Home Gaming E3 Sony Press Conference: Part 3

E3 Sony Press Conference: Part 3

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A Breath of New Life

With many stories and comments flying around this year that the PSP is dead or dying, Sony realised that they have to bring something powerful to the conference for the PSP and it looks like they have done a great job if you ask me.

They kick it off by announcing a new Resistance title for PSP, named “Retribution” and then showing a trailer with some gameplay and in-engine action. The game is developed by the same people that did the great Syphon Filter games for PSP in the past.

On top of that, they continued by showing off small bits of what I can call a great lineup of games headed to the PSP in the near future. Titles such as Loco Roco 2 and Patapon 2, Super Stardust, Lego Batman, Buzz and Valkyria Chronicles (which looked really good I might add).

With a strong lineup like that, I feel really happy to know that I still have my PSP and can look forward to a good year of mobile gaming, bring it on!

The Big Boy

Sony mentioned that they now have some form of partnership with Google now, which allows you to upload footage to YouTube (Which we already know) but will also give access to things like weather and news.

In the middle of things, Sony brought in Jim Lee, the comic book artist ( No relation to Stan Lee). After doing a few one handed push ups (don’t ask me, I don’t know) he came out and announced DC Universe Online. A new MMO game set in the DC Universe coming for PC and PS3. The footage looked fairly decent however I can’t say that it looks much different to something like City of Heroes.

We were also told that 80GB PS3’s are now going to be available at the same price as the 40GB consoles retailing at $399.00

What I really didn’t like was this next bit. This part’s quite lengthy, so hit the jump to continue reading.

Sony has a video showing interviews with developers all talking about why they like developing for PS3 and why it’s great. To be honest, it felt a little awkward. I don’t mean to stir up any trouble here, but I wanted to mention that it was strange for Sony because most of the people in the interviews came across as saying “It used to be really tough to develop for the PS3, but now it’s not that bad” as opposed to “It’s amazing simple and powerful” which is more what they were aiming for I would think.

After the odd interview, Sony showed off their line-up, I’m not going to mention all the games as it was all games we have seen and read about before with nothing particularly new. This obviously meant that it was time for Sony to announce its big hitters and drop the bomb.

The first game to be announced was God of War 3 along with a short pre-rendered teaser trailer. I was stumped. This was supposed to be a huge announcement, even if a lot of people were expecting it, God of War is a massive franchise but for some reason Sony downplayed the announcement quite considerably, showing the trailer and then moving on to the next game. I don’t understand?

The next game was InFamous, which is looking really cool and reminds me of a mix between Prototype and The Force Unleashed. It was also accompanied with a new trailer.

Ok, so this is it I was thinking, here comes the huge announcement, the big one, the shocker.

What was announced was a game called MAG ( Massive Action Game). Boasting 256 players online, split into squads of 8 in one large world, developed by those SOCOM blokes.

The trailer was shown and the idea of 256 players in a game was amazing. However, after the trailer was shown I couldn’t help but feel that the game looked a lot like every other Battlefield Clone, just with more players. So we will have to keep our eye on this one because Sony seems to think that it’s pretty amazing, saying that it pushes the limits of even the PS3.

Conclusion

All in all the Sony Conference felt like a rollercoaster ride, with some high high’s and some low low’s.

I felt that their PSN and PSP representation was really strong, but it almost feels as if they left the PS3 behind. With Microsoft doing all it can to get market share and the Wii selling like hotcakes I found it really strange that they didn’t do more with regards to the PS3. Sure some games are looking great, but I was really expecting some sort of massive announcement from them and it never came.

Either way it was still a decent showing. Sony is still looking really strong but I just can’t get over the fact that the PS3 didn’t get the attention it deserved and after the huge blow dealt by Microsoft announcing Final Fantasy XIII, I really think they need to focus on it more heavily, even if it just means putting some more emphasis into the announcements and marketing.

Last Updated: July 16, 2008

9 Comments

  1. 2Three

    July 16, 2008 at 04:15

    The new Resistance looked cool. That was the highlight of Sony’s offerings for me.

    2Three’s last blog post..It Wouldn’t Be E3 Without Killzone 2!

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  2. LazySAGamer

    July 16, 2008 at 04:30

    Everyone seems to agree that the Nintendo conference was terrible and the Sony one was okay…

    I thought we would be bombarded by Home and some un-announced games but all we got was MAG..

    Now MAG sounds awesome but since every other large online game for the consoles has failed miserably I don’t see any reason why this will be any different, but I can hope it will

    Reply

  3. Etienne Vlok

    July 16, 2008 at 06:47

    MAG is not really on my radar. 256 player matches sounds good, but with our bandwidth restrictions, it will likely be unplayable from ZA.

    Etienne Vlok’s last blog post..E3 Sony Press Conference: Part 3

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  4. MAc

    July 16, 2008 at 08:06

    Why was Sony more disappointing then MS? All MS did was announce that they are getting FF, that was their only high and by the way its still coming to Playstation (apparently with so sort of exclusivity). Sony announced GOW3, and MAG, they also showed their exclusive line up that everyone seems excited about. so i dont see why MS did any better that Sony, all MS did was shock people whereas Sony awed people too.

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  5. Etienne Vlok

    July 16, 2008 at 08:24

    Sony announced nothing I din’t expect, with the exception of MAG, which doesn’t excite me personally. Awed? Not likely.

    Etienne Vlok’s last blog post..Kratos Figurine Winner Announced

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  6. kabraal

    July 16, 2008 at 08:46

    I said it yesterday as well there is a reason E3 is struggling. It lost its shine. By the looks of it games are announced outside E3 and at E3 it’s just more of the same. Look at that world wide invitational from blizzard a month ago. That gaming show owned everything Sony, MS and Nintendo put together at this year’s E3.

    MS probably had the biggest announcement with FF. But still, it’s not a new game. PSN stuff sounds as cool as do the MS downloads though we here in RSA won’t really benefit. MAG? Well we’ll have to see about that one.

    I think the reason GOW3 had such a short show piece is that perhaps there isn’t really anything to show yet. For me the highlights are the stuff I already know about. Resistance and LBP especially look really really cool. As for all this home and social interaction stuff, we’ll I said how I feel about all that yesterday. Not really interested in all that.

    Reply

  7. JimBob

    July 16, 2008 at 08:55

    Disappointing show all around this year, but Nintendo was by far the worst. Yuck.

    Reply

  8. doobiwan

    July 16, 2008 at 09:50

    Come now, that’s just being a little bit blind don’t you think?

    Ignoring FF completely, the biggest announcement was without a doubt “Live Party” – 8 way cross game comms and media sharing, hell yeah!

    Then the stuff not that relevant to SA – Netflix and Prime Time are also huge in the grand scheme of things.

    doobiwan’s last blog post..The Games that made the consoles

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  9. Gazza ZA

    July 16, 2008 at 14:15

    LOL Nintendo, i take it none of you watched the ubisoft conference, now that was bad.

    Gazza ZA’s last blog post..E3 in pictures

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