Missed the opening due to crappy internet, but from what I hear, Killzone 3 in 3D, bored, and then a quick showoff of the Sony EyePet, which is basically Sony’s answer to Nintendogs and Kinectimals. Sony then proceeded to discuss Playstation Move. The speaker decided it was important to point out that Playstation Move has buttons, as if that made it different from the Wiimote. Christian Busick was then called out to discuss a new game called Sorcery. In this game you play a young wizard. You flick the move controller to shoot out magic spells, but I couldn’t grasp how aiming works in this. You can transform into different creatures in order to access new areas, such as a rat crawling through a small hole in the wall. Christian demonstrated around five different spells you can use like fireball, arcane bolt, and whirlwind. What’s interesting is that you can combine magic to create stronger attacks. An example is setting fire to the ground and then using a whirlwind to make an infernal maelstrom. The game looks interesting enough, but I’ll have to see for myself just how well the controls operate.
Next up Sony showed off some sports titles that make use of Move’s controls. First up was Tiger Wood’s PGA Tour ’11. The man speaking wasn’t selling the product very well by saying that Move is not about just flicking your wrist, but about performing an actual golf swing. As such, it’s much harder than anything else. So maybe Move’s motion is more realistic movement than Wii Motion Plus, but what’s the sense in that if I can’t hit the ball properly? I suppose the plus side of this is that real golf players should really enjoy this. Since it requires actual skill, people will have to work at it, and might just be able to improve their real-life golfing skill. I’m mildly sold, but I feel that if this is a test of things to come, many people will just end up frustrated. Let’s see what else they have.
Sony’s next announcement was called Heroes on the Move. Ratchet, Jak, Sly Cooper, Bentley, Daxter, and Clank are all joining forces for this PS Move title. Not much more than the premise was shown in the teaser trailer, but fans of those franchises should be excited. Next up, a partnership with Coca-Cola was announced. Kevin Butler came out with a relatively humorous speech that went on for far too long. I guess the point of the speech was to pump everyone up. Which, he got all the nerds excited in the audience by talking about gaming gods or some such nonsense. But I kept waiting for a point to his story, but he never quite got to one. I guess it was an interesting side-diversion though.
Playstation Move’s release date and price was announced. September 19th in North America for $49.99 by itself. The additional wand is $29.99. You can also buy a bundle pack of the wand, the Playstation Eye, and the game Sports Champions for $99.99. Also, you can buy a bundle pack with the wand, the eye, the game, and the Playstation 3 itself for $399.99. First party titles for Move will be $39.99, and there will be 15-20 titles at launch. NBA, Ruse, Killzone, Singstar, Echochrome II, and Eyepet will be among the titles that support Move technology. On top of that, Toy Story 3, Heavy Rain, Tiger Words, and Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition will be some of the titles that will allow for software updates in order to support Playstation Move. That’s really nice that they’re not requiring you to re-buy any of those titles that you already own.
A trailer was shown demonstrating various titles available for Playstation Move. It consisted of many family games, but there were a few hardcore games thrown in there as well. Sony definitely has the graphical advantage over Nintendo, but we’ll see if they can capture Nintendo’s market. Nintendo’s already defined the casual market for themselves, and I don’t think Sony’s going to capture it since a) they’re five years late, and b) I feel the Wii is just more user friendly to people who don’t play games. It’s simple, it’s not intimidating, it’s cheap, and they already have an enormous library of casual games. So why would middle-aged soccer mom, Peggy Sue, choose to pay twice as much for a console with not even an eighth of what Nintendo’s been offering for years now? I think Move was created to satiate Sony fanboys that think that the Wii is great, but they chose the $600 paperweight instead. Regardless, it should be interesting to see games with PS3 graphics in glorious HD making use of the Wii’s capabilities.
Jack Tretton came out to talk about PSP. Marcus Rivers, the kid from Role Models, is apparently the new spokesperson for PSP. I don’t get the point of showing us a trailer featuring him glorifying the PSP. He didn’t talk about any new features, or any new games. Just the fact that it’s great. I don’t get it. Jack went on to mention Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walkers, Invisimals and God of War. The last of which being the only one that had anything to show. God of War: Ghost of Sparta had a quick teaser with about as much information as GoWIII’s initial teaser. He then listed numerous titles coming to PSP including Tron Legacy, Toy Story 3, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Ace Combat: Joint Assault, the 3rd Birthday, and URC Unleashed 2010. A trailer was then shown adding Modnation, Gravity Nation, DragonBall Z Tenkaichi, Hot Shots Tennis, Madden ’11, Patapon 3, Fat Princess, Tetris, EyePet, Piyotama, Persona 3, Ys: The Oath, and Valkyria II among the 70 titles that will be released before December of this year.
