Recap time:
-Started off with Concorde, the next live service game from Sony (being developed by Firewalk Studios). IMO this section went on for a bit too long. They began with a cinematic trailer introducing us to characters, and the vibe I got was very much "we wanted to create our own Guardians of the Galaxy." Then it went in to gameplay and yep it's an Overwatch like hero shooter. Even uses the 5v5 style of OW2. This feels like a case of "a bit too late don't you think?" but I guess I'll try the beta in July for the hell of it.
-God of War: Ragnarok is coming to PC on September 19, hopefully this is one of the good ports.
-A new Dynasty Warriors game, DW: Origins, is coming next year. Hopefully it's a major improvement over DW9.
-Infinity Nikki is an open world "dress up RPG" that has a "beta test" coming in Q3 this year. One very interesting thing to note is the game is being directed by a former Zelda series designer, Kentaro Tominaga.
-Where Winds Meet is an action-adventure game set in ancient China that's coming… sometime in the future.
-Ballad of Antara is a free-to-play game coming in the near future, I'm already guessing it'll be a Genshin type of game.
-Behemoth is a VR action RPG coming from the developers of The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, which I have heard is a really good VR game so hopefully this one is too.
-Alien: Rogue Incursion is a VR game set in the Alien universe. If it ends up basically being a VR version of Alien: Isolation then I'll be interested.
-Marvel Rivals, another Overwatch like, but this time with Marvel characters (and one that's already had gameplay shown before) is coming to PS5 with an exclusive cosmetic for Spider-Man based on Scarlet Spider. I will admit the fact the environments are destructible is what caught my attention. It's free to play so like with Concorde's beta I might as well give it a shot.
-The Until Dawn remake is coming to PS5 and PC this fall. I admit I don't remember enough about the original to know if this trailer showed off much new, which might be a good thing as the remake might feel like experiencing it as a new game again.
-Diablo-like action RPG Path of Exile 2 will come to PS5 in early access this fall.
-The Silent Hill 2 remake got a trailer focusing on Angela (even giving us a look at the Abstract Daddy boss fight, surprisingly), and finally got a release date, October 8, 2024 (just in time for the spooky season).
-Monster Hunter: Wilds first gameplay shown off. Like every other RE Engine game is of course looks real nice, and hunts look to have some new strategies this time. Game still only has a vague 2025 date.
-And the show ender is a brand new Astro Bot game that is very simply titled "Astro Bot." Like the PS5's pack in tech demo game Astro's Playroom it'll be a 3D platformer that harkens back to Sony's PS1 and 2 days, and like Playroom will also be a celebration of the PlayStation brand with various bots and costumes based on Sony IPs like God of War, Uncharted, Parappa the Rapper, and Ico, and PlayStation hardware acting as some of Astro's tools. Game is also coming out sooner than I expected, September 6.
And that's it for the State of Play. Rather low key SoP if you ask me, Concorde felt like it really didn't need nearly 15 minutes dedicated to it, and the main things that I felt saved it were the Silent Hill 2 release date confirmation and Astro Bot.
But now I do wanna get in to the Silent Hill 2 remake a bit more as Konami held a Silent Hill Transmission right after the State of Play. We got a look at gameplay that's much closer to final and got to see the remake's new takes on the opening right after James reaches the town and a look at Brookhaven Hospital. For the opening James is still following a Lying Figure like in the original, but instead of following it to an abandoned tunnel he goes into an abandoned house, where he finds the radio on a chair and grabs the wooden board from a boarded up window. I previously commented combat looked stiff to me but I'll be honest and say I don't think it bothers me much anymore as lets be honest, combat in the original wasn't exactly a highlight, and James isn't supposed to be a combat expert.
In Brookhaven we got to see things like the updated Bubblehead Nurse designs and briefly showing that avoiding combat is still viable like it was in the original, which is good as ammo will likely be as scarce as before. A combat encounter with a nurse showed James can briefly stumble it with a shot to the leg, but one thing that I feel is an objective improvement to combat is now you can swap between guns and melee weapons seamlessly so you spend less time swapping in menus. Also looks like some puzzles will retain the same solutions as James got a hook off a teddy bear like in the original, and I saw the drain with the green fluid. Also while the game has a new voice cast, Laura acting like a little shit towards James during the first half of the game is retained quite faithfully. By the by it looks like James' face got altered slightly to look at least slightly closer to the original, though after seeing his mocop and voice actor I can see his face also looks similar to his actor. I have a lot more confidence in this remake after seeing this gameplay, Bloober Team might actually surprise me after all. Music and monster designs are of course on point since Akira Yamaoka and Masahiro Ito are returning (I think they might even be the only original team members to return for the remake).
Also got a look at Christophe Gans' new Silent Hill movie, which will be an adaptation of SH2, and like the original the monsters will be done with practical effects and makeup played by dancers and acrobats. The actor playing James in the movie does look quite different from what I expected (dude has a beard and longer hair), but the actress playing Maria looks spot on to the original 2001 version of the character (even wearing an outfit that's more faithful than Maria's remake outfit).
