We Talk Over the E3 2018 Sony Press Conference

@jeffgoldblum: I had some skipping but it only did it a few times. Now it's playing fine.

Sony clearly back in "It's our game to lose" mode of operating with that one.

2/10 as a show,
9/10 trailers on their own.

As a press conference this was a mess. Having TLOU in its tent just for the gimmick, before making the audience go to another building is absolutely insane - completely baffling how they thought that would work. i thought just about every trailer was good to great, but the presentation as a whole was real bad. I'd have been furious if I had to have actually been there, and wouldn't have been happy if I'd even had to be up at odd hours to watch it live.

Strange confererence. Last of Us 2 looks outstanding, love the attention to detail that Naughty Dog bring and the combat was brutal as hell, game of the show for me so far. That Sucker Punch game also looks fantastic, really surprised how excited I am for that. Death Stranding was weird (shock I know) but feel we still need to see more of that and Spider-Man looks good.

No proper Dreams coverage sucks balls though, really Sony? Didn't Jeff even get to play it?

Aside from the pacing at the start I thought this conference was pretty good!

I liked the focus on the artistic side of the games and having extended looks at multiple games was refreshing!

I understand a lot of folks didn't like the conference, but the games look incredible. Sony's first party studios firing on all cylinders.

The violence in the Last of Us: Part II upset me so much. It was so graphic. I guess I like killing machines more in Horizon Zero Dawn or the fighting in a game like Persona 5. It's more abstract.

I saw another one at 1:36:15. At least the guy at 1:35:05 had a bit of webbing on him when he flew off, so he could possibly be saved. Maybe this version of Spider-Man figures it doesn't count if it's gravity's fault.

I guess I'm one of the few people who thought this was a really good conference. The games they showed were really strong and the four main ones look like amazing technical achievements that got me way more interested in them than I've ever been (even though I was already hyped for TLOU2 and Death Stranding anyway). The other games were also very interesting, especially the surprises like Control.

I respect Sony for trying something new with it's presentation format and, even though it didn't work that well, I thought it was a great concept. However, if I was them, I would've done it differently. I would make the big stage and tent look as close as possible as the small room, but start with Spider-Man and end on TLOU2. Not only because TLOU2 had a stronger trailer to end with, but also because only at the end people would have that surprise moment when they realize the room they were in all this time was based on TLOU2.

Also, I still don't understand why Jeff and the rest of the crew keep talking about Death Stranding like "we know nothing about this game, they haven't said anything about it" when there's been multiple interviews with Kojima, actors on the game, etc, explaining various concepts and gameplay mechanics . I don't even follow videogame news that closely and know about it, seems weird that they don't.

I'm sorry but so many people keep saying they didn't show of dreams. THEY SHOWED IT LIKE 10 TIMES! All the little goofy animations in between trailers and presentations where made within dreams! It even said so a couple of times "powered by dreams".

I liked it. It was definitely confident to show only six games with anything above 35 seconds of footage, yet I think what they showed was riveting while on sceeen.

I definitely noticed that the "crew" WATCHED what was up on the screen. I loved seeing the "ohhhh, that was WHY everyone was under a tent" moment. You have to give Sony a hand for keeping people's attention even if it takes a second.

Kojima is just trying to tell us that sitting too much is killing us and that maybe we should all eat standing.

Ghost of Tsushima looks incredible. Really looking forward to that one, but I guess it wall be fall 2019 at the earliest.

Between that at From Software's new game it's going to be a good time for slicing fools with big swords!

Good God the managed to make all their games look super boring. just a poorly paced shit show of a conference. Ghosts of Tsushima and RE2 were the only things lifted me out of the boredom. Most of all I'm bummed that Spiderman still looks incredibly bland. TLOU demo did nothing for me because of how scripted it was and how similar the gameplay looked to the first game but that game will be good so I didn't even need to see any of it.

Possible infringement: did the bad people call Ellie the Wolf?

