My impressions with a tldr at the bottom
Venue:
Hands down the best venue they've used. Convenient and well set up with a good range of nearby hotels. Plenty of bathrooms with drinking fountains. Two food courts plus food trucks. Once the line moved, it moved pretty quickly. I also have to give props for putting a screen outside
Shout out to all the security and BTS crew who kept everything safe and organized. The real MVPs.
Keynote:
The layout with the bleachers and multiple screens and a dedicated press area was pretty smart. The Big Joes in the front were appreciated. I'm not sure about the very back section, however (where the picnic tables were). They probably could have used their own screen.
The presentation itself was great. I got one of my wishes with Crash gameplay (the others being Dreams release date and sucker punch's next game reveal). Naughty dog bookending the show was pretty nuts. I think they should stick to the rapid fire style they've been doing recently. And I do appreciate the psvr and vita love. For the record, I was more surprised by Knack 2 than tlou 2. I mean, Knack 2: keep on knacking? In shinobi we trust.
Of course it lulled in the middle with the obligatory CoD and destiny segment but it had to be there. I felt for Shelby last year but at least they gave her better material this time.
And by the way, sitting with fellow gaffers made it even more exciting.
Show floor:
The layout was good for the most part. I came around to the single floor idea because they struck a good balance between cramped and sparce. I was glad to see the return of the capcom and double fine stores.
I liked that the indie games were sprinkled throughout the floor. There were some nooks and crannies that I didn't discover until the second day, which is good and bad I suppose.
It has to be said that the gear store was a mess again this year. As were the autographs on the first day (gotta give kudos for trying though). And that brings me to the lines.
Now obviously I don't know how much the powers that be have control in this regard, but some of the lines to me were baffling. Somehow the mark was missed on the popularity of many titles. Persona, farpoint, and resident evil being the standouts. Combined with the way some demos were structured, sitting in one line could take a quarter of the whole day.
I missed out on some games because I couldn't brave the lines or I was too busy being stuck in another. Thankfully the majority of employees running the lines were sympathetic with the cards and scans. Shout out to the employee scanning badges for autographs. Life saver right there.
That being said, GT and Horizon had deceptively long lines. I think I played GT 3 times in one hour.
The official cosplay was again a highlight this year. The Horizon hunters (if I remember the name correctly from the demo) were especially cool. I loved how it interacted with the crowd! It was fun seeing it in the entrance line. They even had Crash and a character from Pyre which was nice to see.
I got to meet (and see again) some of my favorite PS people which is one of my favorite aspects of psx.
Games:
One of the best things about psx is getting face to face time with developers, particularly indies or those that you really admire.
I didn't get to play everything I wanted to but I'll post about what I remember:
Crash: it was SO fulfilling to play this. It's all intact. These are the kinds of remasters I can get behind. I found the jumping to be good, but as kdoll said, the movement felt slightly hesitant. I'm not worried anymore, though. It seems to be in good hands.
RIGS: I own it but I got to play locally with some newcomers which was fun even though we got nearly shut out.
3 on 3: I heard people cheering and hooting at this game from far away. My team got dominated but I enjoyed my time with it. It has a good bit of depth to it. I hope it has a real solid netcode because it could be a lot of fun to learn. I'm not much of a sports game fan but it captures the essence of the sports games I do enjoy (like nfl blitz or the street series)
Farpoint : the second game I played. I was told that it was running on a pro. The booth setup was really cool. Waited in line for 105 min (which I was told was mild for that line) for a 3 minute briefing and a 12 minute demo. I was mainly interested in the Aim controller but the game itself had some very interesting mechanics, nice visuals, and good use of scale and 3D audio. I'm happy to report that the Aim controller combined with the body mapping of the game gave a good sense of presence. Having to physically aim down the sights is a really cool experience. The movement didn't make me nauseous at all, which I was worried about after playing Here They Lie. In case anyone was wondering it's less of a rail shooter and more like a traditional fps with semi linear levels.
I know that the devs helped design the aim controller but I would like to see more games make use of it (HOTD overkill 2? Resistance 3 or 4?) and I wonder if they'll bundle it and what the price will be but I'm certainly intrigued.
Horizon: of course it's beautiful but how does it play? Very well, I can finally say. I think this is the game that guerilla was destined to make. I'm really glad that people are starting to see their expertise. I hope this is successful for them. Seeing this on a pro in 4k hdr was a true spectacle.
