Monday, June 9, 2014

Sony Press Conference E3 2014 Review

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FANCY DUAL REVIEW TECH IS GO


DJ and I managed to catch Sony’s press conference at the same time and figured we’d do a back and forth on their press conference as it happens.


KEVIN: This is how you start a press conference, an M-16s on Mars


DJ: Peter Dinklage sounds different


KEVIN: He was such a troll on IGN, check that out


DJ: I did, probably contractual obligations.


KEVIN: I’m just glad we are looking at something than Old Russia finally.  Looks like a lot of new stuff to see, trailer hounds will have a field day with this one.


DJ: 1 year ago, he obliterated Microsoft, well all of Sony did.


KEVIN: Andy da Brick House, also finally where is that Beta?  July 17th on sony stuff.  Lots of Betas today.


DJ: Beta is such a loose term in todays market. It’s a demo.


KEVIN: Psch, screw that, have a damn alpha!  Eat it other betas!


DJ: New ps4, It’s friggin pasty white. As white as milk on a paper plate in a snowstorm.



KEVIN: Time for some Order 1886.  Making Resident Evil 4’s black bars look subtle.  Whatever saves processor power.  Still pretty pretty.


DJ: Ok, since when does the Order have zombies in it? This truly is Resident Evil 1886.   


KEVIN: Slick in and out of cutscenes, that’s nice for immersion.


DJ: So 1886 has a Gollum bossfight.


KEVIN: Werewolf Zombie Gollum, for all 5 seconds of gameplay there was.  Now we have origami entwined thing.


DJ: Geometry wars featuring LOVE. But it’s available tonight.


KEVIN: Getting more of a co-op tempest vibe.  With an incredible dragon.  Now we smoothly segue to Infamous.  Play the DLC without the game.  Novel I guess?


DJ: This press conference is really random. Games are great but the transitions are so strange.


KEVIN: C’mon, what’s more natural than gritty Infamous DLC to Little Big Planet 3?


DJ: Should probably make sure the people playing the live demo actually know how to play.


KEVIN: Least the demos are working, that AC IV crash last year will be an unforgettable gaff in my book.


DJ: Hey Kevin, ever wonder what the bottom of an avatar shoe looks like? Well BAM, there it is!


KEVIN: Mic’s are rough here too, Sony’s presentation is just rough by comparison today. But I guess I should say more about LBP 3.  It’s more Little Big Planet.  More characters, more layers, don’t know much else to say.  On PS4.  This year.  Groovy.


KEVIN: OH SHIT HERE’S PROJECT BEAST. Yay Miyazaki!


DJ: Dark Souls, right?


KEVIN: For all intents and purposes, either it’s a new ip, or sequel to some of FROMS past catalog, we’ll find out shortly.  CG tho, please be gameplay.


-time passes-


KEVIN: And we’re calling it Bloodborne.


DJ: Reminds me of Masque of the Red Death. So it looked like a plague was spreading.


KEVIN: Bah, no gameplay, 2015 has me excited now.  So glad it’s real.


DJ: Yay Far Cry 4 time. Gameplay setting looks like Tomb Raider (2013)


KEVIN: Looks like we’re doing co-op campaign, seems like a common thread for Ubi.  Trying to promote dat Uplay.


DJ: I’m all for co-op but not in games where it doesn’t belong. Don’t just shove co-op into a game for the sake of having it.


KEVIN: I mean, taking out outposts with buddies sounds like it could be pretty neat.


DJ: I’m still waiting for the Blood Dragon 2 DLC announcement; but this looks quite fun though.


KEVIN: Ah yea, Wingsuit confirmed.  And in the mountains.  Wonderful.


DJ: Wingsuit is much more appropriate in this setting rather than Far Cry 3s setting.


KEVIN: And a minicopter to get back on the mountain!  Good idea guys!


DJ: Prepare to extinct more endangered species, R.I.P. Elephant


KEVIN: That’s all I ever wanted.  Whoo, more Adam Boyes  And Co-op for people who don’t own the game.  Gooooooood get Playstation, good get.


DJ: Very strange trailer about a runner that slowly turns into a zombie in a very comedic fashion. My first thought was it was a Dying Light trailer but it’s actually a trailer for Dead Island 2. They have some cross promotion with Diablo by featuring some enemies in Dead Island in Diablo.


KEVIN: Looks like WB is working on it while Deep Silver does Dying Light.  WB is a very odd studio for getting all these spin-off deals, but Arkham Origins wasn’t too bad, so we’ll see what’s what.


-Turns out this was Jaeger working on DI2-


And now we’re on to some more Hardline Footage.  I played about an hour today.  Seems good, but I am a total noob with Battlefield.  So naturally I’ll try to get some pro footage up soon =P.


