State Of Play September 2024 round-up – every trailer from Ghost Of Yōtei to Astro Bot DLC-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

State Of Play – it was actually good? (YouTube)

The latest State of Play livestream has, shockingly, not been a disappointment, with first looks at Alan Wake 2 DLC and Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered.

After a miserable series of preview events, over the course of the last year or more, Sony has finally had a State of Play to get excited about. Tuesday night’s livestream wasn’t one for the ages, but it did have a good range of titles, including several new games and a brand new first party PlayStation 5 title in Ghost Of Yōtei.

The sequel to Ghost Of Tsushima was undoubtedly the biggest news of the night, and one of only a few Sony titles mentioned, but there was a lot of other good stuff on show too, with a lot of it due out this year.

Below are all the new videos that made up the event, although now the speculation must begin on whether that was the last State of Play of the year or not. Based on previous years it probably is but several publishers made reference to having more news at the Tokyo Game Show later this week, while Sony themselves often debut trailers at The Game Awards in December.

Free Astro Bot DLC

The State of Play kicked off with the announcement of free DLC hit for critical smash Astro Bot. That’s obviously welcome, but it seems pretty minor stuff: five new online speedrun levels and 10 new bots to rescue, including EVE from Stellar Blade and a Helldiver. It’ll be out sometime this autumn.

The Midnight Walk

We really liked the look of this newly announced game from the makers of Lost In Random. It uses a unique stop motion animation style, with all the characters and monsters handcrafted from actual clay. The results are wonderfully horrific and while it can optionally be played using PlayStation VR2 we can already imagine that’s going to be too scary for many (including probably us). The game has no release date yet.

Hell Is Us

A third person action adventure with an interesting mix of real world and supernatural horror; we saw the game recently and will have a preview and interview shortly. It’s set in a fictional Eastern European country struggling with a civil war and yet most of the action involves using a sword against some very creepy, faceless monsters. It has no release date.

Metro Awakening VR

Although there was still nothing from Sony themselves, there was a surprising amount of PlayStation VR2 games, or games with VR features, during the State of Play and this was one of the most intriguing. There’s still no sign of a new mainline entry after Metro Exodus but this VR spin-off is clearly no quick cash-in. It’s out on November 7.

ArcheAge Chronicles

We’ll be honest, we’re not sure what’s going on with this, but the original ArcheAge is a Korean-made MMO and we assume this is too, because there seemed to be an awful lot of player characters in some of the action scenes. It looks decent though and will be out sometime next year.

Palworld

The infamous Pokémon killer was already rumoured to be coming to PlayStation 5 in time for the Tokyo Game Show, so it being a shadow drop during the State of Play wasn’t much of a surprise. Perhaps Sony were trying to get in quick before developer Pocketpair gets sued by Nintendo.

Lunar Remastered Collection

We’re not sure how many fans there are of Lunar in the West, but their day has certainly been made by this compilation featuring PS1 games Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete. There’s now a widescreen mode and updated graphics but it still looks like a SNES game. The compilation will be out next spring.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge DLC

We’re going to be honest, we’ve no idea if Mondo Gecko and Mona Lisa are existing parts of the TMNT canon or if they’ve just been created for the new Radical Reptiles DLC, but they’re available now and so is a free remix of the soundtrack.

Shadow X Sonic Generations

You might have thought this was something to announce during the Sonic Central livestream, which otherwise had very little new to talk about, but no less than Keanu Reeves himself will be providing the voice of Shadow the Hedgehog in DLC for Shadow X Sonic Generations. It’ll be specifically based on scenes from the movie and will be released on December 12 – the film is out on December 21.

Fantasian Neo Dimension

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi put in a brief appearance during the event (it’s notable that neither of PlayStation’s new CEOs have appeared in public yet) to talk up the new PlayStation 4 and 5 versions of his mobile game Fantasian, which will be out on December 5.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

A good five minutes of the livestream was spent on the new Dragon Age, which was more than any other game. To be fair, it was looking pretty good, with a fight involving two different dragons and an army of zombies. The interface and commands looked encouragingly complicated, as did the amazing new hair physics (that seems an odd thing to get excited about, but it really does look good). The game’s out on October 31.

