While Players Compare The Recent Xbox and Sony Showcases, I’m Just Happy To Have More Great Games

With the death of E3, publishers needed some sort of forum to announce new projects and ideas. Sony already had its showcases for some time, but after the diminishing presence of E3 and The Game Awards being the next best thing, Sony decided to take their path and stick with their bi-yearly showcases where they reveal their big hitter exclusives and some other closely tied games.

Now while Sony was out here hyping up the community, there was one thing many people overlooked, the fact that most of the games revealed by PlayStation were coming to Xbox already, which became a strong point against PlayStation right from the start, speaking of Xbox, their showcase, was just as good if not better as it was filled with new and upcoming releases with developer feedback and a small gameplay segments.

With both powerhouses going all out for the next few years to get the edge on the other, there’s one really good thing that came out from all of this, that would be the games of course. While many people still argue and compare both showcases, I’m here happy to finally receive engaging and actually interesting titles. So with that being said, let’s look at some of the more astonishing games of both showcases.

PlayStation Hitting Hard With Marvel’s Spider-Man And Other New Titles

The biggest hitter from Sony was undoubtedly Spiderman 2. The sheer excitement that I had from the exceptionally detailed and long surprise presentation that they had at the end of their showcase, was good enough to throw their money at Sony demanding more. Definitely the best announcement from both showcases and one of the most hype ones ever.

Another surprising title, Foamstars, seems to be Sony’s attempt at creating a replica of Splatoon, a game on Nintendo Switch where 2 teams go head to head and try to paint their respective color on the entire map. Here, the main category seems to be soap rather than paint. In theory, it’s the same game, but with new mechanics and hopefully a loyal dev team.

After this, some small Indie games with really unique ideas. The good thing here, unlike Xbox, is that Sony gave a very generous amount of time for each game to shine in their areas. Xbox gave Indie games about 6 seconds on screen, whereas Sony gave a good chunk of their entire showcase. One of these titles, The Plucky Squire, focuses on an adventure of perspectives where you shift from 2D to 3D, something like in Super Mario Odyssey, and Teardown where you destroy stuff in great, very minute detail.

Another great game that had a really good amount of gameplay was Phantom Blade 0, and it really resonated with players with everyone comparing it to Sekiro and other Samurai games of the same genre. Sony knew what it was doing to put this title near the opening to satisfy player expectations right from the start. Although no official release date was given, it still seems pretty close, despite the lack of previous announcements.

Personally, this is the game that I am most hyped to see what it actually turns into. “What’s your plan? Knowing you have only 66 days to live…” This sentence is spewed at us a few times during the showcase, and honestly, it is giving me Sifu vibes, where we may be working on a death calendar, though that is yet to be seen. Competition drives perfection, and here it gave us a pretty perfect glimpse into an unknown, yet familiar world.

The next title has the same ‘Visionary Artist’ behind the gorgeous Abzu and Journey. The Sword of The Sea is another exclusive set for the PS5. The title shares great similarities to bother Abzu and Journey, leading some to believe a sort of connection between the two, how far does this theory hold up, well until some more gameplay is shown for the surprisingly colorful game, we can’t say too much.

Finally, the final most significant title here is most definitely the PSVR version of Resident Evil 4 Remake which will hopefully be released soon. It says that it is in development currently, and with the little amount of gameplay that we did see, that shows that it most probably may be a few years down the line, or we might see it as early as next year. Xbox should probably try out VR too, just to keep the games of all kinds flowing.

There were a ton of new announcements, some of which included Five Nights at Freddy’s Help Wanted 2, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, Dragon’s Dogma II, and the biggest surprise hit of all, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Overall, solid showcase with great and engaging games. This is what competition drives, not greed, but rather consistency, and that’s really all that matters when making a game.

Xbox Exploding With Starfield And First Day Game Pass Exclusives

Starfield, that’s the name, and it’s Xbox’s most anticipated game. The fact that Xbox gave around 50 minutes just for Starfield, shows how proud they are to finally reveal something that might even match the hype and playerbase of Halo. It was a great showcase overall, brimming with new games and developer interviews, and leaving many writers and players astonished.

One thing to note about the entirety of the presentation was the developers going all in and having small Q&A sessions at the end of their respective games where they talk about details, mechanics, and inspirations that the game had going into development. Now this was a great step for Microsoft to actually have the developers add to the game after the showcase, it definitely shows more soul and love that they had for their projects.

Coming back to the games, one thing that caught my eye instantly was the new Sea Of Thieves content coming soon. Being directed by Lucasfilm Games, there’s a good chance it won’t end up extremely bland like its predecessor, but that is yet to be seen. In other games, a new Star Wars game also seems to be riling up the community, but cutscene trailers do little to show what the title actually is.

We’re also getting a new Microsoft Flight Simulator title which should allow us to go through entire nations once again, and other worlds apparently with the new Dune collab. And another huge title, Hellblade 2 also revealed a gorgeous cinematic, hyping up the community for such an anticipated title. Another update to Fallout 76, which wasn’t really something players wanted to see, but it was cool to see it still getting supported.

Although Xbox has been teasing it for some time, I hoped for a release date by now, not exactly a release year. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is following up on an already strong note from its predecessor, and seeing that it is going to be a day 1 Game Pass title, shows that Xbox is deeming this as advertising for the Game Pass indirectly, which seems to be a good idea to give gamers with the subscription such a huge experience for free.

Although no new Skyrim game was announced, which was a real anticipation point for players, we did get Necrom for The Elder Scrolls Online. Apart from this, we had some other minor titles and a lot of Indie games that unfortunately were shown for a moment at a time, probably to keep audiences inclined to the action of the other major releases.

All in all, dozens of new IPs, amazing gameplay trailers, engaging developers, and a good look for both publishers, this is what we should be focusing on, not comparisons, but rather an analysis of the new titles. It is yet to be seen how these new games will affect the entire dynamic between the 2 major consoles, one thing is for certain, I’m going to play all of them.