BitSnark

It’s always fun to cast a speculative eye over rumours when they at least sound halfway possible, and so it is we come to a purported link from Sony regarding their 2009 lineup – below is the original article from 1up.com:

‘An anonymous source who claims to have attended the Sony Computer Entertainment Staff Annual Briefing has leaked a ton of info to D+Pad (via Eurogamer), claiming Sony showed new footage for God of War 3, Uncharted 2, and Killzone 2; confirmed MotorStorm and Little Big Planet for PSP; new details about the growth of the PlayStation Network; and the potential for a PlayStation 3 price cut in March.’

Lets tackle them in order.

New footage for God Of War III

Given how far ahead of the graphical curve the last gen installments were on PS2, and compounded by the fact that developers seem to be pulling tricks out of Sony’s hardware all the time, i’m sure that from an asthetic standpoint at least that God Of War III won’t disappoint. Putting aside the positive expletive laden rantings of series producer David Jaffe when he saw the footage, I think, yes the game will be a looker, but in terms of gameplay we’re looking at a far less surer bet when it comes to shaking things up for the franchise.

Uncharted 2

Apparently the footage that was shown was very similar to the first game and echoes a similar gameplay system. I personally have no problem with that, especially when you consider the fact that the House of Lara, still cannot match Naughty Dog’s first outing. And to be honest, this was obviously on the cards given the stellar retail performance of the original.

Sign me up.

Killzone 2

Nothing to really say here that hasn’t been said already. It’s gritty, has the longest, most flamboyant reload animations of any game ever and will probably still play just as sluggishly as the original. Still, from a technical standpoint they are getting closer to that visual benchmark that they set with the E3 2005 CG footage, so kudos for that I guess.

Motorstorm on PSP

Talk about taking a fish out of water. I mean, Motorstorm’s main strength and claim to fame is the way the game looks and moves and the sense of immediacy thats conveyed by all the fancy mud effects, physics and everything else that makes it such a beautiful game. I personally don’t see how they can put this game on PSP as we know it now, and to do it as we know it will mean MAJOR cuts destroying the core experience. If they do something else with it, it isn’t Motorstorm any more and they shouldn’t have bothered.

With all that negativity said, i’m still morbidly curious about it, if only to see what a train wreck it might become.

Little Big Planet PSP

And now to the other extreme, we have a title that would work on PSP very well, leveraging Sony’s network infra-structure to create a game that at least in function, would be reassuring similar to it’s older brother. The core gameplay and graphics would remain very similar too, with any visual concessions not compromising the experience given the asthetic style. This one’s been rumoured about for a fair old while now, so i’d be simultaneously surprised and saddened not to see it make a bow on Sony’s troubled handheld.