*This was pushed out incredibly quickly, please pardon minor grammatical errors, this post will be updated throughout the day.

 

Due to my college orientation at Mizzou i was unable to watch Sony’s press conference live. I did however monitor people’s live reactions to what went down at the presser. Sony came out strong with a surprise live demo of the new God of War. The demo was complemented with a live orchestra that was present all evening. The new God of War appears to take place in a Norse mythology setting, yet the series protagonist Kratos is still seemingly present. The crowd went absolutely nuts when Kratos walked out of the shadows. No release date was present so one cannot guess when this title from Santa Monica Studio’s will come out. This first reveal set the tone that the Sony press conference would not only be cinematic trailers but surprise gameplay demos and trailers as well. I will more than likely follow the development of this game closely since reboots of franchises and how they end up in the end always grab my attention, plus Kratos is kind of a bad-ass.

Bend Studios showed off a post apocalyptic game titled Days Gone, that looked great but lacked a lot of information besides that which was narrated by the protagonist that appears to have been a member of a bike club before some sort of worldwide disaster. This trailer was immediately followed by a new trailer for The Last Guardian. In this new trailer the boy encounters another Trico that appears to not be quite as friendly as the one that was shown off in the original trailer back in 2009. The trailer was essentially a scissor-reel of gameplay and pre rendered events in game all of which seemed incredibly polished since this game now has a release date of October 25, 2016. It is worth mentioning that a LUDICROUS amount of games are coming out on that day and the week before.

A live gameplay for Horizon Zero Dawn followed The Last Guardian, in the gameplayy demo new mechanics were shown off and the audience got a chance to see the crafting menu for the first time. RPG elements such as dialogue options also made this game feel like an absolute departure from Guerrilla Games typical genre of choice. This excited me since I at first believed this game was a linear action game, the RPG elements and relatively open world shown off through the in game map got me even more excited for this new IP. Aloy, the protagonist proved to be incredibly capable of holding her own in a fight during a boss fight with a corrupted machine. Her assortment of weapons and consumable/craft-able traps were a nice touch. This title will come out in February of 2016.

 

Quantic Dream’s game Detroit: Become Human was up next. The game which appears to share elements from other Quantic Dream titles such as Heavy Rain showed off the dozens of player choices and interaction available to the player. This was conveyed through the player making decisions for a hostage negotiating android as the android named Connor attempted to save a child from her android caretaker. The game or rather this trailer stressed heavily on the idea of player’s choice and the variety of consequences that will have.The android caretaker stressed that he felt like a slave and other reasons causes him to enter this predicament. It is worth mentioning that this title will delve deep into different trains of thought and philosophical ideas pertaining to what substantiates humanity in a being. That alone intrigues me and has caught my interest. Detroit: Become Human will also have multiple protagonists so one can expect a multiple stories that all relate to each other in the end.

A full PSVR Demo was shown off next. The demo began in a dark environment that turned out to be a house. The entire thing was creepy and incredibly eerie. I knew from the beginning that this game would not appeal to me since I am a pansy when it comes to horror games. None the less I knew this game was going to appeal to the audience. The first person gameplay seemed to stress the use of the PSVR in order to immerse the player in the player character’s shoes. After reaching what I believe was an incredibly old computer or terminal various screens displayed countless videos that either must have been an archive of past events. An incredibly eerie song accompanied the videos that flashed in and out of focus.

 

 

After several dramatic pans and zooming out of frames the game was revealed as Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (stylized Resident EVII biohazard). Yet again the crowd went berserk. This game appears to be a departure from more recent Resident Evil games that have typically fallen into the third person survival horror game genre. What was shown off can be summed up simply as survival horror, although action sequences will more than likely be in this title. The major influence on this game has to be Silent Hill’s PT, I got a totally PT vibe from this demo. The game has a set release date of January 24, 2017. The game will be completely playable with or without PSVR although to get the better horror experience and more than likely some nightmares as well I would personally get it with the PSVR.

Playstation VR will have the specs above and will release on October 13, 2016 (5 days before my birthday hurray!). The device will run in tandem with the PS4 so no new upgrades are needed to the platform. The device will cost $399. More than 50 games will be available at launch to the end of the year ranging from indie games to AAA titles. A scissor-reel of various VR games were then shown off during the press conference. Of those it is worth mentioning that one is a VR mission behind the cockpit of an X-Wing in space in Star Wars Battlefront. Farpoint, a new IP saw explorers stuck on a seemingly hostile planet. A Final Fantasy XV trailer was shown off as well as a PSVR companion experience.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was up next. This was the reveal for space ship to ship combat. I could not tell if the flight controls were “on rails” or if the player had absolute control. Zero gravity combat complete with a grapple gun was displayed in this cinematic snip bit of the title. It didn’t appear to seem like a Call of Duty game at, rather it seemed like a Sci-Fy shooter that under a different name or alias would feel more natural. Using debris as cover in a 360 degree environment seemed like a ton of fun though. I think I even saw a grenade that made a zero gravity field of some sorts on enemies.

