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Sony has been on a bit of an upswing in recent years with their propensity to just focus on the games. After Microsoft threw down the gauntlet showcasing 42 games and a new console at their conference I wonder what Sony is going to counter with.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross were some of the most poorly written Uncharted characters, in my opinion, so I have very little interest in playing Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Chloe is a poor imitation of Nathan Drake with her snark and quips and Nadine did absolutely nothing to endear herself in Uncharted 4. She came off as a one dimensional mercenary focused only on the treasure. I'm not sure why Naughty Dog chose these two characters to headline their own game. Elena Fisher or Sully would have been excellent characters for an Uncharted spin-off. Cassie Drake would have also been a great choice but I assume Naughty Dog is saving her for Uncharted 5.

Horizon Zero Dawn DLC

Horizon Zero Dawn is on my pile of shame for 2017 games and was the game I planned to play in February but good old Persona 4 Golden got in the way. The Frozen Wilds DLC looks interesting and maybe I'll now just wait for it to be released before giving Horizon Zero Dawn a proper shot.

Days Gone

Days Gone looks like a gritty, poor man's version of Uncharted or Last of Us but with zombies. Nothing in this gameplay video looked particular interesting but it wasn't quite bad either. It looks like a fairly average open world action-adventure game which means I will most likely not play it. There are just too many other games worth playing this year.

Monster Hunter World

What the fucking hell happened? Monster Hunter World. Not only is Monster Hunter returning to consoles, in glorious HD, but it is coming to PC as well. I honestly never thought we would see Monster Hunter outside of a Nintendo console in the West and that Dauntless was going to have to fill that void but I have never been more happy to be proven wrong. This is an easy contender for game of the year 2018. It is suppose to be considered part of the main series so it could be looked at as Monster Hunter 5 in every way except the name.

Shadow of the Colossus

I don't know what to make of this. Is it a remake? A Remaster? What is it? It looks beautiful regardless and I have never played the original Shadow of the Colossus so maybe this is finally the time.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite

After Injustice 1 & 2 I am super in the mood for fighting games with a story mode and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite seems to have gotten onboard. I was already planning on getting this game so this trailer boosted it up to a must buy.

Call of Duty: WW2

I am one of the few people who seems to have preferred the World War 2 theatre for my Call of Duty (and Metal of Honor) games. This trailer has given me some hope that Activision has moved a little bit back to the Call of Duty roots and away from the ludicrously bombastic scenarios the last five or so Call of Duty games have seen. I come away from this cautiously optimistic and Call of Duty: WW2 is now on my radar for this fall.

Skyrim VR

Skyrim on the PlayStation VR. I am still not sure how they have gotten over the motion sickness typically caused by free movement in VR. What more can I say other than this just looks like all of Skyrim in VR. Personally I am not interested in that but maybe there is a big enough contingent of PlayStation VR users who are.

Star Child

A PlayStation VR game that I have almost no idea what it is about after watching this trailer and as a result I have very little interest in.

The Inpatient

A PlayStation VR horror game that I would never play even if you offered me thousand of dollars. Coming from the developers of Until Dawn I am sure this game will be great but it will be just too terrifying for me.

Final Fantasy 15 VR Fishing Brah!

OMG this is the 2017 game of the year right here.

Bravo Team

This looks like the shitty prototypes students would make when they first get their hands on VR tech. Both the graphics and gameplay looked absolutely bland.

Moss

Moss is a PlayStation VR game staring a cute mouse doing something. The gameplay is not quite clear so there really isn't much to get excited about except the aesthetic.

God of War

I'm still not sure about this. Don't get me wrong it looks beautiful and I like the story potential with Kratos taking care of his son and trying to teach him. But I really liked the old God of War style of fast paced combo oriented combat and this one just seems slower paced and that over the shoulder camera I just can't get over. I'm not dismissing this yet but I will definitely be waiting for reviews and/or a demo.

Detroit: Become Human

I am a huge fan of David Cage and his games Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls. I love his branching stories and I am particularly looking forward to playing multiple characters again like you did in Heavy Rain which was my #2 game of 2010. Everything about this trailer looks amazing and I cannot wait to play Detroit: Become Human.

Destiny 2

This is just Destiny 1.5 to me. I put hundreds of hours into Destiny 1 on both the PS4 and Xbox One and what I've seen of Destiny 2 so far does not make me want to go back. Perhaps if some friends get it and pressure me into playing I will but I can't imagine myself going back for solo gameplay unless they miraculously managed to add a good story to the game finally.

Spider-Man

This looked like Spider-Man: Arkham City. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing because it was beautiful and the Arkham style combat fits Spider-Man to a tee. The traversal looked fluid and fun and the cinematic presentation gives me hope for an engaging story. My only concern is that if the game is just this same gameplay over and over again it will get boring. But it has been said this is an open-world game so if you can traverse New York City looking for a variety of different activities to engage in then I can see this game being an absolute blast.

Conclusion

Sony had a short conference that clocked in at just under an hour which was surprising because they didn't really showcase many indie games and the majority of their games had been shown previously. There also was no word on Final Fantasy 7 Remake or Shenmue 3 which were tentpoles of previous E3 conferences and even fan favourite franchises like Dark Souls, Bloodbourne and Last of Us were absent.

The only real true surprises were Monster Hunter World and Shadow of the Colossus, two games that have incredibly niche appeal. Spider-Man was an expected reveal and it hit all the right notes, so good on Sony there, but the vast majority of the other games had already been shown. Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Detroit: Become Human, God of War, Destiny 2, Call of Duty: WW2, Uncharted spin-off, Horizon Zero Dawn DLC. These were all things we expected to hear about and while they showed well they just didn't have the oomf that I was expecting. Also, the words "early 2018" appeared far too often.

They also didn't say anything directly about the PS4 Pro or mention anything that would really make gamers want to purchase it over an Xbox One X. I am a hardcore gamer and I still don't understand why I should buy a PS4 Pro. Sony really has fucked up their marketing with it and has given Microsoft a huge opening with their Xbox One X. Thankfully Microsoft fucked up in their own right by announcing a $500 console again so who really knows what is going to happen in the console wars in the later half of 2017.

I come away from this conference super stoked for Monster Hunter World but absolutely lukewarm on everything else.