Sony E3 2015 Media Briefing

I didn't watch it live, and I'm just catching up with what they showed, but looking at the games shown it seems to have been a better conference than MS.

The highlights.

The Last Guardian is happening!  Out next year.
Proper FFVII remake, first on PS4.
More Uncharted 4. The demo showed off the game much better than the Tomb Raider demo did, although I'm sure both will be great.
Shenmue III kickstarter launched at the Sony show.
New action RPG from Guerrilla shown off.
New Media Molecule sandbox game.
PS4 is "the new home of COD" with first dibs on DLC. Not a big deal for me, but I'm sure it will be for some people.
New Hitman game, PS4 will have exclusivity on the Beta and exclusive missions.
PS4 exclusive missions on the new Syndicate.

I've already got a PS4 and Xbox One but if I didn't have either, and was choosing just one based on E3, I'd choose PS4. Sony just showed more of the kind of games I like. The only disappointments are that none of the really good stuff is coming out this year and Quantic Dream didn't show anything.

I do actually think Microsoft edged it this year, but Sonys was better than I expected.

I think both were impressive compared to some years ... Id have liked external hard drive support to be announced for the PS4 and then some backwards compatability... at least make it play the ps1 games people have paid for and downloaded on there p3's, psp's etc

My inherent bias aside (if that is possible!) this had to be one of the best E3 line-ups for me ever. A great range of high quality products and one awesome announcement after another. I managed to avoid looking at news sites and got up early to watch it without any idea what was being announced.

Horizon looks really cool. Uncharted 4 looks like it is going to be a blast. No Man's Sky is really starting to shape up with some interesting gameplay. The VR stuff looks cool and even Dreams despite its obtuse nature looks interesting. 

But.

The Last Guardian! IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING! 
Final Fantasy VII Remake! IT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING!!!!

And……Shenmue III….. 

I stood up in my lounge and shouted with joy at the TV waking up both my wife and the neighbours. I then maybe (actually) cried a little bit (wept manly tears) and then backed the Kickstarter. It is a game I have been waiting 14 years for and I am more than happy to be a part of the push to see it finally happen.

Managed to stay up but was too knackered to comment, so if I've forgotten something you'll know why.

Despite losing momentum from the moment Andrew House walked on stage and started talking Morpheus bollocks it would be fair to say that IMO, Sony did a great job.

Fantastic to see The Last Guardian although it would be foolish to really expect it next year. The main concerns would be the troubled development and the fact that it really doesn't look any different/better than it did when it first shown. Just what the fuck have Team Ico been doing with it for all these years?

Absolutely loved the look of Horizon: Zero Dawn and will be keeping a close eye on this. Again, concerns over how this may play given Guerrilla Games track record of style over substance but fingers crossed, they step it up this time.

I knew that No Man's Sky was going to be huge but my jaw just dropped when they highlighted just how massive it would be when we were shown the scale of the galaxies. It remains to be seen just how the lack of any real goals will play out when the game finally arrives.

Not a fan of Street Fighter nor Hitman so really wasn't too fussed about hearing about them.

Dreams looked great from an artstyle point of view but how it'll play is anyone's guess, but definite potential there.

Final Fantasy VII remake is definitely one remake that I can get behind, however, I do wonder if playing it again will have the same impact as it did all those years ago. I've certainly not looked back on it as fondly as I could have done, given how every FF game since then just hasn't captivated me.

Shenmue III kickstarter, need I say much more than it's likely to be the first and only time I'll back a project.

Shortly after that, IIRC, Andrew House walked on stage and completely killed the pacing and momentum Sony had established.

I will never ever get behind VR so please stop wasting time trying to convince me otherwise.

After that we were subjected to the typical press conference fare of yet more Assassin's Creed footage (no thank you), far too much time spent on fucking CoD: Blops III (kindly fuck off) and some typical Star Wars shit (never been a fan and do we really need to see more of Battlefront? Hell fucking no).

It was good (albeit predictable) to see Sony ending with Uncharted 4 gameplay, which whilst looking good, really didn't blow me away either. I suspect it'll be a different story once I get around to playing it.

All round solid effort and did a fair job in removing some of my typical cynicism even if it means there's still a massive shortfall in quality exclusives for the very near future.

That's was the only problem with Sony's show, all the good stuff doesn't start arriving until next year. I was hoping they might pull something out the bag for later this year to fill that Uncharted 4 sized hole, but no. This will be the PS4's third Christmas and the lack of big exclusives at this stage in it's lifespan is pretty poor.

Oh and all those rumours about Driveclub PS+ Edition being announced as imminent turned out to be false. It wasn't mentioned at all.

Sony certainly won the fanboy vote - Shenmue III, The Last Guardian AND FFVII remake!  Impressive stuff for me, though I wonder if business-wise it will turn out better for Microsoft.  BC looks good in adverts for non gameplaying parents, even though it is one of those things that are better in principle than practice (I think I only played Crimson Skies from original Xbox on my 360)

Did you see shenmue hit its target in like sod all time.

No surprise there!

They're already rowing back slightly on that 2016 release for The Last Guardian. In an interview Fumito Ueda has said they "hope" to release it next year, wouldn't be surprised if 2016 comes and goes and there's still no sign of it.

He also said one of the reasons it's taking so long was because in 2012 they made a business decision to move the game to PS4.

Well, hopefully it'll be ready before PS5...

Now that the dust has settled we can look at what Sony didn't show.

No Rime or The Witness, which surely means neither are coming out this year. No new God Of War, nothing from Quantic Dream or Sony Bend and, as I've already said, nothing about Driveclub PS+ Edition

Andrew House wasn't kidding when he said their first party output would be very sparse this year.

Thankfully this year is looking really good third-party wise which hasn't been the case at all this generation