BitSnark

Now it’s Sony’s turn! Come on, don’t disappoint us.

Sony begins by giving out 3D glasses to the folks in attendance, leading me to believe we’ll be getting a veritable deluge of 3D presentations.

Looks like we are starting (15 minutes late, mind).

The Playstation logo appears and we shown some NGP/Move/PS3 montage stuffs all in 3D apparently. A number of different games, released and unreleased are shown.

Interestingly, Move occupies it’s own section within the montage which is surprising as I honest thought they wouldn’t focus on it too much this year.

Montage is over and now the conference is starting proper.

Mr. Jack Tretton comes on stage to kick things off.

He addresses the PSN outage directly straight away. He addresses the cost that the outage has had for publishers and apologies for it. He now thanks the consumers and apologies for the outage.

He goes on to say that the majority of what gets shown/announced, will be playable on the show floor.

He goes onto to talk about the PS3 being the most connected device available today and namedrops NetFlix, CinemaNow, Qrocity and so on. He reaffirms that they will continue to add more of these such services.

Now we are talking about franchises exclusive to Playstation.

We start with what looks to be Uncharted 3.

It appears that we’ll be getting an on-stage demo.

Good way to start the show.

We begin on a rainy boat that is rocking violently. As always, the game looks fucking outstanding. Drake moves into the interior of the boat where he comes upon some bad guys patrolling an ornate lounge. Like previous titles he uses a mixture of stealth and hand to hand combat to deal with them.

Back out onto the side of the boat, Drake sneaks up on another poor soul and snaps his neck. Further illustrating just how gorgeous this game is, there is a light which shines directly on the top of the head of the assailant and it just looks… well, almost real.

This is one good looking game.

Now we see Drake doing some old-fashioned Uncharted style platforming, with some ledge jumps and ledge pull-ups, before a massive firefight breaks out against the bad guys.

Cool moment: With the ship rocking violently still, a car inside the ship rolls free and crashes into the side of the interior blowing up.

Another cool moment comes when the water begins to fill up the interior of the ship, as it leans from one side to the other. Epic Uncharted game is Epic.

I cannot wait to get my hands on this.

Now we get an underwater sequence where Drake opens up a grill and escapes to (relative) safety through a hatch. And just as quickly as he does that, it all goes to shit as the cabin floods and we fade to black.

The crowd go mental – as well they should.

The Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta begins on June 28th.

We get another look at Uncharted 3; this time another level. This one appears to be set in London and has some funky cool British accents and goes onto show a montage of other locations that Drake will travel to. Heh, the usual sharp tongued wit is still present thankfully. Yeah, this is pretty much the game of the show for me so far.

We’re done with Uncharted 3 now.

Next up is Insomniac Games.

They are here to demonstrate Resistance 3.

The demo starts off in St Louis, where the player character will be performing an ambush on a Chimerian drop ship with the aid of some local militia. Lots of ruined streets and buildings as one would imagine and straight away the action hits hard, with a number of different and brilliantly strange firearms being used by the player to dispatch his enemies. I’m modestly impressed so far with this – there is nothing really groundbreaking or staggering to look at here – but it does appear to solid and quite playable all the same.

We fast forward a little bit as the player has stolen a power core from the ship and is now attempting to escape through the devastated ruins, all the while being pursued by a massive spider robot creature thing.

And the demo is offer. Like I said nothing OMFGWTF worthy but entertaining all the same.

Jack is back and talking about Move + 3D, saying that Resistance 3 uses Move and that they are doing a Resistance 3: Sharpshooter Edition, which basically comes with the whole Move Set and the limited edition version of the game.

Next is 3D stuff.

God of War Origins Collection is an HD/3D upgrade for the PSP games to PS3 and the Team ICO collection is also confirmed to be in 3D. Both collections are coming out in September.

Jack says he will make 3D more affordable for everyone. He is introducing a Playstation-branded 24inch 3D display and is designed for dorms, bedrooms and smaller living rooms. Seems like a good idea for sure. Interestingly, it has a new technology which allows players to see two different images when looking at the screen (making split screen easier).

Next up are the Playstation Monitor glasses which come with a HDMI cable and a copy of Resistance 3. The entire package, including the 3DTV comes to $499. Pretty good value for money I reckon.

Now we’re onto Move.

He talks about 8.8 million units sold.

We now have 2K sports on stage, to wax evangelical about the Move likely.

They are talking about NBA2K12. They have improved every feature of the game and have a new feature called ‘NBA on the move’ which allows the player to use the Move to make strategical match decisions using the controller.

