The PlayStation Showcase Was Mostly Meh, Mostly

Sony Interactive Entertainment held a PlayStation Showcase, their version of a Nintendo Direct, last week. I say it was mostly meh because out of the 42-minute video, 32 minutes of it was a yawnfest with really the best games showing up in the last 10 minutes. It did open with a bang though, I’ll give it that much. And no I’m not talking about the weird chess larping sequence, I’m talking about Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Remake announcement.

It’s not just a remaster, but they used the word remake and hopefully they take that word as seriously as Square Enix did with Final Fantasy VII Remake. I’ll be honest though, I never played the original but have heard good things about it. And you know what’s funny? As much of a Star Wars fan as I considered myself to be, even before the dark times, before the sequel trilogy, I didn’t play that many Star Wars games. Part of it was platform (I never owned a PC), but most of it was just disinterest. Even the console games never really did much for me. I might give this one a shot though.

Everything after this was a total snoozefest though. Project Eve from Korean-based studio Shift Up looks like a good PS5 showcase game but didn’t move the needle for me. Tiny Tina’s Wonderland by Gearbox just sounds annoying. I think the voice actress is the same one Gwenpool from the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 game and I probably heard it some fever-induced nightmare too at some point. I could barely get through this game trailer. Forspoken is by Square Enix and looks okay. Next was Rainbow Six Extraction. I guess military shooters have run out of terrestrial threats so now they’re just bringing in aliens. I say that with snark mostly because the idea looks and sounds stupid but also because the game is from Ubisoft. Alan Wake Remastered is a bit interesting only because it has a direct tie-in with Control. Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online? Meh. Ghostwire Tokyo? Meh. Guardians of the Galaxy? Looks like ass. This looks like it was planned content for the Avengers game but since that game sucks and has no player base Square Enix decided to pull it and release it as a standalone game. Just a theory I have because all of the character models have that same C-level stunt double look about them. Blood Hunt? Meh. Deathloop? Meh. Kid Amnesia Exhibition? I honestly have no idea what this was. Tchia? Meh. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy? Let’s be honest, I’ll be getting these only because they already exist in my backlog pile. That being said, oddly enough it is motivating me a bit to stop playing Rocket League long enough to maybe get through the Uncharted games. We’ll see how that goes.

All of that stuff was just fine and boring and took more than 30 minutes to slog through. Then it got to the good stuff, the PlayStation Studios exclusives:

Wolverine

Wolverine is coming from Insomniac Games, you know, the studio that brought the most, most excellent Spider-Man PS4 game as well as the most, most excellent Miles Morales game for both PS4 and PS5. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do with this one. Count me in.

Gran Turismo 7

I haven’t played a proper GT game since… II. There was one on … PS3 that I barely touched so I don’t count that. I’m really excited to get into this one.

Spider-Man 2

Loved Spider-Man PS4. Loved Miles Morales. Can Insomniac do it again? I really hope so. They’ll have to do it TWICE considering they’re also doing Wolverine. Man I can’t wait.

God of War: Ragnarok

And finally, God of War: Ragnarok. It looks like the main story picks up a bit after the first game but there is a nod to the Easter Egg ending from the first. Eric told me I should go play the PS5-optimized version because “it is life-changing”. Definitely gonna do that because if the front page of the site is any indication, time is something I have an abundance of. I snark but I kid.

I don’t know, I suppose some of those meh games are good. The franchise games slash sequels never intrigued me before and probably won’t ever in the future. And the new stuff just doesn’t look interesting. I’d rather wait for reviews and see where they fall.

Eric’s Postscript

Hey guys. I’m going to highlight some of the stuff Ace called “meh”. Because I think there were some interesting games in there overshadowed by the big boys at the end.

Forspoken, once again reminding us that SquareEnix has no equal when it comes to particles in games. Graphically, this game looks stupendous. Remember – Final Fantasy XV came out 5 years ago, and it still looks absolutely fantastic. Squeenix knows how to make a game look good.

It’s hard to judge the gameplay, but it looks reminiscent of FFXV, with more of a focus on magic attacks. The dialogue is a little stilted, par for the course with Squeenix, but I want to grab this one just for the visuals alone.

Ghostwire: Tokyo. I don’t really know what’s happening in this game, but it looks pretty fun. It’s like if Silent Hill was set in a not-fog covered city. It’s from the same studio who put out the Evil Within, which are solid horror games, so I don’t have much worry for this one. Plus, it’s Bethesda, which means eventually it’ll get filtered down to Game Pass.

Deathloop comes out tomorrow. Last year, I wrote this one was one of my most anticipated games for 2021. Reviews seem pretty good, and I’m excited to play it.

Tchia looks like if Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild had a baby. An open world with capturing mechanics. Plus an inspired island theme. It’s always nice to see diversity like this in games. I’m not sure this is an insta-buy for me, but it’s one to keep an eye on for sure.

Anyway, that’s it. Just highlighting some games other than the big PS Studios games. Although I am beyond excited for God of War: Ragnarok.