This week’s PlayStation Showcase may not have been record breaking compared to previous years, but it still had an impressive array of highlights and reveals. We’ve been rewarded with a slew of exciting and innovative new title announcements, as well as some long-awaited confirmations of rumored sequels and continuations.
We’ve done some research into some of the talent behind some of these new projects, as well as some vain attempts to contain our enthusiasm for the games we’ve been dreaming about for years, and come up with this list of the announcements and highlights we think you should follow.
10 Towers of Aghasba
Towers of Aghasba combines elements of open world action games and building/crafting sandboxes. The game has a unique and inspired look that subtly echoes the aesthetic of games like Shadow of the Colossus with a little Avatar and even The Neverending Story thrown in for good measure.
Towers of Aghasba will be the Dreamlit studio’s first game, but looking at the development team shows an impressive wealth of experience, with co-founders Khang Le and Dave Nguyen having titles like Sky: Children of Light and Call of Duty respectively. Towers of Aghasba will release for PS5 and PC sometime in 2024.
9 The Courageous Squire
The Plucky Squire is a charming-looking action-adventure game that seems to take place in various realistic, storybook-like delivery methods and narrative motifs, which suggests there will be plenty of variety. The trailer also showed what appeared to be a heavy emphasis on switching between 2D and 3D environments.
The development team, All Possible Futures, is currently made up of James Turner, who has been on the Pokémon creative team for years, and Jonathan Biddle, who has games like Thomas Was Alone and The Swapper under his belt. Plucky Squire will launch on virtually all platforms later this year.
8 Phantom Blade 0
One of the biggest and longest reveals during the event was Phantom Blade 0, an action game featuring dark and sinister characters with an interesting gimmick: you only have 66 days to live. How this limitation affects the game from a gameplay and narrative perspective remains to be seen, but it sounds like there will be potential for rogue elements or a heavy emphasis on replay value.
Phantom Blade 0 developer Cruel Man Studio is headed by Michael Chang, who spent time working with FromSoftware in the PS3/360 era. The trailer definitely showed off some elements that appear to be Souls-like, so we’ll see if Cruel Man brings some of that experience to Phantom Blade 0, which launches in late 2023 or early 2024 on PS5.
7 ultras
No, Ultros is sadly not a Final Fantasy spinoff starring a certain villainous octopus, but it is a unique-looking 2D action game that feels vaguely reminiscent of Valfaris in terms of its neon-and-gore color palette and Giger-esque creatures. Billed as a “psychedelic metroidvania”, Ultros has a lot of potential to fill the void left by the increasingly elusive Hollow Knight: Silksong.
While Ultros is Hadoque’s first title, the studio’s founders boast impressive credentials, with the majority of the team working on indie sensation Hotline Miami. Ultros will be released in 2024 for PlayStation and Steam.
6 The Talos II Principle
The Talos Principle was a deeply psychological puzzle game that swept many narrative and indie categories within its first year of release. Less than a year later, Croteam announced The Talos Principle II… and then, things went quiet. The first game was re-released and enhanced across multiple platforms, but all indications of an imminent sequel seemed to go silent. Until this week, that is.
Talos Principle II, due out later this year, doesn’t seem to be taking too many risks with the first game’s celebrated formula, and fans can rest assured that the same kind of mind-blowing puzzle philosophy will return in a grander form.
5 Alan Wake II
When Alan Wake was released, it was a somewhat divisive game, with many praising its captivating psychological thriller plot and its haunting aesthetics and soundtrack, while others criticized the contrast between its mechanical simplicity and narrative convolution. However, the game became a cult hit, and rumors of a sequel floated around for years as Remedy moved on to projects like Quantum Break and Control.
With Alan Wake being an Xbox 360 staple, no one expected the sequel’s big reveal at a Sony storefront, but here we are. Alan Wake II will be released in October for Xbox Series, PC and PS5.
4 Dragon’s Dogma 2
It’s been over a decade since Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen was originally released for seventh generation consoles. In the meantime, the then-forgotten Dragon’s Dogma has slowly amassed a following of devotees who insist the game stands alongside Skyrim and Dragon Age as a seminal work of its kind.
Last year, Hideaki Atsuno finally announced what seemed inevitable – a sequel to Dragon’s Dogma, nearly ten years since he initially expressed a desire to make one, and at this week’s PlayStation showcase, we finally got to see the game in action, and it certainly did. was one of the highlights of the event. Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be released on PS5, Xbox Series and PC sometime in 2024.
3 it snows
Nomada Studio’s 2018 debut title, Gris, was one of the most celebrated indie games of the past generation. The visually appealing and incredibly melancholic platform adventure won the hearts of gamers and critics alike, and captured many of the indie awards that year.
It’s understandable, then, that there’s a lot of hype surrounding the studio’s next project, Neva. While no gameplay was shown during the reveal trailer at Sony’s event this week, the absolutely beautiful world clearly inspired by Princess Mononoke and the characters showcased here in an abstract and utterly enchanting art style show a lot of promise. Neva will launch next year on pretty much every platform that still has an active store.
two sea sword
While 2012 was filled with AAA blockbusters, it was a heartfelt, gentle, and nuanced indie adventure game called Journey that completely upset the balance of power and demonstrated that small, arty games with limited scope but extremely focused can and should. will succeed in an age when monopolies and creative homogeneity dominate the market.
Not long after the underdog success of Journey, a large part of developer Thatgamecompany split off and formed Giant Squid, which later released a spiritual, aquatic-themed successor to Thatgamecompany’s first hit, Flower, called ABZÛ. Now, Giant Squid looks to be taking on the mighty legacy of Journey, once again taking us into a wordless, haunted world of rolling sand dunes and perpetual twilight in Sword of the Sea, and we couldn’t be more excited – even if the game does not yet have a release window.
Konami has been flirting with a Metal Gear Solid 3 remake for some time now. The game was a landmark and cultural touchstone when it launched nearly 20 years ago on PlayStation 2 – and while it’s a certified masterpiece and considered one of the greatest games ever made, we can’t help but wonder what it could have accomplished if their imagination was not hampered by the limitations of the old PS2 hardware.
Well, next year, we won’t have to wonder anymore. Not only are we getting a modern, fully realized MGS3 remake, but we’re also getting the “Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1″, which will give contemporary platforms access to MGS1-3. Also, the fact that it’s called “Volume 1” implies that more of the series will be released in subsequent volumes, and playing games like Peace Walker and MGS4 on platforms that don’t require you to search your attic or garage would be a nice perk for you. a remake of one of the best games of all time.