PlayStation 5 The Future of Gaming Summary

This past Thursday Sony finally unveiled a lot of details about their next-generation PlayStation 5 including games, hardware and peripherals. Normally at this time of year, we’d be watching E3 press conferences, and this was a pretty good replacement considering the current conditions we’re all in. The following is a roundup of the PlayStation 5 The Future of Gaming.

First of all, we got a nice retrospective of the PS4 with some of the greatest hits and Jim Ryan coming out to say how the team were really excited to move into the next-gen. Sony announced GTA5 would be coming to PS5 with newly enhanced gameplay. This was kind of an odd one, as this is a game that’s been out since 2013, however, since then it’s gone from strength to strength. Some were hoping for a GTA6, but we’re not too far removed from Red Dead Redemption 2, so I think GTA6 is going to be in the works for a few years yet.

The first major announcement of the conference came with the next game, Spiderman: Miles Morales. This is set to be released for holiday 2020. During the event, the hype took over and some thought this was going to be Spiderman 2, however, Sony confirmed after the event that this is going to be a smaller, expansion sized game for PS5.

Gran Turismo 7 was then shown off. This looked good for all the driving fans out there, but this isn’t really a game for me. It wouldn’t be a new console launch without a big driving game, so there it is.

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart then was shown and this was one of the first times I felt like I was looking at true next-generation software. Ratchet and Clank looked beautiful and the game has our heroes jumping in and out of other dimensions, which is a great chance to show off the SSD capabilities of the PS5. This looks like something that cannot be achieved on the PS4 or other consoles right now. The raytracing effects on the floor looked incredible and the gameplay looked a whole lot of fun. I’ve not been a fan of the Ratchet and Clank series before, as I was more of a Nintendo purist back in the day. This one certainly turned my head and grabbed my attention.

Square then showed off a new IP called Project Athia. At first, we were all excited that this could be Final Fantasy VII Remake’s next chapter or perhaps even Final Fantasy XVI. Not many details were shown here, but it’s nice to see new IP shown off. It looked like it was still very much early days for this game, so when we’ll see this we don’t yet know.

Stray was next up, which looked to be set in Japan and it appears as if we can take control of a Cat protagonist. The cat had a tiny backpack! Not sure what this game is about, but it looked beautiful and I’m all for cats getting their time in the sun, as dogs have had the spotlight in games for a long, long time.

Returnal was next, which looked like some kind of sci-fi groundhog day. The main character looked to be a female scientist who dies over and over, changing the world each time. This looks to be something along the lines of Dead Cells but in 3D. Another beautiful looking game and the gameplay looked very interesting.

Sackboy A Big Adventure was next. This is one of PlayStation’s characters and it’s nice to see them doing something with him outside of Little Big Planet. This looked very much like a Mario Brothers style game, and also was part of a major theme throughout the conference of family-friendly games. It looked good fun and there was 4 player co-op play in there, so hopefully, that’s available online.

Destruction All-Stars was next which looked like a Rocket League-style game. I’m not hugely into these car-battle games, but it could be good fun. It didn’t really catch my eye, but I could be proved wrong.

Something that definitely did catch my eye was Kena – Bridge of Spirits. This looked like a Legend of Zelda style game, beautiful graphics, puzzles and exploration combined with action. Definitely one of the highlights of the show for me, and this went near the top of my list for games I’m excited about.

Goodbye Volcano High was next up and this looked like a narrative, indie title. This had dinosaurs attending a high school, in an anime style. Looked interesting, and quite fresh. I loved the art-style and the music.

Oddworld Soulstorm was then shown, which is a throwback to the original Oddworld that came out on the PlayStation all those years ago. The story seemed really hardcore, with the genocide of all Abe’s people. It didn’t look too innovative in the gameplay department, but a beautiful package by the looks of things.

Ghostwire Tokyo was up next, which is being published by Bethesda. I think this was shown off last year. It was a first-person action game mixed with shooting and abilities. Not really my cup of tea to be honest, and I put this one on the maybe pile.

Godfall was next. The gameplay looked fantastic. This is a looter-slasher and I’m down for these loot-based, action, progression games. However, the marketing felt very off with the music and kind of ruined the experience for me. I much preferred the showcase of Godfall on the PC gaming show, with the developer commentary rather than this style package. Still, very excited for this one.

Solar Ash was up next. This one comes from the creators of Hyper Light Drifter. I’m excited for this one, and I’ve heard so many good things. I remembered I got this from the Epic Game Store for free, so I am motivated to go back and play Hyper Light Drifter to prepare for this one. This is more 3D, with lush graphics and eerie music. This one got my attention for sure.

