By: Tyler Miller

Cutting it close again, but today’s stop on the Road to E3 2018 is Sony! They’re going to be showing a lot of new stuff this year from already announced games, and delivering us footage and announcements from other third party and indie games as well. It’s bound to be a great show, so let’s get to it!

What I’m Looking Forward To

The Big Four

Alongside third-party games and indie titles, we’ll be getting deep dives into Sony’s four biggest upcoming first-party titles this year during their press conference: Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, and The Last of Us: Part II. I anticipate that we’ll get extended gameplay demos for all these games. Spider-Man is coming out the soonest, with a September release date, so I anticipate we’ll see an extended gameplay demo that possibly showcases what it’ll be like to free roam in the city, pick up a side mission, and then go into some story stuff. If the Paris Games Week footage is anything to go by, the game is only going to continue to impress and make the wait for this game much harder.

Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima is a complete mystery to all of us. We got our first look at the game during Paris Games Week last year as well, and the footage shown was beautiful. It gave us an idea behind what the story would be about, but little more outside of that. The studio’s been quiet since then, so I’m dying to see what the gameplay is like and get a better understanding of just what the game is.

The game that’s an even bigger mystery is Hideo Kojima’s new game Death Stranding. A couple trailers have been released for the game since its announcement in 2016, with each one being more of a mind fuck than the last one. The most recent trailer added to tremendously to the mystery, giving us even more to theorize about. This game is the one I’m most excited to get a deeper look at because it’s a brand new Hideo Kojima game that we know nothing about. How the game is going to play and exactly what the hell is going on with the story are things that I’m extremely intrigued by and looking forward to learning about.

And last but not least is The Last of Us: Part II. The first game was a massive hit for Naughty Dog, catapulting them into the upper echelons of the gaming industry and garnering massive critical acclaim. Now we’re getting a sequel and expectations are high. Although the game was announced at PSX in 2016, and was last shown during Paris Games Week last year, I don’t expect this game to be coming out anytime sooner than mid-2019. That hasn’t dampened my excitement for the game though. I want Naughty Dog to take the time they need to make this game amazing, so if that means this upcoming dive into the game at E3 is the only footage we get for a long time, then I’m totally okay with that.

Devil May Cry 5

Devil May Cry 5 has been rumored for years now, with rumors really hitting a fever pitch around E3 time last year. E3 is right around the corner and the rumor mill is spinning again at full force, so those rumors are coming back again. This time around though, it’s all but confirmed that the game is real and will be announced next week due to all these rumors and other leaks that have happened as well. Fans have been clamoring for a return to the main Devil May Cry series ever since the 2013 reboot DmC was released, so an announcement would be sure to please many people.

I get the feeling that it’ll show up on the Sony stage if it shows up on any due to the Japanese connection and the fact that the series has ties to the Playstation brand, as the original trilogy was released exclusively on the PS2 before coming to other platforms at later dates. I never played the main series, but I did play the reboot and enjoyed it a lot, so DMC 5 is definitely on my radar.

Days Gone

I’m not quite sure how much time Days Gone will get during Sony’s press conference since they’re going to be giving their other first party games so much of the focus this year, but I do have a good feeling that they’ll show something new for it. Earlier today, they released a new trailer that revealed the game will be releasing next year on February 22nd. The game still looks pretty cool and full of potential, but I’m not too excited for it just yet. I’m not expecting Sony to, but I’m really hoping that we get to see more than the new trailer this year, so that we have more of a reason to be excited for this game to release next year.

Spyro: Reignited Trilogy

The iconic purple dragon is back with a fresh new coat of paint and I couldn’t be happier! I loved playing the original Spyro games when I was a kid, so the fact that they’re getting remastered from the ground up excites me. I’m thinking that we’ll see more gameplay from the remaster in a short trailer during the show, and that’ll honestly be enough for me.

What I Don’t Want To Happen

For Sony To Barely Show Anything Outside Of Their Main Four

Ever since Sony announced that they would be giving us major looks at their big four upcoming first party games, I’ve been worried that everything else in the show would get the shaft, and that there wouldn’t be much of anything else outside of the those games. The reason I have this fear is because of the fact that Sony hasn’t necessarily said how much of a focus those other games are going to be in the show. It’s very reasonable to think that they would give each of their main four games a good 15 minutes of show time, and the rest a total of 15 minutes or less of show time.

While some may love to have large chunks of the show dedicated to their most anticipated games, I worry that having the 80% of the runtime be on these four games, while everything else has to eat up the crumbs of time they’re given is only going to do the other games a disservice. I doubt this will happen, but it’s something that I have been thinking about.

Normally this would be the last stop on the Road to E3, but this year it’s not. We have more brand new stop to make tomorrow, which I’m sure you guys can predict based on everyone we’ve talked about so far. As for Sony though, their show is the one I’m most anticipating this year. It’s going to be full of juicy games and information for us to feast over for the days and weeks following the press conference. It all starts Monday night at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET.