E3 2014: Sony Edition

Okay we've got a lot to talk about in this press conference, so let's not waste any time. Sony brought the games, and man were there a lot of them.


If I could pinpoint a theme of this year's conference, it was the fact that Sony is trying to convince more gamers to go to the PS4 than the Xbox One. Unlike last year though, where their main argument was "Hey, we're not Microsoft", they had to pull a little more fancy footing this time to convince gamers, especially after Microsoft's very good press conference. Their answer? Lots and lots of exclusive content for the PS4. Exclusive content for Destiny, Grand Theft Auto V on the PS4, ABZU, which is the latest game by the developers of Journey, as well as a plethora of indie games coming to the PS4 like Broforce, Hotline Miami 2, and to top it all of, an HD remaster of Tim Schaefer's Grim Fandango. Sony brought the exclusives undeniably.

We also got a lot of new reveal trailers for some new original games, such as the reveal of Dead Island 2 as well as the world premiere of No Man's Sky, a space exploration game from the developers of Bastion. To top it all off, they had a new Suda 51 game titled Let It Die, Project Beast being revealed as a new IP called Bloodborne and made by From Software, the same developer behind the Souls series, as well as a world premiere for Little Big Planet 3, which will launch this November. They had a lot of games to say the least.

Of course, we get Batman too

What else? Oh yeah, how's about a plethora of big budget games being demoed and shown off at a frequent basis. First there was Destiny, but then we got the world premiere gameplay of Far Cry 4, The Order: 1886, Infamous Second Son: First Light, which is standalone DLC for Infamous Second Son, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and even Batman Arkham Knight showed up with exclusive Scarecrow missions for the PS4 version. And to close out the whole night, the reveal of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End with a release window of 2015. So yeah, there was a lot of games that were shown.

Were there any negatives to the conference? Yeah I could name a few. My biggest complaint was the fact that besides having a bunch of exclusive features in third party games, they don't really have a big holiday seller for this year pinpointed, except for maybe Little Big Planet 3. And while the new games that were shown look very good, there wasn't as much variety as I would have liked there to be. Also, zero support for the Vita except for the fact that yes, developers are making games for it, yet Sony did not announce a single first party game being developed for the struggling system. Normally it wouldn't be that big of a point, but the thing is desperate for games and Sony isn't throwing the console a bone right now.

But really, that's all I have against the conference. On the whole, it was very, very good. I don't think it was quite as good as last year's conference, but it was still great on the whole, minus a few weak spots. Kudos to Sony for staying strong this year.

B