PSX 2016

I wasn’t able to watch last Saturday’s keynote presentation at PSX when it happened, but I did check out recaps of it later in the day when I had time. There were a ton of things revealed and showcased at this year’s keynote, more than I have time or interest to discuss in detail, but below are some quick thoughts on the items that stood out to me.

* Uncharted 4 is getting standalone DLC titled The Lost Legacy. It will star Chloe (from Uncharted 2 and 3) and Nadine (from Uncharted 4). Uncharted is one of my favorite series in all of gaming, so I’m looking forward to playing this whenever it comes out.
* Gameplay footage from the remastered Crash Bandicoot games was shown. I personally don’t care about Crash Bandicoot, but I know it’s a big deal to a lot of people who grew up playing the Crash Bandicoot games, so I’m glad that people are getting an old favorite brought back to life.
* A sequel to Knack is in development. Knack was the very first PlayStation 4 game I played (it was at a kiosk in Best Buy) and even though it’s supposed to be a mediocre game I’ve been thinking that one of these days I should play it to see for myself. Maybe I’ll include it in the second season of Late to the Party.
* Horizon: Zero Dawn got another trailer. I’m already sold on this game, and it just needs to come out already. Other than maybe a launch trailer, I think this game has sufficient hype behind it to not need any more media for it.
* The Wipeout racing games are being remastered for the PlayStation 4. I played Wipeout HD on the PlayStation 3, and despite being laughably terrible at it, I liked the game’s aesthetic and soundtrack. I may or may not look into this one when it gets released.
* Three PlayStation 2 games—Parappa the Rapper, Loco Roco, and Patapon—are coming out on PlayStation 4. All three of these are games that I missed on PlayStation 2, so it might be worthwhile for me to experience one or more of them to improve my gaming heritage and perspective.
* A new trailer for Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom was shown. I’ve heard from a number of people about how good the first Ni No Kuni was, but it’s never been something that grabbed my attention. Perhaps next year I’ll finally give it a try, and if Ni No Kuni 2 also gets a lot of praise then maybe I’ll play it too.
* PlayStation VR got its own section during the keynote. I don’t think I’m going to be buying a PlayStation VR any time soon, if at all. That’s not because I’m not interested, but because I don’t think I’ll have time to stack even more gaming experiences on top of the few ones I’m able to play right now. Also, I’m not one to be a first-adopter of new technology, so I may just wait for the second generation of PlayStation VR to be released, which I imagine will be during the PlayStation 5 console generation.
* Interestingly, the PlayStation 4 Pro doesn’t appear to have been discussed at all during the keynote, which I suppose makes sense since the people who attend PSX or watched online are generally the type who already know all about it. Sony may have made the calculation that talking about the Pro would have been a waste of time that could be spent showcasing other things.
* The keynote ended with a trailer for The Last of Us, Part 2, and as expected it was a masterpiece of a trailer. While I would have been completely fine if there was never a sequel to The Last of Us, I don’t doubt that developer Naughty Dog can create another legendary game. It was stated just before the trailer played that the game is in early development, so I’m guessing this game won’t be coming out until 2018 at the earliest (2019 sounds much more reasonable, as Naughty Dog doesn’t rush their games).
* Overall, PSX 2016 looked like a very strong showcase for the PlayStation brand. Even if a lot of things in the keynote presentation didn’t appeal to me, personally, it had content for just about every type of gamer, and good content at that. Though relatively young compared to the other big gaming conferences like E3, TGS, and Gamecom, PSX has proven it can stand with the big boys and deliver just as strong of a show as anything else.