A bold new controller, Gran Turismo HD, and a Metal Gear Solid 4 teaser highlight a fairly staid event. Read on for our 21-point analysis. The short version? PS3 is promising, but when you have to exhort the crowd to applaud, you may have a problem...
As far as E3 press conferences go, we're going to rate Sony's big rollout of the PlayStation 3 as a disappointing B-. Not a whole lot of amazing new news here, but there were some cool highlights and promises, including the debut of a brand new Gran Turismo title.
As the Sony execs dished the news regarding Sony's new games, platform, and features, I (I being George Jones, the Executive Producer of Games.net and someone who's been to every E3 ever staged) recorded my thoughts and reactions in real-time. This way, as you read it, you'll feel like you were really there. Well, not really. If you really want to feel like you were there, you should check out Gamespot.com's live feed. And if streaming video isn't your thing, Joystiq.com has a great live blog of the event.
And away we go!
1. PSP potential. If I were creating a set of end-of-school-year awards, I would give the Sony PSP the "most likely to transform from geek to stud... award. The potential is here for this device to become something much more complex than we or Sony has dreamed off. The size has to get smaller.
2. Advanced technology, blah blah blah. Sony's PS3 event was interesting, but technologically, it was hard to shake the sense that, technologically speaking, there wasn't a lot of new stuff here. That said, the Blu-Ray is certainly a big deal, and should result in faster load times, which is huge. The Bluetooth capability is excellent as well.
3. Sony takes advantage of MS miscue. Sony really pounded Microsoft on the hard drive front. When Kaz Hirai said, "Every PS3 will have a built-in hard drive,... you could feel the daggers directed at Microsoft's Xbox 360 team.
4. Only for developed nations. The video they ran of people from all different cultures and parts of the world was interesting. You could really use this video as a way of separating the haves in the world from the have-nots.
5. Gran Turismo HD prototype. Gran Turismo looks great. No surprise there. This demo seemed intended to impress the crowd with the PlayStation 3's technological potential as much as with the game itself. The fact that they're designing specifically for HD is interesting. On the surface, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's huge. Designing for HD will result in improved interfaces and much finer graphics. Two other element that impressed me: the very fast load times, and the fact that the game was running at 1920 x 1080p resolution! I don't typically get excited about racing games, but this was an impressive demonstration. One final thought: The rally car race in the Grand Canyon looked un-friggin-believable! A massive crowd was standing outside watching the race, moving back as the cars came through tight turns. Dang dood.
6. Card game was cool. The card game demonstration was really interesting; these guys were placing cards on a mat and then monsters were appearing on screen based on which cards they played. It's a cool technology demonstration with some interesting potential. It also demonstrates that not just Nintendo is thinking outside of normal control parameters. I can easily imagine a game using miniatures...
7. PS emulation is smart. Sony is genius for using their handheld to place older content via online downloads onto the PSP. However, the reaction from the crowd when Kaz said, "It's RIDGE RACER... was less than favorable. Some people in the crowd actually started laughing. Regardless, this is a page out of Nintendo's book. Plus, the ability to download games will allow the system to transcend the bottleneck that is the UMD.
8. PS3 interface. When Phil Harrison, in charge of first party development, debuted the PS3 interface and announced the ability to buy content, I couldn't help but think, this is the best you've got?! Still though.
9. Things are feeling less than stellar. The third game Harrison debuted was Singstar Online. So let me get this straight. Gran Turismo HD? Great. 1995's Ridge Racer? Um, okay? Singstar? We better see something better than this.
10. Genji 2 looks solid. By this point - a little less than an hour into the event, we were looking at our fourth game. I have to admit that I was not as impressed as I'd hoped to be. Genji 2 is a Japanese action fighting game. The graphics looked solid, but the demonstration wasn't great. The presenter did not do a very good job of explaining why the game was excellent. The crowd was unimpressed; Harrison had to urge the crowd to clap afterwards. Not so good, Phil.
11. The PSP wing mirror. In Sony's next demonstration, Harrison presented a Formula 1 game that used the PSP as a wing mirror during racing. By this point, I was thinking to myself, "What are these guys doing? Who's going to mount their PSP as a wing mirror while they play a racing game?... Okay, okay, the point was that you could use the PSP as a secondary screen for gaming. That's pretty cool. But a wing mirror? Hmmm.
12. Heavenly Sword 2. Man, this is a tough crowd. During the Heavenly Sword 2 demo, the crowd barely uttered a peep, and you could almost see and feel Harrison thinking, "Shit, I'm bombing up here!...
