A Nintendo Direct and a State of Play

A Nintendo Direct and a PlayStation State of Play within a few hours of each other? Yes please and thank you very much.

I watched them both, obviously. I'm going to avoid writing an exhaustive wrap-up, because you probably watched it yourself or have at least read a detailed round-up elsewhere. Also, if I'm being honest, there wasn't much there that excited me. Plenty of variety, and a handful of crowd-pleasers, but little that inspired me to write. There was one major exception of course, but we'll get to that later.

Before we get into what was shown, let's take a moment to recognize yet another wasted opportunity to announce the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster that everyone, but particularly me, wants. I was convinced it was going to make an appearance in one of theses streams, but no. Disappointed, yet again. The Tactics remake is fast replacing new Timesplitters as my most sought after announcement that never happens. Poor form, Square Enix. Poor form.

Anyway, the Nintendo Direct was up first at 11 p.m. So I paused Resident Evil 4, and gave it my full attention for forty minutes.

When I watch a Direct, I keep an eye out for games that I can tell my daughter about the following morning. Something that I think she'll be interested in. Princess Peach: Showtime was that game, and she listened attentively as I did a pretty awful job of explaining it over breakfast. I didn't bother telling her about F-Zero 99 or the Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake, but I'm happy for fans of both of those things, many of whom seem to be active on my Twitter timeline.

I'm told that Another Code is a DS classic, so the remake will please people who are liable to be pleased by such things. The Mario games - vs. Donkey Kong and RPG - looked pleasant and the announcement of the final set of Mario Kart DLC reminded me that I've barely touched any of the new courses thus far, despite having played the base game for countless hours. I wasn't expecting the Tomb Raider remasters. A nice thing, but not something I need.

A solid but slightly boring Direct. I probably should've stuck with Leon and Ashley.

With the exception of the Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth trailer, the State of Play was very underwhelming. The biggest disappointment was the distinct lack of reveals. Unless I'm mistaken, most, if not all of the games shown had already been announced in some form. I have no clue what Sony has in store for 2024 and beyond, which is more than a little concerning.

Having just finished RE4, I'm intrigued by the Ada-led, Separate Ways DLC. Helldivers II looked far more interesting when I thought it was a tongue-in-cheek, Starship Troopers tribute. Also, I thought we'd long-since agreed that developers simulating multiplayer chitchat in a demo is a very bad thing. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 looks great, obviously, but I've finally accepted that I'm just not interested. The last two entries were enough, and very same-y, and the promise of new powers and Marvel heroes and villains does nothing for me, being that I am, at best, a Marvel casual.

OK, here's where I cheer up and start gushing about the Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth trailer. I can't really remember how Remake ended, and I still cannot get my head around why Zack isn't dead, but I am very excited for February 29th. No longer constrained by the oh-so-grimy Midgar, Rebirth looks vibrant and full of promise. Can you imagine visiting the Gold Saucer when it looks that good? Chocobo Racing, motorbike arcade games; dating Barrett! Cloud scooting around Costa del Sol on a segway, Junon and its massive barrel, and fucking up the Midgar Zolom in super-duper HD? Fuck me, Cosmo Canyon! We are going to go to Cosmo Canyon!

We also had Vincent, star of The Dirge of Cerberus, pouncing out of his coffin. And did you see the Chocobos? Coloured Chocobos! Also that horrid buggy that kinda hovered over the world map back in '97. Rebirth is going to be great, in ways that Remake never quite was, and I couldn't be more excited.

And I'll be playing it next week at Tokyo Game Show! Square Enix have confirmed that there'll be two demos available, one that's centred on Cloud and Sephiroth and another that is set in Junon, and I will absolutely be making a beeline for the SE booth the second the main doors open on day one.

Then over to Capcom for Dragon's Dogma 2, because I have exquisite taste.

I'll let you know.