It’s the 21st century; let’s face it, everyone’s ahead with the technology. If one comes up and says that look, we’ve got the best of experience to give you, the other will definitely turn up and say, with our dualshock, you can do so much more. Hardware has never been a key ploy of the console makers to go into the future; of course they do form an integral part. With the motion that Xbox One set upon this E3, I’m proudly here to say, that my lifelong console brand Playstation, has caught up with the progress and has shown my part of this glorious future. But the console who ultimately wins is the one who caters to a mass amount of my gaming instincts with different offerings that superenhances my relationship with the console. Here’s not to hurt any console lover in particular, and especially not hurting Apple, who tried to shift the E3 spotlight to their brand new OS version. But to reason out how SCEA and Playstation won this year’s E3.
When the evening rolled out, I was so very stunned and scared to see the gameplay trailers of the Xbox Exclusives available for the One onwards later this year. And that included a jaw dropping return of Snake to the Metal Gear Solid series. I’ve passionately remained a Red Dead Redemption lover and the mechanics purely changed and bettered some aspects of the Wild West legend. That included horse riding and staying sharp during sandstorms. I’m a stealth freak, I love planning my moves before engaging, and MGS showed me exactly the thing – walking/crawling in shadows, dodging across plain sight and snapping necks. And for a second I let go of the ‘TV TV Call of Duty’ Xbox and saw them as probably an alternative to my gaming experience in the near future. If the game’s even half as good as the trailers look like, rest assured I’m going to miss out a bit.
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Having already played The Last Of Us, one of the GOTY nominees from the house of Naughty Dog, I was fascinated with how modern day gaming can do to heavy duty stuff like zombies and the infected. Coming straight down from a ripped apart USA, Xbox reveals the return of Dead Rising, with Dead Rising 3, easily the best gameplay that I’ve witnessed in the E3. This game, if it uses the right kind of mixture, will easily become one of the most enjoyable games on the console. Customising my sledge hammer by fitting a chainsaw, road killing millions of zombies, I mean this is where Next Gen says hello to you.
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With so much coming from Microsoft (did I forget mentioning a kickass Witcher return and a massively Olympian Ryse: Son of Rome?), who maybe found their direction after a rather disappointing product reveal last month. Their intention was quite clear in the E3, show games, show smooth engine, show even more games. And there was only one way for Sony to shut them off. Games, more games. Oh lord, this anxiety was almost killing me inside, and all I wanted was to quickly get over with the EA and Ubisoft conference. (no hard feelings there)
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The heart breaking point came when the rumours turned true, Insomniac studios have paired up with Xbox to do some exclusives, apart from delivering multi console titles. We know Insomniac for their new age and crazy arsenal, and I was sort of missing it this time by sticking to my Playstation.
The Sony/Playstation conference started off on a weird note. While previously, the people including the founding fathers of this console brand, emphasized on video games rather than TV and other entertainment as the biggest offering to a next gen console, they started PS4 with Sony Pictures and rent/own videos feature. To a Playstation lover, you cannot win a debate with which “gaming” console has the best “non gaming” features. And as I speculated it, Playstation was only building it up.
Enter the two obvious exclusive titles for the future console – Infamous: Second Son and Killzone: Shadow Fall. The two biggest exclusive blockbusters that Sony Playstation has to deliver, and boy, the game looked even better than their previous trailers. Just when the moment was right, Sony injected the adrenaline and a deliberate counter attack to Xbox’s Forza V in the form of Drive Club and Gran Turismo 6. Anyone who has been a fan of racing simulator game cannot bypass Gran Turismo for obvious reasons, and even though SCEA showed glimpses of cutscenes, it did look amazing. And it was only until I left the joypad in my hands that the mission would be accomplished. Rain and Beyond: Two Souls looks like the next GOTY focused exclusives from Sony. 2K’s NBA 14 looked more mature, and I’m sure will be a much more detailed engine led basketball game while EA’s dribbling through with the respawning of NBA Live.
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I’m not sure as to whether we are going to play God Of War on PS4 or will The Order completely take over the Next Gen console as Santa Monica (one of the most loyal and attractive third party partners to SCEA) prepares to draw a new dawning of man’s history. Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and Watch Dogs look as dashing as The Division looks, it seems that this is also the year of Ubisoft. The Order looks a bit co-op led, but I’m sure I’m just overreacting. PS4 showed a variety of indie games that are not only attractive but also scary, the next breed of Indie games are certainly going to pile up on my PS+ account.
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Till now, I was mere speculating on games, enter Sony Playstation with three major criteria:
· You can smartly log off from internet and play single player missions
· You can trade in your favourite games with your friends
· PS4 will hit the market at 100 dollars lesser than the Xbox One, at $ 399.
Bam! Three non-gaming title blows from the console that boasts of its wide range of games and user experience. To bring it in, I think this is where Sony reassures its audience that look, we are your friends. We don’t want you to sell your books and house to afford us, we will entertain you, the best old school way possible. Cloud computing will wipe out physical copies of games in the near future, but till all the major servers of the world are ready to take the charge, PS4 will guarantee its users to use and share preowned games. A school kid who was once gifted a certain PS4 title for his birthday can now exchange it + some cash for a new title, and the chain can go on. To add to this, servers will not cut you off from your gaming time. A gamer must game on, as long as he is connected via his/her controller. An always online mode will bring down his love and faith on single missions. And the best stories told via games often don’t need you online at all. The price is not a steep $ 499 like Xbox, and, it doesn’t end here. Xbox will charge you again for an online pass, and will need you to stay online even while you play single player missions. Some things are better off with minimal technology. Sony has understood this pretty well. Also, the fiasco that occurred around their PS3 launch has now served a better purpose, as Sony can now not only claim about their vast exclusive and multi-platform based games, but also the cheaper rate at which the user is getting to experiencing them. This will make that divide about 60 frames per second disappear completely, yet making games look as gorgeous and gigantic as the upcoming title that has surely caught my attention the most last night.
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For a long time, people have associated Sony Playstation as the multi-genre gaming platform, with offerings to all. However, days have changed, playing FPS games online have changed the course of gaming history. Sony has understood the heart at which they need to strike, the path lied through a historic partnership. That of Sony, Bungie (creators of Halo) and Activision (creators of Call of Duty). The game’s called Destiny, and it is surely in the path of rewriting my gaming destiny. I was mesmerized when Journey (that PS3 indie blockbuster) showed me how a game could transform a single player experience into a multiplayer/co-op mode. With Destiny, there is a sense of friendship that will overwhelm anything that comes its way, not to mention the master developers involved. This game was a counter reaction to the PC Xbox upcoming franchise Titanfall. And boy, this has already won my heart.
So as I expected last night, Sony has won my heart yet again, as hundreds gathered at E3 applauded their bold steps and the little boy inside me jumped with a ‘wooohooo’ at 8am in the morning! I was up all night to get this lucky.
Think I missed out on anything, or you have anything from Xbox to add, simply leave a comment below
