Once upon a time, we used to moan about Sony's inability to pace E3 pressers. We think that the platform holder got the message, because its classy theatre-based conference this evening barely stopped to breathe. The platform holder showed several extraordinary looking releases in a short but sweet show that dazzled from start to finish. Below you'll find the reactions of Push Square editors Sammy Barker and Robert Ramsey.
Sammy Barker, Editor
There comes a point in every press conference when I visit NeoGAF. It happens with Sony, it happens with Microsoft – and it sure as hell happens with EA and Ubisoft as well. I've never held this against any organisation – it'd be unreasonable for a media briefing to keep me engaged from beginning to end. In fact, I remember my interest dropping off even last year – y'know, the presser we dubbed the greatest ever – as I desperately tried to drop my Shenmue III donation into Yu Suzuki's bank balance.
My eyes never left this year's stream.
Now was it the best E3 press conference ever? No, it wasn't – the sheer spectacle of last year's fan fiction will never be topped. But I do think that it's the best I've ever seen one of these briefings be presented: very little chatter, very few momentum breaks, and whoever had the idea of incorporating a live orchestra deserves a raise – it was ingenious.
But the content should get kudos, too. About three months ago Ramsey and I were chatting about E3, lamenting rumours that Kratos would be the protagonist in the next God of War game – but Sony Santa Monica somehow managed to make me care about the angry anti-hero within minutes of the gameplay demo getting underway. I'm still not sure about the combat, but the series has needed a new direction for some time, and this sure as hell seems like the right one.
But other games that I thought would disappoint impressed, too. Days Gone may be shuffling a little too closely to The Last of Us tonally, but I'm intrigued; the Spider-Man game from Insomniac was a real surprise; I can't wait to learn more about Resident Evil 7. If there are any downsides, they would be the lack of Crash Bandicoot Trilogy footage, and the fact that – as a massive Quantic Dream fan – I'm still not sure about Detroit: Become Human.
But they're minor blotches on what was otherwise an expertly presented press conference bursting with content. There's no question that Sony's first-party studios have been keeping a close eye on Naughty Dog, but I like story-driven single player games a lot. And speaking of which: Horizon: Zero Dawn looks legit.
Robert Ramsey, Associate Editor
Well, after three disappointingly poor press conferences, I was desperate for Sony to step up and bring back the hype – and the ever-confident company did just that. Right from the first minute, it was clear that Sony was going to pack its presser with class – the theatrical stage was quite incredible, and when the live orchestra kicked in, I had a feeling that everything was gonna be all right.
My hunch was on point, as God of War's PS4 demo was arguably one of the strongest openings to a conference that I've ever seen. The return of Kratos looks stupidly good, and ultimately, it ended up stealing the show for me. Just weeks ago, myself and Sammy were dreading the seemingly inevitable revival of the bald brawler, complaining that the property's main character needs to take a break – but after the demo, I can't wait to take control of the mad bastard and repeatedly punch giants in the head. Glorious.
The epic opener set the tone for the rest of the presser, really. From that point, all systems were go as Sony darted from one trailer or reveal to the next with hardly any downtime in between. For the most part, the pacing was pretty much spot on, and that's often the most important aspect in crafting an enjoyable event. Top marks on that front, then.
I went into Sony's show knowing that it was probably never going beat E3 2015 – I'll likely never be left in awe again like I was with the reveal of Final Fantasy VII Remake – but I was still confident in the Japanese giant's ability to wow me, and it did so with a rock solid, highly entertaining press conference that oozed quality. Compared to some of the crap that I've had to endure over the last 48 hours – I'm looking at you EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft – this was a stunner.
What did you think of Sony's press conference this year? Were you pleased with the pacing and presentation? Which games caught your eye? Hire your own orchestra in the comments section below.
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Comments 62
It was an insane show, definitely the best one yet which is mad when you think about last year.
I cant believe they actually beat last years show
Definitely second best to last year. Very little breaks just pure unadulterated action from the demos.
It was great if your interested in more remakes or VR. Otherwise a bit lacklustre. Much better than microsoft though.
I wouldn't say it saved E3.. Still somewhat lacking. Zelda is now the only hope.
