
Photographs by Daniel Boczarski.
June 15, 2015, a day that will live in the hearts of Sony fanboys everywhere. Sony’s E3 press conference this year had many surprises for gamers everywhere, people smiled, people screamed, people cried. This year’s conference truly rivaled that of a new console release.
Sony started with a show stopper, of all things, gameplay footage of The Last Guardian. A spritual successor to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus games, The Last Guardian follows the tradition of the previous games by taking a minimalistic design approach and telling story through emotion and experiences rather than explicit storytelling and voice acting. A game first shown at E3 2009 and since then has been delayed countless times, but now is back on track and scheduled for release on the PlayStation 4 sometime next year.
Next up was Guerrilla Games, the developers behind the Killzone series revealed a brand new IP called Horizon: Zero Dawn. Gameplay was shown featuring a post apocalyptic version of our world where nature has reclaimed the cities we’ve built and only a primitive caveman-like human race survived. The twist? They hunt giant robot dinosaurs, a strangely awesome combination. The gameplay shown was very slick, featuring a woman exploring the wildlands avoiding being lunch while sneaking and ambushing the various mecha abonimations, ending with an awesome battle against a T.rex with rocket launchers on its back! No release date was given at this time.
Next up was a new entry in the Hitman franchise, simply titled “Hitman,” was quoted as “the most ambitious Hitman game ever.” A short trailer was shown featuring Agent 47 executing contracts, and even getting some exercise running through a snowy forest. The new Hitman will feature an exclusive beta for people who pre-order on PS4, as well as six unique missions within the first year after release.
Hello Games showed some new gameplay footage of No Man’s Sky, a seemingly infinite space exploration game. Combat, planet landings and destructable worlds were shown, as well as a swimming section.
Media Molecule, the folks behind Little Big Planet and Tearaway, showed a brand new IP named “Dreams” a unique game that I can only describe as a 3D painting tool, that then allows you to create, share, and extend experiences as dreams, definitely a cool one to keep an eye out for!
Destiny fans will be excited to hear about the new expansion, titled “The Taken King“. It will feature exclusive content on PlayStation platforms coming September 15th.
Among the new footage featured at today’s conference was for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Batman Arkham Knight, Call of Duty Black Ops 3 multiplayer, and Star Wars Battlefront.
Project Morpheus was quckly touched on, featuring a new multiplayer focused VR game from Guerrilla Games Cambridge, and also Playstation Vue, an a la carte channel subscription rolling out across the country.
Sony didn’t stop there, as they unveiled two new earth shattering games being in development, both long awaited games with fans clinging on to petty hope. Their prayers were answered today with both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Shenmue 3 announced as being in development and coming to PlayStation 4….. I’ll call the ambulance to help pick up your jaw off the floor. No release dates given, but Shenmue 3 was announcing a call to action on Kickstarter which is probably fully funded as you read this.
The show ended with a live gameplay demonstration of Uncharted 4, showing off our hero Nathan Drake running around a hugely populated marketplace, having a shootout break out, and even a jeep section as he roars through the town to escape being turned into swiss cheese by an enemy APC vehicle. The demo left me extremely impressed in its visual and technical aspects, showing off hugely destructable environments, large maze-like paths in the jeep getaway section, and great banter between Nathan Drake and Sully.