Cognition Dissemination: The Stand-Out Games from the PlayStation Showcase 2023

Today’s PlayStation Presents stream from Sony was the closest we’ll get to an E3 conference. We are now close enough to the time period where hardware manufacturers would have put on shows close to each other, but Sony pulled back from the Entertainment Software Association-organized trade event shortly before the event was largely put to bed itself. But that’s not stopping companies from continuing to provide shows during this time, when the online gaming audience still expects video game reveals and announcements to be made. This was Sony’s attempt to outdo all of them by going first, thus kicking off the season.

Anyone who’s read this blog over the years, perhaps around two of you outside the staff, might remember when I made posts running down all the announcements made during these events. But a vicious combination of diminishing free time and my lack of interest in typing long posts few will read (I’ll let you guess the larger factor there) led to me phasing those out. Thus, I’d simply like to talk about the cool stuff that stuck out to me, yours truly.

Fairgames$ got the benefit of being the first game shown in the presentation, the game that will remain on the minds of the gaming audience who tuned in for… a few weeks, I think. The name sounding like Gamer Lingo will help. I’m not personally interested in a Player vs. Player heist game, but it’s neat that Haven Studios, Jade Raymond’s new company following her stint at EA Motive, has quickly announced the project they’re working on not long after being acquired by the PlayStation brand.

Phantom Blade Zero was the first title that stuck out to me, a person who’s always been interested in samurai settings, especially in video game form. I’m not familiar with developer S-Game, and the gameplay itself looked a little scripted, but it was enough to keep the game on my radar. Perhaps this is a sign that we truly are living in a new renaissance of samurai games.

I’m very interested in Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, the awkwardly-named and long-rumored remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, though I’m not anticipating it just yet. The looming concern is whether the new development team inside or outside publisher Konami responsible can create an experience that lives up to the original, one that was suffused with creator and director Hideo Kojima’s unique touch.

The name is one thing, but the trailer itself didn’t come close to exhibiting to unique vibe of anything from Kojima. Previous Metal Gear experiences like Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, the Silicon Knights-developed remake of the first game, and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops have shown how important the director is to crafting the experience when it comes to gameplay design, character dialogue, and the overall direction. I’m rooting for the development team, because I want to see the franchise make a return. But I’ll be skeptical of its quality until the day it releases.

It’s neat, meanwhile, that the first three Metal Gear Solid games are being assembled for a collection. It’s even more interesting that it’s being called “Vol. 1,” which implies that there’s more to come. Perhaps Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be freed of the PlayStation 3 jail it’s remained in for almost exactly 15 years now.

Dragon’s Dogma II is another title I’m very interested in, one of the best presentations from the showcase solely because a solid amount of gameplay was shown. That gameplay, notably, looked very reminiscent of the first game, as did the endearingly cheesy voicework. It looks to be a good time, though the release date is evidently so far off that many of us who’ve had Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen in their backlogs for years on end will actually have time to finish it. I know I’m not referring only to me there.

Foamstars is another game that stuck out to me that I’m not that interested in playing. But I’m mentioning it here because a Splatoon-style multiplayer vs. game with a colorful aesthetic isn’t what I expected for a new Square Enix project. The company’s history with games like these is inconsistent, but I’ll say one positive thing: This already has more going for it than the cancelled Gun Loco. Hopefully it turns out well for them.

The same applies to Marathon, mainly because I’ve always been interested in the original first-person sci-fi game from Bungie. This, however, is something very different, and I’ve already seen plenty of comments from fans of the original upset about this one being a multiplayer extraction game instead. Talk about an in-name-only successor, huh?

I’m also deeply interested in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, even though the gameplay shown looked remarkably similar to its predecessor with minor upgrades. Don’t take that as a complaint. Those upgrades will be solid, though, in terms of gameplay, including Peter Parker being absorbed by the symbiote and seamless transitioning between Parker himself and Miles Morales. It’s coming this fall, so I’ll be upset when I won’t have a PlayStation 5 in time for its release.

In a true sign of me getting old, it was the indie games that stuck out to me the most. Sword of the Sea, from designers responsible for Journey (which our own Angela streamed), looks great, as do Neva, Cat Quest: Pirates of the Purribean, and Revenant Hill. I’m sure these games will eventually be on every platform under the sun, and will likely release before most AAA games shown.

Sony also came with a hardware announcement. A light one. Project Q is a handheld streaming device that can play PlayStation 5 games through remote play. It’s clearly not a direct successor to the PlayStation Vita, nor will Sony ever make such a platform. But if you read those details and thought this sounded a lot like the Wii U and its Game Pad, you’re not alone. I can imagine a group of engineers at Nintendo looking at this with their jaws hanging down, perhaps a sign that they were simply too early to the party in 2012. The name implies that it’s only in the conceptual stages, which is fortunate because it’s hardly aesthetically pleasing. The final design and the price will determine how successful it will or won’t be.

The most interesting aspect of this show, outside the games themselves, is how the biggest showcases and reveals here were for multiplatform titles, a fact that Xbox social media accounts made sure to highlight. That’s good for the gaming audience who play on multiple platforms, but it implies that Sony’s first-party offerings for PS5 are taking time to cook. It also doesn’t make for the best Sony-centric presentation, as the exclusives tend to be the largest focus. There were high expectations for this considering the E3 season it was held in, but the result was fine enough. There wasn’t much that made me want to get three jobs to obtain a PS5 in the near future.