Another Day, another Showcase.
While Microsoft gave us five games with plenty of b-roll of developers, Sony stuck to their style of end-to-end trailers — nearly 30! — with a few talking head blurbs. Not everything was new, nor of interest to me, so I won’t go over every last trailer, but here’s what caught my eye.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
I was a Mega Drive kid, and Shinobi was a SEGA flagship both at home & in the arcades. To see a new entry with such great art, from the developers of Streets of Rage 4 — a favourite of mine from last year… Wow. August 29th can’t get here soon enough.
Lost Soul Aside
I said in my xbox video that we seem to be in a resurgent age of PS2&3 style character action games, but we also are in an ascendant age of such games from Chinese & Korean developers. Some people already gripe about there being too many of these, and them all looking the same, but I’m more optimistic: Chinese game dev in particular is growing from strength to strength, aping to some extent Japanese anime aesthetics, but I do see things them slowly finding their own identity.
Directive 8020
I wish I was enough of a horror fan to play Supermassive‘s games. The dev has been taking the notion of “interactive movies” forward from the cheesy FMV games era, and Directive 8020 looks to be more in my wheelhouse. Horror, sure, but with a science fiction backdrop. This might be the one of theirs that I end up playing.
The Midnight Walk
We’ve come so far from the days of Clayfighter & The Neverhood. The Midnight Walk is also made using stop-motion animation, but I guess that instead of photography they’ve 3D scanned in all the assets? Ridiculous.
(Also, extra marks for best studio logo)
Onimusha Way of the Sword
The resturn of PS2 vibes continues! The new Onimusha looks brilliant: Resident Evil 4 meets Kunitsu No Gami‘s organic horror art, and a sweet-spot camera angle for detailed swordplay. Bring it on!
Dreams of Another
I’m intrigued by this, and having the PixelJunk logo on it only furthers my thesis of the Ps2&3 era returning. Will it be good beyond its concept? Too early too tell.
Days Gone Remastered
I know people ask, “Why does this exist?” So do I, a bit, but I also keep seeing videos about how underrated Days Gone was, and I did enjoy the Horizon ZeroDawn remaster. They’re doing the same $10 upgrade plan, so grab a disc copy of Days Gone cheap now. If it gives an underrated game a second shot at glory, sure, why not?
Tides of Annihilation
Oh my, yes. I’m getting a ton of FF13 vibes from this, and as an uapologetic fan of that trilogy? Let’s go! Couple that with what looks to be Souls-like and DMC type action. Hope it isn’t years and years away.
Minds Eye
If this game gives off massive GTA vibes, its because it’s from a veteran of that series, Leslie Benzies. This game has apparently gone from total sandbox like Roblox to this, a single player game with equal parts cyberpunk and gta, and it sometimes does look a bit confused. Still, there’s enough here to keep me intrigued, though it’s going up against tough competition if gta 6 actually releases this year.
Saros
I don’t think that scifi bullet hell thing starring an Indian origin protagonist was on my 2025 bingo card, but here it is, it looks cool as hell with some of the imagery it’s invoking, and Housemarque don’t seem to be straying too for from their shooter roots. They say there will be gameplay later in the year. Let’s hope that is as surprising.
–In Conclusion
A solid State of Play from Sony this time, though it’s definitely more of the same. The Days Gone remaster is still and asterisk from me when the game runs fine & is available, while people clamor — and rightly so — for things like Bloodborne or even stuff stuck on PS3 like Killzone. But behemoths like Sony are like ocean liners; they take a while to turn, so likely what we’re seeing announced now is the results of decisions made years ago.
At least there weren’t a ton of new live service games.
-VKB