What I’m Expecting Sony To Show At E3

Sony’s E3 Press Conference will be taking place on Wednesday June 14th at 11am. We’ve rounded up all of the Press Conference in Australian local time as well as where you can watch HERE. Press Start will be in attendance at E3 this year, bringing you all of the coverage live from LA.[divider] [/divider]

PLAYSTATION-VRExpect VR to also take front and center stage. Obviously in order to run a solid VR experience the framerate needs to be rock solid, and I fully expect the new PS4.5 to take advantage of it’s supposed upgrade to offer higher framerates for a more immersive experience. VR is only in it’s infancy, but you can bet Sony will jump on the opportunity to provide a solid virtual experience at an affordable price, as while the PC counterparts (HTC’s Vive and the Oculus Rift) are stronger technically, are much more expensive. Without doubt, we’ll see a confirmed launch lineup, with some well-known IPs taking centre stage. [divider] [/divider]
THE-LAST-GUARDIAN-E3More Last Guardian footage is always a plus, as the game is finally alive and kicking. While the hype has well and truly died for many, there are still diehard fans of Team ICO that will absolutely devour anything related to The Last Guardian, and as a personal fan of Shadow of the Colossus, I’m dying to see how they tackle their follow up. No, it won’t live up to years and years of hype, but it will no doubt be an interesting adventure. I’m fairly confident we’ll finally get a release date, which is a day that many people thought would never happen.[divider] [/divider]

horizon-zero-dawnHorizon: Zero Dawn is still bubbling away so expect another vertical slice from the Killzone developers in what will undoubtedly be a gorgeous looking game. I’m personally excited to see more of the title. It’s really good to see Guerrilla step away from Killzone and do something completely different. It was the game of the show for many people last year, so it’ll no doubt be even bigger and better at this year’s show. I’m still doubtful that it will release in 2016.[divider] [/divider]

PS4.5The much touted PS4.5 is almost a guarantee at this point and I fully expect Sony to showcase the so called upgrade to the original PS4, with concrete specs and prices.

Let’s get this straight: no, it will not be playing games at 4K. GPU’s that output at 4K are still exceedingly expensive. Usually to output at 4K with a solid framerate requires not just one, but two GPU’s with at least 4GB of video memory per card if you’re looking at lower end cards (780TI+), and nothing under a Nvidia Titan if running a single GPU. Considering this, the costs of the GPU’s alone would amount to over $1000, something that Sony is just not prepared to take in loss if they aim to sell a 4K console at a reasonable price.

No, by 4K I personally believe that Sony aim to push streaming services to a 4K resolution. It makes sense given the current trend of higher resolutions and 4K displays becoming more popular (and slightly cheaper as time goes on), but it will obviously contain slightly stronger specs in order to push better graphics. No, we’re not talking 4K gaming, but we are talking higher framerates and sharper graphics. Where a game on the PS4 may only run at 900p at 30fps, the 4.5 could run the same game 1080p at 60fps. While giving a better gaming experience, it’s clear Sony don’t want to fracture the market by making the 4.5 a complete upgrade, so no doubt they will both be able to run the exact same games, unlike Nintendo’s implementation of the New 3DS, which has exclusive games.

Giant Bomb has already provided a supposed leak of the specs, which contain eight 2.1GHZ AMD Jaguar CPU Cores and 8GB of GDDR5. To put that in perspective, the original PS4 has 8 cores only running at 1.6GHZ. Expect also a upgrade to the GPU, as the PS4 is running an unspecified AMD Radeon, but closely resembling an AMD HD 7870 or Nvidia 660, and insiders suggest an upgrade to an Improved AMD GCN[divider] [/divider]

DREAMSDreams is the next game in the evolution of Media Molecule. We know that the game will once again focus on content created by players. Unfortunately, Sack Boy won’t feature in this game at all with players this time controlling an IMP which is used to interact with the games world. The concept looks incredibly unique and interesting, but many have slammed it for being a little too abstract. I can definitely see potential, and Media Molecule always find a way to pull together a really cohesive final product. I don’t think we’ll see this game releasing in 2016, but we’ll definitely get a lot more information.[divider] [/divider]

CRASH-BANDICOOTObviously I couldn’t write this article without at least mentioning Crash Bandicoot. It’s been hinted at time, and time again with Shaun Layden wearing a Crash shirt at the last PSX, and other tweets here and there. The biggest tease recently being in Uncharted 4, which at least tells me that Sony and Activision have discussed the possibility of bringing Crash back. I can’t see a new Crash Bandicoot game being announced, especially one being developed by Naughty Dog, but I think that there’s no better time than now to release a remastered collection of the original game, or trilogy. 2016 celebrates 20 years since the original Crash Bandicoot releasing.[divider] [/divider]

GOD-OF-WARIn 2014, SCE Santa Monica’s Creative Director revealed that a new God Of War was in development. Earlier this year it was leaked throughout concept art that the game would feature Kratos, but in the world of Norse mythology. I think that Sony will reveal a new God Of War game at E3. I’m hyped, but also cautious. God Of War games haven’t advanced too much in terms of gameplay mechanics. Hopefully a totally new scene would breathe a new life into the series, but I’m extremely worried that they’ll play it safe.[divider] [/divider]

CALL-OF-DUTY-INFINITY-WARFAREWith Call of Duty throwing it’s ring into Sony’s corner, expect a hefty chunk of Infinite Warfare to show up. Like every single Call of Duty before it, expect a short gameplay level with scripted events, most likely a bombastic explosion and on rails segment, with a small teaser of the new space mechanics. Also expect a bit of COD4 remastered to pop up, as that’s the real game people are excited for.[divider] [/divider]

DESTINY-EXPANSIONRumours of Destiny’s next expansion is reaching boiling point, and with a leaked poster it looks all but confirmed that Bungie’s work will show up at E3. While vanilla Destiny was met with a mediocre response, it looks like The Taken King has satisfied a lot of fans, so Bungie will obviously want to take a careful approach to the next expansion. Hopefully “Rise of Iron” will be a step forward.[divider] [/divider]

THE-RESTOf course, that leaves the big guns for last. Very little has been heard about Shenmue 3, after one of the most baffling Kickstarter programs to exist, so fingers crossed we see some actual footage from the game. And of course, Final Fantasy VII Remake. While backlash has come up due to the episodic nature of FFVII, no one can deny being excited to replay this absolute gem of a JRPG, with updated graphics and gameplay.

I also expect that we’ll see a large focus on indie titles, which have done well for Sony in recent years. It’s safe to say that we won’t see any mention of the Vita. [divider] [/divider]

Whatever it is, Sony need to keep their presentation focused and fun. Letting it get bogged down with PS4.5 and VR will ultimately kill the vibe that E3 2015 established so well, so it’ll be interesting to see how Sony will balance the technical with the fun.