Sony PlayStation at E3: all of the latest news and announcements – The Verge

Arkham VR isn’t the Batman game PlayStation VR needs

2016-06-16T10:02:39-04:00

When it was announced at Sony's keynote earlier this week, I was more excited Batman: Arkham VR than probably any other PlayStation VR game. The Arkham series contains a perfect combination of third-person flying, fighting, and puzzle-solving, all of which seem eminently adaptable to virtual reality - especially since the game is being made by Rocksteady, who developed all but one of its installments. But while it's too early to judge Arkham VR, the demo experience at E3 is a radical departure from the games' core formula, and one that might have more novelty than substance.

There were two options at Sony's demo session, one of which I only …

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God of War’s new head dad on Kratos’ daddy issues

2016-06-15T11:47:39-04:00

When Cory Barlog was still in early discussions with Sony to work on a new God of War game, he went through a major personal transformation: he became a father. Barlog was the director of the second game in the series, but had moved on after leaving God of War III eight months into its development, working on projects like Tomb Raider and a Mad Max game. He had a few ideas about what to do with a new God of War, but it was only after having his son that he was convinced that he had another story to tell in this universe.

"That really started germinating all of the ideas in my head," he says. "I see the world through a different lens now."

…

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I played The Last Guardian, and now I’m in love with a big friendly cat-dog-bird

2016-06-14T20:24:20-04:00

Let me tell you about my new friend Trico. He's kind of like a giant half-bird, half-cat, half-dog… thing. And after playing the first 45 minutes of The Last Guardian - an actual game that's actually coming out this year on October 25th - I really think I've made a connection.

Truth be told, I've known about Trico for years, but I never thought we'd actually ever meet. Yet here we are.

Similar to its predecessor Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian revolves around climbing large creatures and larger, elaborate architecture. (Also similar to that game, movement can feel a bit jerky at times.) The demo opens on the first time the main c …

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Yes, of course I want to be a bird in virtual reality

2016-06-14T13:54:25-04:00

The promise of virtual reality is that you can see through the eyes of someone else. You want to see life from the cockpit of a spacefighter? Go for it. You want to be trapped in a haunted hellscape of a house? Death is only three button presses away from resurrection.

Or you could be a bird.

I'm not the first person to think this, because if I were, I'd have nothing to play. Instead, there's not one but two VR games at E3 this week that give me that avian immersion. The first happened at Ubisoft's press conference, when Oculus creator / noted bird-simulation enthusiast Palmer Luckey got on stage and challenged some people to race through …

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New PlayStation VR gun peripheral looks nothing like a gun

2016-06-14T12:19:57-04:00

When Sony first launched the Move in 2011, it also produced several accessories tailor-made for its motion-controlled games. For example, meet the Sharp Shooter. Launched with grimy first-person shooter Killzone 3, it embedded the goofy Move controllers into a bleached facsimile of an assault rifle.

Sharp Shooter was one of many accessories made by Sony and third-party controller factories that would, essentially, make the Move look and feel more like the guns / swords / ping-pong paddles emulated on screen.

Last night after its E3 2016 keynote, Sony quietly announced the PlayStation Aim, a new Move-like controller designed specifically fo …

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Watch a trailer for the dance-inspired puzzle game Bound

2016-06-14T11:23:56-04:00

After a brief tease yesterday at E3, Sony has just unveiled its first trailer for Bound, a new PS4 puzzle game. Bound is a 3D platformer created by the experimental studio Plastic, responsible for games like Datura and Linger in Shadows. Bound is interesting in part because its main character is a ballerina - the studio motion-captured the choreography of real-life dancer Maria Udod to decide how the character would move.

Equally compelling is the game's abstract, geometric design. "If you are interested in art movements such as Suprematism, Concretism, Neoplasticism, or what Bauhaus has delivered, then you are going to love the world that …

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Why Sony continues to win E3, year after year

2016-06-14T10:00:07-04:00

After two days of press conferences - in which video game publishers and developers appear before their fans, heads bent with hands raised presenting their fragile wares - it is customary to choose a winner of E3. Anyone may participate, but a definitive victor will be selected in no time by the winnowing of public opinion.

Since 2013, with the reveal of the current generation of console hardware, Sony has tended to lay claim to the crown at E3. Its leadership capitalized shrewdly on Microsoft's decision, early in the Xbox One's lifecycle, to focus on hardware, media partnerships, and celebrity cameos. From the very start, Sony emphasized g …

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Sony’s E3 2016 press conference in five minutes

2016-06-14T02:05:53-04:00

While Sony's press conference didn't feature a new console like its competition, the spectacle did include plenty of game announcements. Resident Evil 7, Spider-Man, and Days Gone joined already shown titles like Horizon Zero Dawn and Detroit: Become Human in a flurry of trailers and gameplay demonstrations.

While the presentation was crammed, we managed to condense everything to a clip that runs just a smidgen over five minutes. That should leave you with plenty of time to begin learning Latin or finally read that dusty copy of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock that you've been putting off since high school. Let's hear it for the true winner o …

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God of War’s grumpy old Kratos is learning how to be a good dad

2016-06-14T01:44:02-04:00

Kratos is the star of Sony's God of War series, the most ripped man in Sparta, and the kind of guy who'll climb up the face of a minor deity and use knives to gouge its eyeballs from of its face. But now he's got to face his greatest challenge - fatherhood. *Cue Rob Schneider movie music.*

Kratos is the world's sternest dad

The new God of War pairs an older, bearded version of the Greek god-killer with a small and bashful child. In the game's first trailer - shown at Sony's E3 press conference - the duo's life together is comparably humble compared to adventures of the past. They chat; they trudge through snow; they hunt. There's a strange c …

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The 7 best game trailers from Sony’s E3 2016 press event

2016-06-13T23:26:21-04:00

While Microsoft's E3 event this morning focused largely on new hardware, at Sony it was all about games. In a lean, mean presentation accompanied by a symphony orchestra, the company highlighted a range of hotly awaited games and threw in a few nice surprises.

Here are our favorite game trailers from the nighttime event, including Resident Evil 7, The Last Guardian, and a new game from creative genius Hideo Kojima.

Resident Evil 7

A phone rings, cockroaches crawl on your hand, and it all gets worse from there. In part that's because of the medium - this game is coming for PlayStation VR. The trailer for the forthcoming Resident Evil 7 emphas …

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