13. Trailer town offers new hope. After the game demos, Harrison introduced a series of video trailers that re-energized me with new hope for the platform. The Getaway looked interesting. Afrika looked simplay amazing, with a trailer that started in the African tundra, with massive herds of zebras and water buffaloes - perfectly animated - roaming around. There were no gameplay details for this one, unfortunately. Very interesting. Monster Kingdom was also displayed. But wow, after the series of trailer, there was no applause. Again, Harrison had to urge the crowd to clap. Yikes.
14. Finally, new titles. Harrison may have got the crowd going with a trailer for two brand new titles that were extremely impressive. One really cool-looking game - Eight Days - started off with a riveting car chase followed by a massive explosion, frenzied gun fight and a tremendous explosion caused by an oil tanker that ran into a gas station. All rendered in high detail, of course. This actually got some props from the crowd.
15. "Young Indy?... Another really cool presentation was a game by Naughty Dog. "Some things should never be lost... the trailer said. "Some curses cannot be undone.... ON the trail of a legendary treasure. The hunter becomes the Hunted. This was followed by a rapid fire sequence of a young man wearing a tee-shirt booking through the jungle and fighting, shooting, and killing enemy soldiers. The name of the game was nowhere to be found.
16. ...Resistance... is a winner. Resistance Follow Man takes place in an alternate universe where WWII never occurred, but is war torn nonetheless. The set up was sobering. London has been leveled by aliens, and it's your job to stop them. I found myself thinking that the gameplay felt like Call of Duty meets Halo meets Black. That's no so bad, is it? The graphics were shockingly good.
17. Assasins and Mechs don't lie. It must be said that the trailer of third party videos were much more promising than the first-party stuff. Assassins is going to be one of the biggest titles of 2006 or 2007. And Gundam looks stellar also. Gigantic mechs duking it out in high resolution? Sign me up. A brand new Ridge Race. Sounds groovy, as does Brothers in Arms. We also saw a video for Tekken 6 (same old Tekken) and Sonic, which looks fantastic. It looks like Sonic is going to be driving vehicles this time. Also on the roster: Virtua Tennis 3, Virtua Fighter 5, Stranglehold.
18. No Madden?. After a snoozing first hour, Sony finally turns up the volume with some big hitting game companies. First up, EA. I was a little disappointed that CEO Larry Probst showed off NBA Live as the key demonstration here. Sure it looked great, but the game's visuals have always been top-notch. My perspective on the series is that the gameplay feels nothing like real-life basketball, and that's a massive problem. With this said, perhaps the PS3's power will allow the gameplay of EA's hoops franchise to fully realize it's potential. Please? The Tiger Woods demo looked unbelievable, with realistic looks and amazing animations. Still though, the fact that Probst didn't make a bigger deal out of Madden raises red flags for me.
19. Metal Gear Solid 4 sets a tone. The Metal Gear Solid 4 demo definitely left me wanting more. The moment when Snake places the gun into his mouth is pretty powerful...particularly for gamers who played the first three games and are familiar with Snake.
20. Finally -- the controller! Ken Kutaragi's announcement that the PS3 will have a wireless (Bluetooth and radio) controller *with* a motion sensor built into it is big news indeed. This appears to leave Microsoft out in the cold here. Of course, releasing a new controller is not a tough thing to do. The Warhawk demo was fairly exciting. This is nice addition to the controller's arsenal, and allows for much more complex controls. I LOVE that Sony didn't redesign the controller's shape. The original PS2 controller is one of the best controllers of all time.
21. November 17 is the date Alright, finally a date to set my calendar for. At $499 for a 20GB system and $599 for a 40GB system, this is one expensive console system. But I'll definitely be in line for it.
My final thoughts on the presentation?
-Technologically, the PS3 looks awesome. Games are going to look more impressive than ever, and that's a huge win for everyone (except the designers, who have to hire three times as many illustrators).
-Sony didn't put anything particularly shocking out thereThis would indicate that the PlayStation 3 will put forth a launch similar to the Xbox 360.
-It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the industry is falling prey to two disturbing phenomenon. Sequel-itis is everywhere now; of all the games we say, only a handful were brand new titles. This is a major concern for me. If all we're doing is selling games to people who have already played games, this could alienate younger gamers, who love new stuff.
-The second concern is that many of the "big... titles Sony demonstrated appear to be embracing more mature themes. I have no beef with more mature gaming, but to paraphrase Ice Cube, what about the mutha f---ing kids? Not everyone wants to get gritty in their gaming experience
-The PS3's controller roxors. It's the same size and shape as the original PS2 one, which I love. And the addition of a motion sensor is a big advancement, one that leaves Microsoft out in the cold. How big a deal is it? Huge - it adds a whole new dimension of motion and control to gameplay. The end result should be more immersive experiences. And that's a win every time.
We'll see how Nintendo and Microsoft respond tomorrow.
