PlayStation Experience 2017 Recap

Published: December 9, 2017 2:20 AM /

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PlayStation Expo 2017 Header

For what is the first time in a very long time Sony got the show started on time.

We opened up with a sizzle reel, showing off some of the upcoming PlayStation 4 games, along with some recent releases. Among the games shown included God of War, Concrete Genie, Guacamelee 2!, and Days Gone. PlayStation VR also got its own section of the sizzle reel which showed off titles like Farpoint, Moss, Blood & Truth, and SUPERHOT VR.

Once the sizzle real ended Shawn Layden and Sid Shuman took the stage. The two made fun of the excess of couches on the stage, and also mentioned some of 2017's PlayStation 4 highlights such as Horizon: Zero Dawn and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. They then spent time talking about some of the weird things you can do on the show floor, like climb up a colossus from Shadow of the Colossus and stab the beast.

Finally, we got the first reveal, with a new PlayStation VR game called Firewall Zero Hour. The game is a first-person shooter being developed by First Contact Entertainment. The game is a 4v4 tactical shooter where you play attack and defend with various teams. Following that we had a second PSVR announcement with The Last Guardian VR Demo, which has part of The Last Guardian but in VR now. It's going to be a free standalone game that has about 15 - 20 minutes of gameplay. It will come out December 12th.

The third PSVR announcement came with a trailer this time, with Wipeout VR Omega Collection. A new version of the Wipeout Omega Collection released earlier this year, this will be an update to the original game that puts the entire game in VR. It will come out early 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StUMAuqkWXQ

Following that they brought in Herman Hulst, from Guerilla Games to talk about Horizon: Zero Dawn. He talked about some of his experience with both the main game and The Frozen Wilds, the latter of which they only started working on the week after the main game came out. He also talked about how impressed he was with the fans of Horizon and especially their Aloy cosplayers. The conversation then shifted to talking about single player experience and how important it is to continue to bring them.

Switching gears Cory Barlog took to the stage to talk about God Of War. Cory said they have just finished up the playtesting phase and that God of War will be between 25 - 35 hours long. The subject shifted to the gameplay footage that was shown off at the Paris Games Week, which Barlog talked about. He noted that the kid's talking wasn't finalized yet and they would be toning it down. Furthermore, he mentioned that environmental attacks would be more of a focus this time around. In reference to the area shown in the trailer, Barlog explained it was not part of the story, but rather just a little area that can be found through exploration. He also explained that the jump-scare creature at the end of the trailer is a Revenant, a magic user who has lost their humanity.

Next up was Dreams, with Siobhan Reddy from Media Molecule here to talk. She called Dreams the next step of their "Play. Create. Share." plan for games, this philosophy is continuing from LittleBigPlanet. She noted everything from the trailer shown during the Game Awards was made with the in-game tools. She also talked about the story mode, which will have you jumping through dreams that have different looks and gameplay styles. At the current time, there's a sci-fi dream, a film noir dream that plays like a point and click adventure, and a dream based on a kid's fantasy. She's brought up examples of people being able to make RPGs or racing games using their tools. She also confirmed Dreams would release in 2018 but with no specific date. There will also be a beta before launch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxVLwiDf-ZA

Next, there was a decision that there was too much talking, so a "fun game to play with friends". After rejecting Overcooked they settled on Detroit: Become Human. Guillaume de Fondaumière from Quantic Dream showed up now. They mentioned how a couple years ago they played Until Dawn on stage and people yelled out choices, so they were going to do something similar here. Before that, though Guillaume talked about how the game originally started as a short video called Kara. He said you would be playing as three androids in the game: Kara, Marcus, and Conner. Each android has a unique backstory and place in society.

Now they had Guillaume play the "hostage scene", the first scene in the game where you're introduced to Conner. You'll be attempting to save a girl who was taken hostage by an android experiencing abnormal behaviors. The first decision the crowd made was to save the fish that was knocked out of the fish tank, which will be an action that has consequences apparently. We learned that each character has special abilities, and Conners can investigate situations and recreate scenes. Everything he investigates allows him to increase the probability of the success of saving the hostage, or decrease if he makes the wrong decisions. After they gathered evidence Conner approached Daniel, and ultimately was able to kill him and save the kid, ending the demo. After the demo ended Guillaume noted there were "many ways" that the demo could have ended, including talking Daniel out of it or failing and the kid dying. Detroit: Become Human will come out in Spring 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RIaU9kpA8Q

We then moved onto new game trailers. We got to see Donut County, a game where you play as a hole that wanders around and picks up objects to grow bigger. After that was another PSVR game. It showed off two dolphins swimming around underwater, exploring ruined cities. The game was called Jupiter & Mars. Next up we got to see 2D crossover fighting game Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, which sees various anime fighting game franchises fight each other. We got another look at Soul Calibur IV, showing Mitsarugi and Sopheita fighting. After their battle, we learned the game will be launching in 2018, with no specific date.

Next up was Monster Hunter World, which showed some story elements and cutscenes from the game. We also got to see some absurdly giant monsters that required cannons and ballista to take down. There was also a skydiving cat, which seemed important? Also, we learned that Palico will be able to dress up as a blocky Megaman, because who doesn't love Megaman?

Now Andrew House and Mark Cerny took the stage. Andrew House talked about how he was retiring soon but considered the creating of Sony Interactive Entertainment to be the achievement worth leaving on. There was a promise that a "special guest" wanted to talk to House, but first, they had to show a trailer. We then got to see the Death Stranding trailer from The Game Awards a second time, which was actually okay with me. Once the trailer ended Hideo Kojima took the stage.

Andrew then talked about how he met Hideo. Someone stole Kojima's code and Andrew had to be the one who told him. The subject then turned to Death Stranding. Kojima noted the trailer was running real-time on the PlayStation 4 Pro. He also noted the second half of the trailer, where Norman Reedus was underwater, was actually playable. They also gave a shout out to Guerrilla Games for making the engine that Death Stranding is running on.

Finally, we got one last announcement. There was the revelation that Medievil would be getting a new chance at life. While the trailer didn't show much, we did at least learn that Medievil will be remastered in 4K for the PlayStation 4 and that more information will come soon. It still is to be seen if it will be a remaster or a remake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMSI7nS2z-g

With that the conference closed out, leading to the game show itself.

Are you interested in any of the announcements? Going to get any of the games? Not interested in the show? Let us know in the comments!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


Samuel Guglielmo TechRaptor
| Reviews Editor

I'm Sam. I have been playing video games since my parents brought home a PlayStation whenever that came out. Started writing for TechRaptor for 2016 and,… More about Samuel