A new trailer for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was shown off. In it we got our first glances at the ghillie suit missions and more gameplay from the missions as United States Marines attempting to capture Al-Asad. I could not be any more excited for this remaster of a classic game and truly the Call of Duty game that formed the foundation for all of the games to follow. If you pre-purchase Infinite Warfare you can play Modern Warfare Remastered  a whole 30 days early on the PS4.  Since we are talking about Activision it is also a good time to announce that several Crash Bandicoot games will be remastered on the PS4.

Andy House came up and began to talk about Playstations dedication to developers ranging from first party to third party in order to craft the best experience possible for the gamers. This ultimately cultivated in Mr. House introducing “one of the most creative talents in the history of gaming.” His entrance was complemented by a phenomenal orchestral score and the new logo that his new developing company crafted, it goes without saying that Hide Kojima’s entrance into the press conference was fitting of his magnitude in the gaming medium. His entrance was also marked by a cacophony of applause and cheers for the developer that had such a rough split from Konami during the creation of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. After taking the stage Hideo proclaimed, “Hello everyone, I am back! Today I bring something new, we made for you and this is all running in real time. Please enjoy.”

The trailer opened with a quote: “To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour..” – William Blake. The audience and viewers online were welcomed by a black beach littered with dead crabs and sea life. Phantom hand prints with black centers began to make tracks along the beach while the camera pans along with them. The camera settles on a man naked on the black beach, a handcuff attached to one of his wrists (it is worth mentioning no frontal nudity is present in the trailer).

A umbellical chord is attached from the man to a newborn that he then begins to cradle revealing that the man is modeled after Norman Reedus ( famous from The Walking Dead). The audience went nuts when Norman’s face was completely present. The baby disappears and Norman character looks down at his hands and sees a black substance caking his hands.

The substance parallels that of the hand prints seen earlier in the trailer. From that in pans upwards away from the hands back to the beach towards piles of dead fish. The character stands up and begins to walk towards where the camera pans. This reveals a cross stitched scar on the character’s lower abdomen. A wide shot from behind the character reveals that he is standing either were the sea level has dropped dramatically, the beach littered with everything from huge whales to fish and five figures levitating up in the sky overlooking the character and the beach.

 

They disappear and in their place A Hideo Kojima Game appears followed Norman Reedus in which is then followed by the title Dead Stranding. It goes without saying that knowing Kojima this trailer was filled to the brim with symbols and hints at the true nature to the game. He is a master of conveying beliefs through the medium of video games through their narrative and surrounding environment. That is why he is such a big name in video games. He has a way of expressing things in ways that a traditional game developer wouldn’t; for him at least this has proved incredibly successful. This game is in incredibly early development. I am predicting with a conservative estimate that this will be a 2019-2020 game, 2018 would be an incredibly liberal estimate. Hideo Kojima had to completely re-haul and remake a team of developers and more than likely he has programmers making an entirely new engine for this game. Unlike a lot of the other AAA studios he is building this game from the ground up, he has no assets he can use in development. None the less I cannot wait for this game. I have never been so hyped for a game I know so very little about.

The next trailer answered the questions about a rumored game under development by Insomniac (minds behind the inFamous IP). A Spiderman game that actually looks great is coming to the PS4. The trailer begins with some shots of Manhattan that are narrated by a teenagers voice that we later learn is Peter Parker’s voice. Incredibly intricate and complicated means of traversal by Spiderman are revealed while the web-slinging super hero moves around Manhattan. The trailer does not reveal anything related to the story but it is full to the brim of movie esque shots of Spiderman moving throughout the city and his quick take-downs of criminals. This looks like the open world Spiderman game that gamers have been wanting for so long. Knowing Insomniacs pedigree they will without a doubt do this franchise the justice it deserves. I mean come on, the past Spiderman games in recent memory have been awful.

The conference ended with a demo of the previously mentioned Days Gone. Turns out the disaster led to or was also the outbreak of zombies. What sets this game apart from a game such as The Last of Us which took it’s own spin on zombies through its fungal spore enemies is the scale of this games combat. The player character is hosing zombies with an assault rifle at an enormous scale. Hundreds of zombies were all moving independently on screen in large action shots during the gameplay. The movement reminded me of the Uncharted series as did the animation for holstering the rifle and movements with the rifle out. A later press release talked more about the game, pointing out it is an open world survival game taking place in the Pacific Northwest. The game takes place two years after the pandemic and the zombie like creatures are called Freakers in game. These things from the trailer appeared to be incredibly fast and intimidating in a horde or pack. The developers themselves are based out of Bend, Oregon (hence Bend Studios), so I have no doubt that the environment in game will be as close to the real Pacific Northwest as it can be.