Alan Wake 2: The Lake House DLC

We have to accept we’re in the minority of critics, in that we didn’t like Alan Wake 2. We’re not sure we’ve got much hope for the DLC either, given it still seems to have the same hookey dialogue and faces shouting at you in an attempt to be scary. It’s out sometime in October, which may mean it’s more overtly horror themed than the original.

Hitman: World Of Assassination VR

Another impressive looking VR game, that looked to be doing everything the main games do but in first person. That sounds like it’d make things more difficult with Hitman but there seemed to be more of an action focus, with a big emphasis put on dual-wielding guns. It’ll be out this December.

Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered

It’s a shame this had already leaked out ahead of time as it’s a real crowd pleaser for fans of the PS1 originals, especially as the original is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It’ll be out on December 10 for PlayStation 4 and 5, but the question now is whether it’s a potential prelude to a new game. Blood Omen: Legacy Of Kain (and Dino Crisis) is also being added to PS Plus Classics later this year.

Towers Of Aghasba

This already looked interesting when it was first announced, with what looks like a mix of Animal Crossing and Final Fantasy. How that will work in practice we’ll have to wait and see but it goes into early access in November and is presumably targeting a full release in 2025.

Fear The Spotlight

We were really impressed by Blumhouse Games’ pitch during Summer Game Fest, and this is the first of their new horror games to be released. The visuals are purposefully reminiscent of old PS1 games but that seems a very welcome affectation. It’ll be out on October 22 for PlayStation 4 and 5.

Fortnite DualSense controller

Since most of the games shown weren’t published by Sony the majority of these titles will be multiformat, presumably including the new split-screen option for Lego Fortnite. The new Fortnite DualSense controller is obviously a PlayStation 5 exclusive though, and no doubt set to be a Christmas present favourite.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins

We can’t say we’ve ever been fans of Koei Tecmo’s ultra shallow hack ‘n’ slash series but at least the graphics in this one didn’t look two generations behind, as the games usually do. The dialogue seems to be taking things very seriously, but the cheesy rock music and campy outfits suggests the tone hasn’t changed that much. It’s out on January 17.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Capcom will definitely be showing off more of their game at the Tokyo Game Show, but they did reveal the release date during the State of Play, as February 28. There’s lots of pre-order knick-knacks they want to tempt you with but there’s no doubting the game is looking very good, with a major improvement in visuals since Monster Hunter: World.

Lego Horizon Adventures

This is one of the few things it was obvious the State of Play was going to talk about, since Sony still hadn’t announced a release date. This retelling of the original Horizon Zero Dawn will also be released on Nintendo Switch, but not Xbox, although it’s unclear whether that includes the outfits for Sony characters such as Sack Boy and Ratchet. The game will launch on November 14.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Already leaked before the State of Play, the original PlayStation 4 game doesn’t really need a revamp but it’s getting it anyway, with 10 hours of re-recorded conversational motion capture to get it looking as good as sequel Forbidden West. If you own the original you can get it for just $9.99, which should translate to £10 or less in the UK. It’s out in October 31 but there was no sign of the other rumoured remaster of a game that’s even ‘less exciting’.

Stellar Blade x NieR: Automata DLC

Not only is Stellar Blade getting a photo mode but crossover DLC with NieR:Automata, which is no surprise given how chummy series creator Yoko Taro is with Stellar Blade’s creators (and the fact that it was already leaked). How extensive the DLC will be is unclear but at this point we’d be much more interested in an actual new NieR game.

Originally, Sony said the State Of Play would only be around 30 minutes but it was actually quite a bit longer than that, with hardware architect Mark Cerny popping up at the end to make another pitch for the PS5 Pro, before introducing Ghost Of Yōtei.

If that was only added at the last minute, we find that encouraging as it means Sony understands it’s been letting the side down recently. Even with just one new game, that isn’t a live service title, things are suddenly looking much more optimistic for PlayStation fans.

Being a console manufacturer is about more than just selling hardware and it’s seemed as if Sony has forgotten that in recent years. They’re still being worryingly uncommunicative but hopefully this State of Play is a sign that things are finally getting back to normal.

Ghost Of Yōtei is not a live service game (YouTube)

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