It has been a while since Sony PlayStation has given us a formal update on games we can expect to play in the next few months, but all that changed last night, Thursday 9th September, at the Sony PlayStation Showcase. So, what have PlayStation fans got to look forward to? Sony reassure us that have availed the capabilities of the PS5, a ninth-generation console, as a means of ‘pushing the boundaries’ of the gaming industry. We saw some phenomenal games that are set to release in the near future, jumping from light-hearted animated games to some unholy-looking games like Ghostwire: Tokyo. We were teased with some new footage of games like the murderous, sixties-esque, James Bond-like FPS Deathloop, which you can read about here, but what else came to fruition at the showcase? Read on to find out!
Marvel’s Spiderman 2 and Wolverine
It’s a given these days that an Insomniac Games title is going to be supermassive, and last night didn’t aberrate from the rule; Marvel’s Spider Man 2 and Marvel’s Wolverine were both announced in quick succession of one another. Spider Man 2 sees the two precocious teenagers, Miles Morales and Peter Parker, team up to fight the threatening Venom. Somehow, Insomniac look to improve upon games like Miles Morales to make Marvel’s Spider Man 2 the pinnacle of the gaming experience. There is lots more to come on this front; the game is not due until 2023, nor is Marvel’s Wolverine, a standalone game looking to bring the lore of the adamantium-clawed Wolverine film series to the gaming screen. You can almost picture what Wolverine will look and play like already, yet the ‘deeply human’ story of Logan is a depiction harder to predict. Either way, these games are still very much in their embryonic stages, but they are going to be awesome.
Knights of the Old Republic Remake
On the odd occasion, a remaster just doesn’t quite do the original game justice. It might feel shoddy and a bit forced, inauthentic perhaps, but a good deal of the time a remaster can give the game all it needs to reach its full potential where it may have been hitherto limited by the technology of its time. It is our belief that the Lucasfilm and Aspyr collaboration Knights of the Old Republic will be one of these games that will prosper after a needed bringing-up-to-speed. Re-telling the pre-Skywalker tales of the 2003 classic (yes, it’s been that long!), Knights of the Old Republic is likely to bring together veteran and newbie gamer alike to indulge in a game that has the framework to among the best-sellers of the decade. Watch this space!
Project Eve
It was hard not to become transfixed at the gravity-defying trailer for Shift Up’s Project Eve; if Alita the Battle Angel was a gaming character, she would surely take the form of Eve. The Earth as know it has been inundated with extra-terrestrial vermin, some looking like mutated velociraptors and others the size of houses. The mother of all life, Eve, and her cool fringe/ponytail combo, goes head-to-head with these alien adversaries referred to as the NA:tives, employing some ebullient combat mechanics not dissimilar from the hack-and-slash offensive systems featured in Nier titles. Project Eve places the gamer in a derelict world looking like a futuristic, tech-infused version of the Last of Us, with rumbling cities, sweaty subterranean crawls and danger around every corner; this game is a credit to its genre – it looks stunning, and we cannot wait to get our hands on it.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
There is something about the vibe of playing a photorealistic dystopian nightmare within games that is unparalleled for me – I love games like this. The 2017 Ghost in a Shell movie, as well as the two Blade Runner titles, just really hit the spot in this regard; sprightly neon exploited by tyranny – it’s brilliant. If you were to conjure the combined feel of these films, as well as the image of Marvel’s Venom, Slenderman and Donnie Darko’s creepy rabbit helmet, Frank, you would get a good picture of how the environment and enemies of Ghostwire; Tokyo look. Taking the command of the surviving character of Akito, we find ourselves in an oddly functioning city, only there is no one to occupy it; almost the entire population has been erased, forgotten about in the fell swoop of a weaponised fog. As one of the sole survivors, we are tasked with the difficult task of deciphering what happened on that fateful night, as well as how to go about fixing it. Of course, our mission is no walk in the park, and we will have to pull out all of stop, every magical spell cast we can muster, to achieve it.
God of War: Ragnarök
We were approaching the end of the 40-minute showcase, and we hadn’t heard word of any God of War announcements. I was beginning to sweat…profusely. At the very last minute, our old mate Kratos pops up to tell us about God of War: Ragnarök, a game devised around the Norse tales of old; Thor, Asgard and Loki, and the end of days – Ragnarök. Set in the arctic beauty of Ancient Norway, we have already been privy to some of Kratos’ absurd executions, using chains laced with fire to eliminate any threats and such, the usual Kratos stuff. That said, it appears as though all is not as it was; the thunderous brute seems to have softened up a little bit, made thoughtful by the virtues of fatherhood; Atreus is grown up these days, and to be a threat to himself as he starts to arrive at his own views both on how the world should be and how to achieve such a place. Will a slight loss in Kratos’ unforgiving nature prove deadly? We are yet to see. Either way, some of the pair’s greatest obstacles are yet to come, with many gods posing threats and needing to be dealt with (or disposed of) as we try to prevent any calamitous events. We can’t even begin to describe how buzzed we are for this game, especially seeing as we can explore all nine realms - time needs to fly!
A lot can happen in the space of three quarters of an hour; the entire bedrock of the gaming community can be shifted in the space of five minutes if we are talking about God of War: Ragnarök or the Knights of the Old Republic remake – these are huge deals. It seems that many of the next year’s gaming releases have been confirmed, pencilled into our diaries as we grow eager by the day to play them. Anyhow, we hoped you enjoyed the Sony PlayStation Showcase – we certainly did.
Images sourced from PlayStation.blog and PlayStation Official.