E3 Press Conferences: Sony

Several days later, I've finally got the time to sit down and give my imperssions on the Sony press conference. I wouldn't wanna leave the Sony fans out in the cold, as I am incredibly surprised at how well the Sony conference went in most areas.

The conference started out with three large screens strobing through PS3, PS2, and PSP consoles and game footage. A montage was shown, but was interrupted by a clip of the infamous Kevin Butler holding a Move controller and saying "Come on, who wants to pretend their hand is a gun? What is this, third grade?" A nice stab at the competition to start off with.

Jack Tretton hits the stage, saying Kevin Butler would not be co-hosting though it would be a cool idea. He mentions how PS3 is hitting its momentum, how its sales are improving. The PS3 is the only console with something for every member of the family. He mentions several exclusives in God of War, Socom, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, and Heavy Rain.

Kazuo Hirai hits the stage and mentions Sony will be going into the 3D bit. The PS3 will be the only console to straight up persue 3D. Several titles are already available in 3D, and 20 more will be released by March 2011.

A Killzone 3 demo is displayed next. The graphics are pretty amazing, though very dark and dull on color. Several men in what look like jetpacks fly around, pretty much beating the shit out of the player, but he manages to kill off the enemies. I'm sure the player character can't die in the demo, as he just took A ROCKET TO THE FACE AND KEPT ON TRUCKIN'. Killzone 3 also looks to have jetpack fighting as well, which looks kinda interesting. The player rigs an explosive on the base before jumping to the last part of the demo, which looks like the player only controls a gatling gun while on a helicopter or airship, destroying the enemy base. Killzone 3 will be fully compatible with PS Move at launch.

Kazuo hits the stage again to further hype up Killzone 3 and 3D gaming. He announces that Motor Storm Apocalypse, the Sly Collection, and Gran Turismo 5 will all be in 3D as well. He further mentions Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Shaun White Skateboarding, Tron Evolution, Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and NBA 2K11 will also be in 3D. He ONCE AGAIN mentions that The Fight: Lights Out, Eyepet, tumble, and MLB The Show will all use 3D AND PS Move. He tells the audience to put their glasses on and watch another 3D movie.

A new trailer shows a bunch of sports and movies, and then shows several Playstation accessories, like games, consoles, controllers, and more. It then shows game footage of the Motor Storm game, Mortal Kombat, Eyepet, and The Fight, among others. The Fight looks absolutely horrible, honestly... MLB The Show footage, footage of tumble, which looks like Boom Blox meets Jenga. The Sly Collection looks REALLY slow, so I'm hoping it's slowed down for the 3D movie.

Jack hits the stage again, talks about the 15 anniversary of Playstation, and the 10th anniversary of Playstation 2, mentioning they are continuing to create more PS2 games. He talks about gamers upgrading to the PS3 for online, movie, games, music, and so on. He then moves on to the Playstation Move, introducing Peter Dille to the stage.

Peter mentions that PS Move will hit up the casual gamers as well as the core gamers. He plays a trailer showing developer commentary on what they think of the new controller. Kevin Butler comes out, once again knocking the 360 and Kinect by mentioning the revolutionary inclusion of what the future calls "buttons," knocking the Ricochet demo Microsoft showed off for so long. After the video ends, they further knock the lack of buttons on Kinect.

Christian Busic hits the stage to show off Sorcery, a new game that looks like a Harry Potter knock-off for the PS Move. The generic looking boy holds his wand in relation to the player with the 1:1 motion, which is really nice. Flicking causes you to shoot your wand. The strength you flick affects the trajectory. You can use different spells as well as combine them, with selections like frost, whirlwind, fire, and mending. You can create walls of fire, and then send your whirlwind through it to cause a fire storm. It's incredibly well done, and looks pretty amazing. Even though the idea seems borrowed from the boy at Hogwarts and the character design is fairly dull, this looks like a Move game worth playing.

Next, a demo for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is shown. I'm literally not thrilled by this, because not only do I not care for sports game, but even less so for Tiger Woods. All I can really say about it is that it looks... like... it works...? The controller works for it. It's golf.

Peter hits the stage again, talking about key franchises for the Playstation, before introducing Heroes on the Move. The title includes Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper and Bently as playable characters in a new adventure game. It's neat, but an original non-Smash fighter probably would've been cooler to me.

Coca-Cola is apparently going to be a big sponser for PS3, and will highlight Playstation Move, and there will be that whole contest deal that companies do from time to time. As Jack talks it up, the crowd goes wild as Kevin Butler walks out. He takes over the stage with mass delight. He rips on 360 debuting Kinect at Cirque du Solei, before going on about "what really matters - the games." He says gaming is about having a ridiculously huge big screen tv in a one room apartment - staying up to 1AM winning a trophy that isn't real, but is - and as girls know the way through a man's heart is through a melee attack. He hypes up the crowd for gaming and the Move, and how it will appeal to everyone. He rips on Nintendo's Miis' lack of arms and necks. As he monologues, epic music plays behind him. Even though he rips on the competition, he goes on to say that fanboy allegiance shouldn't matter as long as everyone enjoys gaming. While epic, it's an incredible contradiction to his, and all of Sony's, bashing of the other companies.

