Spider-Man, Metal Gear Solid, GaaS e indie

PlayStation Showcase on May 24 traced the future of the Sony console with many announcements related to new PS5 and PS VR2 games.

Antonio Izzo | 25/05/2023
GAME INFORMATION

Sony has not betrayed the very high expectations of the eve and inaugurated the gaming summer with a PlayStation Showcase full of announcements and with a few surprises, an event that outlined the future line-up of video games for PS5 and PlayStation VR2. During the 60 minutes of the broadcast we witnessed the reveal gameplay of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 passing through the announcement, rather phoned but always pleasant, of Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake.

Space for indies and third parties!

He thought about opening the dances Fairgames, the new game from Haven, Jade Raymond’s software house that joined PlayStation Studios last summer. The announcement trailer revealed little or nothing about the production, limiting itself to setting the tone of the experience and suggesting its multiplayer vocation, and then concluded by confirming the arrival of the game on PlayStation 5 and PC.After the dutiful greeting of Jim Ryan, CEO and President of Sony Interactive Entertainment, the turn of Arrowhead has arrived, who presented his Helldivers 2 for PS5 and PC to the world, which during 2023 will take the series into hitherto unexplored territories by adopting a third-person view behind the character. The gameplay was also the central pivot of the subsequent presentation of Immortals of Aveumfirst-person “magic shooter” from Ascendant Studios and EA Originals.

The gameplay video, surrounded by some cutscene clips, turned the spotlight on a production that appears to be in good shape and which appears to be confirmed for July 20, 2023. 505 Games and One More Level then joined the party with Ghostrunner 2 (here our preview of Ghostrunner 2), confirming the launch of production in 2023 and unveiling the new motorcycle that the cyber-swordsman protagonist will be able to ride to move even more quickly through the levels.

Downtime was no part of the PlayStation Showcase, which continued to churn out seamless video games. S-Game and Cruelman Studio contributed to the parade with Phantom Blade 0 for PlayStation 5, a new Unreal Engine 5 action game set in a dark fantasy version of ancient China. Completely opposite, in tone, the following Sword of the Sea for PS5, an evocative adventure that immediately betrays its genesis, having been created by the same visionary artists who gave birth to Abzu, The Pathless and Journey. The guys at Croteam instead have fished out one of their most celebrated IPs of recent years to give it a sequel in the form of The Talos Principle II. The stated goal of this first-person puzzle game is to expand on the philosophical themes and breathtaking environments of the first chapter with ever more intricate puzzles and challenges.

After the acclaimed GRIS, the Spanish studio Nomada returns to the scene with Neva, an action-adventure game that follows the artistic style of its predecessor but tells the story of a young woman and her life partner, a wolf, who embark on a perilous journey through a once beautiful but now falling world slowly to pieces. The wait won’t be short, since Neva is confirmed for 2024. From the seas it emerges Cat Quest: Pirates of the Purribeannew chapter in the feline series of The Gentlebros expected for 2024. This time the protagonists gift the feline-busters in a 2.5D open world that can be freely explored and teeming with pi-rats.

The first of the big third-party partners to take the field was Square Enix, but not with Final Fantasy 16 (that will come later) or some other big production, but with the extravagant Foamstars, a third-person shooter party that sees two teams for four players to battle each other with blows of foam. In addition to PlayStation 5, it will also see the light on PS4.

The time has come to follow The Plucky Squire by Devolver Digital and All Possibile Futures, a fairytale adventure coming in 2023 that sees Pennino and his friends travel back and forth between the 2D realm of their books and the three-dimensional realm outside of them. Voxels and destruction are instead the watchwords of Teardown by Saber Interactive and Tuxedo Labs, a heist game arriving in 2023 on PS5 in which you can literally pierce the walls and settings to create shortcuts and complete objectives.

An interesting second part

The first really big jolt of the evening was given to us by the announcement video of Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater Remakewhich after years of rumors and indiscretions has finally decided to reveal itself. This is, as easily imaginable, the remake of the third iconic chapter of the series created by Hideo Kojima, unfortunately the presentation did not give us either excerpts of gameplay or a launch window. On the other hand, it ended with the announcement of Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1, a collection including the original versions of Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty e Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater suitably converted for modern gaming platforms.

