PlayStation E3 Experience 2016

For the third year in a row, I was excited to attend the PlayStation E3 Experience. Along with several hundred other excited PlayStation gamers, I waited outside one of 85 theaters in US, Canada and Latin America for the PlayStation E3 Press Conference to be broadcast live from E3 in Los Angeles. As 6pm PST neared, the long line began to move as our IDs were checked and we were issued a VIP badge (more on that later) and a big plastic theater cup with the PlayStation E3 Experience logo.

Inside the theater, the crowd buzzed happily as a countdown clock ticked down in the corner of the screen, and then as the feed went live to LA, the crowd hushed as a slender man with long hair and a goatee walked silently out on the stage.

He raised his hands, and the house lights suddenly illuminated the orchestra below him. Finally I recognized him as Bear McCreary, composer of Battlestar Galactica, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Walking Dead, as well as several video games such as Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. He began conducting, and for several minutes while the screen behind him remained blank we enjoyed grand, swelling music punctuated by a male choir singing a guttural, harsh tune. Although I had never heard this composition before, there were elements or refrains that sounded familiar…could it be…?

Finally the curtains parted behind Bear and the words “Sony Computer Entertainment presents” appeared. A young boy on the screen was instructed to pick up a knife by a man in the shadows. The man stepped forward, revealing a full beard and red paint on his face…Kratos! The crowd in our theater erupted in cheers at the revelation of a new God of War game.

A few more highlights of the press conference:

• A trailer and gameplay footage of Days Gone. Imagine if Last of Us and Sons of Anarchy had a baby, and were chased out of the hospital by hordes of zombies from World War Z.
• Finally, a release date for The Last Guardian: October 25, 2016!
• A grimy, frightening trailer of someone escaping a decayed house that was revealed to be Resident Evil 7 Biohazard to be released next January for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR
• Speaking of PlayStation VR, Batman: Arkham VR and Battlefront: X-wing VR Mission were both announced. X-Wing looks great!
• Final Fantasy XV will also have VR support.
• The crowd went nuts for an Insomniac PS4 exclusive Spiderman game.
• Horizon: Zero Dawn continues to look impressive, as today we say the heroine take down a corrupted mechanical beast with a variety of tech enhanced arrows and traps.
• Crash Bandicoot 1, 2, and Warped will be remade “from the ground up” on PS4
• LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens FULL DEMO is available now!

The final big reveal was Hideo Kojima walking on stage with a smile and saying, “I’m Back!”. He introduced a trailer for his upcoming game Death Stranding starring a very naked Norman Reedus standing in a pile of oily dead whale and fish carcasses. It was a trailer that led to more questions than answers, but I’m excited to learn more about it.

Many other games were shown, and if you’d like more in depth coverage, I suggest you check out Jorge’s video coverage of the entire press conference.

As we left the theater we were told that the back of our VIP badge had a code that would unlock a bunch of digital goodies over the following months, and we were given a poster and collectible trading card to commemorate the event.

I left the theater excited for the coming year for PlayStation, and yes, I even preordered a game or two…and maybe the PlayStation VR, shhh don’t tell the wife…

I hope you got a chance to watch the PlayStation Press Conference, and if you did, what were you most excited about? Let us know in the comments! Stay tuned here at TheButtonSmashers.com for more E3 news, and as always for more of my thoughts on this topic and E3 in general check out the Plug and Play podcast.