Here's a Rundown of Everything at Sony's State of Play [08/07/2021]

PlayStation stopped holding its own E3 showcase or even attending the Expo in 2019. And honestly, even if ResetEra might try to convince you otherwise, the corporation couldn’t have chosen a better time. When the pandemic struck every other publisher and Microsoft were forced to follow in the footsteps of Nintendo and Sony and start showing all their games via online livestreams.

Despite this head start, there has been a prevailing reaction following almost every State of Play somewhere between mild indifference and slight disappointment. We have had moments of greatness, the first Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart demo and the announcement of Final Fantasy XVI come to mind, but most of these streams feel like early Nintendo Directs. The best way to describe most of them was that someone was told to scrape together enough trailers to warrant a livestream with no care for pacing and none of the bravado of Sony’s previous live E3 press conferences.

So with Sony having been extremely quiet this year, E3 having come and gone and a lot of announced big-name games still MIA how did this State of Play shape up?

Moss Book II

Starting off with a delightful surprise was Polyarc with the unexpected announcement of a sequel to its 2018 VR hit Moss. The first game slightly overshadowed the release of the fantastic Astro Bot: Rescue Mission on PSVR months later (however it did find a second life on Oculus Rift four months later). The trailer itself was lovely and teased more action than the first game with Quill picking up a cool looking sword.

Could we get a game where Quill just hangs out and vibes with me?

It was a little strange that Sony was showing a PSVR game when the only way to currently use a VR headset on a PS5 is via a free adapter you have to request directly from  PlayStation’s website. However, it does prove that we might be closer to a new peripheral than we thought when Jim Ryan stated, “We’re making a completely new VR format for PS5”.  

No release date was announced, however, one imagines that it will definitely be on PS5, maybe PS4 and likely PC or Oculus sometime later.

Arcadegeddon

Illphnic, the team behind the ill-fated Friday the 13: The Game and less stricken but still limited by IP-holder strife, Predator: Hunting Grounds, both announced and released its new Early Access game at the State of Play. Maybe somewhat wisely this new game is owned wholey by the studio, with no movie studios getting final say on what cosmetics might be included. Arcadegeddon is a loot-based, four-player, co-op shooter where players work together to kill monsters, gear up and keep their local arcade open.

Arcadegeddon certainly doesn’t look bad just very familiar.

In their PlayStation Blog announcement the Head of Creative & Design at Illfonic, Jared Gerritzen, cited The Muppets, Gorillaz and 90s punk rock as some of the games core influences. The trailer itself while striking but also felt like a lot of multiplayer, co-op shooter we saw at E3 this year.

Only time will tell if this game has the legs to become the next Borderlands or if it too will be lost in the shuffle. Arcadegeddon is playable now in Early Access on PS4, PS5 and the Epic Game Store.

Ok this looks really freaking cool.

Tribes of Midgard

The Gearbox published Tribes of Midgard continued its streak of being at what feels like almost every direct-style video game livestream this Summer. However we do have to admit that the lastest trailer for Norse-mythology infused game has us much more interested than anything shown at The Summer Games Fest or Gearbox E3 livestream. 

We now know that Norsfell’s first game is very Diablo-inspired to put it lightly. However, there were several mentions of more survival-based elements layered into this action-RPG and the one skill tree we saw for the Wolf Sage seemed much more straightforward than anything in Diablo or Path of Exile. The first swath of post-release content was also shown off, including the interesting sounding multipart missions called Saga Quests, which appear to offer an end in an endgame level challenge. 

Tribe of Midgard is dropping on PS4, PS5, Xbox One (forwards compatible with Series X|S) and PC on July 27th. 

Pretty unfair that there is now a bunny that is cooler than I could ever hope to be…

F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch

What can only be described as the best, worst, best named game of the show was F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch. This game, from Shanghai-based TiGames, is the tenth game to be published by Chinese mega-corporation/basically Google.

YEAH BUNNT BOI BEAT THE *&%! OUTTA THAT… thing!

