Sony in 2017
2016 was a year of terrifying lows, dizzying highs, and creamy middles for Sony’s PlayStation 4.
Uncharted 4 put a memorable full stop (?) on Nathan Drake’s tale, Ratchet and Clank proved to be one of the best platforming games in recent memory and PlayStation VR flew off shelves, becoming a major player in the growing virtual reality market. However, the PS4 Pro failed to capture the public’s attention and felt like a knee-jerk reaction to Microsoft’s upcoming Scorpio. The Last Guardian finally released, after being in production since the early Cretaceous period, to middling reviews and No Man Sky turned out to be a PR trash fire. A mediocre 2016 sets up an exciting 2017 though. Titles like Horizon: Zero Dawn and Mass Effect: Andromeda missed their 2016 launch window and had been pushed to first the quarter of the New Year. Alongside a bunch of titles announced at Sony’s fantastic E3 and PSX conferences, I see 2017 being a return to form for the PlayStation, but will it be enough to compete with the Scorpio looming on the horizon?
Hardware
2017 starts with Sony’s two newest pieces of hardware in very different positions. The PS4 Pro seems to be a failure, a half-step iteration that only showed its real promise if the owner forked out for a 4K HDR TV. During PAX Australia ’16, I saw Horizon: Zero Dawn and Infamous: First Light running through a Pro on a 4K Bravia and it looked stunning, but enough to make me run to JB-Hi-Fi and buy a new TV? Uh uh, honey! By the time 4K TV’s become a mainstay in people’s living room, I’d imagine the PS5 or something to a similar effect would be incoming. So who’s the PS4 Pro aimed at? It seems to be an answer to a question no one was asking. 4K gaming is indeed the future, but if you don’t already have the proper setup, a PC would be the cheaper option. With the Microsoft Scorpio fast approaching, the PlayStation risks playing second fiddle and will need to rely on PSVR and its upcoming library of first party games to keep up with Xbox.
With one eye on the future, Sony needs to make sure they don’t forget about the OG PS4 console. With both major competitors releasing new machines, this is not the year to split the player base, lest they jump ship. While I don’t think we will see any PS4 Pro only games released anytime soon, the differences between the consoles will only heighten Rather than just patching and upscaling, titles will release with the increased power in mind. My fear is that if I don’t upgrade by the end of the year, the gap in quality will be so big it will feel like I’m playing a last gen console. I’m a weak man with no self-control, so this will probably end with me buying a 4K TV. It is likely to be a Sony 4K TV too, so they’ll get to reach into my pocket twice. Sony, you jerk.
Being the first home console to adopt VR, the reaction to the PSVR has been quite impressive. This is where Sony has the advantage over its competitors, but I am unsure how they are going to approach it. A large inbuilt user base has been a boon for the system compared to the HTC Vive and Oculus, but the small library has me concerned. While I thoroughly enjoyed the likes of Job Simulator and Headmaster (an underrated gem!), there is yet to be a game announced on PSVR that has me excited. A sizzle reel shown at last year’s PSX, while stirring some interest, caused me some confusion. Where the hell were the game titles? Why did I have to Google ‘cowboy dinosaur VR game’ to find out Dino Frontier’s name? Perhaps we will start to see it used as a peripheral and married into traditional titles? Games that can harness the PSVR in certain areas (such as driving the Nomad in Mass Effect: Andromeda) would go a long way to making my purchase worthwhile.
While I love holding a pair of space-age dildos as much as the next guy, something needs to be done with the PlayStation Move controllers. The Move certainly adds another layer of immersion to the visual witchcraft of the PSVR but compared to the mind-blowing Oculus Touch, it’s left in the dust. I have all my fingers crossed for at least the hint of a new peripheral added to the PSVR family that will allow me to use more than just my trigger finger (if it’s codenamed ‘Trinity’ I will lose my shit). Following in Microsoft’s footsteps, I expect to see the release of a PS4 Elite Controller this year. Perhaps packaged alongside the PS4 Pro, it would go a long way to perking up the system in its middle years.
The next full step iteration of the PlayStation console is years away, so it will be fascinating to see how Sony reacts when the Scorpio bomb finally drops in the latter part of the year. While the official specifications haven’t been confirmed as of yet, there is no doubt the Scorpio will eclipse even the PS4 Pro where it comes to computing power, and while a price drop is imminent, I don’t see Sony maintaining such a significant lead over its competitors. Perhaps 2017 is the year Sony will sit on the sidelines when it comes to hardware, letting Scorpio and Switch duke it out, and let their first-party games do the talking.