The Press Conference ended with a final scissor-reel of all of the games shown off and other titles that have already been revealed. Of these games first to third party games were shown in this reel. I have to say that the Sony Press Conference never felt slow or falling behind in pace. Sony absolutely was attempting to capitalize on an emphasis of games and because of this they delivered a stellar conference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a thematic trailer of exploration and civilization combined with the powerful and moving orchestral score, Civilization VI has been revealed. It has been five years since the release of the previous title, Civilization V, and three years since the release of the final expansion, Brave New World. Firaxis Games, the developers, decided to announce the title on their 25th anniversary. I personally believed that Civilization VI would either come out in 2015 or 2016 since CIV IV & V were released in 5 year increments. In a sense, I was partially correct. This trailer revealed little to no ideas or knowledge regarding the new title. However, additional information regarding new mechanics and changes can be found on the studio’s page. I will attempt to nitpick the important revealed changes and summarize the rest as a whole.

For starters, the art style is drastically different from that of Civilization VI. Some may debate that it is too “cartoonish.” I, for one, am in favor of the change in art direction. It is obviously brighter and more vivid when it comes to the color palette. This is not a bad thing; change can be a good thing in this case. The possibilities of conveying specific civilizations’ aesthetic style will more than likely be on display through this new art style. For example, the samurai unit next to the farmland appears to be well put together. This decision to switch the art design may also be due to a widening of the series audience and target demographic. The art style may attract players on the younger end of the spectrum. Anyone who has actually played the series though cares little about the art style and more for the gameplay and turn-by-turn decisions one makes to better their civilization.

Several other minor changes have been revealed but the major one that I will attempt to explain is the change regarding a player’s cities. Global Happiness, for one, is no longer in play when it comes to managing your empire in Civilization VI, a change I welcome with open arms. Cities are now encompassing more than one tile. In other words, most city improvements take up a tile or ‘district.’ This means that players will need to plan ahead when forming their city early game, this will kept them from wasting potentially useful late game tiles. This gameplay aspect will also be noteworthy when attacking a city. Fort ‘districts’ or defensive structures should now always be the major focal point while attacking another civilization’s city. When these are destroyed, the city will be far more easy to either annex or raze to the ground.

There are plenty of additional changes not mentioned above, but I found the city example the most intriguing. You can find more info on Civilization VI here.

Players can expect this title to be released this Fall on October 21, 2016.

Today, Infinity Ward released the reveal trailer for the next game in the Call of Duty franchise. The next title, Infinite Warfare, has everything from an enormous robot grappling with a tank to combat in space. I highly suggest watching the trailer before reading this article, though. I personally felt excited and disappointed by the ‘gameplay’ that was displayed in the trailer. Having been a critic of basically every single Call of Duty game since Black Ops I can safely say that I know exactly how to break down and tear to shred dozens of aspects of the series since that title. Yet, Infinite Warfare already looks to be the best title in the franchise since 2010’s Black Ops. Here is why: the description for the YouTube trailer reads as followed – “Call of Duty®: Infinite Warfare returns to the roots of the franchise where large-scale war and cinematic, immersive military storytelling take center stage. Prepare for a gripping war story in which players fight against the Settlement Defense Front to defend our very way of life.”

The combat shown, regardless if it is cinematic or actual gameplay, looks very different from every single kind of set piece shown in a Call of Duty game since Modern Warfare 3. The scale of the engagement displayed during the surprise attack that encompasses the majority of the beginning of the trailer is reminiscent of the Khe Sanh level in Black Ops or the battle for Washington D.C. in Modern Warfare 2. Every other game after Modern Warfare 3 began to solely depend on the cinematic feel of small scale raid like missions in which the player is always apart of some sort of elite pre-madonna squad. Black Ops, on the other hand, threw the player into large scale engagements such as the Khe Sanh level, a historic battle that was tremendous in scale. Modern Warfare 2 had the player put on the boots of an Army Ranger, a role that is specialized but nowhere near as flashy as a DEVGRU operator, and thrust them into WW3 against the Russians. Sure Call of Duty: Ghosts had the player fight some form of a South American Coalition but it still was bogged down by flashy raids and hit and run missions. The Call of Duty franchises roots are in LARGE SCALE SET-PIECES, like the D-Day level in Call of Duty 2 or the Battle for Berlin in World at War; not specialized teams of cybernetically augmented super soldiers (leave that for Halo & Doom).

The sheer scale of Infinite Warfare is directly conveyed through the player characters entering into a aircraft that flies above the battlefield and into SPACE. Although I am not a fan of the level of dependency the series is now focusing on science fiction elements, I am glad that it no longer appears that this title will be a running and jumping simulator like the past two titles. For all intensive purposes, Advanced Warfare & Black Ops 3 felt like steps in the wrong direction for the franchise. Faster combat isn’t always better. It is already evident due to the character models found in the Infinite Warfare trailer that the ridiculous mec-suit/augmentation cliche has been ditched for more genuine combat. I welcome this with open arms, the series almost felt like a self-aware satire of itself in most recent entries.

