If you'd ask me to pick a clear winner from E3 2014 Press Conferences, it would be Microsoft hands down. They not only had the best pacing for the show, but they showed off a lot of games that fans either care about or were surprised about. Getting the entire Halo saga on the Xbox One was certainly a highlight for a lot of Xbox fans.
On the flipside, Sony's Press Conference certainly had a few stumbles, showed off some numbers gamers clearly don't care about, and focused a little too much on entertainment in the midpoint of the show. However, the rest of their announcements were pretty great, if not phenomenal. And yet, fans spoke out against Sony, saying this was a failed conference. And I just couldn't wrap my head around why that is.
Let's go over what Sony showed off this year, and why I think the announcements were much better than what people percieved.
Admittedly, the show started off rather lackluster, with Destiny and The Order: 1886, which I personally am excited for, but I know about those games, and with The Order's delay, I'm a little less interested in learning more about it right now. Entwined, a game that was just announced and launched at the same time, was cool, but again, I can see the mainstream crowd not going nuts over this.
Then Media Molecule came on stage and surprised everyone with LittleBigPlanet 3 for the PlayStation 4. Is the time for LittleBigPlanet over? I thought it wasn't, as I and my fellow press attendees cheered for this announcement. With three new characters with different skills, a deeper customization and level editor, and the ability to play all previously user created content straight out of the box makes LBP3 a pretty awesome sequel.
Then the Beast revealed itself, when From Software's latest game was introduced as Bloodborne. Perhaps here, people were disappointed that the trailer didn't showcase any gameplay, even though we know it exists, but rather focused on being a cinematic instead. Regardless, the game from what we've seen looks awesome, and with Miyazaki behind this, I can only assume that it will deliver.
The Ubisoft Press Conference gave us a taste of Far Cry 4's intro sequence, but the Sony Presser gave us a really good look at what the game will look like in action, and it looks phenomenal. I personally loved Far Cry 3, so seeing the game go crazier than before is super exciting to me. Not only that, but Sony dropped the bomb that the online co-op for the game's full campaign, can be playable with a friend that doesn't even own the game. That's huge! Why aren't more people excited for this?
Adam Boyes took the stage and introduced some known games like Battlefield: Hardline, but also unveiled a hilarious trailer for Dead Island 2. Now, I know better than to judge that game based on its cinematic trailer, thank you very much Dead Island 1, but it was amusing and surprising at the same time. Fans of Grim Fandango were extremely excited to hear that the game will be coming to the PS4. That's quite a nostalgia bomb.
Diablo 3 on PS4 will have exclusive Last of Us content. Cool, but not revolutionary by any means. Magicka 2 was announced to be coming to the PS4, as well as some indie games from Devolver Digital. Adam then closed off with a longer, more spectacular look at one of my most anticipated games, No Man's Sky. Seriously, how is this game real?
It was a great finish to Adam's segment, but I can understand this is where fans might have weaned off a little bit. And it's also where the show lost its pacing completely. Sadly, Adam Boyes isn't as charismatic as Jack Tretton was, or even Andrew House, and sometimes the talking went on for far too long.
The bad pacing continued with Shawn Layden, President and CEO of SCEA, but on the flipside, he did have some great announcements! We finally got a hard date for PlayStation Now, Sony's game streaming service, as well confirming that the PS Vita TV, now called PlayStation TV, arguably one of the more sought after micro-consoles, will be available later this year, for a mere $99. That's awesome news, and yet, the fans didn't seem to care anymore. The stream I was watching it on had nothing but horrible things to say about pretty much every announcement, and I understand I'm basing the views off of a single stream, but thousands of people were watching and participating, and all seemed to agree, that they just weren't impressed. Bummer.
GTA fans were happy to see Rockstar's latest open-world game come to next-gen systems and PC. The rest of the show didn't make any new announcements, but showed off some really impressive gameplay trailers for Mortal Kombat X, and Batman: Arkham Knight, and closed off with a rather awesome look at Uncharted 4, which now finally gets its own subtitle, A Thief's End.
So let's recap, we got LittleBigPlanet 3 announcement, Project Beast was confirmed as Bloodborne, Far Cry 4 showed off amazing gameplay and the sweet option to play co-op without your buddy needing a copy, Dead Island 2 was confirmed, Grim Fandango will make a comeback, PlayStation Now got a beta date, PlayStation TV was confirmed for the US, GTA V is going next-gen, Mortal Kombat X showed off its brutal gameplay, Batman: Arkham Knight showcased its open world batmobile gameplay and Uncharted got its subtitle and showed off some impressive in-engine footage. Wow, and people are still hating on Sony.
I'm not saying the Sony Conference was perfect. The focus on entertainment and talking a little too long about the exclusive show Powers was an absolute drag. Sorry Brian Michael Bendis. But really, we had some awesome game announcements, game demos, and surprises that made the Sony Press Conference a lot better than what people are giving them credit for.
