Take it Or Leave It – E3 2014 – Sony

Welcome to Take It Or Leave It, where each week I pick out new comics and tell you if they’re worth the price and you should take them, or if you should just leave them on the shelf. Nope! This time, we’re looking at the big press conferences of E3 2014, ranking not only the shows themselves, but also the best, worst, and generally weirdest of the games that were shown during them.

Sony closed out the very first night of the expo, and they had a lot of competition to overcome after most of the others had just brought their A-game. So, how did they do?

Sony Press Conference Being the ones to come on after so many big announcements wasn’t a simple task, but Sony certainly prevailed by firing on all fronts. Granted, they had a bit of an “unfair advantage” by having more stage time than the others, and they shot themselves in the foot a little bit by going through their usual routine of talking stats and peripherals a bit too much, but it still lead to a fantastic showing from them. Verdict: Take It

Destiny The show opened with another trailer for Destiny, the new game being developed by Bungie (the original creators of Halo.) I couldn’t help but notice something . . . odd about this. A small, floating robot character who narrates the overall plot? Mostly humanoid style aliens that have a habit of dropping into the area in pods? Vehicles that look a little too familiar? Wait a minute . . . are they cloning their own game? This all seems a little too much like Halo to me, and that’s coming from someone who enjoys the series as a whole. I figured the whole point of leaving that behind was to, well, leave it behind and do something new. You know things are looking shady when even the voice talents of Peter Dinklage sound a bit bland from what we’ve heard so far. Still, there’s an alpha accessible to some people right now, and we will be seeing a public beta in the near future, so at least they’re doing some things right. Verdict: Unsure

The Order: 1886 Now here’s one of the brand new titles that grabbed my interest from the start. Dark environments, narrow corridors, a lingering sense of doom and danger everywhere – survival horror at its best. Even better, it seems to have some kind of industrial age / steampunk vibe to it, which is something that hasn’t really been done very often in the horror genre before. The inspirations from titles like Resident Evil are very apparent here (and I smiled at the obvious nod to that series in the gameplay clip shown), but the thing that threw me off was the odd “quick time event” sequence that came up. The main character got his ass kicked by some kind of zombie . . vampire . . demon thing, and he’s lying there in pain, when a big triangle button symbol pops up so that he can drink the stuff in his vial to survive? Not entirely sure that was necessary, but the rest of it looks completely badass. Verdict: Take It

Entwined Time to lighten the mood a bit with a colorful and odd indie title. It seems you use the controller’s thumb sticks to control both an orange fish and a blue swan, and you have to guide them through obstacles to collect some kind of shapes of their color until they become one at the end of the level. Neat little concept, and certainly some nice bits of eye candy, but whether or not this will get some real attention is anyone’s guess. Oh, and it’s already available now. Verdict: Unsure

Infamous: First Light A standalone expansion to the successful Infamous: Second Son, this title explores the story of Fetch, one of the female characters from that title. Since I haven’t played Second Son yet, I didn’t quite get what was going on in this trailer. All I know is that she gets to do the kind of cool stuff that Infamous is known for, and it involves her getting some kind of psychiatric help, so we’ll probably get to learn more about her backstory in the process. Verdict: Probably Take It

Little Big Planet 3 Well, this one came from out of nowhere. One of my personal favorite surprises of the night, this installment sees brand new playable characters – meaning it won’t be just 4 people playing as their version of the usual “Sackboy” anymore. Each of these characters have special abilities that will be required to get through some of the game’s puzzles, and it promises to be just as challenging as ever, if not more so. Also, all of the creations that players uploaded from LBP 1 and 2 will be available in 3, updated graphics and all . . . though it still seems a bit unclear whether or not our unlocked items will still manage to carry over as they did before. Verdict: Definitely Take it

Bloodborne The creators of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls are at it again with another brutal and challenging title. In fact, this might as well just be another Souls game, because the similarities are everywhere. The main differences seem to be that the overall theme has a bit more of a gothic horror style to it, and there are guns. Will it be enough to bring over people who were turned away by the structure of the Souls titles? They’ll have to show and talk about it more before I can answer that for sure, but the established fans are drooling over this one already. Verdict: Probably Take It