The Playstation Move will be available in Europe on September 15, North America on September 19, and Japan on October 21. For anyone with a PS3 and PS Eye, the controller is $49.99, and the Navigation controller (Wii Nunchuck) is $29.99. A Playstation Move Bundle, which includes the Playstation Eye, the Playstation Move controller (no Navigation controller), and Sports Champions (PS3's Wii Sports), will be available for $99.99. The same bundle with a PS3 included is $399.99. First party Move titles will be $39.99. Socom, Time Crisis, NBA SK11, Ruse, Killzone 3, Singstar + Dance, Echochrome II, and Eyepet will all use Move. Toy Story 3, Tiger Woods 11, Heavy Rain, and Resident Evil 5 will all have updates to use the Move. A trailer is then shown with Move titles being shown.

Jack's back to talk about the PSP's new advertising campaign. Some annoying little kid comes in and talks shit to Kevin Butler about how chumps in ties can't sell the PSP well enough. Marcus rants "Step your game up" at the end of the commercials, and in a second commercial talks to a guy playing the new Metal Gear too much. He holds the PSP close to the screen, and you can tell the gameplay footage is shoddily added on. I don't like this Marcus kid, and he will NEVER be Kevin Butler.

Jack talks about Invizimals using a new PSP camera, and then God of War: Ghost of Sparta, showing a trailer of the prequel. Kratos' reflection can be seen in a sea before him. He pulls his swords from behind his back, which catch on fire, and that's pretty much it. New titles are mentioned, like Tron Evolution, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Toy Story 3, Ace Combat Joint Assault, The 3rd birthday, UFC Unleashed 2010, and the two games mentioned earlier. 70 new titles will be coming to PSP by December, and yet another trailer shows off the lineup.

Getting back to the conference, the Playstation Network is highlighted next. The PSN now has 50 million registered accounts worldwide, and had an orignal series called The Tester. The Tester Season 2 will air this fall. Playstation Network now has content from every major movie and television studio. Playstation Home also had a replication of the PS3 booth for anyone stuck at home.

LittleBigPlanet is the next topic, which leads into ModNation Racers info, and finally more information on LittleBigPlanet 2. LBP2 now goes further, allowing NPC characters to be added, new tools like grappling hooks, new filmmaking options, and ADDITIONAL GENRES!! You no longer have to be forced with the Platforming genre, the ability to use puzzle games, racing games, combat games, RPGs, and more. A few demos are shown off, like a button matching game, a bumper car game, and an arena game with low gravity and rockets. Video footage is shown of several game styles created by game developers in only 24 hours. Pretty interesting stuff.

Jack's on stage once more, talking about the PSN again. He announces a subscription package known as Playstation Plus, giving gamers exclusive content for $49.99, although he had once again just burned "competitors" for charging for online features. He mentions a free three-month trial, and in its first month it will have Wipeout HD, a trial for Infamous, two PS Minis - Field Runners and Age of Zombies, and the PS1 game Rally Cross. The additional content ranges from avatars to DLC levels and map packs, but you only own them for the duration of your subscription. Sounds a bit lame compared to XBox Live including everything for its subscription, and being able to keep the content after the subscription runs out.

Playstation 3 exclusives are mentioned, though not by title. They'll be getting exclusives on multi-platform titles. John Schappert walks out to talk about the exclusives EA will provide, such as Medal of Honor, only to introduce Greg Goodrich. How many people need to talk about this stuff? Medal of Honor should be deep and authentic modern war style action. A trailer is shown of gameplay footage. It looks good, but seriously, with new war games being released monthly it seems, it's hard to tell many of them apart. An ATV level in Medal of Honor looks pretty awesome. It's slated for release on October 10, 2010. A multiplayer trailer is shown afterwards. Looks neat, but to me it's still all the same. The beta hits June 21.

John Schappert is on the floor again to mention Medal of Honor will include a remastered edition of Medal of Honor: Frontline for free, as an exclusive for PS3. Steve Papoutsis is introduced to talk about Deep Space 2. He plays a demo, showing off just how amazing the Dead Space sequel is. The game practically looks like a movie, and looks pretty damn scary. The player is thrown around like a rag doll as he shoots at the large alien monster attacking him. He's thrown outside his space ship, bouncing around before shooting a tank to kill the large alien, ending the demo with the title. Dead Space 2 will get the Wii's Dead Space Extraction with Move support as an in-pack exclusive for PS3.