Instead we will have to wait until 2024 for Towers of Aghasbaan attempt by Dreamlit to revolutionize the genre of open world builder games by providing a fantasy island on which to freely give shape to one’s settlements and ecosystems.

Space then to a new trailer of Final Fantasy 16: the new chapter of the thirty-year saga of Square Enix has already shown itself far and wide in recent weeks, but it certainly could not skip the PlayStation Showcase, since the exclusive release on PS5 is now around the corner: between epic battles, wonderful glimpses and advances on history, the video reminds Sony users that the release is set for June 22, 2023.

Among the high points of the evening we would also like to include the presentation of Alan Wake 2: the new production of Remedy showed itself in all its splendor, marking the return of the dark and sick atmospheres that made the success of the first chapter, confirming the presence of a second playable character and revealing the release date, which corresponds to October 17, 2023. Not even the time to recover from the return of the cursed writer, that the turn of another confirmation has come, that of the release date of Assassin’s Creed Mirage: the new game of the long-lived saga of assassins will also arrive in the autumn, to be precise on October 12, 2023, on both PlayStation 5 and PS4. To mark the occasion, he also showed up in an extended gameplay trailer that showed Basim running, sneaking, and battling through the sunny, dusty streets of glittering ninth-century Baghdad.
After these large productions, the turn of Revenant Hill, new colorful adventure of The Glory Society, team already author of Night in the Woods. Set in 1919, it tells of the adventures of Twigs, a cat forced to move house after a fire destroyed his barn.

He quickly takes up residence in a log near an abandoned cemetery, but when the hill owl starts asking him for rent, he has to scramble to make ends meet. The PlayStation Showcase also hosted the big comeback of Granblue Fantasy Relinkaction RPG by CyGames which showed itself in an exciting gameplay video, also promising to arrive on the market in winter 2023 in a cross-gen version.

Street Fighter 6 took part in the party offering a focus on the story and its characters, putting aside for a while the blows already widely featured in past presentations and confirming the release for June 2nd. Space then to Hadoque and his ultros, a psychedelic sci-fi metroidvania set on the Sarcophagus, a giant cosmic womb floating in space and containing an ancient demonic being known as the Ultros. Teeming with life, this vast alien environment sports a quirky art style and a mystical soundtrack that can be enjoyed in 2024.

Long before that, in the summer of this year, it will finally land on PlayStation 4 and PS5 Tower of Fantasy, open world cyberpunk RPG available on PC since last October. Set hundreds of years in the future on the planet Aida, it has already captivated a huge number of players for its post-apocalyptic anime style. A welcome announcement that was the antechamber to one of the most awaited moments by fans of role-playing games, namely the presentation of the gameplay of Dragon’s Dogma 2 by Capcom. The production certainly appears in great shape, unfortunately the movie ended without revealing information about the release date.

After all these surprises, the turn of the segment dedicated to has finally arrived PlayStation VR2inaugurated with the announcement of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2due out at the end of 2023, and continued with the reveal of Resident Evil 4 Remake: VR Modea virtual reality mode that for the moment appears to be without a release date.

Vertigo Games has announced the zombie game Arizona Sunshine II, confirming it for 2023, while Smilegate has thrown itself into the fray with the tactical first person shooter Crossfire: Sierra Squad. The nDreams approach to the genre is different, offering a shooter with supernatural powers Synapse, to be released on July 4th. Space then to the well-known Beat Sabernow playable on PlayStation VR2.

The Grand Finale

Virtual Reality archived, Bungie presented to the world the first trailer Marathon, a sci-fi PvP shooter in development for PlayStation 5 and PC with full support for cross-play and cross-save.

Bungie itself then offered a taste of The Final Shape, the final expansion of the current narrative cycle of Destiny 2, which apparently will see the return of Cayde-6. The surprises continued with Concorda new multiplayer PvP FPS developed by Firewalk Studios and coming to PS5 and PC in 2024.The most awaited moment of the evening predictably arrived at the end, with the spectacular reveal del gameplay di Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Sony and Insomniac Games did not spare themselves, showing a long phase of the game, however they freed themselves without revealing a precise release date and making an appointment for gamers, once again, to a generic autumn 2023.