Yesterday’s show, the first big PlayStation show in almost a year, was basically a show put on by a market leader that understands this position. It was, very literally, more of the same. For a lot of people who were maybe hoping for Sony to come out and make left-field out there announcements to generate hype and interest like they did in the late-PS3 and early-PS4 eras, maybe this show yesterday was disappointing. But ultimately, what it delivered was more of the exact same kind of fare that people are on board with PlayStation for – we got to see more cinematic narrative action adventure games from Sony’s studios, we got to see some cool third party collaborations, we got to see some multiplatform games, we saw a couple of indie games, and we saw Deathloop and GTA5, both of which are going to be fixtures of Sony shows till the end of time.

Nothing was really surprising. I mean, yes, an Insomniac Wolverine game is technically surprising, but it’s not really a left field announcement anymore, because precedence for Marvel games from Sony is already set. And to be honest, I think it’s fine nothing was surprising anymore. At this point, I know what PlayStation does, and I know what to expect from it, and that’s all I want from it. Unlike Xbox, who are still finding their voice and aesthetic as far as a first party goes, PlayStation, like Nintendo, now has a defined position and formula for what works – and so, giving people more of what made PlayStation so big to begin with is absolutely a great thing to do with a new show.

The pacing of the show was great – very little win the way of fluff, and just game after game after game. I’ve seen some sentiment online that individual game trailers or segments tended to drag, but honestly, I didn’t feel that way at all. The most we saw of any game was 3-4 minutes, so if you didn’t like what was on screen, you didn’t have to put up with it too long. That, along with the conference being shorn of the kind of filler that stage shows usually have, means that this was a quick moving show – slick and well produced, brisk and quick moving.

The actual content was pretty solid too, and while people drunk on so-called “insider” hype expecting a Bluepoint Metal Gear remake and a PlayStation exclusive Silent Hill were probably disappointed, we actually got to see a fair amount of great looking upcoming games – Forspoken (some actual gameplay footage, traversal and mobility look cool, everything else is iffy); Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake (an exciting proposition, but hard to really get attached to without any gameplay, or anything except CG really); Project EVE (which looked like a surprisingly interesting action game); third party multiplatform titles, such as Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, Rainbow Six Extraction, Alan Wake, and Guardians of the Galaxy; yet more looks at Deathloop and GTA5, because we can never have enough (the latter, surprisingly, being delayed into early next year); Ghostwire Tokyo (which looked pretty neat!); Tchia, arguably one of the most charming and interesting looking games shown; and then we moved on to the PlayStation Studios segment.

Even here, to be honest, nothing was really unexpected, with one obvious standout. Gran Turismo 7 looks great, and Spider-Man 2 promises a really exciting sequel to the 2018 game and Miles Morales, but both of these are expected sequels (as well as sequels that had already been shown off/announced/discussed/acknowledged before). Wolverine by Insomniac is an exciting proposition, but we got to see no gameplay, we barely got to see anything that would give us an idea of what the game is like. Naughty Dog’s announcement was fairly disappointing – Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves may be exciting in that it finally brings Nathan Drake over to PC, but for PlayStation owners, having to pay full price money to get the same game as on the PS4 but with a frame rate and resolution boost is unacceptable, and hopefully there will be an upgrade path for existing owners that we will learn about closer to launch.

Sony chose to end the show on Ragnarok, and that was a great idea, because Ragnarok looks spectacular. It looks like Sony Santa Monica, who are pitching Ragnarok is the conclusion to the Norse narrative, are going all in and taking all the feedback that the original game got into account. What we saw already showed us more varied enemies, what looked to be bigger and more varied set pieces and bosses, and a more populated world with more NPCs; so it’s already looking like Ragnarok might end up delivering on the promise of 2018, a game which lay the foundation for one of the greatest games ever, but never quite reached that level itself.

Ending on Ragnarok, and indeed, on a segment focused only on their own games, which also included Wolverine, was a smart choice. While the early parts of the conference may have ended up disappointing many of Sony’s audience that traditionally would tune in for a show like this, Ragnarok and Wolverine meant the show signed off on a hell of a high note, and that the lingering impression for the show ended up being positive – even if they may have been disappointed or underwhelmed with what came before.

