meanie in ConsolesGamingPreviews

June 11, 2020 – E3 Day 1: Sony Playstation [PS5] Announcements

Summary

Today’s the first day of E3, COVID-19 Edition, Sony PS5 Edition
New PS5 looks like a router
Interesting games for me: Horizon 2, Resident Evil 8, Stray, Deathloop, Little Devil Inside, Spider-Man, Gran Turismo 7

PS5, router, or cable modem?

Today was the first day of E3’s livestreaming event. The big news was Sony’s PS5 ~~router~~ console along with a good number of upcoming game announcements.

One thing I can get behind is that all of the trailers were available on Youtube in 4k (amazing). It makes sense, but man – environments look insanely detailed and mind-blowingly realistic, and yet…it feels like rendered people still have that slight uncanny valley look.

Below is a list of all the PS5 games announced (with one PS4 outlier, not sure how that got there) along with my own usually-uninformed takes.

Exciting

Horizon: Forbidden West – Sequel to the PS4 launch title Horizon: Zero Dawn. If this announcement means nothing to you – and you enjoy open-world titles – get a goddamn PS4 and play this game now. It’s that good. This is some of the best worldbuilding you’ll find in an open-world and the kind of combat you’d always imagined against huge robotic animals. Not sure why Aloy sounds like a 90 year-old lady who smoked five packs of cigarettes every day though.

Village: Resident Evil – I’m an on-again, off-again Resident Evil fan. The last mainline Resident Evil game I played was 5, and you might as well have titled that one Resident Evil: Wrestling Simulator 5. Now we’ve got 8 in some Victorian-looking “village” looking creepy as ever and featuring fan favorite Chris Redfield as a possible bad guy (but probably not). I’m onboard, but I would REALLY like to have this on SteamVR, as unlikely as that is.

Stray – Sold. The trailer revealed nothing about the game, but I’m intrigued. Lots of interesting little details.

Deathloop – So it’s a time-looped Dishonored-with-guns that also includes the added bonus of online trolls going into your game trying to kill you. At least you can turn that feature off. I don’t know, the gunplay looks fun but I have this sinking feeling in the bottom of my stomach that time loops are the new fad.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales – Loads of style, though I pretty much avoid games based on movies or TV shows. BUT the PS4 Spiderman was fairly well-reviewed.

Gran Turismo 7 – I mean, can you even say anything bad about Gran Turismo at this point?

Little Devil Inside – Very cool trailer, but those sword-swinging animations really sold me on the game.

No Opinion

Demon’s Souls – I still haven’t finished Dark Souls 1, but I did try to get multiplayer working with a friend of mine. It was fun until he couldn’t connect, some idiot spawned into my game instead and killed me in one hit. Great game. Anyway, I have no real opinion about Demon’s Souls.

Bugsnax – Charming, I guess? When the “from the creators of Octodad” sign popped up, I thought – OF COURSE IT’S OCTODAD. EVERYTHING MAKES COMPLETE SENSE NOW. Definitely doesn’t look like PS5 material, and doesn’t really look like something I’d be interested in unless it’s multiplayer.

Hitman III – There was a Hitman II? I have this one great memory of playing the first level in the original Hitman (Hong Kong?). Every time you killed someone, there would be somebody nearby going “He’s packing!” in this horrible Hong Kong B-movie accent. Too funny.

Destruction AllStars – Is this the return of Twisted Metal? One can only hope.

Oddworld Soulstorm – Man, I can’t believe the Oddworld franchise is still around.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – Not sure if this is a real game, or just a PS5 demonstration on rendering different environments. I haven’t played any of the Ratchet & Clank games, so not much to say here.

Goodbye Volcano High – Life is Strange: The Emo Animated Edition anyone? Okay, I don’t particularly like the art style – it looks too much like 2000s-era Flash games rather than a PS5 game – but I’m the slightest of slightly interested.

Meh

The PS5 Console – looks like a cheesy “futuristic” router. Unfortunately, given my past history with Playstation consoles, I’m pretty sure that I’ll end up buying this awful-looking cable modem.

GhostWire: Tokyo – Nice set pieces but I’m not sold. It does remind me of this 1990s game called Catacomb Abyss, which was like Doom except with mages and fireballs. GhostWire is like Doom except with mages and Tokyos.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits – First thought: Breath of the Wild mixed with Ori and the Blind Forest. Second thought: not a fan.

Pragmata – WTF is this game? An astronaut guy lands in an empty New York City, shoots a grenade that shows the past (?) for like three seconds, then a girl shows up out of nowhere with some fake holographic cat. AND THEN a satellite tries to crash into them except the astronaut deploys a bouncy cage around him and the girl. AND THEN gets shot into space, Outer Wilds-style.

Astro’s Playroom – I don’t know why, but I absolutely hate the lighting. In case you don’t want to watch the entire trailer, it’s preloaded on the PS5. Meh.

Project Athia – IN A WORLD NOT HER OWN. WHERE RESOLVE WILL BE TESTED. TRUTHS WILL BE QUESTIONED. AND DEVOTIONS WILL BE DOUBTED. [insert additional generic movie trailer text] Jesus. Ah Square Enix, I knew you had a hand in this.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure – I got bored of Little Big Planet years ago, so I don’t have high hopes for Sackboy. Sorry.

JETT: The Far Shore – I learned nothing from this trailer. Maybe you’ll do better. Also, PS4.

Godfall – This trailer is a really good example of why I just completely despise Gearbox now.

Returnal – Hate the name, hate the game. Description says it’s a rogue-like where “players fight to survive a hostile planet that changes with every death”. Okay. Also, it looks like time loops are back on the menu.

Solar Ash – Another trailer that really doesn’t tell you anything. You’re an interdimensional skater?

NBA 2K21 – Thoughts. Is that ZION? Why is the rim so goddamn shiny? How is it possible a basketball rim can have an uncanny valley effect?

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