Clearly, Microsoft set the bar high with their press conference yesterday and everyone pretty much agreed that Nintendo and Sony had their work cut out for them. I finished the Nintendo presser feeling like they phoned that one in from home. Made out of money. Sony’s show, though, felt a lot more like an E3 presentation and while I’d still have to give the edge to Microsoft in the end, Sony had some really good stuff to show (and apparently some in reserve to debut later this year.)
Keep reading for my impressions of Sony’s E3 2008 Press Conference…
I’ve been accused of being a Sony fanboy more times that I can count, but damn it… I kinda like Jack Tretton. His visible nervousness at these shows gives him a little more credibility than the people that appears absolutely at ease (or even smug) doing this stuff. Jack’s not perfect. (which is clearly evident by his jokes pointing out that Jack Palance is dead while Jack Tretton is not.) Enough with the host, let’s get on with the stuff covered in the show.
The conference got going with the typical “flash-by” reel of game footage… all stuff you knew was coming, big name third party titles, prominent first party titles, etc. Then fears of the Nintendo presser set in as Jack starts talking milestones and press reaction to the PS3 in 2008. Then…
Resistance 2. Resistance 2 is shown and looks both good and somewhat underwhelming at the same time. Personally, I watched the trailers livestreamed and the footage didn’t look that great. I did watch some new direct feed footage of one of the trailers they showed today and that did look crystal clear and strangely vibrant. Apparently next-gen isn’t only brown anymore. It’s clear the scale of levels and gameplay is being expanded in R2. I had a serious Cloverfield flashback as a giant creature stomped through a downtown area while the game’s protagonist was fighting from the rooftops. They even had the “climbing from one building to another and having the building attacked” Cloverfield mechanic in place.
Make no mistake, R2 is an insta-purchase for me, but I guess in the grand scheme of things I was expecting to be “crap myself” wowed, but I only sharted… just a tiny bit… and even with that, I’ll probably just ride out the day without changing. Pardon my funk.
Alex Evans joined Jack Tretton on stage to simultaneously present the boring “Press Conference Numbers” section while demonstrating how uber-cute LittleBigPlanet is going to be. It was basically a presentation given inside LittleBigPlanet. That game’s going to be huge. Every time I see a completely new level designed, I realize just how HUGE this game’s going to be. If Media Molecule nail the sharing and community aspects of this game, this could potentially be a genre-defining game for Sony. If Sony were smart, they’d buy Media Molecule or at least tie them to a nice long contract they could both live with.
During the LBP/Number presentation, Jack Tretton officially confirms the rumored Greatest Hits line for PS3 at $29.99. Three first party and several third party titles are named. It’s a much needed boost for some of that older software and for folks like me, some games just don’t warrant the full $60 price, but might make sound $30 purchases.
Who knew the PS2 was still ballin’ the way it is. More than ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY new games are coming to the PS2 in 2008. Yeah, you read that right… one hundred and thirty! No price drop, in fact, there is a new “kids” bundle for $149 shipping with a PS2, Lego Batman, and a Justice League DVD. It looks like the $129 price for the stand alone PS2 is sticking for now. It’s selling, so why not, I guess?
More PSP and PS3 announcements and analysis, on page 2.
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I actually think the Sony press conference was better than Microsoft’s. Sure MS had FFXIII, but apart from that there seemed to be very little, padded out with lots of casual gaming crap. The Sony one didn’t have any “OMG” announcements, but it was pretty consistent and did have a few jaw dropping moments.
They showed that they still seem to care about the PSP, that they’re committed to building up their online presence (which of course always comes with the caveat that we may be waiting til 2010 to see it) and they showed that not only will 2008 be packed but there’s also stuff in the pipeline for 2009.
For some reason I wasn’t all that impressed by the graphics on Infamous. Maybe it’s just an early build thing, but it all seemed a little last-gen.
One thing I was pretty impressed about though was the number of games which appeared in the “Sizzle Reels” which we knew nothing about, and more importantly the fact that there’s some good stuff there. It says to me that finally the quality of the software has again caught up with the confidence of Sony. It’s pretty ballsy to casually throw out brand new games and neither MS nor Nintendo really did that.
While I’ll be taking it all with the requisite pinch of salt, it has got me pretty confident that Sony seem to know what they’re doing.
If I understand correctly, Massive Action Game is a concept name so hopefully it’ll go soon, wouldn’t surprise me if they give it a SOCOM name since it’s Zipper and it does have a similar style.
Sony had a better presentation overall but microsoft shocked the heck out of me with the FF 13 news . Also microsoft had small but usefull things like installing a whole x360 game to the hard drive etc etc.
After seeing Resistance 2, that LBP footage, inFamous, and MAG I die a little every moment I don’t have a PS3. Maybe I could get enough money for my Wii after I get bored of ACCF. And Shaun White Snowboarding…can’t forget that. Screw Nintendo.
@Grantly: I loved how Nintendo tried to make Shaun White sound exclusive… it’s the Balance Board controls that are exclusive, not the game… the game looks pretty solid on the 360/PS3 though. I might have to check it out (ie. rent) when it comes out.
sony had the worst conference. it’s just like watching nintendo’s but a lot worse. and those games they purport as the best games on any consoles are pathetic. the gfx suck on all of the games they showed and even the games already released. even cod4 look atrocious on that loser console. cod4 on the xbox is a lot better and w/o the jaggies. gabe newell is correct in stating, “..the ps3 is a waste of everybody’s time.” lmao gabe is a godsend. i’ve played most if not all the so-called top sony exclusive games and i never wanted to continue playing after 4mins coz the games are just pathetic. they all claim it’s the best games in it’s genre i.e. gfx, gameplay, etc. yet when i played ratchet&crap, mgs4, motorcrap, lair, heavenly sword, flow– as that dlc game crap w/c won an award for best dlc, and none of them impressed me at all. it is utter crap. the gfx just look bland and unappealing. i told my cuz to just sell that crap and buy a new gfx card for his pc instead and play real games the way he used to. he did and we even ripped off some loser for it. cuz sold everything for $1600 to some loser he met at his school. lmao what a loser sony users are. killzone2 is another lame game for losers. lol they use innovation like they actually invented it and use the moniker “halo killer” yet they never even put a scratch on halo’s: combat evolve achievements. how many units did kz sell again? what was it’s avg review scores? lmao did i mention it’s gameplay swallows? it’s control scheme is worthless and seemed like a 1month old baby developed it; pathetic. what a crappy wannabe game. oh well, i expected as much from the sony losers. what a bunch of inbreds sony users are. i love all o’ ye. thank god for ms and the xbox, i will only play the real games from now on. no need for me to touch a sony game controller again. ye only shoot yerself in the head 1x and if ye live ye should live it up unless yer a sony user then yer just a loser and should continue shooting yerself in the head. lol much love