Despite TiGames having only previously developed one VR game, F.I.S.T. looks really interesting. It is being pitched as a 2D Metroidvania with “intense combat and challenging platforming” and as rote as that sounds the unique look of the game has us very interested. Landing somewhere between Mutant: Year Zero and Biomutant in style, F.I.S.T. stars a near photorealistic 3D modelled rabbit with an industrial robot arm on its back sidescrolling their way through a cyberpunk world.

We don’t know much else about the game other than that it is launching on PS4, PS5 and Steam.

I pinkie swear this game is set in an ancient fantasy East Asia.

Hunters Arena: Legends

This 3rd-person, fantasy Battle Royale launched on Steam in Early Access in July of 2020 to “mixed” reviews. However, South Korean studio, Mantisco, is now partnering with PlayStation to bring the game to PlayStation 4 and 5 this August as one of that month’s free PS Plus games.

The game looks unique in a crowded genre but it was certainly a choice to spend a sizable chunk of its trailer dedicated to the fact that Hunters Arena: Legends includes both Solo and Trios modes. Also, if we are being harsh, the distinctive East Asian aesthetic somewhat lost its edge when the game's ridiculous modern, neon cosmetics were shown off. 

SIFU

First announced at the first PlayStation 5 State of Play, SIFU is still a show-stealer. As the second game from Sloclap, this game seems to be a fantastic variation on Absolver’s. the studio first game, and its themes.

OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OUCH! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!

Out is the souls-esque vague story and Journey inspired progression/online features and in is a gritty modern kung fu thriller narrative and a rogue-lite ageing system that is yet to be fully explained. One thing that most certainly remains in the bone-crunching, deep martial arts combat and an evocative artstyle.

Sadly the game has been pushed from sometime this year to “Early 2022”, on PS4, PS5 and the Epic Game Store. 

To be honest though, we’re more than happy to wait as long as Sloclap keep uploading badass gifs of the main character beating the ever-loving crap out of goons in art galleries to Twitter.

Its been 10 years since Swords and Sworcery EP and if this game is half as interesting as that one, we are in for a treat.

Jett: The Far Shore

We’re going to be honest, after the first trailer for JETT: The Far Shore we had no idea what the hell this game was going to be. All we knew was Superbrothers were making their first new game in 10 years and the soundtrack was being worked on by the ever eerie scntfc. That was more than enough to make us want to sign up for whatever this interstellar journey wound up being. Now, after the game’s second trailer, we know a lot of what the game will feature and we still have no idea what this game is…

Whatever Jett ends up being, I don’t think it will be quite what anyone is expecting.

Surreal and ethereal was the order of the day, as you play as May an astronaut/adventurer/traveller(?) searching for a new home to settle with a crew of “aviator scientists”. The game is said to be focusing on the motion of your spaceship and “[the creator’s] feeling of awe when we look up at the starry sky”. JETT will also feature first-person exploration, a look at May’s and the crew’s anxieties of space travel in dream sequences and a distinct lack of combat, according to the developers.

Despite two minutes of gameplay being shown, your guess is as good as ours when it comes to the player's goal. However, that only makes us want to discover what JETT is when it releases on PS4, PS5 and PC sometime this year.

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles

Despite the next two games in the show being a Yakuza game and an extended version of Death Stranding this was the most anime games shown at the State of Play by a country mile. 

I honestly have no idea what was going on in that trailer…

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles is being developed by purveyors of many an anime adaptation, CyberConnect2, and will be published by Sega in the west.

 As you would expect, the trailer for the game based off the hit shonen manga (and multimedia property) was extremely stylised featuring plenty of one-on-one combat with suitably creepy demons. It was somewhat hilarious that there was a lot of voice samples from characters in the game playing over the footage with little rhyme or reason, especially because their audio was mixed way louder than anything else being shown. But that doesn’t really matter, this game has a built-in audience and it is just trying to appease them. We’ll find out if it can do just that on the 15th of October on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

God, I wish my hair was nearly as powerful as Yagami’s.

Lost Judgement 

Yagami and Co.’s return continues to look like one of the potential standout games of 2021 in its new trailer. This trailer teased the twist-filled melodrama the Yakuza series and its spin-off are known for, while also showcasing the more of the equally iconic and varied mini-game fans of the franchise love so much.

