E3 2014: Sony PS4 Keynote

Well, I have to say I'm a bit stumped by this one. Sony had the most varied press conference, and had a lot of great content. It just seems like there's been a role reversal between them and Microsoft. TV, Movie, and Hardware discussions took up at least a third of their presentation, and while I'm pretty intrigued by the Playstation TV and improvements to the Vita I keep asking myself what happened to the "we are the console for the gamer mantra". I'll deal with all of that later though. For now, let's break it down.

Disclaimer: As we all know, E3 showcases what the games industry wants to be. Not necessarily how it turns out. I want everything I saw to come out exactly like it was presented, but it may not. The claims that developers and myself make about games may not be true, due to technical or budgetary limitations. 

Destiny: This was the First E3 trailer we've seen this year for Destiny, and it was exclusively to PS4. As we've come to expect from Destiny, it looks great, and is going to come with a lot of cool stuff. This Thursday PS4 players can play the alpha, and get early beta Access on July 17th. Destiny will also be bundled with a special edition white PS4.

The Order 1886: We got to see a mix of cinematic and gameplay for Sony's new exclusive IP. It looks amazing, with a dark gritty setting, high quality textures, and good looking game mechanics. No word though on the framerate issues mentioned a couple of weeks ago, or what it's final graphical fidelity will be.

Entwined: This interesting and inventive puzzle game uses twin stick mechanics to guide lovers souls through increasingly difficult obstacles in order to bring them together at the end. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and launches tonight for PS4. It launches later this month for all other Sony platforms.

Infamous Second Son DLC: A new standalone DLC for Second Son was announced to be coming in August of this year. Called first light, it follows the story of a new character in the Infamous universe. While it doesn't need the original game to play, Sony did say it will have exclusive content if you own Second Son.

Little Big Planet 3: This surprise showing was a cute/fun look at the new Little Big Planet game. With improved graphics, level complexity and depth, and new characters this platforming puzzle game just got a lot more interesting. They also announced that the entire back catalog of LBP games will be playable in updated graphics right from the start. It also has cool new coop mechanics, and is set to launch this November.

Bloodborne: The first look trailer for Bloodborne feels reminiscent of the old Resident Evil Games. It looks scary and tense, but since it was only a cinimatic trailer it could turn out to be anything. I'm sure more infor will come out later. For now, be looking for it in 2015.

Far Cry 4: We've already seen this at the Ubisoft Conference, but they showed a whole lot more gameplay. It looks great, with the open world elements being even better than in Far Cry 3. Plus they showed us some coop elements to the game, and announced that on all Playstation Platforms, Far Cry 4 can be "shared" by friends. You can invite friends into your game, and they don't even have to have the game. They didn't explain exactly how this works, so it could be just PS+ members, or they might only be able to try it out once. No matter what though, this is a really cool feature.

Dead Island 2: We got an interesting and quirky teaser trailer for the game, which make it look a lot more silly than the first Dead Island. They did say that the PS4 version of the game comes with an exclusive character class, and access to a special 30 day beta.

Last of  Us: We all knew that they were remastering the Last of Us for PS4, but what we didn't know is that they are also going to have exclusive Diablo 3 Content on the Playstation Platforms. Diablo 3 players on the PS platforms will get an exclusive Last of Us themed dungeon with special enemies, loot, and more.

Battlefield Hardline: As announced during the EA conference, PS4 users get exclusive beta access to Battlefield Hardline, and the showed a new trailer that appeared largely cut together from the EA footage.

Disney Infinity: A special edition of Disney Infinity is coming to PS4 with an exclusive Hulk character. Not really sure what that means. as they did gloss over the rest of this pretty quickly.

Magicka 2: They got their debut trailer on PS4, but really not much else was mentioned about the game.

Grim Fandango: GF is being remastered exclusively for PS4. Again, this is another topic they glossed over 

very quickly.

Indies: Devolver Digital is specifically mentioned, but many indie games are coming to PS4. Devolver has an exclusive PS4 Contract, and many more are potentially headed that way. Again, just like with Microsoft, most of these games are already on PC.

Let it Die: This 2015 Playstation Exclusive looks like some sort of multplayer shooter. However, outside of an awesomely violent shooter the trailer hints at this game having RPG elements, nothing else is said about it.

