Sony has finally shown off what we're getting with the PlayStation 5, with its "The Future of Gaming" show putting a series of titles on a pedestal with an hour designed to make you reach for a PS5 preorder.
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Within 20 minutes, we'd seen big-name sequels in the shape of Gran Turismo 7, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, followed up with a series of third-party titles like Hitman 3, NBA 2K21, Resident Evil 8: Village and Godfall, in addition to some kid-friendly fare like Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
It's hard to pick one title to be excited about, and it's a stunning riposte to Microsoft's Xbox Series X gameplay reveal, which took place on May 7. That event, a cornucopia of indie titles and third party games, had a lot of flashy trailers but not much in the way of actual gameplay.
Despite tons of rumours, it wasn't clear what Sony had to show off in return, but it turned out there was far more than the rumours: did anyone expect a brand new Oddworld game, starring Mudokon Abe, best known for a series of PlayStation 1 side-scrolling platformers? Well, that's Oddworld Soulstorm, coming to PS5.
Then there are all the games we got an extra look at. I'm now infatuated with Deathloop — developed by Dishonored outfit Arkane — a 70s-tinged story about two assassins locked in a time loop, with the killer tagline: "if at first you don't succeed, die and die again."
Then, Sony had one more big surprise: the sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn, entitled Horizon: Forbidden West, which takes protagonist Aloy and tosses her into a whole new environment, which looks absolutely stunning.
Information on the PS5 itself was thin on the ground here, but we got our first look at the official design, which has proven to be divisive, with some promising to hide the console behind their TV. I'm not sold, but the surprise announcement of a digital-only console does mean I'll be able to bury it in a drawer if the shaver-esque design gets to me.
This was our first look at the PS5, but the true winner of the console wars is going to be whoever has the best game lineup, and that means the pressure is now on for Microsoft. Microsoft will supposedly have an exclusives-studded event of its own in July, when we'll get to see more on titles like Halo Infinite, Hellblade 2 and hopefully a few more titles, for their sake.
The PS5 (and Microsoft Series X) are expected to land later this year, although no date has yet been set.