We were treated to a sneak peek at everything from a battlebot competition to dog walking and boxing all wrapped around a murder mystery conspiracy. In tandem with the release of this trailer, Sega confirmed that PS5 and Xbox Series X|S players will be able to upgrade from the last-gen versions of the game for free, unlike the first Judgment game on PlayStation which required players to buy the next-gen version of the game again if they want to play a native PS5 version. Sega also confirmed that everyone’s favourite disgraced lawyer turned private eye will be visiting Kamurocho and Ijincho in paid expansions after the game’s release.

This gif is from the first game but I will literally post it every opportunity I get.

Lost Judgment is releasing on PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on September 21st 2021. Despite the mainline Yakuza game’s success on PC, there is still no word if this game or its predecessor will be coming to PC any time soon.

C’mon Sega, this and Persona on PC, do you hate money or something? 

Sam Porter Bridges somehow has more or a social life than 90% of people post-pandemic.

Death Stranding: Director’s Cut

The game which is either Kojima’s magnum opus or what happens when no one says no to a man and his ego, depending on who you ask, is getting a re-release. Death Stranding is still a graphical showpiece and this expanded version has been all prettied up for the PS5. 

“Hey, Fragile.”
”Yes, Sam.”
”Wanna play Mario Kart with our industrial trucks and future bikes?”

The trailer was as subtle as ever but also gave us our first look at the additions to the game, including more and reworked combat (which was almost unanimously thought of as the weakest part of the game, in its original version), new traversal gear (including a very silly catapult and very good boy robot buddy that will carry Sam around) and a vehicle racing mode set up by Fragile (for some reason). New missions and story sequences were also teased but not much was shown.

The updated version of the game will be coming to PS4 too, if you want to pay full price for it again, alongside the PS5 on September 25th this year. No mention of a PC version yet but with the amount of porting Sony is doing (and seems to be planning on continuing) to the platform, we’d wager we’ll get to see Norman Reedus on our computer again very soon.

Deathloop

Deathloop is such a high concept game that despite pretty much everyone and their mother being interested in playing it, we could all do with yet another explainer on how it’ll work.

You! Go over there!
You! Get back!
You! Get up in the air!

Microsoft’s Betheseda’s Arkane Lyon’s new immersive sim stars Cole, a man trapped in a timeloop on an island in what appears to be the 1960’s. His goal: kill eight targets before the day is out and hopefully get to see tomorrow. However, one of these targets, Juliana, is hunting you back. Every time Cole dies the day is reset.

The Game Director for Deathloop, Dina Bakaba, was on hand to walk us through a mission several hours into the game. The gameplay itself was extremely similar to what we have seen in some of Arkane’s other games like Prey and Dishonored, with a focus on stealth and emergent combat and traversal mechanics. The style of the game continues to be drop-dead gorgeous and we are slowly learning more about this world. Only a select few on the island appear to be aware of what is going on but all the attendees at this never ending party seem very intent on killing Cole. None more so than Juliana, who we have known since the game’s announcement can be controlled by another human player online, but we now know has some personal connection to Cole that he seems to have forgotten.

By the end of the demo we saw plenty of cool guns (one of which jammed during a firefight), turret hacking, looting from deceased islander, teleporting around, a real dirtbag target called Alexis the Wolf and confirmation that each target will drop an upgrade for Cole which can be collected in any order. So if you weren’t sold by the pedigree of the developer, you will be by the end of the nine or so minutes of gameplay footage.

Deathloop from Arkane, being published by Bethesda, who is now owned by Microsoft (we keep on saying it eventually will be less weird), is launching as a timed console exclusive on PS5 and PC on September 14th.

I know this is just a wallpaper/mood piece/concept art, but like damn… Seriously, just damn.

Overall yet another “good-not-great” showing by Sony for its latest State of Play. Plenty of upcoming games weren’t mentioned including Horizon: Forbidden West (which is still said to release this year) and the Untitled God of War Sequel (which was officially delayed to 2022 recently), but the show was capped off with confirmation that there will be more PlayStation related news coming later this Summer. Will this be the long-awaited PSVR 2 news? Will we see Final Fantasy XVI gameplay before the year is out? Is Pragmata a real game or was Capcom just messing with us on that one?