I love Sandy Bull, Sufjan Stevens, and Neil Young (and probably some more "serious" banjo music) as much as the next guy (guitar-banjos and "banjolines" are so cool!) .....but having an extended banjo performance (and then the flute one) was just not a great idea. The pulling out to that desk of people and then going back into the big conference was so bad. Virtually everything Sony had to show looked very good, but the structure and presentation was way too awkward and dissatisfying. Next time, just structure it like Microsoft or Nintendo's showing. Those are two examples of how to do things right. It sucks because if they set it up right with all of these games and then maybe some neat indie stuff, Sony would have killed it. You don't have to try so hard to win hearts and minds at E3, please.

What's so funny about this conference vs Microsoft is that I left Microsoft thinking, "Wow, they did a really did a great job" but followed immediately with, "the games I care about will be on PC and PS4 too so I'm not that excited." When this conference finished, I thought, "that was such an awful presentation but every one of those trailers left me with really strong feelings and excitement for Sony exclusives."

So, what a bummer. This had all the potential to be amazing and they completely messed it up.

Awful presentation, should have just let the games speak for themselves this time around. They look incredible enough. That samurai game looks fucking incredible.

Dead Space always did that no-hud look really well without depriving you of important game relevant information like health or ammo.

"What does Xeno mean?"

I DISOWN YOU, DAN! SHAME! SHAME!

I think if nothing else this years e3 will be divisive.

This year for sure, but even the past four years, people see what they want to see.

The person that decided of 2 venues is a goddam idiot.

Would have been a good conference if it was about half as long. Excited for all the games they showed personally but the panel segments were obvious filler and a chore to sit through.

I forget who said it but I agree that The Last of Us' style makes encounters so much more intense and weighty than a lot of other third person action games.

Things I want in Ghost of Tsushima: Fluid movement and challenging gameplay, Dead Space style HUD-free screen, and a Japanese language track.

I can't believe I'm even somewhat interested in a Spiderman game. I like that it seems faster and flashier than an Arkham game; I think people write off games too easily if they see Arkham combat. That said, I can almost see the QTE prompts that were removed after that first demo. Little grapple icons are a much wiser choice.

I would've loved me some Dreams gameplay, but ya can't get everything you want I guess.

I reckon there will be a very interesting Bombcast discussion about Days Gone before long.

That Sony executive is now screaming "What's the ROI on this?!"

@quipido: People just like hating things.

This is typified by the fact that I can remember, vividly, having 6 shotgun shells, 9 pistol rounds, 2 shivs and 2 medkits and feeling ready to take on THE WORLD.

I thought the games they showed looked great, but the way they presented their conference this year was an absolute mess. It just didn't work. Technical issues, poor pacing, noticeable absences from games you'd think may show up at Sony, etc just held it back.

The pacing and/or format might have been the worst ever done by Sony especially having a flow-killing intermission early on.

Out of the stuff shown, like RE 2 Remake the most while Ghost of Tsushima looks very interesting. Lost a lot of interest in Death Stranding after another year of very little of note being shown.

I don't know how the fuck anyone can be underwhelmed by anything about Death Stranding. That thing is captivating, by far the most unique and exciting thing happening in video games right now. I loved the fact that it wasn't some shooting or stabbing or driving gameplay like almost every other fucking game at E3, it was just a delivery man making his deliveries, as imagined by Kojima. And I especially disagree with the notion that the aesthetic 'looks lame'. Everything in that world looks so striking and instantly memorable to me, there is nothing else like it and I have a feeling I'm going to love the hell out of this no matter what shape the final gameplay takes. But I bet a lot of game reviewers and whatnot will give it bad scores, because they would love to be the one to frame this game as a massive disaster and tear down the 'Kojima myth' or whatever.

know a genuine magnetbox when I see one

Rorie burn was great. Also, super pumped for Spider-man.

I can't believe Jeff said RE2 remake isn't a big enough deal to put up on stage. I always assumed that's one of the most loved games of all-time.