F**KING-HELL that show was AMAZING Just watched it(woke up at 6AM(in the UK) to watch it on YouTube) So many brilliant looking games And so many PS4 Exclusives to Yesterday's E3 was boring from EA and MS and the rest nothing New from them. Well done SONY(again)
notice nobody is complaining about lack of indies
As a neutral observer, I'd say MS saved E3 first, because they went first, but this show was awesome as well, better than last year's by miles. Where as last year's show was good but got crazy hype because it was a retro gamer's wet dream this year's show gave actual reason to get excited about the near and distant future. Sony didn't take advantage of some of the niche games it has, which could've better displayed the variety PS4 will offer and while I was disappointed by pretty much everybody aping Naughty Dog (as I've said before, you only need one when one is as good as ND is), I can't deny Days Gone is a game that's pretty much up my alley and I've always been a God of War fan so I was hyped to see it return. Of course Horizon impressed again and the surprise of the show for me is Insomniac, not Sucker Punch, making the new Spider-Man. Sucker Punch seemed a perfect fit, but the more I think about it, the more Insomniac makes sense as well and who knows. Maybe we get more inFamous? Or a new IP, or maybe even Sucker Punch revisits Sly Cooper? Whatever it does, it frees things up for even more great games.
However, the best part of the show was obviously the way it was laid out. If I were still in college having do presentations, I'd follow this format. Little to nothing from the corporate windbags, just let the games do the talking and what's there spoke volumes for me. Lots of games on my must-buy/want list.
Looks like they put in a good show, make sure you get a link up I wanna watch it this evening!
@Sensechat Did you watch Bethesdas?
What the hell was good about that? Dishonoured 2 and errr that's it. Enjoy your settlement dlc for fallout 4.
@Sensechat where does he mention MS? He's right, EA and Ubi's were crap and I didn't catch Beths though I hear it was nothing special
Very impressive! Badass exclusives!
Of all the announcements and games shown off, I'm actually really excited for Insomniac's Spider-Man game. I read on the PS Blog that it's not a tie in with the new movie, it's a separate thing altogether. Please be good!
And while I understand the mixed reaction to God of War (on other sites mainly), I personally love what they're doing with it. Kratos is actually being developed in a meaningful way, and the new setting looks great. I don't think we've seen nearly enough of the combat to make a judgement call yet.
It was just the sheer pace of the conference that got me, though. It made a very welcome change from all the fluff that padded out the EA or Bethesda conferences. Great work, Sony.
Great pacing and I needed that as I watched at 2am in bed on my phone! Owed a lot to Nintendo directs in just being about the games, not having Dev diaries was great, they can come later. Very Naughty Dog, but as someone who got into PlayStation because of modern ND games, this is great. Never thought I'd care for GoW, but that intro worked for me. Great job.
Personally, I thought this was much better than last year. They just kept mainly to showing upcoming titles, and refrained from backslapping and showing off partnerships.
Kojimas new title looks INCREDIBLE, and even CoD looked good.
Sony kept the chatter to a minimum and let the games speak for themselves, and it really paid off.
Overall, massively impressed. Wasn't expecting it to be this good but yeah, well done Sony. And that orchestra was a nice touch!
The MS presser was OK but I don't really see the excitement for what basically amounts to the Xbox equivalent of a Steam Machine/Box/Whatever - it's fine, but the games to back it up just weren't there in the same way as Sony. EA/Bethesda/Ubi were all pretty dull too for the most part. Loved the look of the new South Park game though and Dishonoured looks good as expected.
Sony could just show god of war and they're already won e3, but they goes on and on and on showing exclusive after exclusive, it's insane. Nothing beat last year thought, sony e3 last year is just like fanfiction. Well, the 2nd best e3 ever is not a bad thing
@Pinkman Seems a bit of a strange comment when the majority shown wasn't VR games or remasters.
You know what really worked in this conference? No devs, no special guests, just trailers. We had Shawn Layden, Andrew House and a flying visit from Hideo Kojima, and the rest of it was just a relentless assault of videos.
It's an interesting move. And I hope they do it again next year. When you look at what Sony did here in comparison to, say, Ubisoft, who had a tonne of guests, the upside is obvious. There wasn't a lull in the show. Even if a game you had no interest in came up they didn't spend long enough on it to derail the show. It was just games, games, games.
It was probably the best conference I've ever seen. It didn't have the marquee news of last year's Sony conference, but it was paced perfectly, and there was a lot of good stuff.
@johncalmc by the sounds of it they've set a precedent as to how a modern conference should be handled. I hope there is a general shift, I'm sick of feeling sorry for myself watching half of these shows. A 30 day exclusivity agreement for Watch Dogs 2 is not "Incredible!".
Even though its not a movie tie-in, the design of the eyes were taken from the Civil War movie. Wonder if they'll reference Tony Stark in it. So any ideas who those masked villains were in the trailer?
@kyleforrester87 That's exactly what I'm hoping for. Usually in conferences there's guests and a lot of faux-excitement. Did we really need an interview with some guy off a Star Trek show that hasn't been on TV for the neck of twenty years to sing the virtues of a new Star Trek game? Or an interview with a movie producer to talk about the Assassin's Creed movie for five minutes?
