For some boring reason, I didn’t watch the PlayStation Showcase live (one of which involved projectile vomiting, if you must know), but I watched it this morning, as if it were live, hoping that a flurry of exciting announcements would relieve my dullness bones. My bones didn’t lift up. In fact, they move spontaneously to form the exact pose of the shrugging emoji.
If this was Sony’s big reveal of the PS5 this year — its “E3 moment” — it was underwhelming at best and worrisome at worst. That’s not to say it didn’t highlight some good-looking games, it just didn’t get me excited about PlayStation at all — the company usually does a pretty good job at its big showcase events.
Xbox was quick to point out that the games highlighted last night will also be coming to Xbox. You might disagree, but this list of games is a selection of most of the best games on display.
Sure, I’m excited about some of them (definitely Alan Wake 2; Dragon’s Dogma 2, oh yes; Assassin’s Creed Phantom; Jim let me put it here), but usually these multi-platform big hitters Accompanied by Prestige PlayStation games. Past E3 showcases have seen real “wow” moments. This May show no. Maybe Metal Gear Solid 3 was meant to be, but it’s been an open secret for years, and it’s not exclusive to PlayStation.
E3 2015 brought us Horizon: Zero Dawn, Dreams, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Shenmue III. It’s hard to explain how incredible that display was. Yes, Shenmue 3 isn’t as good as we’d like it to be, but these games are certainly exciting. Games exclusive to the PlayStation console.
Not only is Sony clearly trying to woo me (as much as I hope), but everyone is having to deal with development issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but yesterday I felt almost nothing about its lineup of exclusive games. Final Fantasy 16, yes, looks lovely and is the most interesting I’ve had for the series since FF7’s CVG review on PlayStation, but it’s not a new and exciting showcase. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 looks good, but it’s not new, and to be honest, I don’t like the series as much as most people do.
I also can’t help being frustrated with the way this show ended with Spider-Man. It’s a big deal for Sony, and I’ve seen a lot of people love the graphics, but to me, a well-known game that will more or less exactly live up to our expectations isn’t a game that’s “finally”. Open with Spider-Man 2, not Fairgame$ worst game ever.
Besides those two admittedly big games, I expect the aforementioned looter shooter Fairgame$ to die on arrival, Helldivers 2 will be good, and Concord is a PvP shooter so take that with Fairgame$ Submitted as a potential DoA. I know a lot of my disappointments are directly related to my expectations, and there will no doubt be more games coming from Sony (who knows, maybe even a showcase at the Summer Game Fest on June 8th), but the upcoming The game doesn’t compare perfectly to what has arrived–and that’s not a very high bar.
Don’t read it the wrong way. This year, next year, and beyond, there are plenty of great games coming to PS5. Still, as a way to get me (and I assume everyone else) more excited about the PS5, the May reveal simply didn’t work. Having said all that, I think I’d really use that remote play handheld if it worked well. That’s maybe my highlight of the show, it really says it all.
