The Sony conference was nearly a full two hours long, packed to the proverbial gills with announcements.
Destiny
We start with an ominous look at the planet Mars, with some dudes in righteous space suits armed with rifles. They come upon some sort of hovering sphere. They call it “The Traveler.”
The time setting is post-colonization of our entire solar system. Massive technological advances have brought our civilization to new heights.
But the Traveler had an enemy… And wouldn’t you know it? That enemy decided to come wreck up our happy people party.
The aesthetic is a beautiful sort of a Halo-meets-modern-techno-Final-Fantasy hybridg. Destiny is coming to the PS4, and after that trailer, I’m more excited than ever for it. (And the magnificent Peter Dinklage was doing the voiceover? Perfect.)
Destiny will also launch with a newly-announced White PS4 bundle: 500GB system, white console, white Dual Shock 3 controller, and a 30 day PSPlus subscription.
PS4 owners can also play the Destiny alpha this weekend! The beta will be available on July 17.
The Order: 1886
Andrew House came out to announce a brand new IP exclusive to PS4.
We got an absolutely beautiful look at an atmospheric, dark, grungy Victorian-esque building. Our tour guide, as it were, was a man with an impressive mustache and an oil lantern.
He comes upon a zombie feasting down on a corpse. When the zombie notices our mustachioed hero, he morphs, werewolf-style, into a hulking behemoth, and begins chasing down the lantern-bearer.
I was certain the video was entirely pre-rendered until a little button prompt popped up on screen. Another scene that looked pre-rendered proved to be otherwise when a targeting reticle popped up.
It looks great so far, but actual visibility is still very limited on this one.
Entwined
Then we watched a very pretty, though non-illuminating video of a couple minimialist bird-like creatures flying around to a beautiful score.
The game is called Entwined, it looks lovely and atmospheric and meditative. Read more about it and find out how you can play it now with this post from our own Miss Mecha Zero.
Infamous: First Light.
SuckerPunch has been developing new IP for Infamous: Second Sun which places you, it looks like, in the role of a female protagonist? The teaser seemed intentionally vague.
Little Big Planet 3!
In addition to Sackboy, there are new character types with different abilities. Oddsock is faster and can jump higher, Toggle can be extra-heavy and extra-small and light, and Swoop can fly and carry his friends over gaps!
Surely this will open up some very interesting new possibilities for level design. Both from the studio and from the player-creators which have always added so much value to the LBP experience.
LBP has always been about the clever usage of essentially simple mechanics, and it looks like LBP3 is going to add a lot of new mechanics to play with.
Oh, also, as you’d expect, it is freaking adorable beyond words.
LBP3 is going to give the Wii U’s couch-side games a run for their money!
Get more info on LittleBigPlanet 3 from Miss Mecha Zero right here.
Project Beast Gets a Name: Bloodbourne
The teaser was almost entirely pre-rendered, so it was grungy, dark, and oozing style, but it also didn’t tell us anything about the actual game. We did see, zombie dogs and shufflers wielding torches, so I guess that’s something.
Project Beast finally has a title, and is set for release some time in 2015.
See more screenshots here on BSR.
Far Cry 4
The gameplay footage starts with a Tomb Raider-type landscape high up in the mountains, sporting long ribbons of prayer scrolls and massive religious statues.
The character quickly acquires a Wing Suit and a grappling hook, and proceeds to scale a cliff face.
He approaches a shack and uses a crossbow to make a stealth kill along the way.
He then plops a sticky bomb onto a barrel just before booting it over the edge.
The team is looking to emphasize multiple play styles and creativitiy in the new Far Cry title.
We’re then treated to a mountainside chase in a golf cart. The player leaps out of his car, kills a driver, steals the driver’s truck, drives that truck over a cliff, jumps out and activates his wingsuit.
Um, you need to see this footage. Check it out right here on BSR.
Also, Elephants! Big ol’ cute Elephants!
