As the more successful platform holder this generation, Sony probably has it a little easier than Microsoft this year as they don’t have to navigate through announcements tied to justifying new platform. But then they did make a bit of a mess of that later on last year with the PS4 Pro. But being near the end does mean that whatever they have to show it’ll be compared to all the successes and failures of E3 so far.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Days Gone

The Uncharted spinoff looks pretty good I’ve got to say with some impressive action sequences on show but it also makes me think a lot about Tomb Raider in doing so which may not have been the intent of the trailer. But then the Uncharted style of game isn’t exactly my thing either.

The new trailer for Days Gone this year provides a much different idea of what Sony’s new post apocalyptic game will involve and there’s some promise moments with both sneaking and beating that make me think of calling it “Daytime Splinter Cell with Zombies”. 😉

God of War

The move away from Greek mythology to Norse based still looks like a refreshing switch from earlier entries in the franchise as does the tighter third person perspective and a story involving a much less dead family. But I also wonder if in doing all this that it may also be differentiating itself a little too much from prior games which might run the risk of disappointing some players… thinking about it now a year after its original announcement, maybe this game could have got away with not calling itself God of War?

Spider-Man

The new Spider-Man game from Insomniac looks like it is wanting to bring more players into experiencing what it’d be like to play the superhero with more of the spectacle and less of the button mashing. There’s a lot of slow motion movement happening during the fights which isn’t a bad thing if not used too much and I really liked the take down methods. Seeing one enemy get wrapped up in a cocoon was a neat touch. Once he gets out into the city the traversal will certainly remind Xbox One owners of Sunset Overdrive but maybe more open here as Spidey can propel himself much more easily without the reliance on grinding of Sunset. I’m not making any slight here… it looks like it will totally work. There’s a really good pedigree behind this game so my own impressions are that it’ll be a great exclusive for the platform.

And more!

There was also trailers for Call of Duty: WWII, Monster Hunter World, a remaster of Shadow of the Colossus, Horizon: Zero Dawn DLC, Detroit: Become Human and more. PlayStation VR wasn’t left out either with a new version of Skyrim on the way which with the Horizon DLC interested me much more than the other titles I listed.

If I were to compare it to Microsoft’s presentation I’d say that Sony had the luxury to focus on fewer games (lack of titles is not a perceived weakness here) via extended trailers whereas Microsoft had to show volume and let players know that they wouldn’t miss out. Though it doesn’t help that some of these games that were announced last year (such as God of War) are still not arriving until 2018 – that is a habit Sony really need to break out of. In any case it still boils down if you like the games either platform offers.

The presentation starts at the 1 hour 18 minute mark if you want to skip the pre-show discussions. Please note that there are a few audio problems early on so in some cases it may be better to skip some sections and view the related trailers instead. Video is courtesy of GameSpot’s YouTube feed.