E3 2017: Sony Showcases a Lot of Unsurprising Games

Sony's media showcase began with an interesting musical performance, some game footage, an appearance by Shawn Layden, more game footage, another appearance, then more game footage. It was mercifully short on developer banter or cringeworthy moments. On the flipside, it was also short on surprises.

There was no presentation of the Last of Us 2, which was something I was hoping to see. No mention or tease of a new Bloodborne game. No shocking resurrection of a long-dormant first-party title like SOCOM or even something like Syphon Filter (remember those games?). Instead, we saw an expansion for Horizon: Zero Dawn called the Frozen Wilds, an expansion for Uncharted 4 called the Lost Legacy (revealed at PlayStation Experience last fall), and, finally, a full remake of Shadow of the Colossus.

Wait, what? Okay, that's interesting, and the other two expansion trailers held their own, don't get me wrong. But SotC was closer to what I wanted out of Sony's presser. It looked gorgeous, the gameplay seemed identical to the original, and the sense of scale was breathtaking. I wish that we could have seen more of it, but the 2018 release window is a ways off, so we'll have to be content with what we have.

Sony did announce that Capcom's Monster Hunter World would be coming to PS4 in early 2018. I have never played a single MH game, so I'm curious to try it out. Gameplay looks heavily stealth-based and reliant on gear and skill sets, so I'm intrigued. I know a lot of people swear by these games. Maybe I'll become one of them.

A couple of console exclusives were shown off in follow-up trailers from last year's E3 reveals. The first was Days Gone, a game where you play as Sam Witwer in a post-zombie apocalypse wasteland. There were roving packs of zombies and gun-toting baddies and one very scared hostage to rescue. It looks very interesting, and is probably one of the most promising titles in Sony's lineup.

Next was David Cage and Quantic Dream's latest endeavor, Detroit: Become Human. It looked very cinematic and seemed to have an interesting story, with lots of branching paths based on player choice, and some very pointed political and social commentary in terms of its narrative. It's certainly one of the more narrative-focused titles in Sony's library, which could be a good thing. We'll find out.

Activision also showcased their wares through a couple of slick trailers for Call of Duty: World War II and Destiny 2. The former focused on CoD's multiplayer modes and definitely looked and sounded very polished. I was impressed by the number of soldiers on screen and the scale of the battles in which they fought. It's more CoD, so if you want silky smooth FPS action, that's where you'll find it.

Destiny 2's video showed off our first really good look at Gary--I mean, Ghaul--who really has it out for us Guardians. He's got a menacing voice and creepy design worthy of an evil alien overlords, so I'm pretty happy we'll be able to kick his ass come September 6. Bungie also announced that the open beta date for D2 will be on July 21, so that's something to be excited about.

In the middle of the show, Sony also presented a reel of upcoming PS VR titles, some of which were pretty creepy and others that looked pedestrian or just weird. Final Fantasy XV: Fishing Simulator looks like something I couldn't care less about. In fact, none of the VR stuff really captured my imagination at all. On the one hand, I'm glad that Sony isn't forgetting about this platform, but on the other, I'm not sure it's all that compelling as a piece or hardware or emergent technology.

Finally, two more big Sony exclusives: God of War and Insomniac's Spider-Man. The former gave us a glimpse of Kratos' relationship with his son, as well as the beauty of the game's world and the ferocious, hard-hitting melee combat that seemed very familiar to longtime fans of the series, despite the new camera perspective. I'm impressed with how the game is shaping up.

Finally, that brings us to Spidey. Marvel properties had a decent presence at Sony's event this year. Earlier in the show, they presented us with a narrative trailer for Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, which seemed simultaneously cool and odd, because it's a crazy fighting game, so who cares about story? Anyway, there's a demo available on PSN, which is cool.

But I digress. Spider-Man's PS4 debut looks like a redux of Batman: Arkham Knight, with stealth mechanics ripped from the latter and even (sigh) quick time events. Yep, apparently it's the late '90s again, because QTEs are here to stay. I'm not overly enthused about that or the game's overall sense of familiarity, if I'm being honest. But hey, it's Spidey and it's developed by Insomniac, so I'll probably play it anyway. Not crazy about the voice cast, either, but whatever. A lot of people liked what they saw, so that's cool, and it actually did look great. I'm just being a curmudgeon.

With that, Sony ended their conference. A solid lineup of exclusive games mixed with a couple of minor surprises and continued VR support made for a decent event, but nothing spectacular. This is the first year in a long time that I can honestly say that they were upstaged by Microsoft. However, in spite of this, I do think Sony did a couple of things well. They cut out the business speak and any extraneous chatter and focused on the games. A wise decision.

One more to go, as Nintendo sends out their annual E3 video. Let's hope they have something cool up their sleeves.