Sony nailed this because they cut all of that nonsense out. It was lean, and rapid-fire. And by the end of it, I could barely remember anything that was announced at any of the other conferences. That's how you do it.
Yay know, there were really only 3 actual new games announced that grabbed my interest- GoW, Spiderman and Buttocks and Ocean 4, but the pacing was fantastic and they still had games like Horizon from previous e3 which I'm super excited for
It wasn't the best conference ever but it was just so well done- great games we knew about, couple great looking games we didn't know about, no fluff in between. Just game game game.
I don't mean to be a killjoy but I don't take E3 too seriously. Every year we see and hear great games with hype and fantastic trailers. But then just get let down. OK I'm speaking on my own disappointments so this is just my opinion. Halo 5 was a complete let down, as was Star Wars Battlefront, and even MGS5 wasn't all I had hoped. Not to mention a game I was so pumped to get, but ended up my most disappointed game of the year after Halo 5, The Division. Most games I play don't live up to the hype I'm afraid.
For me there was a few fillers - the VR segment for example and the Last Guardian - still looking like a PS3 game but with a bit of a HD make-over. Lego Star Wars looked out of place, Crash Skylanders too.Detroit and Death Stranding (was that a bizarre cgi music video or trailer for a game??) was just weird. Spider-Mans suit - particular his chest logo was off putting for me but the positive is we are getting a Spider-Man game...
I have never liked God of War but that reveal was impressive. I know its a reboot so hope they reboot the mechanics too - although I doubt that because that would annoy the GoW fans. Days Gone was for me the highlight of E3 in terms of best 'new' reveal and best 'new' IP. (games that I knew nothing about - Horizon is a new IP but its not a 'new' as in only mentioned at E32016 game). The way it started off slow, very Last of Us Vibe but grew into a WorldWarZ with so many enemies on screen, threatening to swarm all of the protagonist, constantly backing away as more and more enemies just kept coming - technically it was the most impressive game at E3. Horizon:Zero Dawn though took my game of E3 (again).
My biggest Jaw drop moment came during MS's Show. I know many here aren't concerned by MS but after yesterdays E3, MS delivered! Nothing fancy, a lot more games, hardware, etc. The games were 'safe' but solid. In terms of numbers, MS had a lot more I wanted. MS turned E3 from a 'Meh' to a good E3, Ubisoft had the style but lacked Substance but Sony delivered 'Quality over Quantity' and the whole presentation was very stylish too. I may not have liked some games, but most looked impressive. I still think some were running on a Neo... Not that it matters!
Both console manufactures really delivered to their target audience but what really disappointed is the 3rd party briefings.
@PorllM really? Batman vr, final fantasy vr, star wars vr, modern warfare, crash bandicoot and resident evil vr. That's at least half of what was show. And I know the last guardian isn't a remake but it's been nearly 10 years or something like that so it should have been released 4 or 5 times by now.
@StaffyDog That is because most people ignore the fact that E3 is just a show for advertising games. Not even the visuals are always the same in the final game!
@Sensechat True, I think readers are starting to notice too much fanboyism in PushSquare staff.
@VanillaLake This site is pretty free of "fanboyism" to be fair, considering it's a PS site you gotta expect an element of it though. As a PS only gamer it definitely seems Sony did save E3 (though I haven't seen the conference myself), since the third party shows were pretty poor!
Sounds like MS had a good showing too, though.
I thought it was good, very well put together. Some interesting stuff. Nothing ground breaking though. I enjoyed all of it apart from Lego because I don't like Lego games and the Days Gone generic lazy 'AAA?' exploding barrels.
I'd also like to tip my hat off to Ben from Ben & Ben the podcast men as I now understand how good the Andrew House impression was, hilarious.
Shawn Layden's mini orgasm after stating 40 millions consoles sold was the highlight.
To me there's only one down point, Days Gone looks a bit generic and should be traded for Persona or FFVII. The VR session was very mood breaker too.
That said, it was great!
@Pinkman Batman is the only one of those that could be considered a "VR game" the others are regular TV playable AAA games that happen to also have a VR mode or level for those interested. Would you rather that functionality be removed? Seems pretty weird even if you have no interest in VR. It's just an option for those who have PSVR, they are still full games for those who don't.
Very well presented show but none of the newly announced games came close to matching my excitement for the already announced Horizon and The Last Guardian.
@PorllM To be honest I have no problem with VR. I'm just a little annoyed with gaming in general recently.
It's like this generation of gaming has lost all ability to innovate. PS4 has seen one remake after another. Same with xbox.
