Welcome back to Lou-Cyo’s reaction to E3, 2015 Edition! It took me some time to organize myself and all of the, may I say, FUCKING AWESOME gaming experiences my visual and auditory senses were exposed to. We have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s begin. Shall we?
Shawn Layden, President and CEO at Sony Computer Entertainment America
Image from gamedynamo
Shawn Layden, President and CEO at Sony Computer Entertainment America, began the “already known” speech of how powerful the PlayStation 4’s engine and graphics are. He knows it. We know it. Millions know it. So what was exactly new about the PS4 this time around especially since the noticeable lack luster of game releases at its launch?
The first one I NEED to mention is Final Fantasy VII: Remake. I wrote about is before here. So GET INTO IT! After, you may keep reading.
image from Digital Trends
Game related hardware, Morpheus, made a debut at E3. Andrew House, current president and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, baptized the hardware as the PS4’s virtual reality experience. Morpheus is expected to be able to connect friends and family to the same virtual reality world for a shared experience. Nonetheless, VR technology is far from what movies have shown us it should be – even for Sony. One of the main reasons is the lack of optic professionals needed to work the science behind the VR experience (read more in detail about the obstacles the virtual world gaming currently faces in one of my previous posts here).
images from IGN and PS4 Home respectively
Co-founder and Managing Director of Guerrilla Games, and Vice President for Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios, Hermen Hulst, introduced a new franchise to the system: Horizon, Zero Dawn.
Hermen Hulst, image from pressfire.no
Horizon takes place in the post-apocalyptic world where humans have retrogressed to Neanderthal times and are at war with machines. Think of it of a Jurassic Park accident taking place all over the world and the dinosaurs are immense machinery trying to end your life. The graphics were beautiful and the detail is spectacular. One of the major points of this game is the lead female character. She’s tough, looks rough, and is not wearing a skimpy outfit. Again, mad points for letting the gals have their say in looking strong and knowing how to dress properly for battle. The gaming world is still ruled by a shitload of dudes – (in Kanye’s VMAs 2015 voice) WHERE THE GIRLS AT, BRUH?!
image from moviepilot.com
One of the games, The Last Guardian, (to be released in 2016) was not really catching my attention. I will not go into it, but I encourage you to check it out if you’re that curious. Basically, you have a humongous flying dog who you apparently need to be calling to help you cross from point A to point B. Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, was beaming with joy about it though. However, I was over here thinking, ” Oh. So… A modern day Hey You, Pikachu.” #NotSorry
I did enjoy the exploring aspect of No Man’s Sky presented by Managing Director at Hello Games, Sean Murray. The game will feature a VASTLY MASSIVE number of planet and solar systems for your exploring content. Alex Evan,Technical Director at Media Molecule, very excitingly presented Dreams. It lets you legitimately create surreal worlds which other’s can explore and you control. You can make them as whimsical, cool, or creepy as you want. Think of it as the nicer and magical version of Minecraft. If you’re into games that do not have a definite “end”, these are games you definitely want to get a hold of. Quite impressive if I do say so myself.
Fire Watch was one of the games that caught my attention. It starts off really “romantic cliché” between you (the forest lookout) and the sexy voice coming out of the walkie talkie, but the trailer gets intense really quick when you are told you’re the last person that might have seen 2 recently reported missing women and you’re informed someone is at your lookout post. Since we’re discussing suspense, I have to give out a mention to Batman: Akrham Knights since it was full of death, skulls, psychosis, and so much “WHAT THE FUCK?” moments… It was glorious and it was released in June this year so get a copy – fast.
Yup. That’s the tower you were supposed to be at. And yes, that is The Joker burning.
images from gamingbolt and WN.com respectively
Adam Boyes,VP of Publisher & Developer Relations at PlayStation, and his quirky self shared the next update for Destiny and Assassin Creed: Syndicate. I have yet to give Destiny a try, but promise to do it soon enough. The hype people give it is too much for me to not notice. Let us not lose focus on Syndicate’s (to be released 10/2015) option to choose the main character to be FEMALE. PS4’s on a roll breaking stereotypes! Boyes almost killed me with cuteness when presenting World of Final Fantasy to be released in 2016. It was like playing any Final Fantasy but no one looks scary and just plain adorable. When you see it you will understand, I promise. Plus, Boyes always makes you feel excited about anything he talks about.
Adam Boyes,VP of Publisher & Developer Relations at PlayStation
image from stealthybox.com
Boyes didn’t leave the stage without a letting PS4 fans know about Shenmue III’s (created by Yu Suzuki) Kickstarter and last time I checked, Suzuki has raised over 6M. How come Sony does not fund this game obviously being supported by so many is beyond my scope of comprehension.
Asad Qizilbash, Product Manager at Sony PlayStation, and Mark Lamia and David Vonderhaar from Treyarch, Bruce Straley, walked us through favorite titles like Hitman, Uncharted, Call of Duty: BlackOps and Street Fighter V which made an appearance at E3 and did not disappoint. John Vignocchi from Disney Interactive made an appearance to discuss Star Wars additions to Disney’s Infinity and Patrick Bach from Dice introduced Star Wars Battlefront.
Though the games presented were indeed a combination of “hits and misses,” there is something the PS4 does not lack – graphic power. All the games look beautiful and close to flawless. The consoles ability to display such visual treats is indeed something to admire and give credit where it’s due.
image from PS4 Home
I will cover the other E3 highlights soon, so stayed tuned!
See you around!
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