Spider-Man and stray cats take center stage as Sony showcases its PS5 gaming lineup

Several months after teasing a holiday release for the PlayStation 5 back at CES, Sony finally gave gamers a lengthy sneak peek at the next-gen console’s lineup. The event — which was initially set for last week before being pushed due to nationwide protests — comes a month after a similar event for Microsoft’s Xbox Series X.

Microsoft showcases 13 new titles for the Xbox Series X

The event was very much inline with a standard E3 presentation — albeit devoid of the standard live element, due to COVID-19-related restrictions. And honestly, it was a nice change after last year’s odd, low key Sony event at the gaming show, focused almost exclusively on gameplay. In fact, as the company noted, everything after the Grand Theft Auto V re-release trailer that opened the show was captured directly from a PS5. That, too, is a welcome change from the standard barrage of misleading trailers.

GTA V kicked off the show — a nod to the the 25th anniversary of the Playstation and the fact that every version of the console has had an installment of the the popular Rockstar series. An upgrade version of V will feature expanded gameplay when it launches in 2021. More excitingly is Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a sequel to the PS4 Marvel gaming title featuring the Into the Spider-Verse star. The title is set for a release alongside the new console in late 2020.

Popular racing title, Gran Turismo followed, with extended gameplay. The 7th version of the series is set for release on PS5, as is a new installment of the Ratchet and Clank adventure series titled, Rift Apart.

Among the more compelling new additions is Stray. Due out in 2021, the trailer didn’t reveal much, but the game appears to star a gifted stray cat set in a world where humans are mercifully no longer around. Honestly, I’m into it.

After another look at the

PS5 DualSense controller

we first saw in April, previews started getting faster and furiouser. The list includes LittleBigPlanet spinoff, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Oddworld: Soulstorm, Returnal, Destruction Allstars and Ghostwire Tokyo.

Developing…