DJ: Disney Infinity has an exclusive Deal with Sony.  


KEVIN: So does Destiny, exclusive Mars strike co-op missions. Alright then…  Oh the Magika guys, neat.  That was probably a pretty easy pick-up for Sony.


DJ: Tim Schafer working on an updated Grim Fandango.Exclusive again.


KEVIN:  What a twist.  And now we got a bunch of Devolver console debut on PS platforms. Bro Force, Titan Souls, Not a Hero, Hotline Miami 2, The Talos Principle.  Showing that indie love again this year.


DJ: PS4 Only title, Let it Die. Created by Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture.


KEVIN: It’s got Bane!  And Short Shorts!  And Pocket Sand!  Super violent fun time alright?  Next Giant Squid studio and Abzu?  Looks pretty.  Oh by the way, 1 more thing.  No Man’s Sky.  Still looks incredibly ambitious.  And amazing, and awesome.  How does a tiny little indie studio do something like this?


DJ: Sony aiming to expand Project Morpheus, the new Sony virtual reality headset.


KEVIN: Just a mention though and that they’ve got demos on the showfloor, just a reminder.  How was a youtube app not a thing already for PS4?  And now we’re talking about that emerging Twitch affecting game thing.


DJ: So now I can mess with Markiplier while he tries to survive in a horror game. Sounds neat but the implications sounds very vague.


KEVIN: Good on them for more broadcast sets for the camera.  That thing blew up like crazy.  Sold the cameras out for a long time.  How do you feel about more Free to Play DJ?


DJ: Don’t you mean pay to play? FTP is nice when it’s done right. Done wrong, and the game just becomes a chore.


KEVIN: Or I guess more Free to Grind.  I got some good life out of Warframe tho.  Looks like they’re getting Planetside, a Puzzle Fat Princess game, Loadout, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t quite recognize.


DJ: Ease of entry, if you know what I mean.


KEVIN: Hawt.


DJ: Playstation Now begins beta on July 31st.


KEVIN: Surprised it’s not “Today”  I really want to see if this service works on tablets like they pitched a while back.


DJ: It’s kind of funny. It’s almost like Sony and Microsoft switched conferences this year. Sony is talking about T.V. this year.  


KEVIN: Conceptually I still like the idea of the PS TV though.  They totally missed the feature of being able to stream your PS4 to another TV in the same house.  For shame.


DJ: Incoming gameplay from Mortal Kombat X.


KEVIN: MK 10?


DJ: Ed Boon confirmed it was pronounced “ex” New characters showed off. A wasp lady, midget riding a giant, and a blue warrior with a giant sword. Fatalities and X-ray attacks look brutal as ever. Once again, level interaction is coming back after successful implementation in Injustice.


KEVIN: Looks neat.  Now we’re back to TV stuff.  Powers is supposed to be good but -YAWN- I want to talk about games now.


-Too much time passes-


-Seriously, all they are talking about now is not video game stuff, movies and TV-


DJ: Remake of Ratchet and Clank 1?


KEVIN: They totally glossed on this one too.  Now we’re seeing some of The Last of Us Remastered.  Spoiled the intro some.  Still looks really pretty.  July 29th.  Good stuff.  And now that leaked MGSV trailer.  Saw it this morning, it’s quite good.


DJ: Snake loves people ash.


KEVIN: And everybody has a Knife.  Hey, Grand Theft Auto 5 again.  Looks pretty-ier.  And this year.  But honestly, I got enough of that game last year, and Watch_Dogs has kind of sucked most of my interest out of open world games for a while.


DJ: Arkham Knight gameplay, Batman apparently uses a tank now. Some very impressive graphics and some neat gameplay showing just how expansive Gotham city is in this game.


KEVIN: I’m hearin some Nolan North, it must be time for some Uncharted.  Ominous dark stuff, sounds like The Last Of Us creators are indeed injecting their style into this franchise.  On a completely unrelated note, looks like no Last Guardian today.


Final Thoughts:


DJ: I feel like Sony really lost it’s focus this year. After hitting it out of the park last year, I think they might be feeling a little cocky this year. Overall I’d say Microsoft had a better conference this year. There were certainly a few things worth mentioning but I feel like Sony sort of missed the point. Games are key and Microsoft seemed to understand that this year. Sony’s conference wasn’t terrible but it could’ve been much more exciting.


KEVIN: I was excited for a lot the stuff that they showed, but I’m with you on the rocky-ness of the presentation.  Sony’s really really really needs to compress their showing, like at least down to an hour thirty.  They lose so much momentum by doing all of their cross media promotion.  But in the end, they’ve made some good arguments for getting a box.  As did Microsoft earlier.  I feel like they were tied for content, with Microsoft having an edge in presentation.

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