The Last of Us 2

Let’s be honest, we knew this had to show up eventually. Sony came out of the gate swinging by showing off the sequel to one of the most talked about, and one of the highest rated games of all time on metacritic. Just looking at the footage from the game, you can tell so much love and care was put into the details. Even something as simple as how the foliage moves as you’re hiding in it seems to have been taken into consideration. It’s been 5 years since TLOU1, it looks like the time it took them to make the sequel will be damn worth it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Just before BLOPS4 showed it’s face on stage, there was a casual mention that God of War 4 is getting a New Game+ mode soon, so that’s dope. That said, the BLOPS are back, and no, I will not stop saying BLOPS. Honestly, it feels like more of the same with changes that while a little notable, probably won’t change how people feel about the franchise too much. On the plus side, a few maps are getting remastered for the new game, if you’re into that sort of thing.

VR Montage

Next was a swing over to a montage of upcoming VR games. Some of these look cool, but as someone who doesn’t own a VR headset, I can’t relate.

Ghost of Tsushima

Holy Shit, is all I have to say. From lush environments that would make the large majority of open world games blush, to combat that looks like it’s struck a balance between Dark Souls, Onimusha, and Tenchu, this game looks like a contender to enter “BUY THIS MOTHER EFFING GAME” status when talking to your friends about it. Everything about what I’ve seen here today has ensured I will be buying this game. I enjoy that the combat looks like a very “patience pays off in the end”, but your moments of being more aggressive can be just as rewarding. I can not wait. If the game is even 3\4 this nice when it actually comes out, I’m all in.

Control

I gotta be honest, I’m getting a real “Quantum Break” vibe from this trailer. It looks like a game that’s trying to use some game mechanics that I guarantee your average user gets frustrated with or breaks within an hour of playing. Hopefully this game is much tighter than I feel like it will be.

Resident Evil 2

I can only get so hard. This isn’t your generic remaster where the game looks like, a little bit better, and you go “Eh, I guess I can see how it’s better”, this looks worlds apart. This is a game remade from the ground up for the current gen. If you never played Resident Evil 2, i hate you you absolutely need to check this out.

Trevor Saves the Universe

From Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick and Morty, this game looks like an action platformer. But, I imagine with his sick sense of humor, there’s gotta be a catch that this preview doesn’t show. That said, just knowing who’s involved, I’m interested to see more info come out about this game ASAP.

Kingdom Hearts 3

Are ya ready kids? Aye Aye Captain! Sony finally shows us some new damn KH3 footage, and boy is it a doozy. We’re hanging out in the Pirates of the Caribbean universe during this preview. Holy hell is this hype. While I’ve never been a huge Kingom Hearts fan, I have always appreciated the attention to detail, and the appreciation for the materials Square works with inside the universe(s). That said, this looks just, so crisp, so fun, and I can only imagine the amount of quality content that will be packed into this game after so many years.

Death Stranding

Number one, this game looks weird as balls, number two, I want it. It looks like you’ll be exploring large areas, while carrying that creepy baby from the other previews around. There’s a few vague statements in the preview Sony dropped that makes me think that your character may be able to revive, but with some consequences attached to it? I could be way off base, but it looks like the baby he carries around, combined with a piece of his suit help him see some of the antagonists in the game? I’m curious what combat, if any, looks like. Either way, the visuals look great, the story is probably strange, the game looks weird, sign me up.

Nioh 2 Shout out and Spider-Man

YOOOOO Nioh 2 is happening, that’s pretty cool. Nioh was a great samurai spin on a “Souls” style of action rpg. One interesting thing, given that Microsoft picked up Team Ninja, will Playstation continue to see Team Ninja properties after Nioh 2? Regardless, time for Spider-Man. From the video shown, it looks like several of Spideys biggest foes have escaped from “The Raft” prison to jack up the city, and get some revenge. To me it looks like some kind of amalgam of the Sinister 6. The game is an open wor….ok listen, It’s basically one of the newer style Batman games, but with Spidey flavors, instead of Batty flavors. Either way, this promises to be an awesome open world experience, that is visually appealing, and has a smooth fighting system by the looks of it.

Final Thoughts

Instead of overwhelming the senses with 900 announcements, Sony mostly stuck to their big projects, and showed off some solid length trailers for each one. Despite the fact that there wasn’t exactly a “ton” of content and we still haven’t seen the level of gems over the years that we saw with PS1, it’s still really hard not to look at this lineup and feel hyped as hell. 

8.5/10