We Talk Over the E3 2018 Sony Press Conference

Rorie's Monitor @Sony's Conference

Are the glitches, hitches, and artifacts starting at ~1:30 in part of the archive, or is it just processing?

Become the tomb raider

This conference was so poorly paced, from a PR perspective it definitely left most people asking "that's it?" at the end, even tho they did show some cool looking games.

That was a terrible conference...the only positive was Resident Evil 2 Remake and more footage of Death Stranding.

Resident Evil 2 remake and Control by Remedy are both multiplat thankfully. Overall that conference was a really poor showing for me, someone interested in buying a ps4 pro for the exclusives. Ghosts looked pretty but kind of bland, Spider-man's bad voice acting and Arkham combat were what I was really not hoping for, Death Stranding looked terrible, and TLOU2 looked fantastic but depressing as shit. I really hated the pacing of that, whoever thought that whole tent performance thing was worth it should be fired. Sony gets up their own asses when they're successful and take things far too seriously.

I wasn't a fan of this one. Ghost of Tsushima looks amazing, it's definitely the best thing they had there. The Last of Us Part 2 looks great, but it also definitely looks like The Last of Us, nothing really new or outstanding, just about what you'd expect given the time between the two games. Death Stranding was a big nothing, sure there was gameplay (walk animations, basically) but it was mostly stuff we've seen before in a similar context again. Spiderman looks good as well, but the demo wasn't that much stronger than what they showed last year.

Other than that, Control looks pretty good.

Apart from Ghosts of Tsushima, it just really lacked a wow factor. The lack of release dates for these things didn't help either. 3/4s of the conference just felt familiar and expected.

Sony dropped the ball on that one. Could've shown many more games, where was Dreams? RDR2? FF7? Hitman 2?

Not gonna lie, Sony has a good lineup of games but they did a terrible job showcasing them. Can't believe MS had a better press conference. Even though none of their games made me want to buy an Xbox (since I can play all of those games on PC), MS did a much better job showcasing those games and their content.

What was Sony thinking?

I don't know if anyone else is having this issue, but the video totally breaks for me two minutes in

Brad needs to get over his attitude towards TLOU2. Saying a game doesn’t need to be exist is an empty and worthless complaint because nothing needs to be exist, including this website. But showing a little bit of respect towards the creative people who believe they have another story worth telling is surely in order. At least, when the final product isn’t even done yet.

FUCK YES RE2

47:17 best joke

i was surprised at how short it was until i realized that there was no talking between trailers. looking forward to nioh, TLOU, death stranding, and that ghost of tsushima game though. i don't get why everyone's so negative on the showing

Enjoyed the conference a LOT - only one I was able to tolerate so far to be honest. I enjoy the focus on individual titles as opposed to spamming trailers and awkward monologues.

I previously wasn't interested in Death Stranding but this showing actually got me interested in it, I actually don't think I want to know more about it until I play it - I want it to surprise me completely...

What is up with this recording BTW?? Even the YouTube archive of this is messed up, I only watched the press conference and was going to watch the giant bomb reactions afterwards but the skipping and glitching in the video makes it almost unwatchable. Oddly enough, there were issues with the Sony Twitch stream as well and I had to switch over to YouTube...

Ok so that's Sony done. What a weird press conference, I don't know what they were thinking with the formatting of this one. Opening with a shaky camera, with poor audio, in a weird room was hard to believe they have far and away the most successful console this generation.

Once we finally got to the Last of Us Part 2 trailer the room choice started to make a bit more sense. Man this game is pretty, seriously impressive tech. Didn't really need to be sold on it though. Just tell me Naughty Dog are making something and I am there.

Then it was a hard swing to an intermission with a panel to announce some stuff. Honestly forgot most of the things that were talked about here due to a combination of disbelief, confusion and tiredness. Shawn talking about the games being highlighted as the 4 pillars made me feel bad for Sony Bend. I don't think their game looks very good, seems crazy that Sony are making 2 zombie games at once, but felt bad for them none the less.

Another musical number before our first real look at Ghost of Tsushima. Man another really pretty game. They must have some graphics wizards over at Sony. Very excited for this. I have loved Sucker Punch's output over the years. Thinking I will play this in Japanese which is very unlike me.

