything of that nature to some it felt a little like filler. Fortunately after this little diddy ended, Sony got right to the goods by launching into some gameplay of one of it’s biggest upcoming releases.

1. The Last of Us Part II

As it turns out, composer Gustavo Santaolalla’s presence was not merely a red herring, but a bit of an appetizer before the post apocalyptic main course. The The Last Of Us Part II footage launched with a cinematic which showed us a grown up/tatted out version of Ellie slow dancing with her girlfriend at a fancy get together, which was cut with some gameplay footage of Ellie wrecking the hell out of some scummy looking bad guys. It was a great bit of content, and it certainly got me hyped all over again for the title, but to the dismay of many no release date was announced.

2. Ghost of Tsushima

Keeping with the theme of musical interludes here, the next gameplay trailer was preceded by a guy tearing it up on a flute, and to be honest, for a second I contemplated never playing a video game again. That was until I saw the stunning footage of this next game, Ghost of Tsushima, which looks to be an open world Witcher style game that takes place in feudal Japan. Given that this one was probably the least talked about title going into E3, I was delighted by the fact that the footage shown was quite possibly the most exciting bit of Sony’s entire conference. From the incredible color palette to the polished look of the swordplay, this title has quickly moved to the top of my “must play” list.

3. Resident Evil 2 Remaster

Next on the list was some footage that might have seemed familiar to some, as Sony delighted fans of the Resident Evil franchise with a sneak peek at an HD remaster of the second entry in the franchise. Coming at you in January of next year, RE2 looks to bring a whole new generation of fans aboard the series hype train.

4. Kingdom Hearts 3 (Yes...Again)

A lot of this footage (actually maybe all of it) spent the weekend circulating E3, so nothing here felt all that fresh unless this was the one conference you decided to tune in on. This title has been anticipated by so many for so long that I was a bit surprised at how anticlimactic this collection of clips looked. I’m sure the gameplay will speak for itself once the game finally drops, but I would be surprised if anyone unfamiliar with the series left this conference chomping at the bit to add some more Johnny Depp to their game collection.

5. Death Stranding

Next in line came some delightfully spooky clips from Hideo Kojima’s upcoming (and final) game Death Stranding. I’m unsure of what the exact premise is here, but by the looks of it, the Boondock Saints guy is now an astronaut who got trapped in a sci-fi/horror title and the only way to escape is to stealthily walk around a foreign planet without alerting the creepy/smoky/floaty creatures that inhabit it. Sort of. Okay I have no idea what this game will entail, but it looks gorgeous and enthralling and I’m fully on board with playing it, ideally after I learn some more about the gameplay. But if Kojima is down, I’m definitely down.

6. Nioh 2

We didn’t get much more than a quick reveal for this one, but it looks pretty slick from what I could see. Whether or not you’ve played the first one, trust me when I say you need more Nioh in your life, so get on to it.

7. Spiderman

Okay now this is the real reason I was watching this conference in the first place, so it was a clever clever move on Sony’s part to save it for last. I wasn’t expecting for my excitement to get usurped by Ghost of Tsushima hype, but I’m still excited as hell for this game. It’s been far too long since we’ve gotten a proper Spidey title, so it’s hard not to be completely on board for what looks like it will be the Spider-Man game we all deserve. In the nice chunk of footage we got, we see our titular hero going head to head with several of the biggest nemeses of his crime fighting career, and by the looks of it he really has his hands full. It feels too good to be true that this title is only a few mere months away (knock on wood), but I am certainly not complaining. September cannot get here fast enough.

Conclusion

Well there you have it! Sony’s conference is a wrap and all we can do now is speculate, wait, and angrily tweet Sony customer support until we get more info on the rest of these titles. Until then, practice your theremin or your accordion in case Sony needs to book you for next year’s conference, I can’t wait to see you shredding up there.