Sony showed up in big way at its pre-Paris Games Week conference on Tuesday. We were expecting some big announcements, and we weren’t disappointed. The stream chat was abuzz with predictions and hopes (and nonsense), and Sony delivered. No Man’s Sky, Street Fighter V, Uncharted 4, Horizon: Zero Dawn … all of the big boys showed up to strut their stuff with new trailers and exciting news, but there were some games that didn’t generate as much buzz. There are three games in particular that made huge impressions on me, but didn’t make many headlines after the conference.
WiLD
As gamers, we see a lot of the same kinds of objectives in our stories: take out this high-profile target, score more points than that person, defeat this many enemies… within the context of a well-told story and well-designed game worlds these objectives may not come off as monotonous, but they’re certainly familiar. It’s a rare treat to assume the role of a novel hero doing novel things. WiLD ’s lowly shaman is one such hero, and his adventures certainly don’t seem familiar. I was thrilled by the WiLD demo, which I hadn’t seen before the conference. I was excited that an action button triggered the shaman to sit peacefully and enter into a trance state; that your objectives involve your communing with the powers and spirits of nature in order to summon an animal divinity to help you heal a member of your tribe. The game looks and sounds very fresh, and as novel as nature itself.
Gravity Rush 2
Gravity Rush 2 , sequel to the PS Vita hit Gravity Rush ( Gravity Daze in the east), got a gorgeous new trailer showcasing some gravity defying combat. This is exactly what I hoped Dragon Ball Z fighting games would look and play like in the future when I was a kid. When the game was first revealed at Sony’s pre-Tokyo Game Show conference I knew that this was something that I just had to play. Look at Kat suspended in mid-air as her hair whips about her and tell me that you don’t want to grab a controller and start flying. There are plenty of games in which you can fly, but it’s still very rare to see flight done right. Super Mario Galaxy and Child of Light are the only two games in recent history where I recall flying being both intuitive and beautiful. I never got around to playing the original Gravity Rush on my Vita, but there is an HD remaster being released for the PS4 early next year, so hopefully that’ll hold me over while I wait for the sequel.
Dreams
I almost threw a fit watching the live chat during the Dreams demo. I know, I know – it was my mistake paying attention to a stream chat; they’re like the shouting doomsday preppers who hound you in city streets, you’re better off just avoiding eye contact and pretending you can’t hear a word they say. But they were bashing Dreams ! They called it boring! Friends, this is the most innovative sandbox style game I’ve ever seen. I think that once it’s released and additional assets and tools are given over to players, the PlayStation Network will be one of the greatest centers of creative and conscious expression in gamedom. I foresee burdened people becoming their own psychotherapists as they get into the habit of creating the most interactive dream journals ever conceived of; I see artists creating sets and compositions, vignettes and short stories; I see hierophants creating narratives of initiation for students and seekers. For a blessed many, this will be much more than a game, you mark my words.
Which game shown during the conference got your heart racing? Which PlayStation VR title seems the most fun or most innovative to you? Were there any big disappointments? Let me know in the comments and let’s talk about it.