K&G E3 2010: Sony’s Press Conference Commentary

Sony wraps up the last of the big three console press conferences and we’ve just finished watching.  Our commentary below will give you our insights into what was announced and shown.  Microsoft really failed to bring anything and Nitendo set the bar high with a lot of exclusive games and some brand new surprising announcements.  Read on to find out where Sony landed at this year’s E3.

Killzone 3 – Showcasing a lot of action and good graphics.

PlayStation Move (Enhanced by Move) and/or 3D

Crysis 2
Mortal Kombat
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Tron Evolution: The Video Game
Gran Tourismo 5
and more…

PlayStation Move

It looks like a glowing icecream cone and there isn’t much more to this idea of “move” other than an alleged improvement upon the Wiimote.  Sony may be improving upon the motion technology for a hand-held device and how it integrates into the games, but where is the necessity in the core gaming for motion controls like this?  Baseball games, little big planet, and other games offer a few neat tricks for motion but you don’t see it being used on games like Killzone 3… it’s being used in games designed for motion gaming.   Is that a bad thing?  Lets see what games they’re making to utilize it…

Lots of commentary and our thoughts on Sony’s Motion Games as well as a few of their surprises.  Read

Sorcery
Designed to utilize Move.  It’s going to suck in the fantasy/magic crowd with its namesake gameplay.

– The motion tracking was impressive during the gameplay showing the kid/sorcerer shooting spells.  It looked 1:1 and makes the Wii looks old.
– Graphically, it looks very nice.
– Once the gameplay started to pick up this game actually looks great with all the various spells like polymorph, whirlwind, wall of fire, freezing, and some really creative use of spell combinations. Lots of fighting monsters.
– Ignoring how stupid the Move wand looks and how goofy you’ll look while playing it, this is a game we would buy.  If they make “next-gen motion games” like this… maybe it’s not so bad.

PsP
Totally overshadowed by the Nintendo 3DS.  They had nothing to offer us but a collage of video clips.

Little Big Planet 2
It appears that they’ve turned it into a mini-game generator.

– Did they say you could make RTS games and RPGs? Oh, guess so because they’re showing a RTS game.  This is interesting and I think it’s really neat as a tool for people to tinker around in.  The problem here is that we’ve never seen a “game” like this where people actually make something worth the original price of buying Little Big Planet 2.  “Empowering the Customer” is cool and all… but games are cool too.
– It has some interesting

PlayStation Plus
PlayStation Plus = Xbox Live that you don’t need to play online.  It’s a club you join to get access to downloadable content and other games or PlayStation content.   You only own the content for the duration of your subscription though.  He repeated this line.  You essentially pay a monthly fee to access some games for free or you straight up buy them.

Medal of Honor – aka Battlefield with Beards
The multiplayer is being done by DICE.

– It looks great graphically, but it also looks just like Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2.
– You can unlock beards…
– Will we get it?  Maybe.  October 12 is really close and we have a weakness for these shooters which are becoming increasingly more generic as one just copies the other. If there is a beta we’ll be all over it. It’s too soon to get sucked in by something that looks the same.

Dead Space 2 – Gameplay looks similar to the original but it’s scripted and not actually someone playing so it’s hard to tell.

Portal 2 – Going to be on PS3.

Final Fantasy 14 – GIVE US GAMEPLAY! Ugh. More cinematic while they hide the actual game away.

Assassin’s Creed 3 – Just a video.  Oh, and they get an “exclusive beta”.   Watch out guys… Sony has an exclusive.

Infamous 2 -  No gameplay footage.

Twisted Metal
Sweet Tooth is back!

– Finally another exclusive and at least one franchise making a return.  It’s not a big one but it’s something.
– It uh… doesn’t look that great visually.  Maybe it’s because it is early in development or something but the buildings exploding just crumbled into some rocks. The fog to hide the fact that distance couldn’t be rendered was obvious.  Big bummer.
– Online play could be fun, especially with friends like the old days on PS2.  Conceptually the new gameplay mode looks a lot of fun.
– We were psyched when they announced it but by the end of the video we’re indifferent.

— — —

Sony’s major focus was on 3D, realism, high definition and videos about games coming to PS3 (With one… maybe 2 exclusives?). Half the media conference was trash talking the Wii. The problem for them is that they talked trash but backed it up with nothing, save for Sorcery (which does look great!). Jack stood on the stage saying “This is why I feel investors should give us money” and the whole thing felt like he was saying “watch this video of a game” while trying to convince us that Sony is here for the core gamer… without the exclusive games or any announcements.

It feels like Sony’s big problem is that they’re lacking any major franchises.  Nintendo and Microsoft both have their franchises and powerhouse titles but Sony lacks the true exclusive IP’s to surprise people.  The entire presentation has been name dropping of titles from neither here nor there.  A few CGI trailers and video montages of a slew of titles aren’t enough to impress people anymore; it’s about things being rendered in real time and real showcases of actual gameplay — even if it has technical difficulties like Nintendo’s!

Expect our wrap up of who had the best conference soon!