Today was a pretty terrific day for video game announcements! There was a State of Play presented by Sony and a Nintendo Direct from our good friends over at Nintendo. This article will be focusing on the great-looking exclusives announcements brought to us from PlayStation! Without further ado, let’s see the games!
I am so excited to know that Tekken 8 is real! It looks absolutely stunning and very next generation. To say that Tekken 8 looks cinematic wouldn’t be saying enough. The weather effects, the music, and the fight choreography shown off in the trailer have us over here at Biff Bam Pop! extremely excited. I personally can’t wait to see the new characters Harada-san has to show us. We will just have to wait until Bandai Namco wants to tell us more!
Up next are a couple of games that are in development for PlayStation VR2: Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition brought to us by Lucasfilm’s ILMxLAB and Demeo by Resolution Games. Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition is a remade/revamped take on Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge which was released back in 2020. Demeo is a port of a game with the same name that came out last year on Steam. It’s a love letter to tabletop games of old. I don’t have any way of playing VR games, but D&D on VR sounds like a good time to me.
A massive standout (and huge surprise) to me was seeing Yakuza: Ishin get localized! It’s been 8 years since that game was released in Japan. It was praised by critics and longed for by any fans of the series outside Japan. Now it’s being localized under the new name Like A Dragon: Ishin. Can’t wait to play it. The fine folks over at SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have me frothing at the mouth for this one. Is it February 2023 yet?
We were then given yet another look at Hogwarts Legacy. This time we were shown a DLC mission exclusive to PlayStation. Then we were shown what I’m sure many people thought was some sort of Twisted Metal reboot and it’s called Pacific Drive. It looks very weird and action-packed. My curiosity has been piqued. We then got to see a deeper look at PlayStation Stars which is a free loyalty program where you can earn digital trophies and collectibles. Feels very NFT-y to me.
Things get super anime with this new mech game Synduality from Bandai Namco. Then we get a look at Stellar Blade (previously known as Project EVE) from Sony and SHIFT UP Corporation. It looks like a straight-up action adventure RPG and I am interested!
Finally, the last two games revealed were my favourites. Team Ninja released the trailer for Rise of the Ronin, which appears to be a Japanese action game. Ninja knows what they’re doing in this field. I thought it was another look at Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, but I was pleasantly surprised that those are two completely different games. Can’t wait to get my ass absolutely kicked by these two games. Rise of the Ronin looks incredible! Unfortunately. we have to wait until 2024 to play it, but Wo Long will be out next year to hold us off.
Of course, Sony wasn’t going to end with a new IP from Team Ninja. They wouldn’t let us leave without giving us an incredible extended look at God of War Ragnarök. In this trailer, we get a ton of new gameplay and story elements. I won’t spoil anything, just go watch the trailer. It’s fabulous. PlayStation Studios is blessing us with this next step forward in Kratos’ story on November 9th, 2022.
That’s it, that was the State of Play. What’d you think? Personally, I thought it was a really strong showing for the future of the PS5. 2023 is looking like a really great year for video games.
