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Although Sony's approach to its E3 press conference had structural similarities to its rival's showing this year, the tone of the thing could not be more different. With those glossy, reflective interstitial graphics, racing games, and execs wearing leather jackets, everything Microsoft touches turns to Top Gear. Sony, meanwhile, chose the lofty, gilt interior of the Shrine Auditorium, dropped in a full-scale orchestra and allowed dapper maestro Shawn Layden to remain gaming's unknowable Gatsby, cheery yet restrained, impeccably mannered - whether he was offering his thoughts on Orlando or talking about a Crash Bandicoot remaster - and emerging only now and then in a pacy presentation that was a far cry from the days when Sony would roll out sales graphs and bang on about TV shows and Coca-Cola deals.As with Microsoft, this was all about the games, although again, the shift in tone was everything. Sony's first handful of titles might leave you wondering if there was any other gaming aesthetic left beyond desaturated, possibly post-apocalyptic wilderness: landscapes of rust and stone and ancient trees where gloomy men, women and children fight monsters real and imagined. In truth, this was a brisk display of big-budget treats - ranging from God of War, with its new, sad dad Kratos teaching his son to kill (and to demonstrate a closer, almost over-the-shoulder camera) to SIE Bend Studios' zombie pile-up Days Gone - but the games could blur a little in their artful melancholy.
I'm not sure the idea of taking Kratos so seriously plays to the strengths of the character, who is best when he's blowing his top and indulging in antic splatter, but the game looked beautiful and many seem to think a change of pace is needed. Meanwhile, Days Gone's opening monologue, in which a lone biker mutters bitterly about a vanished world, fell away rather suddenly in a closing-act playthrough to reveal a game that throws the bodies at you so thick and fast it could be made by Housemarque. In fact, it's made by the people behind Syphon Filter - along with handheld outings for Resistance and Uncharted - but before there was time to think about all that, Sony was off again, whisking its audience to The Last Guardian, which got an October release date and a second Catweagle, this one with glowing eyes, and Horizon: Zero Dawn.
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