And now they are asking people to upgrade to new consoles halfway into the generation and I'm not talking about slim versions, these are brand new super powered machines that will be required to get the best graphics from your console this generation.
And to top it off they are introducing VR which is a brilliant concept and I'm sure along with all the filler content will produce some genuinely innovative gaming experiences, however, I really don't want to pay out a further 400 quid to play anything decent this generation.
It's just me I'm sure but it's really put me off gaming recently.
@Pinkman I'm not gunna work out percentages but really, considering the PS4's library, remakes/remasters must constitute a tiny percentage of overall releases. In my remaster collection I have only Tomb Raider, Valkyria Chronicles and Resident Evil...oh and Abes Odyssey
I wouldn't say Sony saved E3. Microsoft did well enough on their presentation to make E3 pleasing enough. Sony did great this year, but I think I was more shocked and excited by last year's conference.
@Pinkman What were the remakes in the press conference? I can't think of any...
@sketchturner Nothing wrong with that, man - those are two titles that are going to be very tough to top for years to come, I suspect.
Orchestra was brilliant and so was having it for the whole show not just for GoW...maybe sony felt they didnt need to have a neo there, just a quick yup, its real before e3 and then be fully confident with just the games they had whereas ms really did need to throw the scorpio and slim in there, best ms conference for awhile..still not sure how relevant scorpio will be in 18months though if all ms games will be on pc,i realise how powerful scorpio sounds on paper but how will those specs stand up against a gaming pc in 18 months or so?
Personal tastes set aside, it was a good showing. The pace was great and it focused on the right stuff without any stupid awkward moments. The orchestra was a nice touch too.
@get2sammyb there is crash bandicoot and modern warfare.
@kyleforrester87 I've got uncharted collection. Ratchet and clank although it's a much improved remake. Not to mention God of war and the last of us. There's a remake of skyrim on the way too. Don't forget prototype and borderlands and countless other remakes, remasters and re-release.
Also forget to mention final fantasy 10 and now 12. Oh and 7.
@Pinkman So like, maybe 30 or so remakes out of the 1000+ games available on PS4, isn't too bad really.
Great show, showing game after game with no filler.
Good job Sony
@kyleforrester87 yeah MS had a good one too but i felt that they "Fluffed" theirs out a bit with stuff that wasn't needed
i think Sony really did it the best way, show game after game with very little fluff in between
It was a decent showing, mostly for games scheduled in the holiday 2017 to delayed 2018 though. Didnt care about the VR stuff either.
Best parts were the orchestra, Horizon, God of War, and SpidermanPS4.
Both the Microsoft and Sony conferences were extremely well-paced, but this one wins both due to the superior games on show and for the fact that there wasn't a terrible Minecraft presentation in the middle of it.
Resident Evil 7 was Game of the Show for me. Absolutely jaw-dropping trailer. It's a really extreme change in the direction of the series, but considering what 5 and 6 were like, I'm really happy Capcom wants to go almost pure horror with this one.
Second most impressive game for me was Horizon: Zero Dawn. The combat in that demo was stunning. Fast, vicious, strategic... I'm sold.
I was really interested in TLG, Detroit, and whatever that Kojima game is supposed to be.
God of War: ND Edition looked... different? It looks too much like Uncharted now. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in this. I think I'll wait for reviews, though.
Not really that interested in Spiderman, but if it turns out good, I'll probably check it out.
Days Gone looked awful. Like some TLOU clone that's missing the pathos ND injected into that game.
I think it was a good conference, nothing more and nothing less. They announced some interesting stuff, but I peraonally think the most exciting game is still Horizon, which was revealed last year. Oh, apropos, let's not joke: this show wasn't even close to that of last year. And I don't know (nor care) if last year's show was the best ever, but even if it was this sure wouldn't be second. It'd mean this was better than Nintendo's 2014 show. No way.
So it was a good show, better than Microsoft's though it wasn't mindblowing at all. And MS's show wasn't as bad as so,e of you seem to think. To be honest I'm pretty hyped for Sea Of Thieves though I doubt I'll ever buy an XBox One.
So nope, Sony didn't save anything, it just put on a good show. It's just a PlayStation site overestimating this year's Sony presentation and downplaying MS's one.
P.S.: EA, Ubisoft and Bethesda sucked quite hard.
Horizon Zero Dawn is amazing. Seeing alloy jump on a running machine, its motion seems stress free and smooth. And we can dodge enemy's sudden attacks quickly. That's essential kind of this action game.
@Sensechat Actually, I said EA, Bethesda, and Ubisoft were crap compared to Sony, not Microsoft. Microsoft had a strong conference, so I suggest you make sure that you read the article a little better before throwing out accusations.
