PlayStation E3 2018 Media Showcase wrap-up

With most of the big E3 conferences done with by now, Sony has the stage to themselves to show off a selection of upcoming PlayStation titles scheduled for release in the relatively near future. While they’ve been upfront with fans regarding the lack of planned surprise announcements for this showcase, there will surely still be a game or two we have no seen before or expected. So let’s see what Stan and Jim thought of the event.

E3 2018 PlayStation Showcase:

Stan’s Summary:
Lights dim as we are treated to The Last of Us 2. Seems like the venue that the conference takes place is the same one shown in the footage, and we are shown an older Ellie attending a dance. An Asian male comes over to Ellie to talk about someone who may or may not be Joel. Ellie is pulled away from this individual and begins to slow dance with a woman. The two women have a tender moment on the dance floor and then we get a transition to a scene in the forest where Ellie kills a person by stabbing them in the throat repeatedly. This starts the gameplay portion of the demo. Ellie is sneaking around the forest trying to avoid two humans who might’ve been allies of her first victim. Ellie witnesses a hanging man being disemboweled, when suddenly the corpse of her first victim is found and the group is now on alert. Ellie makes it to a dilapidated parking garage where she starts picking off more humans. She is spotted and engages in combat with two people. Reinforcements come and they have guns. Ellie makes a break for it and eventually hides from them under a car. Someone looks other the car and they are dispatched by a headshot. Ellie racks up quite the body count, killing men and women indiscriminately. She makes her way into a store and has to remove an arrow stuck to her. Eventually she reveals herself as another skirmish breaks out, she gradually dispatches the group and we cut back to the dance hall and the demo ends with the game’s logo.

Sony PlayStation E3 2018 Showcase title screen is finally shown. Sid Shuman and Ryan Clements says the live attendees are going into an intermission and a venue change. The two are joined by Shawn Layden and they talk more about Last of Us 2. The topic is then changed to talk about the success of the titles that are coming out from the Sony Worldwide Studios. Layden talks about his role in enabling success. God of War is discussed and new game+ is announced. Tonight’s PlayStation Showcase will focus on 4 core titles. There will be no surprises, but these are just deep dives into those four titles. Still buying time, they show a Call of Duty trailer, discussing the four maps that are coming, Jungle, Summit, Slums, and Firing Range are part of the Back in Black map pack, only available from the PlayStation Store. These are maps from older Black Ops. Black Ops 3 is coming to PlayStation Plus. Short clips are shown for Tetris Effect, Twin Mirror, Days Gone, Ghost Giant and Beat Saber. The PlayStation Blog folks are still buying time and shows a trailer for the next Destiny 2 expansion: The Forsaken, which is coming on September 4th and people at the show can play it at the Sony booth.

The intermission ends as we get a show of the new venue, a large screen of a grassy hills is shown. We are treated to a Caucasian man in Japanese garb playing a flute. Once this performance is down, Ghost of Tsushima is shown. A Title Card “Mongol Invasion Day Nine” appears as the samurai starts walking around the environment. The samurai walks towards a cliff and we are treated to a wide shot of the grassy hills. The Samurai summons his horse and they begin to ride through those hills. Eventually the samurai encounters some hostiles and cuts down the first man and is left to deal with the two aggressors. The samurai is then joined by an archer where they need to rescue someone being tortured at a temple. The samurai infiltrate temple. Eventually getting the drop and killing all 4 aggressors with relative ease. The monk is rescued, but the archer shoots at the monk. Jin, the Samurai eventually squares off with the archer, Masako. The two duel in autumn foliage. Jin implores Masako to stop saying this infighting will enable the mongols to win. Eventually Jin subdues Masako as the Mongols arrive. Jin slashes at the screen and the title card for Ghosts of Tsushima.

Transition time again, clips of Dreams, a new game called Control from Remedy are shown. We are then shown a scene of a creature running through a pantry as we hear a struggle between humans going on. The creature whose perspective you were following is killed and we find the source of the struggle a cop that is killed by a Zombie. This is the Resident Evil 2 Remake. We are shown clips of gameplay. It will be coming January 29th, 2019. Squanchtendo’s newest title is shown Trover Saves the Universe. No release window is shown. A New Kingdom Hearts III trailer is shown. This time they are in the world of Pirates of the Caribbean, which appears to take place during the 3rd film. There are ship battles and new clips of the game is shown. Kairi apparently has a new hairdo. Kingdom Hearts-themed PlayStation 4 Pro is announced too. Kingdom Hearts all in one is a digital compilation only available on the PS4 as well, compiling Kingdom Hearts 3 and those weird decimal editions that remasters 1, 2 and all the various spin-off games.

Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is next. If you weren’t confused by Kingdom Hearts, you are definitely confused now. Norman Reedus is some kind of space space delivery man? Traversing through various landscapes, he’s carrying an assortment of backpacks, little box drones, and one scene even shows him transporting what appears to be a corpse. Nothing is really hashed out and we switch to a scene where Reedus encounters some hostiles. The game is still very confusing as Reedus is trying to avoid floating umbilical cord things to no avail and these shadows pounce on him and pull him down in the mire. We get the title card and the reveal of a blonde lady character and the cool animation of the Kojima Productions logo. A short teaser video debuts Nioh 2. Defy Death, Death Defies You is the tagline and no release date or window was shown.

Marvel’s Spider-Man was up next. We are shown the Raft and Electro shoots down the Police chopper, but Spidey rescues the pilot. Electro frees all the prisoners and Spidey starts beating up all the prisoners. There are web cartridges, so no organic web. Rhino is shown in a armored suit, and then Scorpion grabs Spider-Man. More prisoners are pummeled and Spider-Man continues to pursue Electro through the prison grounds. As Spider-Man gets his hands on Electro, Vulture then appears. After dealing with Vulture, Electro continues to run. Spider-sense is featured heavily in this demo. The chase ends on the roof of a building Mr. Negative then joins the other villains as they corner Spider-Man. Eventually the villains get the upper hand as Spider-man tries  crawls away, he eventually sees yet another familiar figure and exclaims…”You?!” which then cuts to the title screen. A short montage of the 4 titles is shown as the showcase ends.

Jim’s Summary:
Quantum Break and Max Payne developers, Remedy have a PS4 game in the works by the name of Control. And… it looks vaguely Quantum Break-ish, with a female lead and different environment.

Out of nowhere comes a Resident Evil 2 remake trailer we’ve been waiting for, with a January 29th, 2019 release date attached to it. It looks positively gross and awesome.

Shifting to a lighter, weirder tone is what appears to be a off-beat, colorful platformer by the name of Trover Saves the Universe by Justin Roiland of Rick and Morty fame.

Kingdom Hearts III gets even more footage, this time focusing on the Pirates of the Caribbean world. It’s looking quite good, but that January 2019 release better stick. Also revealed is that previous PS4 releases of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and II.5 will be included in the PS4 version of Kingdom Hearts III.

The new Death Stranding trailer is super strange as expected. Giant baby faces and Daryl Dixon is a weird combination, especially when paired with melodramatic background music while lugging crates and equipment over a lush alien landscape and yanking out his toenails. Then invisible hand prints start appearing in the alien mud and after MacGyvering some equipment, we get a look at the evil shadowy beings.

Back to something a little more “normal” is a look a Nioh 2 and several minutes of new gameplay and cinematic footage for the Insomniac Games-developed Marvel Spider-Man, which looks excellent. And then the conference wrapped up with not much fanfare.

Check back during the week for more E3 2018 coverage and deeper dives into a number of the titles on display.