By now, I'm sure if you've been following news about next-gen consoles, you'd have seen plenty of content about the PlayStation 5 event. Including, finally, what it looks like! I wanted to cover my thoughts on some of the games.
In general, though, this was a pretty good showcase, Sony's best in years. In recent years, they seem to have focused on their first party games, with third party games merely acting as filler material. Most third party games without a dedicated event seemed to filter to the Xbox stage. By 2019, Sony canceled their E3 briefing entirely, for the first time in their history. They also had no plans to show up for the 2020 E3. I don't know if they had this showcase planned all along - though it's likely a lot of games were stragglers with no E3 conferences being held this year.
Two games that would certainly been showed off at Bethesda's own E3 conference are Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo. Both look great, but Deathloop in particular was the highlight of the show. Arkane Lyon are back at what they do best - their first game since Dishonored: Death of the Outsider. While there are distinct Dishonored vibes here, there's also a refreshingly unique new concept at play. Not the best game to showcase next-gen graphics though. Interestingly, both of these Bethesda Softworks games will be timed exclusive to PS5 (and PC). I'd imagine PS4 and Xbox One/Series X releases will come a few months later. While I have no issues with exclusivity deals, it's disappointing because these games were announced for PS4 and Xbox One. I mean, sure, it'll release on those consoles later, but it was never implied as such.
The two next-gen games that were pretty much an open secret by this point were Gran Turismo 7 and Horizon II. It doesn't look like GT7 is coming any time soon, with only the briefest of teasers. Horizon Forbidden West looks phenomenal, definitely a showcase for what a true next-gen game looks like. The geometry is off-the-charts, kind of what we saw with the Unreal Engine 5 demo. I will say, though, that the Hellblade II trailer looked more realistic, but Horizon II is going for a more stylized look, and it looks wonderful. While it's called Horizon Forbidden West, it's pretty funny they snuck in a "II" there in the title card which most people didn't notice. Oh, and what's with people calling it Horizon Zero Dawn 2? It's not... Horizon is the IP name, Zero Dawn was the sub-title for the first game. The second game is Forbidden West.
Two somewhat unexpected announcements from PlayStation Studios were Spider-Man: Miles Morales and a remake of Demon's Souls. I mean, neither are quite surprises, Spider-Man's huge success meant pulling off a standalone expansion like Uncharted: Lost Legacy was on the cards, and we knew Bluepoint Games were working on something after Shadow of the Colossus. With the rabid Souls fans screaming for a Demon's Souls remaster, not surprising.
The slate of indie games showcased was really strong, but I wanted to keep this relevant to PlayStation 5 games that show off what next-gen graphics will look like. A lot of these games are more like cross-gen games running with PC Ultra settings, so to speak. While not an indie game, Hitman III definitely has that vibe - being a cross-gen title after all. Still, I'm eagerly anticipating this one. This new HITMAN trilogy has been fantastic. Special mention also for Solar Ash - looks beautiful.
I'll wrap this second up by mention two Japanese titles - starting with the much awaited Resident Evil 8. While it definitely has RE vibes, it looks and feels significantly different than the current-gen RE titles. Some of the facial model and hair looks like the very best I've ever seen.
The other next-gen title is Project Athia, from Square Enix's sub-studio Luminous that actually used to focus on engine development. With Square Enix moving to Unreal Engine, it looks like these folks are making their own game now. It's still far too early - I mean, it doesn't even have title! But the geometric complexity here is insane, definitely next-gen graphics here. Oh, and those delicious volumetric clouds at the end...
Alright, yes, I know, I've skipped over many games worth mentioning, like the new Ratchet and Clank - just felt like these were the ones I wanted to cover. But let's move on to the main event. We finally get to see what the damn thing looks like!
Looks pretty snazzy, if you ask me. Not sure what the remote is for, but good to see the whole family on showcase here. The interesting revelation was the Digital Edition, very much following in the footsteps of the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. The 4K Blu-ray drive is expensive, and it makes sense to give people the choice to forego it for a cheaper price. I'm not much of a collector myself and generally prefer the digital experience, but I like to have a disk drive around just in case, and for 4K Blu-rays for movies/TV. I'll say, though, that along side being cheaper, the Digital Edition also looks much nicer. The drive in the standard edition looks almost tacked on, you know? My final observation is that these consoles are HUGE. I mean, seriously, this is probably larger than a PS3, definitely way bigger than a PS4. Might hint at increased power usage - we'll have to wait and see.
Overall, a fun event. Over to you, Microsoft - the Xbox event comes in July.