Far Cry 4 The next game in the Far Cry franchise (and my personal favorite game of 2012) is approaching fast, and it looks like everything I could’ve hoped for. Another villain that’s just as sick and twisted as he is likeable, an entirely new kind of environment, vastly improved cooperative play and much more were promised and shown here. Even more, PS4 owners don’t even need a copy of the game in order to join a friend who does in that cooperative mode – an interesting feature for sure, though whether a lot of people use this or not remains to be seen. Verdict: Definitely Take It

Dead Island 2 The 4 player cooperative, zombie bashing, weapon crafting roleplaying game is back and taking a very different tone than its previous entries. The reveal trailer was strangely one of the funniest of E3, so I can only assume that it means they realized the games weren’t as depressing or emotional as they had originally advertised. So far, the biggest changes to the title are brand new characters with new classes, the ability to dual wield weapons, and (better) vehicle segments. I personally had a ton of fun with the original and Riptide, so sign me up! Verdict: Take It

Battlefield: Hardline Battlefield has gone “cops & robbers” on us, and EA had a lot to say about it despite all of the leaks. It seems like it still plays out a bit too much like Battlefield 4 with a different look, but it still has some interesting aspects . . . though I can’t say I’ve ever heard of the LAPD or any high end criminals in the last century or so using a crossbow, but hey – gotta love video game logic, right? The environmental destruction is as entertaining as ever, and the necessity of teamwork and communication remains. Besides, using a tazer on someone or arresting them is more unique and fun to watch than the overdone knife kills. Hopefully, this will start a trend of well established franchises trying new things more often. Oh, and there’s a closed beta on the PC and PS4 versions of the game that might still have some room left on them for signups. Verdict: Take It

	Magicka 2 The humorous, spell-casting indie hit returns on PS4 and PC, promising new twists to the well known gameplay of combining elements to create a variety of spells. One of the few games that have managed to balance humor and laughs with difficulty, this will very likely be a hit once again among those looking for a challenge. Verdict: Probably Take It

Grim Fandango It’s . . . (Grim) FAAAN-DAAAN . . *ahem* uh, what was I saying? Oh yeah, the cult classic 1998 PC game Grim Fandango is getting the old remake treatment for Sony platforms. This should be a brilliant move, especially in a time where point-and-click adventure titles are popular again. Add in the odd (in a good way) art style and sense of humor, and I’m not seeing a reason why this could go wrong. Verdict: Take It

Hotline Miami 2 Not a whole lot of new information to be seen here, but Hotline Miami 2 and the other Devolver Digital titles in the works will be making their console debuts on PS4. In other words, they won’t be permanently exclusive, but Sony fans just get them first. Still, high quality indie games getting love on the consoles is always a good thing, and I’m glad to see big ones like this getting in on it. Verdict: Take It

Let It Die I gotta be honest, I have no idea what this game is about. It’s from the wonderfully demented mind of Suda 51 (who’s known for titles like Lollipop Chainsaw, No More Heroes, Killer7 and Shadows of the Damned), so it’s bound to be very violent and full of crude humor . . . but what is it? The trailer made it appear to be a brutal fighting game similar to Mortal Kombat, but no actual gameplay was shown. Oh well, Suda tends not to make bad games ever, so it still has my interest. Verdict: Probably Take It

Abzû From the makers of the indie hit Journey comes another game about exploration. This time, it looks like you play as a deep sea diver exploring an ocean. I’m not sure what the goal of the game is here – could be treasure hunting – but the footage shown featured swimming with whales and being cautious of sharks sneaking up behind the player. I believe games could always use more exploration (especially in the ocean), so this could very well be another success. Verdict: Probably Take It

No Man’s Sky Nothing short of magic being created by a very small development team, the concept of No Man’s Sky is insane. For every new player, a new world is created that they start off in. They can explore and survive on that planet (which can be home to all kinds of mystery and danger), or they can grab their space ship to leave it entirely, where they can engage in battles with other players and visit other planets, all without a single loading screen in between. I can’t even begin to imagine how it’s being done . . . I just hope that it sees completion and release in the near future. Verdict: Definitely Take It

