| Northwest Florida Daily News
Like Nintendo the week before, Sony showed gamers some of the titles they can look forward to playing in 2021 and 2022 when it released its latest State of Play video showcase last week.
And like Nintendo’s showcase before it, last week’s State of Play stayed away from PlayStation’s upcoming heavy hitters like “God of War: Ragnarok,” “Horizon: Forbidden West” and “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.” Instead, it focused on showing some PlayStation 5 upgrades coming to some already-released PS4 titles, along with announcements of some smaller games coming this year.
The highlight of the roughly half-hour showcase for me was the announcement of “Sifu,” a new kung fu action game with a cool twist on dying. You start off as a young kung fu student, but each time you die you come back as a slightly older, more experienced version of the character.
The trailer for the game started with a brutal hallway fight in which you’re taking on multiple enemies, reminiscent of a similar scene in Netflix’s canceled “Daredevil” series. No release date has been announced for “Sifu” yet, but it’s a game I’m going to keep an eye on.
Last week’s State of Play also gave us another look at a game with an interesting take on death with a new trailer for Arkane Studios’ “Deathloop,” which is a first-person shooter take on the “Groundhog Day” concept in which you have to kill a certain number of people, but if you run out of time or die yourself, you restart the day and try again with the knowledge you’ve gained about the world and how the characters behave.
“Knockout City” was announced during the Nintendo Direct and was shown off even more during the State of Play showcase. This is a new multiplayer dodgeball game from the developers of last year’s “Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit.” The game definitely looks fun and has a similar vibe to the fast-paced action in the Battle Mode of the different Mario Kart entries.
It also was announced that PS4 titles “Final Fantasy 7 Remake” and “Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time” are getting PS5 upgrades that will allow the games to run in 4K at 60 frames per second, among other upgrades.
Despite how great “Sifu” looked, overall I would say last week’s State of Play video was a disappointing one. I can understand Sony wanting to hold off on showing off some of its bigger titles until E3 in June, but I do wish they had shown off some more exciting games.
Dusty Ricketts can be reached at dricketts@thedestinlog.com. He is currently playing “Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury” and “Control: Ultimate Edition.” You can find him to play online through his PlayStation Network ID: DustRAG316.
Be the first to comment