Playstation - THE TELEVISION
The last press conference (or media briefing, as they would like you to call it) of the day was Sony’s… and they had some Splaaaaaaaaaaanin’ to do!
- First of all, for a company that was just hacked three ways from Sunday (even again just before the presser) they sure did pat themselves on the back pretty hard with a ridiculously long video showing footage of practically every game to ever come out for Playstation, cut every little while with images of Sony hardware (including the PS3, PSP, Vita, 3D glasses, Move controllers, etc.)
- After the hour-long video, Jack Tretton arrived on stage and told the press “You’re welcome,” for being hacked and having the PSN outage. Apparently the media loves to hit a good old soul like Sony when they’re down. Seriously though, what the fuck Jack? That was a douche move… not a joke. He then gave a “heartfelt” apology to Sony developers and the fans. Yeah, okay…
- After this luke-warm start, Sony pulled the biggest gun first with a nice long demo of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception which showed the titular hero infiltrating a giant cargo ship and then getting the hell back out after it tips over sideways and begins to fill with water. If this demo was any indication of the rest of the game, Uncharted 3 is going to be just-as, if not more, amazing than its predecessors.
- Next, they demoed three VERY uneventful minutes of Resistance 3 that showed absolutely nothing cool. It makes me feel bad, because I really dug the first game… but man, this series just fell off the wagon after that.
- Tretton took this opportunity to announce Moves support for Resistance 3 and a bundle including a plastic gun-shaped holder, a Move controller, Playstation Eye camera and the game for $150. No thanks.
- On a brighter note, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus will be coming this fall with 3D HD remakes, as well as the two God of War PSP games.
- Next, perhaps the only surprising thing all day happened – Tretton announced the Playstation branded TV. It’s basically a 24″ entry-point monitor for playing 3D games and will be released with Resistance 3 and a pair of Playstation 3D glasses for $499. The glasses will be sold separately for $69. The really cool tech feature of this monitor is that two people can play splitscreen and yet, thanks to the magic of the 3D glasses, both have a full-screen view. My friends and I would have killed for this back in our 16-player lan party days when we would tape cardboard contraptions to the screen to avoid “screen-watching.”
- Move support was the next item on the docket, and they started with a demo of NBA 2K12. Using the Move controller, the player will be able to move a cursor over the court, directing passes and shots. They brought out Kobe Bryant who kept going on about how realistic, and then non-realistic, and then realistic again the game was. Embarrassingly, the 2K guy had to reach over and actually push a button on the controller in Kobe’s hand at one point.
- Next, they showed Medieval Moves: Deadmun’s Quest, which is a cutesy sort of 1st-to-3rd person game in which you use several distinct Move gestures to use the sword, shield, bow and arrow and throwing stars – all without entering a menu or selecting the weapons.
- Then, they showed a commercial for inFamous 2 to make sure we don’t forget to go and buy it tomorrow.
- A Starhawk CG trailer was then shown… and, it looked dull.
- Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time was announced (another rare surprise) for 2012 and a short, non-gameplay trailer was shown.
- Next was Dust 514, an FPS set in the EVE Online universe. The graphics looked really slick, but once again, I just don’t know how many future/sci-fi shooters I can deal with. They spoke of an intermingling between Dust 514 and the EVE MMO, but didn’t go into any further detail.
- Bioshock Infinite was briefly shown, and then Ken Levine came out and apologized profusely for saying harsh things about the Move. Apparently he loves it now and Bioshock Infinite will utilize it. Also, he announced a new Bioshock game for the PS Vita (NGP).
- They also spoke about Saint’s Row: The Third having Move support and coming out on November 15th.
- Next they showed a “Pre-Alpha, 100% in-game footage” trailer for a new Star Trek game set to coincide with the next JJ Abrams movie next year. It actually looked spectacular, which leads me to believe they’re lying about it being “Pre-Alpha,” and are downplaying how much work they’ve done on it, just so it seems that much more awesome.
- SSX was mentioned and announced to have an exclusive track for the PS3 – Mt. Fuji
- Need for Speed: The Run will also come with an extra Blu-Ray containing 7 extra cars. OH JOY!
- Also, Battlefield 3 for the PS3 will leverage the extra space on the Blu-Ray to include Battlefield 1942. All of these “exclusive” things were mentioned in the same breath as “something you can only do/find on the PS3″ even though both the original Bioshock and Battlefield 1942 have already been released on other consoles.
- At the beginning of the portable-gaming segment, it was mentioned yet again that there will be several Playstation certified Android phones and tablets coming out soon (a story that was eclipsed by the hacking) and that these experiences would draw portable gamers into the Playstation family, causing them to buy a PS3. Surrrrrrre.
- Next, the NGP was officially revealed as the Playstation Vita – meaning “Life.” Not over-wrought at all! They then announced a partnership with AT&T to provide the network for the 3G model. This was met with several jeers, laughs and even boos. The Vita will also have a ‘Party’ system much like Xbox Live, allowing you to chat with other players regardless of which game you or they are playing, and ‘Near,’ which will let you play and share with gamers in your general vicinity.
- They then showed Uncharted: Golden Abyss for Vita… and while it looked great, the touch controls looked far too cumbersome to actually use. They kept saying that touch controls would be available “for places where it makes sense,” a seeming admission that it really didn’t make much sense anywhere and was being shoe-horned in.
- Next was Ruin, a Diablo style 3/4-view dungeon crawler that allows you to play along with, or grief, other players online. You can also save your game to the cloud and pick up where you left off on the PS3 (through a PS3 sku of the game that’s also being released.) Hey… that’s kinda like TRANSFARRING!
- Then they showed Mod Nation Racers, which isn’t a port of any of the last games, but it doesn’t have to be, because you create all the tracks yourself via the front and back touch panels.
- Next was Little Big Planet with touch controls… which pretty much explains itself.
- The final surprise of the evening was that Street Fighter X Tekken will be coming to the Vita and will feature Cole from inFamous as a playable character.
- The briefing ended with the exciting news that the PS Vita will only cost $249 – a price set to compete directly with Nintendo’s 3DS. The 3G/WiFi model will be $299.
And that’s it for the first day of press conferences. Honestly, there was very little new, and nothing shocking… so we can only hope that Nintendo really blows us all away with their new console tomorrow.