Then a friend shows up in a Mad Max style gyrocopter and gives the player a lift while he rains bullets down from the sky.
After massacring a bunch of people, you are informed that the “Fortress” has been “Liberated.” It’s not hard to see some inspiration from Just Cause playing into Far Cry 4’s development.
Game sharing!
Adam Boyes came out with a big announcement: on the PS4, you will now be able to game-share with your friends, and play multiplayer Far Cry 4 with them even if they don’t own the game!
That is a very new thing for Sony, it will be interesting to see if game sharing takes off for PSN. This is a fantastic idea and I hope it catches on.
Dead Island 2
There’s not much to say here, it was a funny video, but it was a pre-rendered short film, not even really a teaser. If the “teaser” is any indication, though, it looks like Dead Island 2 might be taking a slightly less serious angle.
“Ultimate Evil Edition” of Diablo 3
The “Ultimate Evil Edition” of Diablo 3 on the PS4 is getting “infected” with The Last Of Us. There will be a special The Last Of Us-themed dungeon in Diablo 3, sporting Clickers and Bloaters and such.
Battlefield: Hardline
Another plug for Battlefield: Hardline beta, followed by another trailer.
Okay. We get it. You really want us all to sign up for the Beta.
Disney Infinity
We also got a … very brief glance at Disney Infinity, in addition to some of those little Skylanders style figurines.
Paradox Interactive
Sony announced a new partnership with Paradox Interactive. Who is currently working on a number of PS4 Exclusive games.
We got a very funny look at a very sad Magicka wizard watching reels from his glory days and missing his other Magicka wizard friends.
Then he accidentally zaps his cat.
Then what’s this? A classified? Magicka hiring Wizards?
Magicka 2… “Learn to spell, again!” will be coming to PS4.
Grim Fandango!
Tim Schafer’s classic, Grim Fandango, will be remastered, and is coming to the PS4 and PS Vita!
Learn more about Grim Fandango in this retrospective.
The necessary love-for-indies section
Console debut exclusively on Playstation platforms for: BroForce, Titan Souls, Not a Hero, and Hotline Miami: Wrong Number among others.
And something to keep an eye on: The Talos Principle – This one definitely deserves a bit of delving, but details are very scarce at this point.
Let It Die
And now for something insane from Suda 51.
This was a sparse teaser from something which looks, as previously mentioned, completely insane. There was a lot of growling, monsters, guns, and found/improvised weaponry like nailbats and maces.
Abzu
The folks behind Journey have a new studio, Giant Squid, and they are working on a new, lovely, underwater game which looks to be just as atmospheric and experiential as Journey.
No Man’s Sky
This will have its console debut on PS4.
The trailer treated us to an alien world, with bright colors and alien creatures.
The seamless planet-side to space transition is beautiful and simple. The ship then cruises through the solar system and transitions onto the surface of yet another world.
There was some exciting dogfighting going on both in and out of atmo.
Sean Murray from No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games came out to talk about their inspiration.
He says No Man’s Sky is a science fiction game inspired by Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke. It is an infinite, procedural universe that all players share.
Every player will start on a different planet, and it’s so vast and boundless that it is “actually infinite.” Every player who picks up a pad and plays will help map out the universe.
It’s beautiful, it’s indie, and it’s ambitious as hell.
Friendly ribbing
A mention of the fact that the PlayStation camera would be, a “choice.” Poking fun at Microsoft.
Sony is going to put some resources behind developing with the PS Camera.
They skimmed Project Morpheus a bit, Sony’s new Oculus-style VR rig, which makes extensive use of the Move and Playstation Camera setup.
COO of Sony Computer Entertainment America
Shawn Layden came out to talk about the PSN, PlayStation Now, and PlayStation TV.
“We’ve heard, loud and clear, what you’re looking for: Powerful ways to share your experiences.”
