The biggest announcements from PlayStation’s summer State of Play

Konami provided a fresh — and terrifying — look at its upcoming remake of the survival horror classic Silent Hill 2, sharing a new trailer and release date during Sony’s State of Play and offering an extended look at gameplay during Konami’s Silent Hill Transmission event.

In the trailer, husband of the year James Sunderland makes his way through the haunted town, fighting monstrous nurses and generally looking sad, wet, and guilty. Konami’s Silent Hill presentation expanded on his patheticness featuring extended scenes of James fighting more monsters and interacting with the other people lost in the town. However, developer Team Bloober seemingly realized the value of the tease, exercising restraint in not including any glimpses of the big daddy himself: Pyramid Head. You can watch the full Silent Hill Transmission presentation, which also features a short vignette on the Silent Hill 2 movie, below.

Sony’s most adorable character (sorry, Sackboy) is getting another outing. At its State of Play showcase today, the company revealed the latest Astro Bot game, which was rumored earlier in the month.

It appears to be a direct sequel to Astro’s Playroom, so it should make excellent use of the PS5’s controller and all of its various functions. The game features 50 worlds to explore — like its predecessor, it looks like those levels will explore PlayStation history to varying degrees — and launches on September 6th. It’ll be a PS5 exclusive when it does come out.

We finally have a few more details about the previously mysterious next Monster Hunter game. Capcom released a new gameplay trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds at Sony’s State of Play event, and it features some free-flowing combat, a pretty dark-looking world, and what appears to be some new monsters — including one that looks a lot like a Final Fantasy chocobo. Naturally, it serves as a mount. Capcom describes the new game as taking place in “a living world.”

Wilds is a follow-up to 2018’s open-world title Monster Hunter World, which went on to become Capcom’s bestselling game ever, topping the likes of Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and Devil May Cry. It was first announced at The Game Awards last year and is coming to the PS5, Xbox Series X / S, and PC sometime next year. 2023 also saw the launch of the MonHun mobile spinoff Monster Hunter Now from Pokémon Go developer Niantic and EA’s take on the monster-hunting genre with Wild Hearts.

Ragnarök is nigh — that is, if you’ve got a PC capable of handling it. During its summer State of Play event, Sony announced that God of War Ragnarök is coming to PC on September 19th. The news was accompanied by a brand-new trailer including the info that the game is now available for preorder.

It’s been just over a year since God of War Ragnarök released, adding another emotional beat to the story of Kratos, the god of war, and his son, Atreus. When we last left the pair in 2018’s God of War, the two had just returned from an epic journey to disperse Atreus’ mother’s ashes from the highest peak in the nine realms. In Ragnarök, Kratos and Atreus’ lives have been upended by the omens heralding the destruction of the realms, an event that is connected to Atreus’ destiny. The two go on a journey — sometimes separate, sometimes together — to figure out that destiny and to put a stop to the god Odin’s evil plans.

It seems that the summer of live gaming events is kicking off a little earlier than expected. Sony joined the festivities by announcing its next State of Play showcase, which will air a full week before the busy Summer Game Fest period kicks off. This will be the second such showcase of the year for Sony; earlier in the year, we got fresh looks at Death Stranding 2 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and the surprise launch of a Silent Hill game.

The May showcase promises to be a rapid-fire event. While we don’t know exactly what will be featured, Sony says that it will include 14 games in around 30 minutes, spanning both PS5 and PSVR 2. There are a number of high-profile titles in the works that could potentially make an appearance, including Insomniac’s Wolverine, Bungie’s new Marathon, and Firewalk’s multiplayer shooter Concord. Meanwhile, Remedy appears to be teasing something Alan Wake-related, and we could also get the official details on Sony’s PSVR 2 adapter for PC.