Sony’s E3 Press Conference Round Up

Well, wasn’t all of this very exciting. Sony really knocked the ball out of the park this year managing to strike a much better balance between stats and actual game announcements / footage than previous years. Between the 360 and the PS3 I can’t decide which system I’m more excited for over the coming months, and that’s a lot coming from a loyal xbot like myself.

The Sony conference opened with a ‘œhip and with it’ montage of the various Sony platforms and the games released for them. Jack Tretton then took the stage and proceeded to put my mind at ease that this wasn’t going to be as bad as Nintendo’s earlier press conference by making jokes at the expense of himself and Sony.

After a smattering of conversation about this year’s stats and continued PS2 support the direction of the conversation shifted to the games. First to be shown was Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Over-the-top action and PHENOMENAL shirt physics dominated what was shown, but there also seems to be a new cover system that looks like it’s actually quite good.

A full live demo of MAG was kind of interesting, mostly show from the viewpoint of a commander of a single squad, calling in air strikes and other commanderly things. I have to admit I was secretly hoping for the entire thing to go tits up, but then I remembered that it wasn’t live with 13 year olds across the country, these were beta testers. MAG looks like it is really going to have to reinforce teamwork and following the orders of your commanding officer to work in any semblance of the word.

The biggest announcement of the entire conference followed, a special edition lilac Hannah Montanna PSP will be coming out soon to appeal to the ‘œtween’ market.

PSP Go shown, giving a few bits of previously unknown information, such as the $250 price point in the USA, and through the magic of broken mathematics 250 Euros in Europe (just so you know 250 Euros = $357.45). Along with the PSP Go release Sony is updating the software used on PC to access the PSN store. Dev kits for the PSP are getting a massive 80% reduction in price to encourage as much shovelware as possible.

Gran Turismo for the PSP will apparently be a fully fledged racing title, nothing has been dumbed down for a PSP release, however the PSP version has a few features specific to the console (ad-hoc multiplayer, car swapping, etc).

Hideo Kojima the infamous traitor reveals a multiplayer Metal Gear game for PSP that will bridge the gap in the series after MGS 3, but before MGS 4. Kojima makes a point to mention that he is ‘œvery involved’, unlike his 360 MGS project where I’m sure he couldn’t care less. The trailer ended with an awesome box sex scene between two versions of Snake, almost certainly the most aroused I have been in my entire life.

Another montage of trailers and in-game footage for PSP games coming this year, were shown to close off the PSP section of the conference (Resident evil, LittleBigPlanet, Soul Calibur, Persona, Fat Princess, etc).

Quick mention of PS1 classics coming to the PSN, starting with Final Fantasy 7 as we found out recently via the ESRB followed by two MORE montages, this time for Home and the PS3.

New Rockstar IP ‘œAgent’ teased at, and is going to be exclusive to the PS3, followed by a rather extended play test of Assassins Creed 2 (I’m sure Sony paid through the nose to get the gameplay demo during their conference). Dual hidden blades are in the game along with a multitude of inventions and new weapons such as Da Vinci’s flying machine and smoke bombs. For some reason at the end of the demo they dived straight into a river, obviously killing the player. Amateurs.

More Final Fantasy XIII trailer shown, gets a resounding ‘meh’ from the crowd, until shockingly Final Fantasy XIV is also announced. The game looks gorgeous, has pirates and men that actually look like men, seemingly every Final Fantasy player’s wet dream…until you realise it’s online only and is basically Final Fantasy MMO 2. Blergh.

The Sony dildo waggle controller basically seemed to be a cross between Nintendo’s wiimote and Microsoft’s ‘œProject Natal’, well a wiimote that works how it actually should have from day one anyway. They show off a very impressive tech demo, but I still wonder how much of this is actually going to be used well to make fun games.

Sony is obviously behind LittleBigPlanet’s slogan ‘œPlay. Create. Share.’ not only as a slogan but also a gaming genre with ModNation Racers, a highly customisable karting game. A very simple but powerful track creator was demoed, once again with the focus on player created content (penis cars anyone?).

The same Team Ico footage leaked a few weeks ago was officially released along with the project’s actual name ‘œThe Last Guardian’. There was a Gran Turismo 5 trailer after this but I’m afraid I don’t care too much for racing sims and it didn’t look too different from previous iterations anyway.

The final game demo Sony wanted us to see was God of War 3, and it was a brutal sight to behold. Especially the finisher moves, which were not in short supply were fantastically over-the-top and goretastic.

The worst thing about the entire Sony press conference has to be the fact that I am now, more than ever seriously considering buying a PS3, which isn’t something I ever expected.