Sony Playstation Livestream...Some Thoughts....
We can collectively agree, the year 2020 will go down as a turning point in human history. A deadly virus, mass unemployment on a scale greater than ‘the Great Depression’, a tumultuous election year, and protests over ending police brutality worldwide!!! I know how draining thinking about all of these things all the time can be.
So let’s focus on some dope things that happened this year:
She-Ra ended in an explosion of queer love, thus making animation history.
Mortal Kombat 11 had a story expanding DLC that I, and many fans, absolutely loved! (I love you Fujin!!)
Animal Crossing has helped many people come together during quarantine.
And through the power of technology, I have never felt closer to my family, even though we are literally states apart!
WIth that being said, stay-at-home orders, and schools closing have inadvertently caused a boom for the gaming community. People have more time to play video games now than ever before. We have seen a sharp spike in both video game spending and collective hours put into gaming. I even found myself in an interesting position of needing to expand my own video game library because I would finish games much quicker than I normally would, given normal circumstances.
The Sony Playstation Livestream was our first look at both the newly anticipated system and the many games that would be available for it. I watched it not expecting anything more than a show of all the upgraded graphics, and some of the same cringy stage appearances, as I would expect at E3. However, with the success of Sony’s Livestream and hopefully the soon to be many other streams, I’m in the camp that all new releases should take this format, and not just because of COVID-19.
It was fun to watch the back to back trailers and to just take in all the graphical enhancements and artistry behind the games! It also gave smaller studios a chance to shine as well. If anything, I loved seeing all the new and unique titles coming out that were made for a younger audience in mind! It brought back memories of being a child and asking my dad to buy the newest titles for Christmas! With many games available this holiday season, SONY has a good chance of cornering the kids market. Here’s a list of some of my standout favorites of the livestream:
Demons Soul
No joke, I screamed out loud, in my comfy chair, while this trailer was rolling! I can’t tell if it’s going to be a remake, or a remaster, but who cares!!! It’s more Dark Souls!! It’s a game many people of the soulsborne community have mixed feelings about, and I am hyped that I’m going to get to play this game as intended! At least I hope so. I played the Dark Souls: Remaster, and that was a lot of fun to play! The increased framerate and bump in lighting helped a great deal. New audiences will finally be able to play the game that started a generation of Souls-like games, and this one will definitely be on my wishlist!
Deathloop
Bioshock meets Black Dynamite in this awesome first person shooter! I’ve been a fan of many Bethesda games, and this could be another fan favorite of mine! It takes the familiar controls of Bioshock and adds a 70’s spice to the mix! It is interesting to see them taking ‘dying’ as part of its core story and gameplay. Very soulsborne of you Bethesda. Only time will tell if the trailer lives up to the gameplay.
Resident Evil 8: Village
Now I am not a fan of horror games, but I do like killing supernatural things in video games. Resident Evil 8: Village may just be the game I need to get ‘on the hype train’ for the Capcom series. I’m more into classic horror games that has werewolves and vampires, and encompass a less grotesque horror feel, but I can see the appeal here and I can’t wait to see more for the game.
Horizon 2: Forbidden West
Now I’ve forgotten about Horizon for a bit, but I’ve never been hyped for the sequel!! From what I can tell, it’ll be more of what we liked from Horizon: Zero Dawn: More mechanical animals, diverse environments, and storyline!! The world of Horizon is known to be engaging, fun, and unique and that was the big draw this franchise has. I know a lot of fans are hyped we have confirmation on the sequel and I hope they add more weapon types, animal mounts and crafting! I have a large wishlist for this game, but for, now I’m satisfied!
Many of these games looked visually stunning and were definitely fine-tuned for the livestream, yet Playstation should have made an exclusive pass for players to play their demo of choice for a limited time so gamers can see for themselves how these titles play out. The gameplay probably would have run a bit slower and the frame rate would’ve been reduced, given the PS4 hardware, but that would have sold many more people on buying a PS5 or at the very least, put some fears of the system to rest. It would have been cool to give it a test drive before committing to a purchase.
We are moving into an age where the lines between high-definition trailers and game play are becoming blurred. As a personal rule, if I were to buy a new console, I would need at least five games worth buying to justify my purchase. After seeing many of these upcoming titles and footage, I’m convinced I’ll need to upgrade my TV just to handle the visuals!
And then there are the additional titles that may surprise me as they get released, Chances are, I’ll have to buy those too because they look so cool! I’m curious to see what the EA Live release will look like. With all the money I saved during this crisis, I’ll probably go broke upgrading my hardware to handle everything.
Overall, it was a cute trailer to showcase the new systems, headphones, and speakers, but I didn’t see a price tag at the end of the livestream. With rumors circulating a high price tag, hopefully we’ll know how much we’ll have to sacrifice to enjoy the future of gaming.
