Highlights From The 'PlayStation Experience' Keynote

For the fourth year in a row, gaming fans gathered in Anaheim for PlayStation Experience. To kick off the weekend, Sony hosted a keynote presentation on Friday night to show off some upcoming projects.

Coming To A PlayStation Near You

Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy made an appaerance to show off more details about the upcoming Dreams. Similar to the Little Big Planet titles, Dreams is built on the idea of playing, creating, and sharing content. However, there’s also a story mode, called “Art’s Dream,” which can provide some inspiration for your own creations. The campaign features multiple levels across three main dream themes: science fiction, mystery/film noir, and horror. Reddy said that the game is coming sometime in 2018, and the studio will host a beta session prior to its launch.

Fans of the Persona series, RWBY, and BlazBlue received an early holiday present in the form of a trailer for BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, which arrives in 2018. Arc System Works showed off gameplay from the 2D-animated fighting game, which includes characters from the aforementioned titles. Before each round, you’ll pick two characters to form your team and see if you can prevail against multiple combinations from the roster.

Pixelopus’ Dominic Robilliard also showed more footage of Concrete Genie, which lets you control a boy named Ash. With his gigantic paintbrush, he can create vibrant paintings, with the city walls of Denska serving as his canvas. By using the motion controls on the DualShock 4 controller, you can mix different “living paints” to create a beautiful landscape on most surfaces. In addition to the painting feature, Robilliard mentioned that there will be action elements within the gameplay. Concrete Genie will launch sometime in 2018.

Developer Ben Esposito also released a trailer for his new game, titled Donut County. The physics-based adventure game puts you in control of a hole that increases in diameter as it “eats” numerous objects. Even though it was presented at the PlayStation event, Donut County is a multi-platform game, and it will be available on the PC.

Another PlayStation classic is getting a makeover. Shawn Layden, the president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, revealed that MediEvil is coming to the PS4 as a remastered title. Even though a release date wasn't announced, the blog post announcement seemed to indicate a release sometime in 2018, which marks the game's 20th anniversary. Fans should expect more news about the development process in the near future.

More PSVR Love

Sony wanted to make sure that fans didn’t forget about PlayStation VR, and it kicked off the show with some new VR titles. Action fans can look forward to Firewall: Zero Hour, a four-versus-four first-person VR shooter from First Contact Entertainment. You can play the game with the PlayStation VR Aim Controller or with the DualShock 4 controllers.

Sony also released The Last Guardian earlier this year, but it’s bringing a small slice of the experience to virtual reality. You can download the demo for free on December 12.

WipEout fans will get an intense experience early next year with an upcoming free update. Owners of the game's Omega Collection will have the ability to play the futuristic racing title in VR, which means that every twist and turn on the tracks is even more intense.

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Watch On

Tigertron, a studio that was established in 2015, revealed its first project called Jupiter & Mars. Even though you can play it on a traditional screen, creative director James Mielke said in a press release that the best way to enjoy the adventure game is in virtual reality. You will control one of two dolphins that will explore an underwater world, which include remnants of human-built structures. A release date is set for May 2018.

Final Details

Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller also made an appearance to interview Layden and Sony Interactive Entertainment president Shuhei Yoshida. Both men revealed some interesting tidbits about current projects as well as planned features for the console.

Since its launch, players have been unable to change their online name on the PlayStation Network, but Layden said that change is on the way. The company is working on implementing the feature before the start of PlayStation Experience in 2018. Yoshida briefly mentioned that Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch’s latest project, will be the studio’s largest open-world environment. He also mentioned that the remastered Shadow of the Colossus title will run at 60 frames per second on the PlayStation 4 Pro, but those playing it on the standard version of the console will experience it only at the standard 30fps.

Weekend Excursion

For attendees, the two-and-a-half-hour presentation is just the beginning of the festivities. Fans will be able to attend panels and visit the booths of some of their favorite titles throughout the weekend. The event ends on Sunday when a new Street Fighter V champion is crowned at the Capcom Cup tournament.