Though personally, this sort of social sharing being shoehorned into my games is something that I have absolutely zero interest in, some people find value and fun in this sort of thing though, so I’m all for it. (As long as games stop trying to post to my Facebook wall.) Games are for fun, if sharing your videos with your PSN buddies is fun, then more power to you. It looks like Sony is committed to making that happen.
Immediate upload of video capture to YouTube will be great for YouTube streamers and the like. Additionally, the PS4 allows for live streaming and watching — great for Twitch streams, etc. Layden also announced Twitch Ustream: you can watch someone’s game play in real time, and you can now interact with that person’s game play experience while you watch. “You can help them, or you can harm them. [Laughs.]”
Further enhanced broadcasting capabilities for the “Play Room” will let you to create custom broadcasting sets.
Sony is also trying to boost the Free-to-Play market on PlayStation.
Currently more than 25 free to play games coming to PS4 in the next couple months, including: Kingdom Under Fire 2, Planetside 2, and Guns Up. There was a lengthy montage of incoming free to play games, some notables included: Fat Princess, War Thunder, and PAIN.
The PlayStation Now game streaming service will enter open beta for the US and Canada starting July 31st for PS4 owners, coming to PS3, and the below-mentioned PlayStation TV later on. Through PS Now, gamers will have access to a ton of PS3 games, including indie and triple-A, and the Vita will have a large library of games.
Sony is not giving up on the Vita.
There are more than 100 Vita titles in development at the moment, including Namco Bandai’s Tales of Hearts R, Ubisoft’s Child of Light, and Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands. Minecraft is also coming to Vita, co-op included.
Next up was the big PlayStation TV reveal. It will be able to pair with your PS4, allowing you to play via Remote Play on a second television in your home. It will give you the ability to play hundreds of PS3 games via PlayStation Now. It will give you the ability to play Vita games on your TV. And it will be available for only $99.
Sony will also offer a bundle for $139 which includes a Dual Shock 3, an 8GB memory card, and a PS Plus vouche.
Mortal Kombat X!
Scorpion and Sub Zero look absolutely terrifying.
We got a look at some actual gameplay footage featuring a few super creepy new fighters — including one clearly inspired by Master-Blaster. Lots of bright shiny powers being chucked around, lots of blood. Exactly what you’d expect from an MK game.
It looks very fast-paced, but that could* just be due to the skill level of the players behind the demo. (*Read: highly likely.)
The moves are flashy. The special moves are just as brutal as the last iteration, and the levels are intricately rendered. Of course, the fatalities are more ridiculous than ever.
Powers
Next up was a big announcement about a TV series based on the “Powers” graphic novel series from Brian Michael Bendis – read more about that from CitizenBot.
The Last of Us
In case you missed the announcement, The Last of Us will be remastered for PS4.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
We got our greasy eyes on a brand new trailer featuring a very young snake. It was a highly cinematic trailer, and cool to boot, but it was more like a movie trailer than a game trailer. It’s entirely possible that there were hints dropped which mean a lot to hardcore fans of the series which I didn’t catch, but in general it looked like more of a teaser meant to get you excited about the game — rather than giving you any information about how the game will actually play.
GTA5
Grand Theft Auto Five is coming to PS4 this fall. It will port with a number of enhancements. Your GTA online progress and characters will also be transferable to the PS4.
Batman: Arkham Knight
From Rocksteady and Warner Brothers:
The long awaited Dark Knight trailer. Batman is back and looking shinier than ever. No, literally, his suit is freaking power-armor.
The in game footage is beyond breathtaking, this is the most fully realized Gotham you’ve ever laid eyes on. The Batmobile looks more hardcore than ever, and is fully articulated in a thousand little ways. The trailer shows Batman transforming the Batmobile into a mobile tank. Then back into ferrari mode, then he ejects, flying over a hundred feet into the air and gliding down atop the roof of his target.
During the trailer, we get a good close up on the new scarecrow, and I think he going to give me nightmares.
Check out the trailer right here on BSR.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Total cinematic teaser with no gameplay exposure whatsover. But: 2015.