@VanillaLake Not true whatsoever, and you should know better since you've been commenting long enough.
If we praise Sony (rightly so, here) then we get called fanboys. If we're critical of Sony (which we are on a regular basis) then we're lambasted for that, too.
I'm going to describe one of my biggest surprises of E3. Sony press, on comes a space shooter. It looks incredible, like, something special. We start in the bridge and we get an awesome Mass Effect vibe. From there it's down to the hanger, into a ship and out into a staggering dogfight in space. Out of the ship seamlessly and into some wonderful zero gravity gunplay with an awesome 'zipline' mechanic. "Wow, I am all over this" I think, "What the hell is it??". This continues until my hype level is pretty dam high. Fade to black "What the hell is this game?!?!" Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. "Well love me". I couldn't believe it, still can't. What must have been a very conscious decision they left the title to the end. Base your opinion on the gameplay, not the name. The message was loud and clear. If that footage had a new IP name after it people would be loosing their shit right now. As it stands though I'm listening, if that game turns out as good as that trailer then CoD game or not, I'm sold.
Watch the language -Tasuki-
@ShogunRok Praising is not bad per se, but being too biased when writing headlines and articles might not be as appreciated. I'm not talking about this article nor you in particular and also I'm not the only one who thinks so, even though I am honest enough to publicly say it here. Anyway, I did not expect anyone to agree with me on here and I did not try to offend anybody, I'm just being sincere and polite as I've always been here and elsewhere, because that's the way I am.
@Ralizah Resident Evil VII (or 7) is also the game of the show for me, specially because it seems to be survival horror again as the classic Resident Evil games. Now if only they re-released 3 and Code Veronica on PS4/Xbox One.
@clvr My thoughts exactly.
@LocalPenguin Totally agree, I wanted to add that to my previous comment but didn't because...well, I don't know why 😅
I personally have never bought a COD, I've only played them at my friends' so I'm not an expert at all, but after trying several games many times I was always left with a negative impression of the games. Yeah, it can be fun for a couple local matches (especially the mode where you start with a simple pistol and then upgrade upon killing, I only know it's Gioco delle armi in Italian), but after that it grows boring. I've also played it online and well...I'm more of a single-player-oriented gamer, and though I enjoy my bursts of online gaming, it simply did nothing for me. So I think I can be put in that category that despises COD, but I must say I was truly impressed by IF's trailer. Of course it's all meant to blow minds and have people buying it so I won't get hyped, but if these first impressions are confirmed by critics upon release, it may even become my first COD ever.
yes all Sony UBi and Ms did a great job. Now to just Sony and ms. Sony won this for me cause the games were jaw dropping. Gave us what we asked for. But as for the ps4k , to be honest i'm not ready for it. The vr was nice too. As for Ms i think they're shooting their selves in the foot. All ms exclusives are on xbo, xbos, xb scorp, and PC. I think that a small bit of xb fans will for the scrop but most might go for PC for that price (knowing it'll be up there). And with Ms exclusives on PC too that will make no point when it comes to ....... I half sleep but you get what i mean. exclusives on pc is a bad idea
The Nintendo conference is being ridiculous: Pokemon footage for over 40 minutes this far. They just said it's 20 minutes more until Zelda Breath of Wild. So, 60 minutes of Pokemon... Worst Nintendo conference ever. Can't wait for Nintendo Life's polls.
@VanillaLake Yeah it wasn't even a "conference" as we know them. Just a load of people sitting around playing pokemon speaking mostly in Japanese!
Nintendo have lost it. I think all their resources are on NX and they basically have nothing else to show for Wii U/3DS so they're dragging this out.
Zelda does look great though luckily.
@Dodoo Yeah, now Zelda Breath of Wild and Resident Evil 7 are the games I'm looking forward to playing.
resident evil 7 looks horrible.that's not resident evil.first person .come on
Great showing, i had to stay off of news sites so it was unknown and im really glad i did - for God Of War alone what a start to the show, Horizon looked great, Spiderman by insomniac could be the best superhero game, not keen on more RE in first person but ill be giving the RE7 demo a crack later, days gone could be great
And while im not keen on remasters of last gens games the promise of a rebuilt Crash Bandicoot trilogy has me excite - hell even Crash in Skylanders is something i wanna play!! Gives a look at how he could be in the remakes
Anybody else feel like you may play as Kratos' son in God of War? The experience points earned for tracking and archery then shooting the deer, it all feels like an opening training montage. Maybe Kratos gets killed as the son reaches young adult stage and the son makes a deal with the gods to get his vengeance.
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