Oh boy, the PS5 conference just ended and honestly, I was expecting more from the team in some areas. Sony made a ton of title announcements filled with staples, lots of indie and some very interesting stuff coming down the road.

While I won’t be covering all of the games in this first look, I’ll be covering the big and/or interesting ones that caught my attention.

Let’s get right to it.

GTA 5 Enhanced Edition

It would come as no surprise that GTA5 gets new life on the new console given how well it sold since it first launched. This is perfect for new owners who perhaps missed out on the chance to play it previously and it’s a pretty good iteration of the franchise to boot.

The trailer also did note that this version will be “expanded and enhanced”, with enhanced probably meaning that they’ll be upgrading the graphics a bit or adding higher framerate modes. With expanded, perhaps they are hinting at another potential DLC that’ll be coinciding with the launch of the game – who knows.

But wait, that’s not all! Players who are playing GTA Online right now get $1m in GTA cash every month till the release of the game in 2021! Cool.

  • a brief look at the customization system

Gran Turismo 7

An expected, if not rather bland entry to the new AAA titles being announced and released on the new console. Here, Polyphony showed off some pretty amazing looking gameplay footage of their game running on pretty smooth framerates so it’ll no doubt be a treat for those looking forward to this sim-racer.

Rachet and Clank: Rift Apart

Looking at this really made me want to pick up some of the older games as this was one of those franchises that slipped under my radar back in the day. The game looks gorgeously stylish (look at that fur material and shader in the first shot!) and it seems like blast to play a fun Action Adventure title, even if it seemed to be aimed at a younger audience.

Stray

Now this really caught my eye. While it seemed like another indie-3d-adventure title by the looks of it, it really has that otherworldly-yet-familiar charm to it which is difficult to capture as a style. you play as a cat (not a catslug this time), presumably, roaming in a post-humanoid world in a Chinatown-like environment and it kind of reminds me of WALL-E mixed in with the characterizations of something like hollow knight or something.

There’s no gameplay footage but I’d be interested to see more of this game.

KENA: Bridge of Spirits

Can’t get enough Pikmen/Overlord style games? Emberlab has you covered! The game seem to have similar gameplay styles as those as you collect these fluffy black creatures as they aid you in progression and puzzle solving.

This game has quite the charm in the atmosphere and top-notch character animation that seems straight out from a Disney movie. This game is definitely in my watch list.

Ghostwire: Tokyo

If I had to pick for the most interesting AAA showcase this year, this would be it. Featuring the very Japan-like cyber-futurism style straight out of Ghost in The Shell, you find yourself in a FPS (seemingly) free roaming game that has you take down enemies with all sorts of spells and abilities not unlike the Bioshock series. But instead of plain ‘ol splicers, you get to shoot up ghosts, monsters and demons straight out their cultural mythologies.

If Japan had any intention to make their take on a Doom game, this would be it.

Spiderman Miles Morales

This must be the poster-child game that Mark Cerny has been yapping about when showcasing the power of the new PlayStation to the press. In past presentations, this has been shown off as to what the new console can achieve; an immersive experience with no load times at all, all while running silky smooth at a good framerate.

While no gameplay has been shown, I’m betting that they’re not going to change the formula by much compared to their past release. It definitely gave me the vibes that it’ll be a standalone thing rather than some expansion to the current Spiderman game and I look forward to it!

Demon Souls Remake

Missed out on the original proprietor of Dark Souls? Good news, From software is remaking the game from the ground up for the new console! While there isn’t any gameplay footage today, the cinematic does look badass in its own right and I can’t wait to play this again.

  • ITS NICOLAS CAGEEEEE!
  • A look at a new Wendigo(?) enemy

Resident Evil 8: Village

Hey new Resident Evil, what’s not to like? This seems to take place as a direct sequel to the things that had happened in the previous entry as you seem to be controlling Ethan, the protagonist from Resident Evil 7. What’s interesting to note is that Capcom seems to be sticking their guns on maintaining the first-person perspective which is interesting.

As usual and probably mandated by the laws of the universe itself, Chris Redfield gets yet another redesign in his appearance (his 1047147th design, obviously) in the trailer and looks much older and haggard than normal. He shows up killing someone on the ground partially off screen and the trailer cuts to black, what a tease.

Btw, you get no points for guessing where the underground bio-weapons lab will be at this time.

Pragmata

Can’t wait to get more of that authentic, fresh, Japanese weirdness? Look no further than Pragmata, where even the trailer doesn’t make any sense for even Hideo Kojima himself. Take a look for yourself, you’ll see what I mean.

Horizon: Forbidden West

While I didn’t play the first game, this firmly goes into the “hey that’s neat, I should check it out some time” pile with its gorgeous graphics and a frankly-underused scenario of god damn ROBOT ANIMALS.

Forbidden West seem to take place in a new biome different from the first one and I can’t wait to see the new creatures they’ve made for this.

Playstation 5 render reveal

Perhaps the biggest deal of all was the reveal of how the PlayStation 5 is going to look when it goes on sale, presumably, at the end of the year.

The controller was indeed the one we have seen from the leaks that were floating around the internet; it features a sleek, astro-looking design which I quite like although it remains to be seen if anything has been changed within in comparison to the PS4 controller except for the improved sound capabilities.

The body on the other hand…that’s a yikes from me. I get that they were really pushing hard on the futurist look and idea of the machine but the cloak/sheath design just doesn’t do it for me. It actually looks like the Nintendo Wii somehow ate the PS3 slim and this amalgamation was the result.

Two variants will be available at launch, one with a disk drive and a “all digital” version of the console without the disk drive. There’s a high chance that this disk-less move was spurred by Microsoft’s xbox one S, which also offered a similar deal at a cut down price.

 Unfortunately, no confirmation for any sort of pricing has been made at the conference and we are once again down to speculate on how much this thing will cost (queue Kaz Hirai’s “$599 US DORRA” here) but I highly doubt that they’ll make it too expensive given the upcoming downturn in the economy.

Chia is the horse-author from the far flung year of 2153. While not grazing on grass pastures or reviewing old time-y games and technology from the early 21st century pretending to not know what comes next (as to not disturb the space-time continuum), he can be seen exchanging vast quantities of Earth currency for parts needed to fix his damaged space ship.