PLAYSTATION: WINNER BY A NARROW MARGIN

While PlayStation had a great E3 last year, I was looking forward to something even better this year from them with rumors about exciting titles such as The Last of Us Part II and Red Dead Redemption 

2 appearing on the horizon.

The conference kicked off with a story trailer for Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. The trailer shows Chloe and Nadine going through ups and downs and episodes of mistrust on their quest to find Ganesh's Tusk. The release date for the game was announced to be August 22, 2017. This was followed by an announcement trailer for a story DLC of “Horizon” titled “The Frozen Wilds” which comes out later this year. 

New gameplay footage for “Days Gone” debuted at the conference. The textures and lighting seemed to have massively improved from the previous demo. The gameplay seemed fascinating as well since the game pits the protagonist against a series of increasingly unfavorable events. Two Capcom titles, “Monster Hunter World” and “Marvel vs Capcom Infinite” were also announced. 

The biggest surprise of the conference had to be when a 4K remake of the PS2 classic “Shadow of the Colossus” was revealed. The sheer scale of the levels and the colossi paired with the technological prowess of the current-gen consoles shapes up what promises to be a visual treat filled with nostalgia.

Activision revealed a multiplayer gameplay trailer for Call of Duty WWII. The trailer felt quite tame and tepid compared to what EA has already delivered with BF1. The game comes out on November 3 this year.

Just like last year, a lot of PlayStation VR titles were announced. Hardcore Skyrim fans may be delighted to know that the game has been turned into a first person VR title. A “Final Fantasy” themed fishing simulator named “Monster of the Deep” was also showcased. Other VR titles include Star Child, Bravo Team and Moss. The only VR title that got me somewhat excited was Supermassive's Until Dawn prequel titled “The Inpatient”.

The conference picked up its pace again with a new trailer for God of War. The visuals are mind-blowing, especially when you consider the fact that the trailer was entirely shot on a launch PS4. I was hoping for the game to get rid of the over-the-shoulder camera but sadly the devs are sticking with it. For me, it takes a lot of the fun out of the game and it was somewhat apparent in the trailer where enemies attack Kratos one-by-one unlike the previous titles. Even though there were strong rumors about the game releasing this November, the trailer confirmed “Early 2018” as the release window.

Quantic Dream's much anticipated “Detroit: Become Human” received a new gameplay trailer which introduced the final playable character, Marcus, who is leading a revolution against the humans. The trailer mainly showcased how the story branches out depending on the choices you make. No release window was announced for the game. A trailer for Bungie's “Destiny 2” also debuted at the conference.

The conference ended with a gameplay footage of Insomniac'sPS4 exclusive Spider-Man game. The visuals are drop-dead gorgeous and the gameplay seemed to combine the navigation of Spider-Man 2 with the Arkham series' combat. Overall, the footage was vastly impressive as it seemed to have solved all the problems of the previous Spider-Man games. 

With a negligible number of new exclusives and no specific release dates for most of the titles, this year's PlayStation E3 conference did not pack as much fireworks as I was expecting it to. However, it still marginally wins this year's E3 for me.