Another satisfying showcase presented by PlayStation has come and gone. Satisfying for me at least. While it was essentially just over an hour of trailers and fancy ways of showing off the ‘ex’, ‘circle’, ‘square’ and ‘triangle’ logos, it was an hour that I really enjoyed.
I like to go into these things with a bit of an open mind, whatever PlayStation has on offer to show us is what they have on offer to show us. Sure, there may be games I might be hopeful of seeing, but if it’s not ready to be shown, I’d rather let the development team show us when it is ready. Considering the amount of flak studios get these days from releasing hot garbage, I tend to lean on the side of patience.
Anyway, the PlayStation showcase had a lot on offer for us to watch, from collecting Shellders off the backs of flying, hairy hoozeewhatsits in Towers of Aghasba to the literal true-story trailer about my very own life and how good I am at playing Gran Turismo.
I laughed at the comical trailers from Helldivers 2 and Arizona Sunshine 2 and had to wipe the tears from my eyes for Neva. Them creepy-crawlies ran up and down my spine during the FFXVI trailer, and I couldn’t help but stare deeply into the eyes of my Cayde-6 figure while Ikora wished he was back, which he somehow is, yes!
With so much shown in this showcase, I decided to ask the team at NAG what they were most excited about, and funnily enough, not one of them mentioned the jump-scare at the end of Five Nights at Freddie’s.
Arielle is most excited for Beat Saber on PSVR2 and the new Queen Soundtrack. Personally, I can’t wait to watch her swing her arms wildly while the rest of the team will inadvertently shout out Mama! Oooooooo! She’s also keen on Ultros, which looks like a good trip gone bad. Not sure if it brings back any memories of her’s, but I guess we’ll have to wait for her review on that one.
Random Sales Guy is most excited about Spiderman 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. While we don’t really know much about him, other than the fact that he sells things and he doesn’t know how Steam works, I get the feeling that he longs to be doing acrobatics while 5,000 metres above the ground.
Our almighty Editor can’t wait to get his hands on Cat Quest: Pirates of the Purribean and Teardown. Putting two and two together paints a picture that our editor is, in fact, a cat and can’t wait to knock things off of any and everything he sets his fluffy little paws on. [Can’t argue with that – Ed]
Uncle Len saw the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, and we haven’t been able to get any other words other than “Metal”, “Gear”, and “Solid” out of him the whole day. I hope he’s not stuck in some sort of mind loop that requires him to eat a snake or something to snap out of it.
Personally, from the showcase, I am most excited about Phantom Blade and Marathon. While Marathon didn’t offer much information in the teaser, an interview with the team reveals that it will be a PvP Extraction shooter paying homage to the original Marathon games of the 90s. The interview also revealed that the game is still very far from being discussed in detail, which means it will be a while before we hear anything more. Phantom Blade, on the other hand, gave us a whole lot more to sink our teeth into. The crazy fight scenes make me feel like I’m watching a classic film, and the ominous mention of 66 days to live gives me tingles. I can’t wait to see what path the game follows and how easily it will be to stick a sword into the front enemy while planting a foot into the face of the back enemy, in perfect synchronicity.
The full showcase can be viewed down below, or if you just want to read what was announced, the list is as follows:
Hardware Announcements
- Project Q – A mobile device that can stream your games from your PS5 over WiFi
- PlayStations first wireless, in-ear buds
AAA Announcements
- Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater
- Marathon Teaser
- Destiny 2: The Final Shape – The conclusion to the Light and Darkness Saga
- Street Fighter 6 Story Trailer
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 gameplay revealed
- Introducing Fairgame$, a competitive heist experience coming to PS5 and PC
- Helldivers 2 drops on PlayStation 5 later this year
- Introducing Concord—a new PVP multiplayer FPS from Firewalk Studios coming to PS5 and PC
- Alan Wake 2 launches on PS5 October 17
- First Assassin’s Creed Mirage gameplay revealed, launches October 12
- Watch the first trailer for Dragon’s Dogma 2, Capcom’s upcoming action-RPG
- Final Fantasy XVI launch trailer, Salvation, revealed
- Foamstars, a fresh new party shooter revealed for PS5 and PS4
- Two new playable characters join the Granblue Fantasy: Relink roster
- New Immortals of Aveum trailer highlights enemies of the realm
- Tower of Fantasy, an immersive cyberpunk open-world RPG, hits PS5 and PS4 this summer
PS VR2 announcements
- Beat Saber launches on PS VR2 today with new Queen Music Pack
- First PS VR2 footage for Resident Evil 4 VR Mode revealed
- First look at Arizona Sunshine 2 revealed, launches on PS VR2 this year
- New gameplay details revealed for Crossfire: Sierra Squad, coming to PS VR2
- Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 – hiring again on PS VR2
- Immersive PS VR2 action-shooter, Synapse, launches on July 4
Indie announcements
- Take your first look at Ghostrunner 2, coming to PS5 this year
- Meet the friends and foes of The Plucky Squire’s storybook world
- Introducing Sword of the Sea, a new game from Giant Squid
- Teardown hits PS5 later this year
- Revealing Cat Quest: Pirates of the Purribean, coming to PS5 and PS4 next year
- Introducing Neva, the beautiful new game from the developer of Gris
- Welcome to Revenant Hill, where your journey to become a witch’s familiar begins
- Towers of Aghasba hits PS5 next year – new gameplay details
- The Talos Principle 2 brings mind-bending puzzles and haunting beauty to PS5
- Revealing Ultros, a psychedelic sci-fi side-scroller coming to PS5 and PS4 in 2024
Maybe you’re not like me and thought the showcase could’ve done better. Let us know what you think PlayStation missed out on this time around.