GT Sport: as an amateur GT fan, it makes me so happy to say that I think they nailed it. I might have been schmoozed a little by the amazing graphics and cockpit setup they had, but the cockpit did include a 2.1 system which highlighted the new audio (which to be frank was balls tingling good). The menus were VERY snappy and simple. I played with and without assists and the driving model was solid. I'm not an expert by any means but it seemed like a good improvement over the ps3 gen. This is the game to show off your ps4 pro.
I probably should have tried out the rally racing but I really wanted to get a chance at...
GT Sport VR: Granted I don't know if this was on a pro or standard ps4 and I have only tried this and the Driveclub VR demo, but I feel like this was better. You still have a resolution drop unfortunately, but something about the driving position and the handling gave a better sense of realism. I even deliberately threw the car around a bit and went off track and didn't get disoriented.
Admittedly though, at this point I have to say that given the choice, I would rather play the game on a TV solely due to the rendering distance. Don't get me wrong, I love the immersion and the sense of psuedo G forces that your brain gives you. However, I think the graphics give you a competitive disadvantage as you can't see the course as clearly as on a TV.
Unfortunately the demo gave you a simple course and no choice of car so I could (hopefully) be wrong and they just wanted the safest environment to demo, but it seemed like they they tried to hide some of these issues with a hilly course and no competitive cars. It's possible that they could have used the system resources on rendering the course rather than the outer environment for better results (which I wouldn't have minded). Perhaps they could have presented it as an in game simulator and put some simple border around the outside. Although it does make me worry about the performance when other cars, weather, or a more complex course are present.
Disc jam: Another game I heard from far away. It was a highlight of the show for sure. One of those easy to learn /hard to master games. Very fast and ruthless. I really enjoyed watching the more high level players. Hearing one of the developers talk about the game and his Industry history with such passion was pretty inspiring.
I feel for the developers that have the more slow/atmospheric type of games because in an event like this they don't demo as well as, say, gang beasts or disc jam.
DAGERS: so this was a demonstration of accessibility functions in games that was really eye opening and very cool. It was something I thought about a lot after I left. I'm really glad that this is something that the industry is adopting and people are working on because without sounding cliche video games are a beautiful experience that everyone should be able to enjoy.
Panels/Capcom cup:
I can't speak for the content of the panels yet, as unfortunately I had to skip all but one for more floor time. I'm going to watch them all once I get home. I will say that having more panels this year was definitely a plus. And having one about accessibility was admirable.
I caught the beginning and end of the capcom cup. I'm not an expert so I probably don't have any good insight but to me it was as exciting as last year, plus having the reveal at the end didn't hurt! Seeing that live amongst hardcore fans definitely amped up the hype.
I should mention that the scanning for the panels was dicey at first for full disclosure.
Rewards:
The rewards situation this year was MUCH improved. The app/badges worked as they should have. The WiFi was up to the task. Once I understood the voucher situation, it was pretty straightforward. The employees at the redemption counter were also very helpful. And the swag itself was good quality. I managed to snag them all. I prefer this to the rare cards they used before.
Misc:
As I said before the atmosphere and the fans at psx are the best part for me.
I saw some really great attendee cosplay this year. Some couples too which was nice to see. My favorite was a dual wielding Roxas.
I kinda wished that they would have put Crash outside with a megaphone to give an opening speech. Any more ways to engage the crowd in line is always welcome. It helps ease the pain of waiting lol.
I was kind of sad when I realized that there was no livestream area. When I sat to eat lunch on Sunday, I discovered it was next to the autograph area. Unfortunately it wasn't as open as last year's though. I did miss having those competitions. I hope they bring that back next year.
My favorite story from this year is when we were trying to arrange a full GT Sport race. Who else but Yamauchi-san walks up to the demo TV. Snake tried to ask him to race with us. I said "are you serious!? You want to race against HIM!?" unfortunately he had to go to a meeting but we still had a fun race regardless
tldr
Pros:
Vouchers and card system, venue and layout, keynote, show floor variety, plenty of VR demos, more panels, swag bags, event staff, capcom cup, crowd, going with fellow gaffers
Cons: looooong lines, gear store and first day autograph madness, where the hell was square?
Overall I think they've improved each year and you bet your ass I'll be there next time!