Sony PlayStation at E3 2017: Our conference report card

PlayStation showed off the progress of their current lineup of games previously announced at last year’s E3 and even showed us a few new things.

PlayStation: Presentation

Opening with the Indian instrument version of the Uncharted theme and water effects, the Sony press conference looked like it was gearing up to be as epic as last year. Unfortunately, unlike last year, there was no continuous symphony throughout the show. In fact, Sony went shorter than they have in a long time at E3, clocking in at only about an hour worth of show.

Image courtesy of Sony/PlayStation

In that hour, however, they packed nothing but games with two short announcements from Shawn Layden merely to give people a breather from the onslaught that was pretty much 55 minutes of straight game trailers and gameplay segments.

The substance and flash of the symphony were gone, but, even without it there, Sony still managed to pack the show with memorable moments to see.

PlayStation: Games Quality

I will speak more on it in best of the show, but Spider-Man looks magnificent. It looks like Batman Arkham, but if he could actually move around without feeling like there is a stick up his butt. God of War continues to impress with its shift in approach and more touching narrative tale as a child shows Kratos around the way as if he was a fish out of the water.

Detroit does not look like standard Quantic Dream fare and actually looks like the movements are fluid and the story looks engaging as you lead an Android rebellion with what looks like Jesse Williams at the helm. Gran Turismo Sport looks incredible. Smaller titles from their regular second party development outfits like Housemarque, Matterfall, and Supermassive, Bravo Team and The Inpatient, look like great fare for fans of their styles of games.

Sony

On top of that, they have exclusive content from Destiny 2, Call of Duty World War II and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. They even announced a remaster of Shadow of the Colossus being done by Bluepoint games. If none of that gets you pumped, then there is Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Horizon: The Frozen Wilds and Knack 2. There is something for everyone in the lineup shown.

Lastly, the VR section of the show was rather robust for PlayStation VR. This included titles like Skyrim VR, Final Fantasy XV VR, Starchild VR, among others. It was a very decent portion of the show that showed Sony hasn’t forgotten about its newest platform.

The Best of PlayStation at E3 2017

Spider-Man: Look, I’m not saying Marvel needs to watch out, but I just saw the best look at a Spider-Man anything since Tobey Maguire saved a train in 2004. I don’t know if Spider-Man: Homecoming can even come close to topping this. I was literally whooping in my chair as Spider-Man saved the day using a variety of wall-runs, combos, spidey-sense, and even was talking to people while he was web slinging through New York City. Look … Look … They even teased Miles Morales at the end. The ONLY thing that detracts from that gameplay is it is not available until the year of our Lord Beyoncé 2018. I’m inconsolable. I’m speechless. Oh my god. Take my money.
The opening music: Prior to introducing us to the first of our final full-fledged looks at Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, PlayStation had a lovely sitar player along with other Indian instruments to go with the theme of the story. In addition, they had a light water show as well with various PlayStation images flowing through it. Very cool to see.
Shadow of the Colossus and other surprises: It was rumored Shadow of the Colossus was getting a remaster, but surely I thought it was wrong. I never expected they would remaster that game yet again, but it shows some things last for quite some time. Additionally, I am not sure there were any reports prior to this show of Skyrim VR at all. I had been looking forward to hearing more about Matterfall and Sony dropped it before the conference even started.

The Worst of PlayStation at E3 2017

Lack of Touch: I am the first to say when I think a conference is getting boring or going on too long, but unlike every other company that presented for E3, Sony had zero time with their development teams on stage. There will be a live show where all of those things will be covered, but it felt a bit unnerving to see so many things in the main conference without any context from developers. The trailers and gameplay footage itself was great, but you could feel a bit of the weight Sony is putting on people to tune into their daily live show.
Detroit: It has been being talked about for quite some time and it still has no release date. I think the game itself has promise and looks very good, but Sony needs to go back to their general rule to stop showing a game after initial announcement until they’re ready to show more. It is going to be on the E3 floor, but give us a trailer when you at least have a release window.