I really liked this Sony show. It felt intimate and comfy. Microsoft had a big traditional E3 show, while Sony did something between Nintendo and Microsoft's scale. If this is all they have to work with, they did a pretty good job framing it all. I think the break was good, letting you reset mentally from Last of Us 2's grim nature.

Jeff looks good.

Mister Negative (the inverted colour, black and white guy from the Spider-man footage) isn't actually an original villain created for the game like Ben said, he's a more recent comic bad guy (well years old now he appeared after the whole One More Day arc but compared to the rest who show up) but not a new creation for this game.

I think the new villain is the one seen at the end of the trailer who isn't revealed to the viewer, though maybe he's a classic character turned villain judging by Spider-man's reaction. Anyway just a little correction for people.

Why was there a white guy in full rice farmer garb, who thought that was a good idea???

I will say that no matter the format of Sony's conference there are 100% more 1st party exclusives shown here that I'm getting than at Nintendo or Microsoft's conferences...Microsoft's show was basically, "Hey, here's some 3rd party games to play on your Ps4." I am sure the format will be different next year. They warned us weeks ago that the format would be experimental this year.

Thank God Destiny 2 didn't have a big thing on the stage. That game is such a dumpster fire, even within its community. I kind of hope they really do sell it off to Activision so a worthwhile developer can maybe do something with the franchise. Destiny 2 DLC looks exactly like what's come before. I don't even think I'm going to bother with whatever "Destiny 3" is.

I think its funny that the meme for Rick and Morty is "I'm not smart enough for this" when that is how I feel about Kojima half the time.

Mister Negative, in the Spider-Man game, is not an original villain...he's been a Spider-Man villain for like a decade now. The roster of the Sinister Six has ebbed and flowed with different members. I am willing to bet that Green Goblin is the mystery villain at the end as Norman Osborn is mayor in this game's universe and it seemed like the villain flew or hovered up (you can even see the flow from a booster or something). Curious if we'll have hero cameos as Avengers tower can be spotted in the game's open world. I am thoroughly excited for Spider-Man and its cool their DLC plans include more story and villains not featured in the main game.

That rorie joke was amazing.

I come to this site for jokes about Rorie's monitor.

The theater change was weird, but overall I think this was the best conference of E3. Lots of cool titles and some neat musical performances. Unfortunately it ended too suddenly, that was weird.

MS easily had the second best. It was so well paced, but I just don't think it had the powerhouse showcase that Sony did. Decent E3 this year!

I'm not sure it's "too early" for Death Stranding. I think Kojima just intentionally edited the trailer to be more reserved in terms of action (especially when Lindsey Wagner does not seem fond on all the intense violence in video games).

Ghosts of Tsushima looks cool generally. I think if the combat was a bit quicker and most exacting it could be really cool. Looks great too.

Vinny's joke was great.

The highlight for me was Last of Us 2 trailer. That place looks like a f**ked up place. Im glad Ellie is the protagonist.

Does Dan even follow video games? Half the game they speculate about he has no idea what they're talking about.

The press conference that broke Jeff Bakalar from ever wanting to attend another press conference.

Now that I have home internet I rewatched the conference above 144p, woohoo.

I don't like that Last of Us opener. We already know Ellie likes girls so it's not a shocking revelation and if they were trying to contrast Sweet Ellie and Murdering Ellie, it fell flat. I had the same response as Jeff. I'm not sure how many people disliked it because they are homophobic vs. thinking it felt obnoxious but I am in the second group.

Some subtlety would be appreciated. Gone Home didn't need to put a lesbian couple at the forefront and it made the reveal all the better because it happened "organically".

Agreed. People have always said Kojima is some kind of genius with Metal Gear, which I've always been indifferent on, but with this I actually see it. This game makes me feel something.

Could all be dispelled at release but in terms of build, it's amazing to me.

Or not!

So this utter shit show is how Sony finishes off their E3 appearances for all time? yeesh