PlayStation State of Play (Thursday 23rd February 2023 @ 21:00 GMT)

[Julius]

Random Tuesday it is huh

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State of Play returns with its first show of 2023! Get ready for new looks at some anticipated games from our third-party partners, as well as a first glimpse at five PlayStation VR2 games set to arrive later this year. Then, settle in for more than 15 minutes of all-new gameplay details and updates on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the next game from Rocksteady Studios.

Here I am feeling like expectations are set going in, and then PlayStation JP's Blog drops this:

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Over the course of 45 minutes, we will showcase new reveals and the latest information and gameplay for 16 new titles across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation VR2.

45 minutes is definitely on the longer end (maybe the longest?) of State of Plays from what I can remember, so maybe there will be a surprise or two in store?

But 15 minutes on Suicide Squad...ouch...but also, talk about make-or-break for this game. Conversation around it is about as dead as it gets I feel. 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Julius

[Dcubed]

The last one was surprisingly decent, hopefully it paves the way for better shows going forward.

I suspect that it's gonna focus primarily on PSVR2 though.

[Jimbob]

Yeah, they'll be a decent chunk for PSVR2 as it's new, they'll want to get sales in and show off what's coming.

Still, interested in what indies are shown myself.

[Julius]

18 hours ago, Dcubed said:

I suspect that it's gonna focus primarily on PSVR2 though.

I mean judging from the length of the SoP being 45 minutes, 15 minutes being dedicated to Suicide Squad (booooooooo), and only mentioning five new VR2 titles before going on to mention indie and third-party surprises, I'll be surprised if it gets more than 10 minutes to be honest.

The headset releases...today? (I had to check that but yes it does ) so while I do think it'll get a bit of a spotlight, I think it'd be a confusing move to have it be the primary focus on its day of release rather than, say, a month or so ago to try to pump up pre-orders. I think I read something RE4 (Remake, I'd guess?) VR being in the works the other day, so maybe that'll be announced formally here? If it hasn't been already, we've had so much RE4 stuff it's hard to keep track! 

EDIT: never mind, just seen that it's been made official! ~~~

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VR mode of "Resident Evil RE: 4" has started development!
Stay tuned for more details!

So that's got to be turning up, even just a quick "oh yeah, RE8 VR is on the way, but we also have RE4R in the works too!", right? It's crazy how all-in Capcom are with VR when it comes to one of their tentpole franchises, I respect the hell out of it. Street Fighter VR when? 

~~~

Then again, sometimes all it takes is one game to change the tide, and there's only one truly third-party killer app that I think could help drive sales a bit more aggressively, and that's an announcement about Half-Life: Alyx coming to the platform by the end of the year. That would be an absolutely huge get to announce here and a solid promise to those with VR2s already on the way to their homes. 

14 minutes ago, Jimbob said:

Still, interested in what indies are shown myself.

Speaking of indies, I wonder if we'll get an update on The Little Devil Inside here, maybe even a shadow-drop if it's ready to go? I can't remember hearing anything about it last year, and I find it really bizarre that that game still isn't out yet considering it was announced way back in one of the pre-launch showings PlayStation had. 

Really hope it's just a case of the devs being anal about their project rather than a deeper cause for concern like scope creep/issues behind-the-scenes/etc. 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Julius

[Ronnie]

My PSVR2 just turned up  so I'm hoping for some good stuff on that front.

15 mins on Suicide Squad is where I'll check out of the presentation. That seems too long a segment for 1 game.

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

My PSVR2 just turned up  so I'm hoping for some good stuff on that front.

Looking forward to hearing some thoughts!

I've just seen a tweet reminding me about No Man's Sky being playable on VR2 after today's update, pretty crazy to see just how many games are getting updated with VR2 compatibility! 

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

15 mins on Suicide Squad is where I'll check out of the presentation. That seems too long a segment for 1 game.

I think you can absolutely have segments on one game which are 15+ minutes long and work incredibly well in amongst a wider presentation - Final Fantasy VII Remake's demo during S-E's showing at E3 2019 comes to mind - but a game that's rumoured to be GaaS and so likely to just be a match or two with some edits, a la EA's Battlefield/Battlefront showings over the years? 

Total snooze fest. I'm really hoping that's what the show ends with so I can check out too, but it'll probably be first up, or maybe the middle section of the show following the VR2 news. Which...urgh 

[Ronnie]

5 minutes ago, Julius said:

Looking forward to hearing some thoughts!

Was debating for ages whether to cancel my pre-order given the enormous cost. Things like Horizon being digital only for some reason didn't help, no chance to sell it on after. Ended up keeping it cause I've not had a VR headset before and I'm putting my faith in Sony to deliver games for it. 

Horizon, No Man's Sky, Tales from the Galaxy's Edge and Tetris Effect for me at launch. Hoping to see Wipeout ported and an Astrobot game

As for the State of Play, I think with these things the gameplay demos come at the end, but you never know...

[Julius]

3 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Was debating for ages whether to cancel my pre-order given the enormous cost. Things like Horizon being digital only for some reason didn't help, no chance to sell it on after. Ended up keeping it cause I've not had a VR headset before and I'm putting my faith in Sony to deliver games for it. 

Yeah, think that's totally fair, the cost and just having more than enough games elsewhere was enough to keep me away from the VR2 and Edge controller...for now.

(Okay well maybe not the Edge controller because the battery life not being any better kind of makes it a non-starter for me!)

But yeah, excited to hear your thoughts on it! Also I had no idea that Call to the Wild was digital-only, that kind of sucks to hear as someone who likes to fill their shelves with games! 

4 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Horizon, No Man's Sky, Tales from the Galaxy's Edge and Tetris Effect for me at launch. Hoping to see Wipeout ported and an Astrobot game

Sounds like a really solid collection to dive into at launch.

Love the little I've played of Tetris Effect (since dropped for Tetris GB on NSO because...well it's a classic ); Horizon seems like a great way to set the bar for fidelity expectations when it comes to VR2 (I'm curious to hear how long that game is, and if it's more of a game or an experience, if that makes sense?); Tales from the Galaxy's Edge looks AWESOME, as does No Man's Sky in VR. 

And I won't lie, I'm shocked that Rescue Mission hasn't been worked on for VR2's launch with some sort of deluxe version, especially after it's critical acclaim and that of Playroom. Just hope that means they're busy at work on a fully fledged title...

9 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

As for the State of Play, I think with these things the gameplay demos come at the end, but you never know...

My problem is that if it's at the end I'll need to stick around in case there's a "oh, and one more thing" which I'll pray is something I actually want but turn out to just be something like a reminder of Forbidden West coming to PS+ 

[Julius]

Well, outside of Tchia getting announced for launch next month straight into the PS+ Game Catalog and still looking like a beautiful melting pot of game mechanics from great games, Goodbye Volcano High and Humanity catching my eye, Street Fighter 6 getting it's release date confirmed as 2nd June and another solid RE4 trailer...

That was a total nothingburger of a State of Play. 

my score: 4/10.

Yes, you can skip this one, or just go into the PlayStation YouTube channel and see which trailers catch your eye and watch those.

And no, I don't want to talk about it any more than that 

Spoiler

Nintendo Direct: 8th February – 8.5/10

PlayStation State of Play: 23rd February – 4.0/10

Oh and the Suicide Squad showing felt even worse than you'd think it would. They showed a trailer and announced the release date in around 5 minutes, giving you moment of hope that you were being released from the pain of it's showing, before they started talking over more footage. Boooooooooo. 

Oh also where the hell is Little Devil Inside? It's been nearly a year and a half since we last saw it...

Edited February 24, 2023 by Julius