Top 5 Moments from the PSX PlayStation Showcase 2016
Shaun Cordingley
As I generally do, I thought I would cover the Top 5 moments from PlayStation Experience "Showcase" (essentially, Sony has decided to stop calling it a press conference...and...it's...a...press conference...).
I Love PSX: E3 is fun, but it's a corporate event, where they have to speak to shareholders, and to retailers about what is going on (meaning there is always a lull in the middle where they have to talk numbers), whereas PSX has the beautiful setup of literally being for people like me: gigantic, PlayStation fans, who dig what they do, and what they are doing, and am willing to hear about quirky, weird, amazing Sony games. Sony has a lot of potential here to really hit announcements out of the park...especially with them skipping the big European shows...
I'm literally writing this before the Showcase, because I'm excited...but anyway...here we go:
Overall: Very Good
After that awful PS4 Pro Conference, this was a return to form for PlayStation for conferences. If this is the way that PSX is going to be in future, I'm very pleased overall. If there is one things that I wasn't crazy about, they had two game 'sizzle reels' where they were showing a whole bunch of cool content, but had no names, and no logos...so...I have...no idea what any of the games are (other than the ones I already knew).
Thankfully, they got the pace down, and they spoke to the gamers, which was a lot of fun, and there was a lot of cool content throughout, which makes my Top 5 Moments a little tougher to put together than last time.
1) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
With the great success of Uncharted 4, there's really no surprise that they're doing some single-player DLC, and I like the fact that they not only gave us a good chunk of gameplay, but we are (apparently) focusing on Chloe and Nadine which is nice. I've wanted to know more about Chloe for sure, so I'm totally looking forward to this.
I can't say I was surprised at all, because seriously...standalone chapters are Naughty Dog's thing (lately), so it will be nice to get a little bit more story before (I imagine) the Uncharted series goes dormant for a while. Especially with the reports coming out right now that Lost Legacy is going to be longer than Left Behind (but obviously shorter than the main game)....which is nice...3-4 hours perhaps? We will see, but I'm excited.
2) What Remains of Edith Finch
Now this isn't a game announcement (as we heard about What Remains of Edith Finch? at E3 last year), but it was a game that popped up on my radar immediately, as I was a big fan of Giant Sparrow's first game The Unfinished Swan, and seeing that they are being published by the new gaming wing of Annapurna (the film company that worked on things like Her, and Zero Dark Thirty), has got me excited for it.
It looks like it is a first-person adventure game, again, and there's an unsettling, mystery feel to it, so hearing that the game is going to be out in early 2017, and seeing this awesome trailer really got me excited all over again for it.
For the record, I'm also a fan of good "walking simulator" games like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Gone Home so this is probably right in my wheelhouse, and it looks quirky and fun.
3) Parapa/Locoroco/PATAPON
I really like the fact that PlayStation is starting to go back into their dormant IP's and re-releasing some of them (potentially, thanks to the Ratchet and Clank series, looking at what they could potentially re-start with a modern series). This PSX they reiterated what they had been talking about with Crash Bandicoot (the N*Sane Trilogy), but also the return of PaRappa the Rapper, LocoRoco, and my personal bit of excitement Patapon.
My absolute favourite PSP exclusive game, I was unreasonably excited to see that Patapon was being brought onto the PS4 because there is that part of me that believes that if it goes well, we may get a new one.
I'm all in for a new Patapon.
I never really got into PaRappa the Rapper, but I have always heard a lot of hype, so this is a pretty good opportunity for me to check out a series that a lot of people seem to dig (plus, considering how much I loved Gitaroo Man, I'm down for weird music games).
4) "JRPG" strength
This one is a bit of a stretch, because it's hard to call Danganronpa Killing Harmony V3 a JRPG, but between a nice look at that:
(which is a mystery series that I have been desperately hoping to play soon, that, being unable to join Vita Island, I have not been able to play the first two until...next year)
Another gorgeous trailer for Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom which included our first look at gameplay:
(which even though Studio Ghibli is not involved again, it still looks like I am going to be playing an amazing anime series with the ...which I will be playing subbed...because...these voices, while fine...are...weird to me coming out of Ni No Kuni style characters...)
And the look at Ys Origin coming west on PS4 (and Vita)
....
I love Japanese games, and I have been so looking forward to the time in the PS4 life-cycle where we would start getting hits like this, and that I would have a pile of things lobbing themselves into my backlog (my ever expanding, never to be tamed backlog)...All three of these have got my interest (including the re-release of the first two Danganronpa's)...
And I didn't even mention Persona 5 which is coming out in April.
Therefore, you can see why I felt the need to put it in here: a genre (?) of games that I really like is finally starting to show up in force.
5) The Last of Us Part II
Yes.
Alllllll the yes.
I also like that they specifically said that it's "very early" and that Naughty Dog just wanted to show us a little bit of something in their new engine, so I know that it is not going to happen for quite a while...and that is totally fine; if I can get a year of Death Stranding and The Last of Us Part II, I will probably pass out, but in all seriousness, I trust Naughty Dog (and they can take all the time that they need, because they will deliver an amazing experience).
It won't mean a whole lot to anyone who hasn't played The Last of Us, but here is the teaser:
Ellie is back. Joel is back....and Ellie is mad.
Fan theories abound!
Can't Wait.
(well...actually I can, because I know I have to...but I'm juzzed)
I couldn't get everything that I could talk about being excited for on here today, which is saying something.
What were your favourite moments? Are you excited for Nex Machina, or Nioh or something else I did not talk about?
Lemme know--you know how:
-S (@Shauncord)