Welcome to Mete-Crtic’s short highlight piece of the Sony Playstation Conference at Paris Games Week 2015. There were a lot of games covered at the conference but here’s just a few highlights to get people stuck in to whilst they look to catch up:

Sony opened the conference with an opening sequence montage of games already released and those to come: BattleFront, Horzion Zero Dawn amongst others shown.

The first presentation was led by President and CEO Jim Ryan whose opening lines involved a polite nod to the 20th Anniversary of the launch of the original Playstation. Continuing on from reminiscing about the original PS console, Ryan proclaimed that the conference was “Not about Nostalgia. It’s about looking forward”. What followed was a highlight reel of 2015 for the PS4 before leading in to the first of the evening’s reveals.

“PLAYSTATION IS THE BEST PLACE TO PLAY”

COD: Black Ops 3

First up was the short trailer for the Black Ops 3 Season Pass which revolved heavily around the Zombie Giant Map addon.

Star Wars: Battlefront

Next we saw the final trailer for Star Wars Battlefront and boy was it good! Featuring shots involved the introduction of Princess Leia as a playable hero whilst Bobba Fett narrowly missed falling into the sarlacc pit to which he said “that won’t happen again”; a nice little nod to the movies. A snapshot of combat introduced Darth Vader who himself was challenged by Han Solo! Switching over to some game play shots of X-wing battle (in space?), we ended up finishing on a forest level where Luke and Emperor Palpatine lock horns with force lightning and all! Following the clip it was announced that an Exclusive Darth Vader console would be released.

Street Fighter V

Street Fighter V saw the return of Dhalsim with a new look and an updated move set. The graphics look ‘tidy’ and the very colourful and dynamic backgrounds really add a sense of depth to the fighting platform. The slight negative I would have is that the background AI don’t seem to react to the on screen action which seems a shame. Then again I haven’t played Street Fighter since SNES so what do I know! Following the trailer we were treated to some words by Street Fighter Executive Producer Yoshoito Ono (including some weird head bobbles). He announced that an additional 6 characters would be added to the roster in the first year after release; Tuesday 16th February 2016 Release date.

Tekken 7

Tekken 7 is coming to PS4 for its 20th publication on the Sony platform whilst offering exclusive content for the PS4. We were treated to a montage of previous Tekken games which charted the rise and fall of some of its major characters; happy memories.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

We were then able to visit a slither of Horizon Zero Dawn; although I’m slightly dubious that this may have been the same clip used earlier in the year? They were cheeky enough to open dev mode to show an impressive level of detail on the ‘robot’ dinosaur currently in shot. The environment looks fantastic and the interaction between AI and player looks awesome. The game play seems to be strategic yet frenzied. Could this be a challenge for Far Cry Primal? We will see. Release for 2016.

PS4 EXCLUSIVES COMING 2016

• Battleborn will be having its Beta which is coming next year. This is the next game from Borderlands developers Gearbox Software.

• Boundless: A slightly weird looking ‘multi-portal’ game which looked like a cross between Monsters Inc, Lemmings & Minecraft.

• Vector: Another attempt at a music rhythm game which this time sticks worldwide renowned star Avicii into its development process which will see players play against other players and design own levels.

• No Man’s Sky finally….FINALLY gets us a release date of June 2016. Nothing more needs to be said here- HURRY UP!

TOUCHING BASE:

Although covered in a lot more depth then I am able to write, the presentation went on to include the following:

• Matterfall: a futuristic FPS/3rd person shooter

• Ratchet and Clank: Return of two of the platform’s most famous characters!

• Bloodbourne: The Old Hunters; More punishment to be dished out for those who enjoy that sort of thing!

• Drive Club: Bikes: Drive Club gets an update; more specifically motor bikes. The weather as ever looks amazing and Sony were ballsy enough to announce that there would be an immediate release at end of the conference. I think the damage is pretty much done.

• Uncharted 4: A short snapshot of the multiplayer element!

• Dreams: Open ended like Little Big Planet but playing and creation are combined. Everything in world is created on the PS4 with some slightly weird characters but seems to be an immersive experience for gamers.

ALSO MENTIONED:

• Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
• Gran Turismo
• Playstation VR
• Wild

Let’s hope all of these promises can live up to expectation!