Sony
Okay, let's kick off with the highlights. Understand of course that I won't be covering each conference in depth, going into each individual game - chances are if you are after information that descriptive then you either watched E3 or have already seen what it showcased. So let's get down to it! Sony started the E3 conference exactly how I believed that they should have done - taking head on the PSN outage. They did a brilliant job of tackling this problem head on during the conference, apologising for the outage and thanking everyone for their patience. So with the messy business out of the way Sony could get down to the good stuff - all the games and big announcements.Now, unless you have had no internet access, have not passed any game magazines of any kind or have just been living in a cave these past few weeks - you'll know what the biggest Sony announcement was. That's right; the Playstation Vita, or what I call; The PSV.
The PSV is Sony's new handheld system - the next PSP. Normally this would not raise any flags of mine as the PSP was for the most part, not very good. Sure it had a few decent games and was graphically nice and all that but it was hacked in the first few months, UMDs did not work and Sony kind of forgot all about it. So what is so different about the PSV? Well let's look at the features; A touch screen, rear touch pad, two analog sticks, two cameras, tilt, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G.. It's jam packed full of em. But having features is all well and good but a gaming platform has to play games well; and I'm happy to say it looks like Vita does that too.
Showcased on the Vita was Uncharted: Golden Abyss which looked impressive, especially considering it's a handheld console. The demo showed how the touch pad could be used to hurl grenades as well as choose destinations to make Drake jump to and all seemed to work seamlessly. Also announced for the Vita were ModNation Racers, Little Big Planet, and Street Fighter x Tekken - all of which had accompanying demos. With all these high brand names and all this shiny technology, one can be forgiven for thinking that Sony could actually rival Nintendo in their handheld dominated market - but the big question on everyone's minds was, of course, price - and Sony saved their biog guns for this one. They're releasing Vita - THIS Christmas - for 249 euros (just over £219) which made everyone in attendance, and even myself - wow. Whether it dominates the handheld market or not.. This will definitely be a purchase for me.So as well as Vita, Sony's key point at this years E3, Sony also unveiled several big games coming out soon. The pinnacle of these had to be the latest installment in the Uncharted series. Personally I've not played these much so for me it wasn't that big but it seemed to ring bells for everyone else. Admittedly the graphics were very impressive - this is one to look out for. Also announced was a new installment to an old favourite - a new Sly Cooper game was announced! A few demos were shown and various statements by companies supporting Sony - nothing majorly important to me until one trailer caught my eye. Not only was this FPS trailer stunningly beautiful, it pulled no punches. It opened with a group of hostages, rope tied from their feet to large concrete blocks being kicked off ledges into water to drown. The thick accented, scarred AI character addressing the player (whom the viewers where taking the point of view of) then proceeded to do the same to the protagonist. After escaping and going on what can only be described as a killing spree, I became very excited. Beautiful graphics, what looks to be an interesting story, brutal and interesting melee kills and game mechanics.. Farcry 3 was announced. If the gameplay trailer is anything to go by, it's going to be a lot of fun.
Now, one more thing the Sony conference threw to my attention.. was this:
'A TV?' I hear you ask? Yes a TV - but this has something quite different about it.. Sony has branded 2011 as the year of 3D. 3D is the latest gaming related trend for companies to pursue and more and more games now are being released with 3D capability. Wow big woop, a TV that plays 3D - but wait. This one is very special..
Think, if you will, about every game you've played split screen. Every time you're eyes have glanced over to your partner / enemies bottom half of the screen and grinned stupidly as you realise exactly where he is - or used insane amounts of profanity because they did it to you. This is now a thing of the past - with Sony's new 3D TV - split screen has been revolutionised. Now, instead of the screen being halved, each player who is looking at the screen will see a screen of their own. Let that sink in for a second - as it sure as hell confuses me how they've managed it. It will be as if you're both playing on your own TV and will make screen watching impossible.So that's it from me on the Sony conference at this years E3. Admittedly I was quite disappointed as opposed to last year. There was the noticeable lack of Kevin Butler's enthusiasm and nothing really eye popping. That can be forgiven though i suppose - I mean how could they top what they brought onto stage for the finale last year? I got, and still get, goosebumps when I saw this..
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