Sony E3 2018 Press Conference Recap

By Zero OmegaA big E3 day today as Sony takes the stage to present this press conference, the second of the big three console makers is sitting in a pretty comfortable spot in the market and their confidence shows with the news that they really plan to highlight and detail four core games at this year's E3 conference. Did they succeed with their idea, or bust out? Let's recap!Last of Us IISony starts off with a huge bang, bringing the physical E3 crowd into a custom built tent that people has thus dubbed "The Church" and begin to show off Last of Us Part II. The scene starts in an area that is an exact replica of the one the audience is in and damn does this game look gorgeous. Starting off with the gorgeous tent and dance, we're introduced Ellie and another female character who dance and embrace with a kiss before being thrown into a new, terrifying world. This is where the Last of Us Part II gameplay begins and we get to see everything that it has to offer. Gorgeous scenery, amazing fight sequences, and outstanding looking character models really makes Last of Us Part II stand out and sends a clear message that Sony is here with their big guns.Intermission...?Sony took a gamble with how they want to present their conference this year, wanting to offer audiences a "journey" through the four core games that we'll be seeing. As a result, they actually moved the physical E3 audience to another location which sent the audience at home to a talking heads moment between members of the Sony team. This was definitely the lowest point in the entire conference as we had to wait for the next part of the conference to get set up. We did get treated to some news though: Call of Duty: Black Ops III is free for PS Plus members and pre-ordering Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will get you some map packs from Black Ops. Additionally we are told that God of War has a new game plus mode coming. We're also given a quick rapid-fire notice of other games coming to Playstation 4: Tetris Effect, Days Gone, Ghost Giant, Twin Mirror, and Beat Saber. Finally we are treated to a trailer for the new Destiny 2 expansion, Forsaken.Ghost of TsuhimaThis is probably my favorite game that was displayed during the conference, a gorgeous looking action/stealth game that we're seeing some new game play of. Looks like we play as a samurai named Jin in feudal Japan. We're shown how we can take out multiple enemies with stealth tactics, riding a horse through fields, and having a one-on-one showdown with someone familiar to our character, Masako. Before they finish their duel though they are attacked by a hoard of Monguls, so they turn together to face the attackers together. This game looks absolutely incredible and I wish we had some idea of when we could expect it.ControlA brand new game from the Alan Wake team, Remedy. We're shown little game play footage, but it does look like it's going to be some kind of over the shoulder third person shooter. We get a release date of 2019.Resident Evil II RemakeWe're treated to an incredible looking trailer of the new Resident Evil II remake featuring a young Leon Kennedy. The trailer looks incredibly and it definitely looks like Capcom wants to cash in heavily from their learnings from Resident Evil 7. Resident Evil II will release January 25, 2019.Kingdom Hearts IIINearly every conference has been showing off Kingdom Hearts III and you have to imagine that if it were coming to Nintendo Switch, then Nintendo would be showing it off also. The big news exclusive to the Sony conference though is confirmation that there will be a Pirates of the Caribbean world and a special edition Kingdom Hearts III PS4 Pro.Death StrandingI don't even really know where to go with this... Norman Reedus, babies, invisible monster spirit things, toe nail ripping, Kojima makes for a very weird trailer that left us with a lot more questions than answers. I think the only way to really explain this is by showing the trailer itself.[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP3UngLFou4" /]Nioh 2After the brain melting trailer for Death Stranding we're something a little more normal, more feudal samurai fighting massive humans that seem to turn into beasts. The sequel to Nioh is coming to Playstation 4.Spider-ManTo wrap up the conference we are treated to a really entertaining game play trailer for the new Marvel Spider-Man game. Not all is well in New York though as we find out that various criminals including Electro, Rhino, Scorpion, and Mister Negative have broken out of their jail cells and begin to attack Spidey. We travel to the top of the jail where we see Spider-Man and the other villains battle it out before Electro zaps him and the other villains begin to beat him down. An inevitable cliff-hanger ending leads us wondering what is going to happen to Spider-Man as with the last of his breath he utters out, "No way... You?" The transition between game play and cut scenes seem absolutely flawless and with a release date on 2018 this is definitely going to be the number one game to keep an eye out for this year.ThoughtsIt feels like the Sony press conference came to an abrupt end after the Spider-Man trailer. Sony did give us some direct expectations for this year and that is to highlight their four core games and they absolutely did. Last of Us Part II, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, and Spider-Man all look incredible, are graphically beautiful, and we got to see ton of game play that we can expect from these games. To that degree, Sony's conference was an absolute success. However, there is a feeling that something is missing. Maybe one big surprise announcement to really put the bow on the present.My comparison to the Microsoft conference is that Sony set expectations for us, we knew what we were going to see and they definitely hit those expectations. However I feel that Microsoft exceeded expectations. While I personally wasn't very excited for what Microsoft showed off, I feel it was overall a better structured event that had a really great pace and has a couple of awesome surprises. I don't know if I can necessarily pick which conference did better between these two, but at least Microsoft left me feeling full whereas Sony left me going, "Huh...?"... Or maybe it was just because of that really weird intermission right after Last of Us Part II.

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