Sony E3 2011 Press Conference Breakdown

I want to start off first by discussing some system specific topics.  I cover PS3 and PC almost exclusively.  I admit some ill-will towards Microsoft as a company.  I think their customer support and most obviously with the Xbox 360, their quality control is awful.  I also find their flagship IP, Halo, to be substantially over-rated and their online components far too rampant with racism, sexism, homophobia and general lack of intelligence.  That being said, I am not a Sony fanboy as some people have claimed me to be.  I was very critical of Sony and their machine, the price-point and some of their practices.  I adopted late, near the end of the 80gb with software backward- compatibility cycle.

I found Bluray to be a superior HD format, the reliability of the machine to be much higher than Microsofts (still not as good as Nintendo’s) and their 1st party games to be more interesting to me.  That said, their version of motion controls have appeared to be the weakest of the big 3, their network speeds and store browsing have been too slow at times, and the lack of cross-game chat (an MS patent issue by most accounts) and a not-so user-friendly UI are points for discussion.  Still it is my console of choice and it is superior, if for nothing other than media storage by itself (3 discs for L.A. Noire…yuck).

Jack Tretton talks Playstation

Good to hear from Jack himself addressing the PSN outage and breach and confirming their commitment and support from third-party companies.  They are adding another Movie App, CinemaNow for first run films.  Not really interested in this.  I occasionally use Netflix on the PS3 and was surprised to hear that more than 30% of Netflix online bandwidth comes from the PS3. I would guess the PC holds the majority with Xbox/Wii in the 3 and 4 spots.

Uncharted 3 – Naughty Dog

There’s not much new to offer, just a newer trailer with some of the old trailer content
mixed in and some in-game action from a level aboard an old battered ship during a violent ocean storm.  It showcases all their is to love about this series, excellent lighting, weather and particle effects to go along with quality sounds, music, graphics and voice acting. This is a day one purchase for most gamers with access to a PS3.  Check out the Uncharted 3 – Collector’s Edition thread for details on the awesome CE coming our way. November 1st cannot come soon enough.

Resistance 3 – Doomsday Edition

And the stage is turned right over to another awesome development team, Insomniac Games to show off some stuff for Resistance 3.  The setup, humanity has lost the war, the last sentinel (main character) fights alongside various guerrilla resistance groups against occupying Chimera forces. I spotted one new weapon (at least to my recollection) which created this sort of whirlwind of death sucking chimera and shield bots alike.  The big surprise to me was the use of Resistance to boost the Move, and it’s a pretty tempting package. The Resistance 3 Doomsday Edition comes with a nav controller, a move controller, the sharpshooter gun casing, the eye-camera and the game for $150.  This is tempting me already and may get me to buy one come September launch.

Playstation HD Remakes

The God of War Origins pack features Chains of Olympus and Ghosts of Sparta remastered for the PS3 and Move compatible.  Ico and Shadow Colossus also get officially announced for HD Remasters and both packages are coming in September

NBA 2k12

My feed went out here. The streams were terrible all day long. But I missed 99% of Kobe, so that’s good in my book. And I see he was using a Move, which I probably would have felt was stupid and gimmicky, so WIN for me.  2k12 will be a purchase, I’ve limited myself to 2 years cycles on NBA games now. I just don’t see $60 a year for the,, and usually wait for them to drop to $40.  In the 90’s new EA sports titles hit the #30-40 brand new, because the economic model wouldn’t sustain it.  Translation, quit paying so damn much money for a sports game you’re going to replace every year.

Medieval Moves

A fantasy action adventure game.  Looks like a game for kids and shameless push to buy motion controls like almost every Move and Kinect game on the market right now.  They’re doing it wrong for the most part.  Oh, it’s 3D too. Joy!! sigh… Where as the Xbox presser was Kinect Kinect Kinect Kinect!!!!, the PS3 conference is Move 3D 3D, Move, Move, Move 3D.  Boring repetition of what are really the weakest points of your machines right now, although I can see a brighter future for the Kinect if used properly. This game looks as bad as the on-rails Star Wars Kinect demo from MS.  Why do motion-based games have to have primitive cartoon graphics or just be poorly implemented?

Infamous 2 E3

Nothing really new here. They talk about the UGC (user generated content), which is by far the most interesting segment of this game and something I got to do a little beta testing on.  Unfortunately though the game launches tomorrow, the UGC won’t be available until fall.

Too Much Stuff Sony!

Sony actually had too many games to show here, and most of them just being updates with 3D or Move support, or HD graphics, or a port or spin-off for their new handheld.  So, I’ll go over the big ones in brief.

EA is bringing SSX, Need for Speed and Battlefield 3 to PS3 with Move enabled perks and bonuses “exclusive” to PS3. I wonder how long they stay “exclusive”. For more on those games have a look at the EA E3 2011 Breakdown. There was the reveal of an original Star Trek game from Paramount using the rebooted franchise version of the characters.  It was pre-alpha footage and looked like Mass Effect 1 /Dead Space 1 graphics and style.  Weird seeing Spock 3rd person shooting aliens… Both Saints Row 3 and Bioshock Infinite also get “exclusive PS3 content and Move support for Bioshock.  Ken Levin had interesting things to say about motion controls as always.

Sly Cooper gets a new game netry with Thieves in Time in 2012. The Warhawk team has a shooter entitled StarHawk. Little Big Planet 2 will get extended Move support (notice a trend here?). Dev team CCP has created an FPS companion to Eve Online entitled Dust 514, which will be true cross-platform and work with EVE somehow… very interesting idea.

Sony Gets New “Life” in Handheld

As Kaz Hirai tells us, Vita means life, and Sony new PS Vita is supposed to “blue the line between your life and gaming”… uhhh sure.  Perhaps the best part was the collective audience groan when AT&T was announced as exclusive wireless provider. Hellooo Iphone.  I heard a cry as if millions of voices cried out only to be dropped by their carrier and never heard from again…

This post is already too long, I encourage you to watch the second half of the Sony press conference as it is all Vita.  Ruin, ModNation Racers, Street Fighter X Tekken and more on display for games.  The system has dual touch pads, dual camera (front and back), multi-touch screen and wifi.

The game that looked the best and is most enticing for the system is Uncharted – Golden Abyss.  I love Uncharted, but my lack of interest in handhelds and Sony’s lackluster history with them have my interest meter severely limp.

Ubisoft E3 2011 Breakdown
Ea E3 2011 Breakdown

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