Hitman 3 was then announced, which looked to be the final game in the trilogy of Hitman games. These games are very solid, although I don’t think I am going to rush out and be the first in the queue for this. Looks like more Hitman, and will be great for the fans of the games.

Astros Playroom was then shown off. This was one of the most successful franchises in the VR space for PlayStation, and it’s interesting to see Astro here in a game. I don’t think this one is more me either and it sounds like it’s more of a short experience rather than a game.

Little Devil Inside was next and this one looked wild. Funny, great graphics and varying styles of gameplay. It appeared to be an open-world kind of game with animated and stylised characters battling a variety of enemies. This one grabbed my attention and definitely will have me looking for more news on this game in the future. The production value of the trailer was excellent, and one to check out if you can.

NBA 2K was then shown. I’m not a massive basketball fan, but the graphics looked great and I am sure this will do well for fans of the genre.

Bug Snax was up next. This was cute and strange and has one of the catchiest theme tunes perhaps in all video games. This was very trippy with animals eating things and then becoming those things. This is from the makers of Octodad, another bizarre and fun game. I’d really love to speak to the developers about this one and I’d be willing to give it a go just on that theme tune alone.

At this point, the presentation started to increase momentum. Demon Souls was shown next. This is a remake from Bluepoint, who did the remake of Shadow of the Colussus. From Software weren’t discussed at all, which was a little odd, but this one is going to be great. The original Demon Souls was a PS3 game and since then FromSoftware has had major hits such as Bloodborne, Sekiro and Dark Souls. Demon Souls is where it all began, so there’s going to be a lot of people wanting to play this one.

Deathloop was up next. This is another that was shown last year. The very cool concept as you’re an assassin who must take out 8 targets before midnight. The catch is you have another assassin trying to kill you at the same time. The awesome art style and music too, looking forward to this one for sure.

Resident Evil Village, or Resident Evil 8 was then shown. I am not a huge fan of the Resident Evil series of games, so I am not really invested in this series. The game did look good, it appeared to have witches, werewolves and zombies, which all look good fun. I liked RE2 and 3 back in the day but past that I’m not really into it. Strange reveal with the Village turning into VII, which attempted the swerve reveal. It was a miss from me, but there are going to be a lot of fans excited for this one.

Pragmata was up next from Capcom. This had big Death Stranding vibes with a man in a spacesuit in Time Square, talking to a little girl with a holographic cat. They were then attacked by something from the sky, which seems to propel them into the air where they proceeded to get attacked from all angles. Somehow, they ended up on the moon. Strange, hard to follow but visually impressive. Big Kojima vibes on this one and I’m definitely interested to find out more.

Horizon Forbidden West was shown as the penultimate reveal. This is the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn and looked absolutely beautiful. Aloy has new underwater exploration abilities. There’s a new variety of mechanical beasts to battle as well as areas to explore. There looks to be more variety in the landscape this time, compared to HZD1. We have a new tribe who have Mammoths and also San Francisco was shown. It’ll be interesting to see where we go with the story for this one, as it neatly wrapped up at the end of the first game for Aloy. Still, very impressive in terms of graphics and I’m excited for this.

The console itself was the showstopper and Sony revealed the white and black futuristic design. There have been lots of memes since the event on the looks of the console. Personally I don’t mind what it looks like as it will get tucked away either under the desk or in a home entertainment system. The new controller looks comfortable, which is a nice change from the PlayStation DualShock controllers as they have never been the most comfortable units. A big surprise was the all-digital edition, which had long been rumoured from Microsoft, but I don’t think I had heard anything like this from Sony. But it makes total sense. There was also headphones, camera and media controller too. No price just yet, and we’ll find that out later as well as no firm date, but that makes sense given the global pandemic. Sony does hope for holiday 2020, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Overall, I was impressed. This was a much better outing than Microsoft’s 3rd party showcase showing off a variety of games and building momentum to the console reveal. The graphics and sound design throughout were also excellent with the graphic design and presentation of the Sony Studios brand taking the centre stage where possible as well as the iconic Cross, Circle, Square, Triangle. It felt coherent and polished. The only drawback is that at E3, we’d get hand-on impressions and we don’t have those right now due to the situation we’re all in. Also, there was a slight bit of is the direction with the Spiderman trailer. I had fun, and it felt like one of the best console reveals in years and it gave me that E3 feeling which I had missed. 9/10 from me.