Our brief glimpse of Remedy's new game Control, looks like it could be a fun Quantum Break. That was maybe a bit mean, I thought that game was ok. Eager to see more of it. I have zero interest in the Resident Evil 2 remake. Good to see they obviously put in some work for it but I could never get into that series.

Next Trover Saves The Universe? Rick & Morty but not Rick & Morty? I have gotten to the point where I think Justin Roiland's type of comedy(?) is not for me. I watched the first 2 seasons of R&M and liked them just fine but since then between the fan base and Accounting (which I thought was just complete garbage) I just can't get into it. More Kingdom Hearts 3... with Pirates Of The Caribbean? That was weird, pretty good likenesses though. Still no interest in actually playing the game itself however.

Death Stranding was up next. A huge amount of hype from people around this given how little we actually know about it. I agree with the sentiment of the GB staff though that it showed very poorly here. We are no closer to understanding what it actually is and it showed largely the same themes from last year. I wouldn't say I am a huge Kojima fan but mostly enjoyed MGS4 & 5, the only ones I actually played. This is definitely a wait and see for me.

Quick announcement that Team Ninja are making another Nioh. Never got around to paying the last one but its near the top of my backlog pile. Spiderman looks like it will be great. Very Batman-esque combat and traversal looks like fun. Getting some Protoype (which I liked) vibes.

Not my favorite conference so far. They have some really good looking games that I am very excited to play. Kind of hope they look at the Microsoft presentation from this year and copy that format for next year. This one felt like it was kind of thrown together, weirdly paced and a bit low rent. Very much not like the "premium" company image Sony usually tries to present itself with.

All done for today, up again at 2:00am for Nintendo tomorrow :)

TLOU2 looks absolutely incredible. That gameplay is far beyond anything else in games as far as realism goes.

Ghosts of Tsushima could be fantastic and looked utterly gorgeous.

Death Stranding looks beautiful and crazy, but we still know so little. Needless to say I am in.

Spiderman just looks super fucking fun. Cannot wait to play this.

Also loved seeing RE2 and KH3, which continues to be crazy nonsense that I am going to need to see for myself. Overall I thought what they showed was fantastic despite the weird format.

Sony makes so many third person action games it's absurd. Dreams is the only one that hasn't been in awhile, and they didn't even show it off.

This, this is why I haven't bought a ps4 after having the 1, 2, and 3. I feel a bit burnt out on this type of game and most Japanese developed games really haven't piqued my interest in a long time. I wish I felt like I had a reason to get a Pro besides last of us 2 and gow. It's just tough to spend that much money for just two games that interest me and are not built to be very replayable.

Resident Evil 2 makes me so happy, I changed my picture after the conference lol

@ericsmith: “Third-person action game” is a pretty broad term. It could apply to anything from a platformer to a shooter. That said, there are some definite similarities between many PlayStation exclusives. Granted, I think a lot of them are really fantastic, but I would love for them to do something more light-hearted or unique gameplay-wise.

Ghost of Tsushima looks rad, but I feel like the new From Software game kind of overshadows it a bit for me. Spider-Man is probably the PlayStation game I’m most excited for.

Overall, this was a really weak showing in my opinion. There wasn’t much new, and they didn’t really show anything especially exciting for their previously announced games either. There needed to be at least one bombshell, like a big new game announcement or some Death Stranding gameplay or something, and it just never came.

Most importantly, though, there was no MediEvil, so my disappointment is immeasurable.

That was just odd. Sandwiching trailers between PR flacks doing talking head segments didn't really work and made the whole thing seem disjointed. I know Sony has pretty much completely moved away from it, but an e3 conference without actual people talking about their games is just lifeless. And the surprises got lost in the miserable pacing.

And for all the talk of doing deep dives on the four games, an extended gameplay trailer isn't really that much. The games they showed looked amazing, but it definitely made me wish I just watched those the next day instead of tuning in.

1:34:23 - Did Spider-Man just murder that guy?

