PS4 games lead next-gen charge

PlayStation 4’s first titles in development include a new Killzone title, a team-based driving game and Jonathan Blow’s next game.

Games created by Sony’s first-party studios were shown live on stage during the announcement of Sony’s next generation console in New York this morning.

Developers making titles for the console include Guerrilla Games, Sucker Punch, Evolution Studios and Jonathan Blow.

A number of developers and publishers also took the stage to reveal concepts and tech demos for Sony’s new hardware, including LittleBigPlanet studio Media Molecule and Heavy Rain maker Quantic Dream.

Guerrilla Games showed off Killzone: Shadow Fall, the next iteration of its sci-fi first-person shooter series that see humans taking on the Helghast war machine. A visually striking demo showed off PlayStation 4’s supposed graphical capabilities; a city under attack, explosions and sparks igniting all around.

Guerrilla Games co-founder Herman Hulst also showed off some of PS4’s new social functionality by uploading the demo straight to the Killzone Facebook page, where it can be viewed now.

The developer behind MotorStorm, Evolution Studios, lifted the hood on Driveclub, a connected team-based racing game, which is all about collaborative gameplay with friends.

“It has existed as concept for ten years. We’ve literally been waiting for the tech to be available for it,” said Evolution’s Matt Southern.

Sucker Punch is developing a new infamous title for the system, inFamous: Second Son. Nate Fox introduced the game, which appears to have a focus on surveillance and governance.

Jonathan Blow, famed developer behind Braid, revealed that his upcoming independent game, The Witness, which has now donned a bright and cartoony aesthetic, will be a timed PS4 exclusive when it launches.

Getting back to the hardware itself, Media Molecule showed a demo specifically created for PlayStation Move (Pictured).

Alex Evans said the studio had gotten over its “troubled relationship” with the motion controller and was using it to further its desire to take creative gaming to the next level.

Its demo was a 3D sculpting game that records all of the player’s input, creating something reminiscent of time-lapse drawings. The developers crafted puppet-like characters, which they then ‘performed’ by dancing and making music as directed by Move controllers.

Quantic Dream’s David Cage showed an early demo of a facial render exceeding 30,000 polygons, which he explained was the level of detail his team aims to achieve on the platform. He said that, with PS4, games have finally reached the stage where they can fully convey emotion.

Support for the new system also came in thick doses from third-parties.

Among them was Square Enix, which showed a concept video of fantasy title Agni’s Philosophy running on its next generation Luminous engine. Square Enix brand director for Final Fantasy Shinji Hashimoto, also took the stage to confirm that a new Final Fantasy is in development for PS4.

Capcom too demonstrated a new engine, currently called ‘Codename: Panta Rhei’, which is being used in brand new IP Deep Down – something which appeared to be a dungeon crawler in the vein of Dark Souls.

Other announcements included Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs confirmed for a PS4 release, Blizzard bringing Diablo III to PS4 and PS3 – confirming rumours of a console release which stated as early as summer 2011, and the new Activision-Bungie IP Destiny coming to PS4 as well.

More updates on all these titles and developer reaction to the console announcement soon.

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