ABZU: This interesting artistic game comes to you by the same creators of Journey. Rebranded now as Giant Octopus studios. It takes place underwater, and appears to be all about exploration. However, other than a trailer, not much is said about it.

No Mans Sky: My first DAMN moment in the Sony Conference. The sheer scope of this game looks mind boggling. Apparently it is a procedurally generated universe, where players start on their own planet, have to explore it, and can find a ship that takes them into space. Then they can explore other planets, and do all sorts of amazing looking combat stuff. It is gorgeous, but really they don't give us to much information. I hope it releases in 2015, and that there is more to it than just exploration. Even if that is the case though it really is beautiful, so I would be ok with wandering around in it for hours.

Project Morpheus: Just barely teased, they show what games they will have at the booth. Which is sad, as I was really hoping for some in depth stuff.

PSN: Quite a bit of bragging with the PSN numbers was going on, and to be honest I don't blame them. 1.25 Billion hours is a lot of time that people have spent using your services, so good job guys! Youtube sharing is coming to PSN, and will integrate with the share button. Twitch and Ustream will now allow you to chat with streamers in real time, which as a streamer would be really annoying. However, I suppose some people wanted it. Finally playroom is getting some new toys that will allow you to design new sets and have more backgrounds.

FTP: Sony announced that they will be getting 25 free to play titles over the next year, and highlighted Planetside 2, Kingdoms Under Fire, and Guns Up as some of their favorites. They never actually said whether or not you would need to have PS+ or not in order to be able to play the FTP games. I would suspect that you do, since this is how their free games model works, but I could be wrong.

PS VIta: Sony was quite proud of their little hand held, and were quite pleased with both sales numbers, and how many people used the game streaming feature. They announced that Child of Light and Tales from the Borderlands were coming to Vita soon, and most importantly that the full version of Minecraft is coming to Vita.

Playstation TV: This little device pairs with your PS4 to allow you to stream games to another TV in your house. It also works indepentantly with Sony's new PS Now service, so that you can stream older Playstation titles to any TV regardless of what brand or type of TV it is attached to. It comes to you at the low price 99$ and will have a bundle that includes a controller, memory card, and some Playstation Now subscription time.

Morgal Kombat X: Honestly what do you say about it? It is the next gen Mortal Kombat games with more characters and violance. Aside from Sony getting the first gameplay footage, you don't get any special benefits for having it on PS4.

TV and Movie Content: Sony announced that they are making their own line of TV and Cinema Quality Movies exclusively for PS4 and PS+ owners. They are saying that this content is directed at gamers, and that we will love it. Their two debut items are Powers, a superhero crime detective show, and Ratchet and Clank animated movie.  This came along with an announcement for a remastered Ratchet and Clank game to come out alongside the rest of this content in 2015.

Metal Gear Solid 5: We got a new trailer with what looked like a lot of in game cutscenes. It's hard to tell since pre-rendered cutscnenes can be made about anything, but given the context of them and what we already know about the game it looks like they are showcasing parts of the story. It looks as beautiful as we've come to expect from these games, and didn't dissapoint.

Grand Theft Auto 5: They made the announcement on the Sony stream that they are launching this fall on next gen consoles and PC. GTA online data can be transferred cross platform is you choose to jump sides when you buy it, but there is no word yet on how this works, or how fast it is. The game promises to have updated graphics and resolution, as well as faster load times and such on more powerful hardware.

Batman Arkham Knight: We got to see a fairly lengthy gameplay trailer that makes the game look more awesome than we could have hoped. Sony also announced that they will be getting exclusive content on the PS4. in the form of Scarecrow levels.

Uncharted 4: The conference ended with Uncharted 4: a Thief's end. While it was just a simple cinematic trailer, it looked beautiful as all the uncharted games do, and promises to be a new story set after the last game in the series. Which is always nice to see in a world full of reboots.

Well, that about wraps up the conferences. We still have the Nintendo showing tomorrow, and after that I'll be giving my final opinions for what the best and worst parts of the show were. I do have to say that Sony has made me scratch my head, and so far it's a close race between Ubisoft and Microsoft for best presentation. No matter what though, all of these shows have been good which means we all win.

Check back tomorrow for the Nintendo Conference, and follow the links below to see all the other presentations so far.

Check the Microsoft Conference, EA Conference, and Ubisoft Conference. Come back tomorrow for the Nintendo Conference.

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