As someone who doesn't own a console, I found this conference pretty bad. Death Stranding was cool, but far too much puttering around. This feels like pre-release PS3 Sony which thought it could get away with anything.

Metal Gear and the Death Stranding trailers are easily more convoluted and stupid than the Kingdom Hearts games, and I haven't played any of those games for like ten years

E3 2018 year of the stealth kills

man, putting disney shit into weeb games is and has always been a stupid cashgrab

If you switched those musical interludes with an indie showcase and a 3P montage this could have been my favorite presser despite not feeling that strong about any single entry. I know Sony laid out their plan beforehand, so it's hard to be disappointed... but I was still hoping for a surprise.

wtf is this church theme

I almost think Microsoft saved Sony, in a weird way. If it wasn't for what was shown at Microsoft, I'd be thinking PlayStation is heading towards a very poor year.

And what was with this press conference? They were SO dominant the last few years -- basically kicking down doors and going "YO, PlayStation!" -- then this felt like they just stumbled on to stage.

Lea Seydoux in Death Stranding made me somewhat excited for that game!

I really wanted to see Ellie as a ~40 year old badass bitch. Ah well, SpiderMan looks rad :D

Man, that was kinda bad. So far i feel like MS had the only good presser.

That was a tremendous waste of time. Didn't give a single fuck about any of those games. The fact that they didn't show off Dreams is baffling.

Where's PSVR at? Just one game that seems to be nowhere near close to finished.

Flashy purdy empty AAA third person action games from start to finish.. Gaming is hella stale these days.

@mostlysquares 100% agree.

The negativity is baffling. I think what hurt them is that the three games - last of us, ghosts and stranding are going to be story focused games and no matter how much you show you won't be able to get a sense (unless you suspend disbelief for a hot minute) of how they will affect you.

I like stories, I like games, I like great stories in my games. Thank you Sony for teasing us with some potentially incredible stories to experience. To hell with the negativity.

I hope I never have to see KH again, those 3 trailers were all equally mind numbing and aggressively dumb. It makes Final Fantasy look like a gritty and mature series.

Alex's schtick was annoying as well in this one..

I read the comments here before watching so I have had my expectations altered, but this was not a bad show at all. All the games look killer, even the ones I have no interest in look really solid. I don't get the hate in here.

Have to agree with everyone on this one: Microsoft did a better job presenting tjose games but man, Sony just has a much, much better line up.

Man, Sony has got the games! Kinda makes me want to get a PS4.

I thought I could make it but fuck me if I end up upgrading to a PS4 Pro right before they announce the PS5.

I dunno about Death Stranding, but it is always admirable to aspire to be a Tarkovsky!

Calling Japanese games "weeb games" is weird, friend.

@stordoff: I don't think it was that bad. Three of the four big demos they had were great, they just stumbled with the fluff they added and were a bit low on extra stuff. If they had just ditched the musical numbers and gotten like 2-3 short demos of smaller games instead the conference would've been pretty damn good.

I think that's where it breaks down for me - it actively made me LESS interested in those three games. Death Stranding didn't give me ANY kind of coherent understanding of what might be going on AND didn't have gameplay to counter that; The Last of Us was made to look extremely combat-focused and what was shown of the story felt awkward (not the kiss-that was surprisingly well-done, but the facial animation around that felt a little off to me); Ghosts of Tsushima looked neat, but also like a combat system I do not want to slog through _regardless_ of how good the story is (I get that some people like it, but I have never been a fan of that system of combat).

I too love stories in games (I've just spend the last three hours writing about Steins;Gate), but you've got to sell it to me. You can't just just say "There's a story. It'll be good, trust me".

@bocom said:

I think he meant Kingdom Hearts, specifically...
Which isn't just a Japanese game, but caters to a very specific market.
I'm sure @travv0 wouldn't call something like Dark Souls a "weeb game".

Oh boy, having an intermission just to switch theaters was a very bad choice. Also, they should have cut down the time on the longer demos. Out of all the press conferences I've watched, this is the one I skipped through the most.

Just to clarify. The games were great. The presentation was awful.

Sony was ok at best. Looks like my ps4 pro is going to be dusting again.

Dammit Sony ! Always next year.