I should probably mention that over the last year or two I became quite fond of Sony’s exclusives. Of course I’d like those games on the PC as well, but they aren’t so here we are. I have to admit that thought it was one of the worst conferences this year in terms of structure. What was the point of that church? Just to give Gustavo Santaolalla a stage to play parts of his soundtrack? Ah well…Sony E3 2016 still reigns as the best showing at any E3. While the press event wasn’t the best, the games however were rather fantastic. And scenes created in the game Dreams being used as the intermission between trailers was a fantastic idea. Let’s start with the 4 big ones, shall we?

Last of Us Part 2

It all starts in a church not unlike the one Sony build for the press event. First thing I noticed was the detail of the animations. I’ve never seen anything like it. Even certain big movies don’t reach this kind of quality and Naughty Dog pulls it off in real time. After the calm church scene we get a glimpse of combat at night. Still, everything seems impressive visually and it almost feels like a generational leap in graphics. The more I think about the scenes previously thought scripted, the less I think they actually were. I’m certain they can pull it off…it just takes time to create all of it. No release date was announced.

Ghost of Tsushima

Here we have one of those games where I’m still on the fence. Not because it looked bad, but because I’m not a fan of Japanese/Chinese themed media. I grew up thinking Ninjas or Samurai being lame for some reason. Of course I now know they aren’t, but the fascination with them never got to me. That said, I will give this game a chance and hope that Sucker Punch can show what all of this fascination is about. And with Ghost of Tsushima being the third big Ninja/Samurai themed game this E3, I’m sure I’ll be a Samurai-lover at the end of all this.

Death Stranding

Well. Hmm. I…really don’t know what…I mean. It’s a Kojima trailer alright? This time we do actually get some dialogue and what seems to be glimpses of gameplay. The only thing I really got out of this is that Norman Reedus with his funky fetus might be a delivery man. Rain (Timefall) ages you rapidly. Léa Seydoux, the bond girl, is in the game and eats a weird human skinned bug. A de-aged Lindsay Wagner appears at the end and says nothing. With every trailer I know less and less about this game. I think that’s great? Not sure yet. Of course, still no release window. Kojima did mention he wants it out before the movie Akira takes place, which is sometime 2019.

Spider-Man

It’s our favorite Marvel character, Spodermank. We’ve seen this game plenty of times over the past year and the game is coming out in 3 months. However, they showed off proper gameplay for the first time and Insomniac certainly took a look at what Rocksteady’s been doing with their Batman series when it comes to fighting. Game looked great all in all and I can’t wait to pick up a copy on September the 7th. If only it came to PC…

Resident Evil 2 (Remake)

It’s been a while since we first heard about the remake. Could’ve been 4 or 5 years by now. And here it is. An actual remake of Resident Evil 2. It seems to be first person AND third person. If the rumours are true, you can choose between those 2 playstyles and the game will change difficulties accordingly. Neither of those styles is tacked on and the game was created with this in mind from the ground up. If last year’s RE7 is any indication of quality, the Resident Evil 2 Remake won’t be a slouch. This remake comes out January the 25th 2019.

Nioh 2

Not much is known about Team Ninja’s Nioh 2. And with Nioh coming out just a bit over a year ago, I can’t imagine it being that far into development either. Maybe late 2019 at the earliest? If I had to guess, we’ll find out more over the coming days when developers can talk a bit about their games. Perhaps they even release the trailer properly since all we’ve got so far is this cut from the Sony presentation.

Control

Well here’s an unexpected surprise. Remedy’s new game after the departure from Microsoft. They’re on their own now and moved into a new office building just this year. Luckily for us the game still looks fantastic. I wonder if Nvidia’s RTX stuff will find its way into Control next year. I’m sure it will since Remedy is a close partner with Nvidia’s RTX research team if I remember it correctly. Control seems to be a child of Quantum Break by the looks of it. Even going so far to re-cast Courtney Hope as the main protagonist. The game is stated to come out in 2019.

Kingdom Hearts III

I went into E3 hoping Square Enix can tell me what Kingdom Hearts actually is. But all I got was chaos. I still have no idea and at this point I’m too afraid to ask. The game looked really good however and it can’t have been cheap to get all those licenses and voice actors. Anyway, if 3 new trailers and probably an hour of gameplay can’t convince me to buy this it just isn’t meant to be. Kingdom Hearts 3 will hit the shelves in 29th of January 2019.

Trover Saves the Universe

Oh jeez. It’s Justin Roiland. The guy behind such works like the Googas or House of Cosbys. He and the team Squanchtendo are kno…wait. They’re called Squanch Games now? I can’t possibly imagine why they had to change their company’s name. How strange. Anyway, they’re mostly known for the VR exclusive game Accounting+. They’re looking into it not being exclusively VR last time I asked, but it’s been a while so I guess it’ll stay VR exclusive. Oh right, Trover Saves the Universe is a sci-fi comedy adventure where you jump from things to other things. I’m enjoying Justin Roiland’s terrible humor quite a bit so can’t wait to play this. Especially since it isn’t a VR exclusive. No release date was given. But it seems like it’s not even going to be a Sony only game at all. It’s just first on PlayStation.

Deracine

From Software sure has been going strong at this year’s E3. And Deracine is quite the departure from their previous work. A PS VR exclusive game that isn’t Souls-ish, horror or mechs. Not much is known how it actually plays. I guess for now all we got is that trailer and that it’s releasing this year.

That pretty much sums up Sony’s E3. Nothing new from their first party studios, but that was to be expected since all of ‘em have released games recently or are about to do so. No doubt some of the studios are already working on the PS5 launch titles at this point. Sony did mention a few little things in the after show though. Stuff like New Game+ for God of War, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 being free for PS+ members this month, a beta for Dreams coming out later this year or a first look at 7 new Playlink games.