Their next announcement really, for once, makes me wish I had a PS3. For anyone who couldn’t go to E3, Sony replicated their E3 display in Home for everyone to access for themselves. They can freely walk around, watch all the trailers, experience all the content, play the demos, etc as if they were actually on the show floor. That’s really awesome. Mega props to Sony for that. Next up, Jack announced Little Big Planet 2. It sounds like LBP2 goes even further than the original by adding different genres to the game so that players can not only make their own maps, but make entire games of multiple genres. The demonstration showed top down racing games, shooters, and even real-time strategies. With LBP2, the possibilities seem to be endless.
Playstation Plus was announced as a subscription-based service. On top of their already free online services (which are remaining free), they are adding this is a sort of “Xbox Live Gold” type addition. Subscribers to Playstation Plus will get VIP content such as early downloads, PSN discounts, and special event invitations as well as select Plus-specific content and downloads including DLC as well as PS3 themes and pictures. If they’re anything like Microsoft, they’ll eventually phase out the free stuff, but hopefully PS3 won’t be a mega-tool like Microsoft was and let the free users stay free. PS Plus will start later this month, offering a full year for $49.99, or a 3-month subscription for $17.99 (another thing Microsoft decided to phase out).
John Schappert was brought out to talk about Medal of Honor. I wasn’t interested when EA talked about it, so I’m definitely not interested now. They’ll have a limited edition version for PS3 which will include Medal of Honor: Frontline. That’s pretty sweet. If I cared about Medal of Honor, I’d be excited. Next up was Dead Space 2, which I also already saw at EA’s conference. DS2 will also have a limited edition for PS3 which will include Dead Space: Extraction supporting Move controls. Again, if I cared, I’d be excited. Next up was Portal 2. Now here’s something to talk about. Hopefully. Apparently they’re pairing up with Steam. I don’t know what that is, but it’s why PS3 version will be the best. A trailer was shown for Portal 2 showing that GlaDOS is still alive. The trailer showed her labs in a state of disrepair, and she began to fix it back up. Portal 2 is set for a 2011 release.
Next up came Final Fantasy XIV, Square’s new MMORPG. The visuals are still some of the most impressive I’ve seen on the platform, but that’s not surprising since Square is one of the most impressive companies visually on the market. The trailer didn’t really offer anything new I’m afraid. But it’s not like there’s a whole lot they can tell us story-wise anyway. A release date would have been nice, but we’ll just have to hope they succeed in their 2010 release window. Moving on to Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, PS3 will be getting an exlcusive multiplayer beta later this year, as well as exclusive content and map packs available only on PS3. A trailer showing off the multiplayer shows off a multitude of characters ranging from assassins, to jesters, to nobles running around and assassinating each other. Looks like it might be fun enough, but this is something people will have to try for themselves before we can really get an opinion on it. Sony then showed off a trailer that sort of summed up everything we’ve seen in the show already at least half the titles in the trailer showed was already talked about, and shown off in a similar trailer earlier in the show.
Next up was a trailer for Gran Turismo 5, set for a November 2nd release and available in 3D. A trailer for Infamous 2 was shown after that. And to end the show was the shocking debut for a new Twisted Metal game, something that no one expected to see. When’s the last time Twisted Metal even came out? Twisted Metal will be coming out exclusively to Playstation 3 sometime next year. A demo was shown off for Twisted Metal a sixteen player deathmatch with characters using helicopters, motorcycles, and cars. Each vehicle has two special attacks, and co-op features will be added along with an assortment of weapons. There’s also a new gameplay mode called Nuke that’s been added. In Nuke, two factions are pitting against each other, and your faction is supposed to capture the leader of the other faction, take him to your team’s rocket launcher, let it charge up, sacrifice their faction leader, and set off a missile and destroy your opponents head statue. Basically a more advanced capture the flag.
In closing, I was pretty impressed by Sony’s show overall. I wasn’t particularly impressed by anything, but I also wasn’t particularly unimpressed either. I still would like for Move to have separated itself from Wii’s motion controls even just a little bit, but I would say the it’s precision has potential, and paired with the PS3’s graphical capabilities may allow it to make some solid products, so there’s definitely potential. But while the PS3 has mostly been a matter of finance, I’ve never been interested in a PSP, and I’m still not. I would have liked them to have promoted the PSP more, and shown why it’s more interesting than a brick.
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