E3 is behind us, but we’ve really just begun to talk about the games that we played (and were shown) at the big show. PlayStation’s presence was especially big this year, not only in terms of its killer press conference, but also because it was showing off three separate platforms for the first time since PS3 launched.
PlayStation’s staggeringly large booth was perpetually busy, with PS3, PS4 and Vita vying for attention. Below are six categories that judge the PlayStation brand’s overall offerings. Keep in mind that a couple of these games were only seen behind closed doors.
Sucker Punch is back with a vengeance. Infamous: Second Son represents the third core game in their superhero (or supervillain) series, but it’s so markedly different from Infamous and Infamous 2 that it’s hard not to truly appreciate how far the studio has come with its franchise, and how outrageously promising this game is. It’s in some ways a conventional Infamous game, but it has so many twists that it’s impossible to ignore the differences.
Second Son puts players in the role of Delsin Rowe, a protagonist on the completely opposite end of the spectrum from Cole MacGrath. Rowe embraces his powers. He’s brash and belligerent. He’s seems to be the anti-Cole, and while I really loved MacGrath, Rowe is clearly going to give Infamous an all-new feel. His powers are outrageously cool, too. Using smoke to quickly travel is a ton of fun, but Second Son also retains the silky-smooth combat of its predecessors. And man, those graphics!
It’s okay to be disappointed that Second Son won’t launch until early 2014, but it’s still the most promising PS4-exclusive game that we yet know about.
Let’s be honest with one another: Knack seemed really unimpressive when we first saw it back in February. Indeed, it was the very first confirmed next-gen game we ever laid eyes on, and it was a confusing first foray into the space occupied by PlayStation 4. Yes, they showed it streaming from PS4 to Vita, and yes, brilliant game developer Mark Cerny is behind it, but when it was put next to Infamous: Second Son and Killzone: Shadow Fall, it quickly fell to the wayside.
Well, first impressions aren’t always right, as my experience actually playing Knack proved. Knack was the very first PS4 game I got to go hands-on with, and I was extremely impressed. Cerny is behind some of the greatest old-school 3D platformers of all-time – think Spyro or Ratchet & Clank – and Knack feels a great deal like those games. It doesn’t look very next-gen – well, except for its outrageous particle effects, that is – but it has a familiar feel to it. It’s a game made for all audiences, something designed to be accessible. It’s old and new, and it’s all rolled into one package.
Suddenly, I’m looking forward to playing more Knack, something you would have never heard me say before the show.
Anyone who’s listened to Podcast Beyond or read IGN for the last many years knows that I’m a critic of Killzone. That’s why I was so astonished with how much I enjoyed Killzone: Shadow Fall. The problem with the Killzone games was never the way they played – they excel mechanically – it was with how they were presented. Pretty graphics aside, Killzone 2 and 3 in particular never took advantage of telling a story in a universe that should be far more exciting and interesting than it actually is.
Killzone: Shadow Fall is attempting to change all of that, and it starts with how the game looks. Gone (or at least pushed to the periphery) are the war-torn, gray-and-brown, drab environments from the Killzone trilogy. In their stead, bright, colorful graphics and unique locales never seen before in Killzone have appeared. Shadow Fall is a gorgeous game, just as you’d expect from Sony-owned Guerrilla, but with the color palette and diversity in environments the series has always craved. It’s undeniably pretty.
Killzone: Shadow Fall is a truly exciting project, and is shaping up to be the launch exclusive for PS4.
Alright, so here’s the thing about Killzone: Mercenary: it’s really fun. I played the game for a few short minutes at E3, but it was months ago when I really sat down and delved into the experience, and I was left thoroughly impressed. After the failure of Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified and Resistance: Burning Skies, Vita is desperate for a triple-A first-person shooter that takes advantage of its dual analog sticks, and Mercenary is probably going to be that game.
It might be too little, too late for some frustrated Vita owners, but take heart: Mercenary is being developed internally at Guerrilla Cambridge, and it’s being treated with care. It looks gorgeous – it’s running on a slightly modified version of Killzone 3’s engine – and it’s fun, to boot. It’s a game that’s going to be rife with features and options, with three independent modes, lots of crossover between those modes (including a transcendent currency system) and solid gameplay that Guerrilla is well-known for.
If you already play and love Vita, Mercenary is for you. If your Vita is under an inch of dust, Mercenary is probably for you, too.
I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when I found out I wasn’t going to be seeing The Order: 1886 being played (or get the chance to play it myself). But after the brand-new IP was shown-off at the PlayStation press conference, I was invited to an appointment a couple of days later to interview Ru Weerasuriya, the co-founder of developer Ready at Dawn and the creative force behind the game. Sure, I didn’t see the game apart from what you and I saw in that trailer, but I did learn a whole lot about it.
Everything Weerasuriya told me about the game has me excited. He’s a history buff, as am I, so it was clear we were speaking the same language right off the bat. His game is steeped in fascinating alternate history, with an IP that’s made to, essentially, go beyond this one game. Victorian London is a dark, dire and outright fascinating place to set this title in particular, and its narrative-driven, third-person action mechanics sound really fun. Ready at Dawn is known for its God of War games on PSP, but the studio clearly has chops far beyond what they showed everyone on Sony’s old handheld.
You’d be wise to keep this game on your radar.
The name Destiny of Spirits has been floating around for months, and in that time, speculation arose about what it could be. We knew it was a Vita game, and we knew that Sony was publishing it. But who was developing it? And what kind of game would it end up being? We learned the answers to these questions and more at E3, and while the developers behind the project give plenty of reasons to be excited, the game itself is too puzzling and bizarre for its own good.
Sony-owned Studio Japan is collaborating with Q Entertainment – the guys behind Lumines – to create a free-to-play, online-required RPG exclusive to Vita. The idea is great in premise, but the execution, from my few minutes with the game, leaves much to be desired. Spirits are collected in the game by visiting locations in the real world, which are then pitted against other players’ Spirits in pseudo-turn-based fights that do most of the fighting for you. It sounds cool, but it’s obtuse, and it’s confusing why you’d make a game that can only be played online when most Vitas in the wild aren’t 3G-enabled. If I’m home, tethered to wi-fi, wouldn’t I usually opt to play PS3 or PS4?
Destiny of Spirits has promise, but it needs to be retooled. Free-to-play plays a role in PlayStation’s future, but it needs to be more thoughtful and Vita-friendly than this.
Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.
Source : ign[dot]com
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