But honestly, I don’t think anyone who really enjoys PlayStation and the style of games that PlayStation pushes, could have been disappointed by yesterday’s show. It may not have been a top tier show on the same level as Sony’s legendary E3 2015 or 2016 shows, but at this point, it doesn’t have to be. At this point, Sony knows what people like, and giving them more of that is all it needs to do. And that’s what they did yesterday, and what we ended up with was a show that painted a promising picture of the future of PlayStation.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The Punisher

The Punisher has had some of the cooler storylines in Marvel, including that one time he repurposed a War Machine suit for his mass-killing needs. Unfortunately, he hasn’t really had much presence in video games – his last title was the awful The Punisher: No Mercy in 2009. Despite this, we think Frank Castle could slot into a pretty good DOOM clone, ripping and tearing his way through a criminal underworld as the “heroes” debate the finer points of his morality.

The series created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and many others have spawned video games, films that have since then grossed into the billions of dollars. Comic books have often been shunned by people who think themselves too “mature” but comic books have given people hope, ideas and happiness to millions of people. Characters such as Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, the Silver Surfer, and the Avengers, have all at one point made changing the world a very possible idea to ordinary people.

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Black Bolt

Black Bolt’s powers is something to be in awe of , or rather be shit scared of, because if he speaks it triggers a massive shockwave of sorts capable of leveling a city. Which is why over the years the character has undergone extreme mental training to prevent himself from uttering a sound, even in sleep. Black Bolt is a great character make no mistake and he is a great asset. He has battled the Hulk and survived, and has known to have survived a lot of wars. Black Bolt later came to possess Cosmic Awareness which alloweds him an omnipresence consciousness to know exactly what he feels he needs to know at any given moment.

This prompted me to share my view on recent games I have played and of course my take on MW2. I was never a COD series fan, before I played COD: World at War which had a fairly good length of single player campaign. I then decided to buy COD: Modern Warfare and I played the multiplayer first on XBL and also kept playing the single player campaign in parallel knowing that it was short on length. I played it in bits and parts and one fine weekend I completed the left over game of 2-3 hours in one sitting, however when I compare the multiplayer experience in MW2 to MW1, it is way better and offers more perks and weapon unlocks, okay so on the single player missions for MW2 I am doing the same i did playing MW1, going slow and about the SpecOps I am okay with this mode being included, because if I just want to pin down NPC’s without playing online or Co-op it’s good for me, Co-op is more fun.

Gamers can get irritated with the length of the game script which could sway in both ways either being too short, and it’s actually not having a  long game play length but the overall game play that gets repetitive which makes the gamers feel it’s too long and boring. While playing Wolverine X- Men origins I noticed that even that game could have being much short on game play length if Africa Missions were not filled in to the game script which was similar to movie story. After playing the initial missions in the game as you enjoy ripping apart baddies with your blades, jumping on helicopters, lunging, executing charged blade attacks, you start feeling bored of the same action, the only difference being the wave of NPC enemies keeps increasing just to get you into intense button mashing mode.

I completed Prototype after a long time I purchased this game. I just lost interest in the game during the levels where Alex Mercer keeps coming with new missions to and from from Dana’s safe house. I forcibly completed the game, without playing side-quests which got activated during different levels, while i looked at the achievement guide for this game on the web. It further pissed me off, the count of killing infected population to unlock one achievement was ridiculous, well i don’t have that kind of time ripping apart infected zombies.

I have got GTA IV from last year when it launched. I have still not completed it, just because in spite of this game garnering rave reviews. I got bored riding in cars and bikes, doing tasks for in game characters just to tread along a storyline, meeting up girls may sound exciting and the following invites to their place for a coffee which ends up in a vibrating controller, may make you happy for some time, but while you play the game, you sometimes end up running away from the police, getting involved in wild car or bike chase which becomes tiring after some time, which diverts you from the main gameplay just increases game play time for the sake of it. I found similar problem with Prototype where in spite of using stealth and disguise on some levels you just cannot complete it fast, because you are going to get detected under your disguise and alert the army, and then get into a chase to evade the strike ops team.

Mass Effect and Fallout 3 also fall in this genre of more talking, interacting, shaping the story of the game based on your choices. Well i am not interested doing that, I prefer following a storyline high on action, even if it’s dumb and does not offer any interactivity. I surrendered to the hype of Assassins creed series watching AC2 trailers and got AC1 game, only to realize it was the same stuff of going on pre-assigned missions, hiding, stealth, playing the detective, getting in and out from animus, Ii don’t say it’s a bad game but there’s a lot to do before you actually get into some action.

On the other hand I loved playing both Gears of Wars installments, John Woo’s Stranglehold, Halo 3 (to some extent, I am not a Spartan Cheif Fan), Batman Arkham Asylum, Army of Two, I have got W.E.T game now, which I read has not got so many positive reviews, well it does not matter to me, I love that kind of action, so I prefer it short and sweet with loads of action. So tell me what’s your gamer type?