John leaves the stage, and Jack hits the stage again, talking about a developer that's been making great franchises for over a decade. Before he can announce who it is, the lights die, and a familiar voice rings in. "Stand by," says the voice of GLaDOS, "for an important announcement from the Aperture Science Emergency Surprise System. Deploying surprise in 3, 2, 1..." Valve's Gabe Newell comes out and admits he's said some nasty things about the current generation of consoles, so he's lucky he's not getting punched in the face. He announces Portal 2 will be coming to PS3, and that Steam will be part of the experience - he also says the PS3 version will be the best version on any console. He then reveals the Portal 2 trailer.

Aperture Sceince and GLaDOS looks overgrown with plants, and it appears as though the labs are being rebuilt. The music is actually really cool. There's new, cool puzzles for the gamer to solve, now, and the trailer ends with the logo, as well as a message from GLaDOS. "I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. ...You monster." We'll be getting it next year.

Jack Tretton announces Final Fantasy XIV and it's trailer. The graphics look amazing, the music is wonderful, the combat and effects look killer. The character models are nicely rendered and beautiful on the eyes. What's nice is the Amano logo artwork. Nicely done, Square Enix.

Mafia II will be out on August 24th with exclusive day one content for PS3. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood will have an exclusive pack of missions for the PS3, and its multiplayer beta will be exclusive to the Playstation Network later this year. The multiplayer trailer looks pretty interesting, as several different assassin's sneak around and kill each other. It looks as though there's literally little to no reason for them to be killing each other, but I'm sure it'll be fun. It'll be out November 16, 2010.

Goddammit, another Sony made trailer showing off more soon-to-come titles. Many games are being repeated - Medal of Honor, Dead Space, Killzone 3, The Fight (which STIILL looks like shit), Eyepet, LittleBigPlanet 2, Motor Storm Apocalypse, Mortal Kombat, Sorcery, Sly Collection... There's a few new ones here and there, but it's a LOT of the same...

A Gran Turismo 5 trailer is shown. So much movie time... At least this one looks pretty neat. The levels look life-like. Suddenly, NASCAR is shown...? GT5 will include NASCAR segments now. OH SHIT, A TOP GEAR LEVEL?! There's the Top Gear Test Track, and even The Stig makes an appearance! Pretty fucking awesome. The levels look so intense!! I've never liked the Gran Turismo titles, but this looks amazing. We'll get more November 2, 2010.

Jack comes out to talk very little as YET ANOTHER TRAILER IS SHOWN. You know, it's honestly not so bad to see so much game footage, but more demos or announcements wouldn't be so bad, either... Next up is Infamous 2. A man running on rooftops and sneaking around is shown while what looks like a politician declares war on the man. He appears to now have power over ice, which is pretty awesome. The battles appear to be epic, ranging from demons to helicopters.

"One last surprise" is shown, a video of two cabbies debating on good car combat games. As one throws his cigar away, two clown shoes approach the cigar and sets his own hair on fire. Sweet Tooth is not only back, but he's brought a shitload of clown croanies with him for a new Twisted Metal. AN ICE CREAM TRUCK DRIVES OUT ON THE STAGE WITH SWEET TOOTH IN IT TO INTRODUCE TWISTED METAL!! Twisted Metal will be out 2011, and online deathmatch mode is shown. Helicopters and aerial combat will be new. The explosives are pretty nice, and things look pretty badass for the new title. On top of that is a new game mode for objective based team play, called Nuke. The teams must abduct the leader of the other team (normally a main character while the teams play as the new cronie/henchmen characters), as well as destroy part of the large statues of the leaders hanging above the city with nukes. It looks like a total blast.

Jack comes back out with a closing word, ending the final press conference for the consoles. All three conferences were a total blast to watch, but let's get down to the pros and cons of the Sony conference:


Excitements:
-Kevin Butler's comedic speech
-Gabe Newell's surprise appearance and Portal 2
-Twisted Metal

Letdowns:
-Several contradictions (we don't charge for internet/TRY OUR SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE! Only play Sony, but all gamers are winners.)
-Spokespersons would only be on stage for a sentence or two before calling out ANOTHER spokesperson or playing a trailer
-Several trailers just repeated the same games or clips.


All in all, it seems E3 was a success this year. There were plenty of third party titles that excited, and each console conference had a strong showing - Microsoft shed new light on Kinect, Sony showed off Move and unveiled many exclusives, and for once Nintendo didn't brag about sales numbers or stupid waggle titles and focused on the hardcore gamer. It's been a crazy, ass backwards week in the gaming world, and arguments will rise and fall over who won E3 between XBox 360's Kinect, Sony's Move, and Nintendo's actually good titles. While we are all truly winners, from the Rock Band party goers to the puzzle-loving Portal fans, feel free to vote for your favorite to the left.