On May 9th, Sony had their 2nd “State of Play” livestream in order to entice players to look forward to upcoming games as well as new content for current games. After the feedback Sony received from their first State of Play being overwhelmingly negative, it appears they took a somewhat different approach on what to present this time around. For example, it was much shorter than the previous State of Play, at almost half the length.
As an opener, Capcom revealed new content for Monster Hunter: World. Known as the “Iceborne” expansion this icy update will be coming September 6th of this year. It will include new story elements, as well as new and returning monsters. While their previous content that included new monsters and such were free, the Iceborne will be a large expansion and sold separately for $39.99. While that might be a little disheartening to Monster Hunter players, this is likely the approach they’re taking instead of simply re-releasing the game with new and changed content, making players purchase the game a second time, which was their more typical practice.
Next is a pixel-styled 3D isometric dungeon crawler known as Riverbond. The visuals seem very similar to 3D Dot Game Heroes, a Playstation 3 exclusive game from 2010. Gameplay looks very simple and quick-to-the action and includes 4-player co-op. It will also feature an array of indie game guests including Shovel Knight, Juan from Guacamelee, and the protagonist from Bastion.
Riverbond is expected to release this Summer digitally on PS4.
Interestingly, Sony appears to be publishing a new game based on the Predator film series known as Predator: Hunting Grounds. While the teaser did not show actual gameplay, they confirmed it will be an asymmetrical shooter with online multiplayer.
To be honest, it seems a bit strange that Sony is acting as first-party publishers for a game based on a movie series, something they have not done in many years.
Sony is finally ready to show off more of the Medievil remake for Playstation 4 – a game they teased back in December of 2017. Not only did they show off much more gameplay and story elements, but they also confirmed the launch date of October 25th 2019.
What better time to play a remake featuring one of the spookiest protagonists in video game history?! The original Playstation title was a very fun and charming action platformer, and it did receive a remake on PSP, but the reception was fairly low, due to the many changes made by the mostly-new team behind it. All in all, it was a disappointing experience.
With the recent remakes of Playstation classics such as the Crash and Spyro trilogies walking the line of remaining faithful and making quality-of-life changes/adding new content, I am hoping they don’t forget the essence of the original Medievil that made it so great.
Next up, they revealed a brand new survival game known as “Away”, in which you play as a Sugar Glider who tries to survive an environment full of various creatures, including its predators. Unlike Tokyo Jungle, it appears much more grounded in reality regarding its gameplay and mechanics. And, of course, it appears the Sugar Glider is the only playable character. No release date was confirmed.
The State of Play stream also briefly revealed a limited edition “Days of Play” PS4 console in a slick steel gray motif, due out in June of this year.
The announcements so far have been arguably more interesting than last month’s State of Play, but nothing particularly groundbreaking. However, they saved the best for last as they revealed a brand new gameplay trailer for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII remake. A project they announced about 4 years ago.
Before this, many fans feared of its quiet cancelation, due to reported issues with its development according to the director, as well as Square Enix expressing budgetary issues that lead to Final Fantasy XV’s remaining DLC to be canceled.
People were sure that the remake was part of the casualties. Of course, that is officially not the case! This is more of a teaser, as Square Enix will be ready to let the world know even more about the project at E3 this year. However, fans are now expressing other concerns about the game, such as the combat mechanics and design. After all, it is clearly one of the many changes being made for this remake.
Fans are also not sure about their intent to make it episodic which is assumed to be 3 separate episodes to represent each disc of the original game. Many are holding out for this to be a faithful remake to the original Playstation classic, but only time will tell.
All in all, this State of Play might have been much shorter than the previous, but overall it had more interesting announcements to make. The big one being Final Fantasy VII, which shows they put more care into having something truly enticing for its viewers, and the overall feedback has been considerably kinder this time around. If future State of Play live streams keep this trend going, then PlayStation fans should be in good hands!
