Sweet Jesus, Sony just won E3. It’s over. Mic is dropped. Microsoft is dead.
Even if the software lineup hadn’t been so spectacular – and it was – the 1-2 punch of the used games policy (i.e., they’re OK with it) and not needing a constant internet connection was utterly devastating. PLUS the $399 price point? BOOM. Game, set, match.
Shit, they very nearly sold me on the Vita. If they come out with a price cut or a bundle with the PS4, I’m in, no questions asked.
Let’s run down what they did cover, though – these are my hastily written notes (enhanced with my Twitter commentary):
Opening montage:
- The Last of Us
- Puppeteer (?)
- Rain
- Beyond
- Gran Turismo 6
All known quantities, for the most part, except Puppeteer, which looked colorful and also a little forgettable. Beyond remains enigmatic and weird; I want to like it, but I have no idea what the hell it is anymore.
Featured trailer
- Batman Arkham Origins – a little nervous. I mean, I’m happy to play more Batman, but that’s all this seems to be.
PS4 reveal:
- it looks like an Xbox Rhombus. This might be the most underwhelming part of the evening; the box looks a lot like the Xbox One, except tilted.
- Sony Entertainment integration. Why are they only getting around to this now? Seems like a no-brainer.
- new IP: The Order (which is less “steampunk” and more “wildly and randomly anachronistic” – no gameplay)
- Killzone: Crysis – er, ShadowFall
- Drive Club – don’t quite know what this is, but as a PSPlus member, I get it for free!
- Infamous Second Son – this looks great. Big fan of the first game, underwhelmed by the second. This looks like they took their time with it.
- Knack – got a weird Kameo vibe from it.
- Quantic Dream tech demo – “The Dark Sorcerer”
- Supergiant’s Transistor, which continues to look great.
Indie montage – and this was so great to see:
- Klei – Don’t Starve
- Tribute Games – Mercenary Kings.
- Young Horses – OctoDad
- Secret Ponchos
- Ray’s The Dead
- Oddworld! Lorne Lanning!
- Galak-Z (some sort of side-scrolling open-world space shooter! looks amazing)
Featured items:
- Diablo 3 – PS3/PS4 – with exclusive items. Meh. I played the shit out of it on PC and don’t need to go there again.
- Final Fantasy Versus XIII is now Final Fantasy XV and that trailer looked completely fucking insane.
- new Kingdom Hearts. Which is good for people who like Kingdom Hearts. My deep-seated loathing of Disney makes it impossible for me, but whatever.
- Assassin’s Creed 4 gameplay. As I missed the Ubisoft presser, this was all new to me. Still very wary of this franchise after the debacle of the last 2 games.
- Watch_Dogs gameplay. Looked great, as always. (For some reason, when I was trying to recall the footage just now, I got it confused a little bit with that new Tom Clancy’s game, The Division, which also looks incredible.)
- 2KSports NBA2K – hard to do a facial tech demo after that Quantic Dream “Dark Sorcerer” bit.
(Here’s where it started getting very, very interesting, and when Twitter started to explode.)
- Elder Scrolls Online?!! PS4 exclusive beta?
- Mad Max (by the Just Cause devs)
- Oh shit. Used Games are OK. Doesn’t need to be online. SHOTS FIRED, DIRECT HIT.
- World gameplay premiere of Bungie’s Destiny. Halo + Borderlands = awesome.
- $399?!!!
I need to sleep on this and process it. Because if I don’t, I will pre-order a PS4 right now with money that I don’t actually have.
Well played, Sony. Well played. You just won the shit out of E3.