PlayStation TV . . . And here’s where things slowed down. After boasting about some rather vague statistics, (PlayStation Plus subscribers up 190% since PS4 launched? Almost like that’s because it’s required to play PS4 online or something) Sony talked about this neat little box. It will allow people to play all of their digital games remotely on another screen without needing to have another console or to move the one they have around. I can’t say there are a whole lot of situations where this will be useful though. I believe they stated that Sony brand televisions will also be getting a similar feature, so people who own one of those already should not need this. Verdict: Probably Leave It

Free-to-Play Titles A whole plethora of free-to-play games will be making their way to the PS4 at some point in the near future, including the likes of PlanetSide 2, Kingdom Under Fire II, War Thunder, and more. Some of them have been doing quite well on the PC scene already, but that doesn’t always mean it’ll be more of the same on other platforms. If it does work out though, maybe this could lead to even bigger games making the move over. Verdict: Unsure

Mortal Kombat X The ultra-violent fighter that started it all is back, bringing with it a persistent online mode, characters that are brand new to the series, and of course, obscene amounts of blood & gore. We got to see a couple of fights happen during this segment, one of which featured the classic Scorpion vs Sub Zero, while the other seemed to be 2 of the new faces. It seems to look a lot like the last game in the series, while also bringing over the environmental attack system seen in Injustice. Hopefully, some better tweaks to the balancing have been made, as those environmental and “X-ray” attacks were often considered overpowered or too repetitive by the communities. Verdict: Probably Take It

Ratchet & Clank The PS2 hit that turned this duo into classic characters is making a comeback. Announced alongside an animated movie hitting theaters in 2015, the original game is being remade for the PS4. No footage of this was shown, but it’s a safe bet that the graphics will be all kinds of prettier, while certain things will likely  be reworked and redone to fit the technology leap and appeal to new audiences all over again. Verdict: Probably Take It

The Last of Us – Remastered The rumors that have been circling for months now have been confirmed, and last year’s PS3 hit is coming to the next generation as well. While the graphical improvements aren’t anything to write home about, it will probably come with all of the additional content that was sold separately from the original game. Anybody who hasn’t picked it up yet might as well just wait a little longer for this. Verdict: Take It

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Another intense trailer for the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid sequel, we see a Big Boss covered in blood, the ashes of his allies . . . just looking plain damn evil. Hideo Kojima was quoted before as saying he was afraid of how this game will be received, because of all of the dark territories that the story will go into. With the controversy surrounding the game from trailers alone, he may be right, but it sounds to me like this game just has the balls to do things that games before it wouldn’t dare . . . and I say that’s a good thing. Besides, this will be the story that finally connects the events of MGS3 and Peace Walker to the original Metal Gear games – the fans have been waiting a long time to see it all come full circle. Verdict: Definitely Take It

Grand Theft Auto V One of the most expensive and financially successful games ever made is finally making the jump to PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Promising improved visuals and performance, as well as new wildlife and all kinds of other “details” to discover, it’s looking like the best just got better. The character progress made in GTA Online will also be able to carry over to one of the new platforms as well, leaving very little reason to not have Michael, Franklin and Trevor take over Los Santos all over again. Verdict: Definitely Take It

Batman: Arkham Knight The bat is looking cooler than ever in this next installment in the Arkham series. Toting the most freedom that the series has seen yet, along with the ability to use the Batmobile itself to get around and fight, it’s definitely got all of the potential. Scarecrow seems to be more heavily involved in the story this time around as well – personally one of my favorite comic villains. However, this title doesn’t have the same writers working on it that the original Arkham games did (the same ones who did the animated series, if memory serves me right), so the developers still have some room to fail or prove themselves worthy in that department. Verdict: Maybe Take It

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Sony finished off their presentation with – surprise!- the new Uncharted game. Judging by the subtitle and the trailer featuring Nathan Drake not looking so good, one can only guess that this will likely be the end of his adventures. While I was never attracted to the Uncharted series myself, it has had quite a huge following during its run on the PS3. We’ll have to wait and see if the series (or at least, Nathan’s story) can go out with a bang on the PS4. Verdict: Unsure

Jeremy Harrison has been into gaming and just about everything nerdy or out of the norm for as long as he can remember. He likes to keep an open mind about things, but also has a strangely high amount of fun getting into a rant or good debate. . . which is probably why he was recruited to this site in the first place. You can Email Jeremy or follow Jeremy on Twitter @NightmareAsylum or Facebook