Software
This year is going to be quite the ride for PlayStation fans. Due to delays pushing titles back last year, 2017 is going to stuffed full of first-party goodness. I’m pretty damn pumped so let’s just get right into it.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard looks horrifyingly good, and while it’s also coming out on other consoles, the VR component will be exclusive to the PSVR for 12 months. Great, I get to piss my pants a year before some of my friends! The last few entries in the Resident Evil series have been..well, shit, but the return to the series’ survival horror roots and Tetris-esque inventory management makes it one of my most anticipated titles for the year. I’ve held back from playing the Beginning Hour Tape 1 and 2 demos in VR to avoid any story spoilers, but I have given Kitchen a run. The agency VR provides takes what is essentially a tech demo, cranks it to 13, and turns it into the scariest gaming experience I’ve had since P.T. Though tethered to the spot in Kitchen, shadows and movements took on a new dimension, and I felt horrors come at me from all sides. If the full game delivers on the promise of its demo and brings back the atmospheric horror that made the originals so beloved, we may be looking at the first PSVR ‘killer’ app. Come to think of it, there’s a 70% chance my heart will pop playing Resident Evil in VR. Sick
Last year when I was in line to play Guerrilla Games’ hugely anticipated new IP, Horizon: Zero Dawn, I had to keep my expectations tempered. I’d been swept up in hype many times only for my first actual play through to knock me back down to earth. After getting my first taste, I can safely say there is no need to worry though guys, this game is fucking incredible. I’m counting down the days to have it back in my life (48 days to be exact).It plays like a mixture of Far Cry and The Witcher set against a picturesque post-apocalyptic world where nature has reclaimed the land and sent man back to the stone-age. Oh, and there are motherfucking robotic dinosaurs! Taking on these hulking Terminator-saurus’ invokes memories of Shadow of the Colossus. Despite all that, the part I’m most looking forward to is the fate of badass protagonist, Aloy. From her sizable arsenal of crafted weapons to her stubborn rationality clashing with the beliefs of her people, Aloy has the makings of the next big AAA character. Handled well, and barring any major launch day fuck-ups, I think Sony has a fresh, new IP on its hands that can fill the void left by Uncharted.
The original PlayStation was the first console I ever owned (I’m a late bloomer), so Crash Bandicoot will forever have a special place in my heart. The N. Sane Trilogy is a compilation of the original three Crash titles with more than just a simple coat of gloss on them like most HD remakes we get. Looking at the trailer, you can see the love and effort Vicarious Visions has put into remastering every Wumpa fruit and Aku-Aku scattered through the iconic levels. Don’t expect too many new features, a unified save system seems to be the only real change to the originals but hey, why mess with perfection? The internet will explode with nostalgia when this launches.
As much as I enjoyed playing the God of War series, it was often hard to like Kratos. He seemed like the type of guy who’d call me a ‘beta cuck’, flush my head down a toilet and attend ‘pick-up artist’ seminars while wearing a Tapout shirt. In the new God of War, a soft reboot of sorts, gone are the days of quick-time threesomes. Age has started catching up with Kratos. Now sporting a gruff beard and a not-so-gruff son, the game seems to have taken a fair bit of inspiration from the highly successful Tomb Raider reboot and seems to soften some of Kratos’ more abrasive qualities. They father/son dynamic also feels very Last of Us. It will be interesting to see how this game connects to the original games, if it at all, but judging from the massive fanfare Sony had at last year’s E3 to announce it, they are very confident this will be a truly epic title.
Throw into the mix Detroit: Become Human, Persona 5, Kingdom Hearts HD 2 Final Chapter Prologue, Neir Automata, Days Gone, Gran Turismo Sport, a new Spider-Man game from Insomniac and a collection of awesome looking indies; PlayStation has an incredibly strong line-up ahead of it. I’m not without my concerns. The reason we have so many huge titles dropping this year is that they were meant to come out last year, so which games will we lose to 2018? Unfortunately, my money is on Days Gone and God of War pushing into next year. The roster is just too packed for so many AAA titles to release in one year without having some get buried.
The PSVR’s cupboard seems quite sparse, the only real standouts for me being Star Trek: Bridge Crew and Dino Frontier. With a growing user-base, the PSVR will attract some attention from AAA developers, but it concerns me how little I hear about upcoming games. Sony has a great product on its hand, whether you see it as the next evolution of mainstream gaming or not, but with no support, they run the risk of having another Vita situation. Still hoping to see it become incorporated into full-length games to at least expand on how often I use it.
Sony has its work cut out for it this year. They have an amazing roster of games but will to feel competitors biting its heels. Whereas 2016 was pretty mediocre, 2017 has the potential to be one of the best years for the PlayStation 4 console. Let’s just hope there are no major fumbles, and it builds upon its major difference, the PSVR. The line-up of games has me salivating and my wallet crying.