The opportunity for completely different set pieces, set in space to this scale will be something to look forward to. Sure Call of Duty:Ghosts had this but it was to a much, much smaller scale. The lack of super soldier armor ad abilities actually makes me feel somewhat optimistic for the title. This game will literally take the franchise to places it has never been before. Seriously, from what can be analyzed by screenshots of the trailer the game journeys to another celestial body or planet (maybe a moon). Of course, more facts will be revealed in dear time but at the moment, I am somewhat excited for the campaign in this title. I will hold my breath before I say anything about the multiplayer that has yet to be shown off. This trailer that was filled to the brim with action and diverse set pieces along with a cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” had one last aspect to show off- Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare Remastered.

After fans have been yelling at the top of their lungs, arguably the best or second best game in the entire franchise is finally receiving the remastering it deserves. This will cost you, though. The remastered full game, multiplayer included with separate leveling and multiplayer from Infinite Warfare will cost you at the least $80. Obviously, there are more expensive versions of the game that will be for sale but if you just want to suit up in that Ghillie suit again you will have to buy Infinite Warfare along with the game you actually will play. I am not saying that Infinite Warfare will be a bad game, quite the opposite, in fact, it just so happens that you will have to pay more to feed your nostalgia. The short tidbit at the end of the trailer that actually showed gameplay from the remastered version of Call of Duty 4 had me the most excited through and through. Gamers can expect both Infinite Warfare & Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered on November 4, this fall.

A bunch of news has come out of PlayStation Experience (PSX) over the past weekend. The biggest news in my opinion came not from a new game’s announcement but rather new details regarding the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Up until this past weekend all gamers knew about this highly anticipated remake was the fact that it was a thing and that it was coming to Playstation 4 first.

Gamers still do not have a release date but they did get another awesome trailer combined with some impressive gameplay. My first impressions of the gameplay is the fact that it appears to be incredibly similar to what we have seen of Final Fantasy XV & even Kingdom Hearts. In other words the gameplay is not the traditional turn based combat that was in the original Final Fantasy VII. Instead it appears to be fast paced strategy combat that visually looks very hack n slash. Obviously the latter half of my description is wrong since the game will utilize some turn based elements combined with real time action combat.

This of course has made some fans of the original game upset since this remake lacks true turn based combat that was in Final Fantasy VII. I personally believe that this was a smart move. The original Final Fantasy VII had an incredible story. It combined several noteworthy themes ranging from opinions on the environment to the purpose of Gods while not attempting to break out of its own medium. Therefore, I think that the new combat system will be easier for new players to get engaged with the retelling of this classic story. True turn based Japanese Role Playing Games (JRPGs) are sadly becoming less common in the West. Square Enix might be attempting to gain the attention from a younger generation of gamers. The countless hours of grinding in a traditional JRPG, something FF VII was, is simply not relevant or enjoyable when received by the mainstream gaming audience. The original game will be 20 years old in 2017, it’s time that this story was retold not only to the original audience but also to a new wave of gamers. This new combat system is far more inviting than the orthodox combat of the original. I personally am all for it.

Lastly it was also announced after the gameplay reveal that the Final Fantasy VII Remake will be released in parts (It also runs on UnReal Engine 4!). So gamers shouldn’t expect to play through this entire story on one disk alone. Square Enix has yet to explain what exactly this means but I know that this also made a bunch of fans of the series upset. I personally am fine either way, I’m just glad this is finally a thing.

In a move that many fans saw coming, Naughty Dog has announced the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. The collection will feature all three main Uncharted games that were featured on the PS3. At the moment since this is a new story there are few things that the general public knows about the collection besides the fact that all three games have been remastered and re textured for the PS4. The status of the frame rate of the overall collection is still currently unknown, one can only guess that it will be near 60 FPS 1080p.

This decision to re release these three fantastic games can be compared to Microsoft’s decision to re release the core Halo games under the guise of the Master Chief Collection. Both companies have or are going to release these collections before their next game in their series’ is released. In Microsoft’s case this would be Halo 5: Guardians and for Sony / Naughty Dog this would be Uncharted 4. The marketing behind this is simple and smart. Re release updated versions of past successful games in a series on the next gen to create hype for the newer game. At the same time this give new adopters of the Xbox One and PS4 a chance to play fantastic games for the first time without having to buy a Xbox 360 or PS3.

I for one cannot wait to replay the Uncharted series as a way to touch up on the main story before Uncharted 4‘s release in 2016.

The announcement trailer can be found here. The game will release on October 9, 2015.