PlayStation E3 Highlights: Spider-Man, God of War, Uncharted & Some Surprises

Samantha Loveridge
Games Marvel
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Sony’s impressive PlayStation E3 press conference is always a highlight of the biggest gaming event of the year, and 2017 is no different. With better looks at Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Days Gone, along with a few surprises, it looks like it’s going to be a good year for PS4 gamers – well, 2018 that is.

Here are all the major announcements from the PlayStation E3 press conference, and boy was it a biggie:

Spider-Man’s fluid combat is littered with Quick Time Events

Easily one of the most highly-anticipated games on PS4 is Insomniac’s Spider-Man game, and the first full gameplay trailer has now arrived. The Spider-Man trailer very much focused on the game’s combat, with Spidey rocking some nice webby moves in his snazzy new suit. He’s capable of stringing enemies up on girders and has some kind of delayed web explosion that grabs foes and slams them back into the earth.

Spidey’s skills see him capable of slowing down time to send webs flying into enemy faces and using the environment to take out multiple enemies at once. It looks like it’s going to be a very interactive world with a huge focus on verticality to make sure you really feel like Spider-Man as you swing through Manhattan and run up walls.

Interestingly, the trailer’s biggest events heavily relied on Quick Time Events (or QTE) with all the big moments making you press triangle here for this, X for that, or a tap on the shoulder buttons to stop a massive crane crashing into the bystanders below.

The game’s antagonists seem to be “the Demons”, and of course there’s also Wilson Fisk and his cronies. But the Demons have some kind of supernatural power that Spidey calls the Haze Field.

The gameplay trailer teases a little snippet of story at the end, with a brief appearance of Ken Lee who becomes black Spider-Man.

Insomniac has confirmed that Spider-Man PS4 is coming out sometime in 2018.

They’re doing it for the girls in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

The upcoming standalone DLC, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was the game to kick off the PlayStation E3 press conference, and the two lead characters Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross are on the hunt for the lost artifact known as the Tusk of Ganesha.

The first full-length trailer for the game showed the two girls aren’t going to be getting along too well as they try to work together to satisfy an evil man. The trailer showcased that despite Nathan Drake’s absence from the game, it’s still very much an Uncharted adventure complete with puzzle solving, tombs, races against time, and all the usual tropes.

Parenting is proving tricky for Kratos in God of War

The last time we saw God of War was this time last year at E3 2016, but now we get another look at this new game where god Kratos is attempting to be a good dad to his young son. The story sees Kratos going on a journey with the boy and some mention of a curse making the boy quite different from Kratos himself.

The God of War trailer even seems to tease that at some point you’ll be playing as Kratos’ son, Ateus, which we assume is a big part of the boy’s development. However, it looks like the boy has some kind of powers as he can understand the various languages spoken by the creatures in this snowy world.

The combat looks particularly impressive, with Kratos combining his magic-infused axe with an awesome shield. There’s even a lovely focus on that massive snake teased in the first trailer aka the Snake that Eats the World.

The trailer also confirmed that God of War will come out sometime in early 2018.

Days Gone is rocking the biker look

One of the big upcoming games for the PS4 in 2017 is Days Gone, a brand new IP from SIE Bend Studios. It’s biker gangs crossed with mutants (rather than zombies) that will have hero Deacon St. John nearly always fighting off some kind of foe.

The latest Days Gone trailer showed off a lot more gameplay for the title, including St. John’s detective-like senses that allow him to check out the direction of his next objective. What you’ll be doing in terms of combat seems to leave a lot up to you as you use traps and stealth to distract and take out human enemies so as not to alert the inhuman ones.

As we’ve seen in previous trailers, these mutants move in packs, and one of the best things you can do is just run away and find an alternate route if you actually manage not to alert them. It seems like finding a balance between fighting human foes without alerting the more aggressive enemies is going to need a delicate touch.

Terrifyingly, it seems that not only humans are affected by the virus, but animals are too, with the trailer ending with an infected bear proving to be quite a problem.

Detroit: Become Human is an android revolution

Detroit: Become Human is the latest game to come out of the brilliant storytelling studio Quantic Dream and sees androids and humans at war. Playing as an android, you can carve your own game, choosing how to react and what to do in each situation – something Quantic Dream is well known for in its other games, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls.

The androids are led by Marcus, the face of the android revolution. But it’s up to you whether you choose violence or pacifism in the push back against humanity. Detroit: Become Human looks like a powerful tale but will include much more combat than previous Quantic Dream games, and multiple choices on how to face each situation, whether stealth or combat.

Still no word on a release date for Detroit: Become Human, but it looks like it’s shaping up to be a great game.

The Shadow of the Colossus remaster is coming in 2018

Earning whoops and cheers from the crowd, the first Shadow of the Colossus remaster trailer showed off some of the creatures from the original in glorious HD. The spiritual successor to the immensely popular IcoShadow of the Colossus sees you battling against giant beasts known as colossi. It’s equal parts epic and minimalistic.

This new remake will have you scaling the monumental beasts as you work out how best to slay them without becoming a bloody pancake of squished battler.

The Shadow of the Colossus remake is scheduled for release sometime next year.

First Horizon Zero Dawn story DLC is a snowy wilderness

Aloy is back in the first major Horizon Zero Dawn DLC, “The Frozen Wilds”. It seems to be set in a new wintery region full of snow and deadly robots.

It’s not clear how “The Frozen Wilds” fits into the main storyline, but it will feature new weapons, enemy types, and armour for our flame-haired heroine.

The DLC is dropping sometime this year, but no word on a concrete release date or price yet.

PS4 gamers are getting some great exclusive Destiny 2 content

The Bane-sounding Dominus Ghaul might have dominated this latest Destiny 2 trailer and the quest for taking back the Light, but for PS4 gamers it’s all about the exclusives.

The Destiny 2 PlayStation timed exclusives available at launch include a competitive multiplayer map, a three-player cooperative Strike set in the European Dead Zone called Lake of Shadows, a ship called the City Apex, exclusive specialised gear sets, and an exclusive exotic weapon called the Borealis.

Activision also released the Destiny 2 beta details, with the multiplayer access running from July 18. PS4 owners who pre-order the game can access the beta from July 18 at 10am PDT, and Xbox One pre-order customers can join on July 19 at 10am PDT. After that, the console beta will open up to all gamers on July 21 at 10am PDT, with the whole shebang closing on July 23 at 9pm PDT.

A separate PC beta will run in August.

Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer is all about the gritty realism

The first Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer trailer gave a real flavour of the kind of gritty realism the series is going for this year. Maps on show ranged from towns and cities to deep in the trenches, with planes soaring – sometimes in flames – overhead and explosions going off everywhere.

The trailer called out several WWII battle locations that could possibly feature in the game’s multiplayer component. It also showed off the range of weaponry you’ll be dealing with in the game. From what we’ve seen so far, this is a gritty, bloody look at the horrors of the second World War.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Getting the VR treatment

Not part of the Bethesda press conference, it was down to Sony to reveal that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is also getting the VR treatment along with Doom and Fallout 4. It’s not quite clear why it’s a PlayStation VR exclusive, but it is certainly gracing Sony’s virtual reality headset at some point. No official release date has been announced as yet.

It looks like the VR version will get players up close and personal with a lot of melee combat, along with lovely vistas of the land of Skyrim. The trailer is keeping quiet in terms of how much of the game will actually be playable in VR, but we’re guessing it’s a special slice rather than the full hundred-plus-hour game crammed into one VR package.

Samantha Loveridge
Sam is the UK Gaming Editor at Fandom. She's been addicted to games since she first got her paws on a GameBoy and hasn't looked back.