Thoughts On The Playstation Showcase

There was an awful lot of expectation surrounding the Playstation Showcase last night, but did it live up to the hype? We’ll find out below, but before that, if you haven’t watch the showcase yet you can do so here, otherwise read on.

So did the showcase deliver: in a short answer no, but let’s get into it. What Sony put forward last night was not a ‘bad’ event. It wasn’t short on games, and there wasn’t unwelcome intrusions into the presentation to talk about some uninteresting television show or insipid ‘internet-personality’ to draw time away from what these shows are supposed to be: games (exception of the Gran Turismo movie, which was a waste of time). That was the good, but there was plenty bad, and a little ugly in there too. First of all, where were the release dates? There were plenty of games but plenty lacking release dates, so even if you were looking forward to what was on display, you won’t know when you can pick any of them up. The choice of what games made up the showcase was a head-scratcher, with plenty of smaller titles making up what substance was in the showcase—the ‘bigger’ games were there, but there was no gameplay for most of them. What were some of those big games you ask?

Well the opener was Fairgame$ from Haven (don’t be mad at me, that’s how they decided to stylise the title), a game that looks to focuse on heists and features characters that wouldn’t be out of place in last Saints Row game, because who doesn’t want to take on the role of obnoxious college graduate? It probably isn’t a surprise but the game didn’t grab me; that might change after we get to a proper look at Fairgame$’ gameplay, but as it stands, the reason Sony felt compelled to purchase Haven remains a mystery.

Bungie made an appearance with Marathon, a ‘sci-fi PvP extraction shooter’ based on Marathon, the old FPS Bungie released back in 1994—no gameplay shown.

The big surprise of the night – if you managed to avoid the news online – was the remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater; great to see but no gameplay. What was a genuine surprise was the announcement of the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1. Master Collection will bring Metal Gear Solid 1, 2 and 3 to PS5, and probably everything else too. Again, no gameplay. At least the fact that this is Volume 1 means that there is almost certainly going to be more collections released, and that’s what the official website confirms with a ‘stay tuned for more’ message next to the three classic titles.

Insomiac was there with Spiderman 2, and that did have a substantial display of gameplay, was did Final Fantasy XVI, which is nice to see, but where Final Fantasy is concerned I think we’ve all seen enough already and just want the game in our hands. There as no demo announcement for FF 16, which was very strange.

And the highlight of the show had to be Dragon’s Dogma 2. As a firm fan of the original it’s great to see more big monsters, big spells and furious fights from Capcom’s best dragons and daggers title.

A couple of bright spots from smaller games included Ghostrunner 2, so you can dissect enemies upside-down while preparing dinner as a cyber-ninja (not the Yu-Gi-Oh kind), and Phantom Blade, for some grey-tinted sword swinging action.

The most interesting game had to Foamstars. If you think of Splatoon but replace the ink with foam you have some idea of what this game is. We still need more details, but the big shock is this game is coming from Square Enix!

Quite a few games there but so little substance; no gameplay from most, and no release dates either. Particularly when it comes to the first-party titles from Sony’s newish studios you need to ask the question: where’s the details? It’s hard to know if you should be excited for a game that you know so little about.

Then we come to PSVR 2. This had to be the muddy ditch of the showcase. Remember that Sony specifically mentioned PSVR 2 when announcing this showcase, so surely they had something to show, right? No. This is short and bitter. Sony had 5 games from PSVR 2; Arizona Sunshine 2, Beat Saber, Crossfire: Sierra Squad, Synapse and the big game: Resident Evil 4 VR. That’s right, Sony is offering 5 titles as the future of virtual reality gaming on Playstation, and the biggest selling point is a game that just had its ‘proper’ release a few months ago—hopes for Half-Life Alyx, or anything else for that matter, dashed. Virtual reality has a great deal of potential for a unique kind of fun in videogames, but on this evidence Sony isn’t the one to bring that about.

Oh and there was some new hardware that looked bad, aesthetically speaking. Previously leaked as ‘Project Q’, it’s basically a computer-tablet with buttons, and is to be used to stream your PS4/5 titles over WiFi.

There you go, a middling event that failed to deliver on what was probably a level of expectation that Sony was never going to be able to anyway. Quite a few games but not much about them to sink your teeth into, and that’s especially true of the games that it was most important we learned about: the first-party titles. Lukewarm at best, and disappointing for many.