Recap: Sony E3 2015 Conference

Published: June 15, 2015 11:40 PM /

By:


E3 2015 SONY

Sony started the show with a montage of both first and third party games showing on their curved stage screen. Shawn Layden came out to speak of the PlayStation 4's successes. This transitioned into a demo for The Last Guardian. Yes, that The Last Guardian. You play as a small boy commanding the titular Guardian, a winged dog beast. You navigate on rickety wooden structures while climbing on the Guardian's back and having him carry you across gaps. It's a beautiful game, and there is a stark contrast between the design of the protagonist and the beast. The Last Guardian is now scheduled for 2016.

The Last Guardian DogAfter the show starting showstopper, Hermen Hulst from Guerrilla Games came on stage to introduce Horizon: Zero Dawn. Shots of naturalistic vistas were narrated over by a female speaking of hunting and new life. Transitioning into a demo, a female with a bow and arrow sneaks up on a robotic scout. Stabbed through the leg, our hero moves forward and cowers as dinosaur sized bots marched by. The humans seem primitive, but are equipped with electrified arrows and mechanical crossbows. Definitely a bit of a Monster Hunter vibe here.

Next, Agent 47 returns in a trailer for the new Hitman. Highly stylized with a pounding soundtrack, but no gameplay to show there. A beta and six PlayStation exclusive missions are announced. After that, Street Fighter 5 is shown. Birdie and Cammy are announced as returning characters and are shown fighting on a new London stage.

No Man's Sky returns to the Sony stage. Sean Murray shows off a brief glimpse of space combat. He again promises an infinite number of planets before warping to a random location. Exploration is shown, as well as fully destructive elements. Sentinel robots are shown to fight against the explorers, and the goal seems to be to discover new things in the galaxy. For what it's worth, I think I finally get what the appeal of No Man's Sky is.

No Man's SkyMedia Molecule is next with Dreams. The game lets players sketch characters and objects using tilt controls from the DualShock 4. You can control your creations like a marionette, also with motion controls. As the title suggests, a very trippy experience. Firewatch comes on with a humorous gameplay demo that showcases first person survival and dialogue over a radio. Seems like a story driven experience.

Destiny has a new expansion called The Taken King. It was shown as coming in a retail package, which would be different for what was considered to be DLC. Another trailer for Assassin's Creed Syndicate comes on next, this time focusing on the new female protagonist. Content for both of these games will be exclusive to PlayStation consoles.

A new Final Fantasy starring chibi versions of familiar characters is premiered. Called World of Final Fantasy, it comes to Playstation 4 and Vita in 2016. Not many gameplay details were revealed, but the Final Fantasy news wasn't over. The long demanded Final Fantasy 7 Remake was shown, with full HD graphics and vocal narration. It's coming to PS4 first according to the trailer.

Devolver Digital has a gameplay showcase with RONIN, EITR, and Mother Russia Bleeds. Then, Adam Boyes revealed a trailer for Shenmue 3's new KickStarter. Yu Suzuki took the stage for a countdown to the start of their funding. The goal for the game is $2 million, and I have a feeling it will be funded pretty quickly if the site can stay online.

final fantasy vii remake

Next, a video of The Joker's corpse burning was shown. In theory, this is supposed to be an ad for Batman: Arkham Knight, which is out next week. First person gameplay as a cop is shown quickly before he is attacked by Scarecrow. This was from one of the PlayStation exclusive Scarecrow missions.

Andrew House comes to the stage to talk about Project Morpheus. Several previously revealed games and demos are shown as he speaks about the VR device. PlayStation Vue is discussed, with new offerings from Showtime, Machinima and Fox Soccer. This went into a discussion of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. Mark Lamia from Treyarch came out to introduce a gameplay demo from the co-op campaign and multiplayer, and DLC maps will be coming first to PlayStation.

After a long montage of Playstation 4 games, John Vignocchi took the stage to talk about Star Wars joining Disney Infinity. Two playsets are talked about, one from each era of Star Wars movies. This goes into Star Wars Battlefront, with a demo similar to what was shown earlier in the day, only with a horde mode taking place on a desert world.

The show closed with an Uncharted demo. A Thief's End had a rough start, but eventually started a firefight between Nathan Drake and a platoon of tanks and soldiers. You race through the market and a construction site in a jeep. The game looks impressive graphically and seems to play similarly to past titles in the franchise.

That's it for Sony and the first big day of E3. Are you amazed that Shenmue, Final Fantasy, and The Last Guardian shared the stage? Answer in the comments below!

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


Alex Santa Maria TechRaptor
| Staff Writer

Alex Santa Maria is TechRaptor's former Reviews Editor (2015-2020) and current occasional critic. Joining the site early in its life, Alex grew the review… More about Alex