The graphics on that NBA2K12 though, look pretty sweet indeed.

Now they have LA Lakers star, Kobe Bryant on stage to show how to use Move with the game. I must admit, i’m totally clear on what the ‘NBA on the move’ mode adds to it, especially given the need to use a traditional controller to get the most out of the game.

Bryant takes a stage left and we’re past NBA2K12.

What’s next…

Jack is back. He introduces a new Move title for the Autumn; Medieval Moves; Dead Man’s Quest from the coders who brought us Sports Champions. Two guys are on stage to demonstrate it.

It is a cartoony style action RPG where the player can make a number of different gestures to swipe with a sword, fire a bow and arrow or throw some shuriken at some oncoming foes. The Move is also used in some puzzles too, such as picklocking a door. It seems serviceable enough, but not killer app, not by a long shot.

Still, it’s good to see Sony coming out with new, non-party game based IP for the Move all the same.

The demo is over and the game is due out later this year.

Unspectacular perhaps, but at least it’s something new.

Jack is back on stage.

He runs through all the games that are going to be compatible with Move.

We now have an InFamous 2 trailer on screen. The trailer confirms what we already knew about the title pretty much, which is that it’s going to likely rock huge amounts.

Jack talks about gamers being able to create their own missions for the game.

Next up is talk of Little Big Planet 2, with the ability to create your own levels which take advantage of Move.

Looks like Starhawk is up next.

We get a CG trailer to set the scene.

No in-game goodies unfortunately.

Next up is a CG trailer for…Sly Raccoon by the looks of it.

Sly Racoon: Thieves In Time in fact. It’s good that their bringing it back. It’s due in 2012.

We have Eve Online developer CCP coming on stage (likely to take about DUST 514).

They are talking about Dust 514 as an PS3 exclusive title. The game can be connected directly to Eve-Online, to make for a full cross-platform experience.

A trailer airs for it. In-game too, and it looks quite nice. Lots of drop ships and ruined bases.

As the troops land they engage in a massive firefight against soldiers on foot and massive attack vehicles. Then the map pans out to show the world and then a galaxy to show the larger Eve Online functionality.

Interesting little experiment. A closed beta is due later on this year.

Jack is back on stage once more.

Oooh, Bioshock: Infinite trailer. Sky riding, robots, explosions, too much awesome quite simply. Some sort of exclusivity then I wonder? Ken Levine is on stage from Irrational Games, the developer of Bioshock: Infinite.

He goes onto say about how he was skeptical about PlayStation Move and how Sony spoke to him about widening the accessibility of his Bioshock games to the casual audiences. He talks about how Move can be used to interact with the world in a number of ways. He goes on to talk about a new Bioshock game, a brand new one, made exclusively for NGP. Holy shit muffins.

No other news. Damn!

Jack T is back.

He says that people who buy Bioshock Infinite, will get the first one free.

He then goes onto say that Saints Row 3 on PS3 will have an exclusive game mode for Move.

Next up is a co-op action adventure that is based in JJ Abrams Star Trek universe with utilises the Move and even comes with a Star Trek branded phaser-esque version of the Move controller too.

A quirky, but nice idea.

And we have footage it seems.

A third person shooter at heart, the game reminds me of a tamer Dead Space, complete with Zero G Sections. Nevertheless it looks reasonable, if not spectacular.

The game is out in 2012 to coincide with the second Star Trek movie.

Three more exclusive offers from EA for PS3 owners.

SSX will be on PS3 and will come with an exclusive Mt. Fuji level.

Need For Speed: The Run on PS3 meanwhile, comes with an extra seven supercars.

Finally, Battlefield 3 on the PS3 will come with Battlefield 1943 bundled in on the disc exclusively (even though 360 owners could get it with BF:BC2 Ultimate Ed).

Here we go for some NGP love.

Kazou Hirai is here to yap to us about it.

He talks about the value of a connected experience.

He mentions about how a connected experience is vital to mobile entertainment. He talks about Playstation Suite, allowing playstation content to be available on non-Sony manufactured platforms, such as Android OS mobile phones and devices.

He talks about having high expectations for the PSP and that the NGP will shows new ways to interact with your games and friends.

He mentions the camera, the dual thumbsticks and the rear touch pad.

He is showcasing the successor to the PSP – Playstation Vita. Ergh, that name.

He says that Vita means ‘life’ and that it blurs the lines between your play time and social life.

PSVita comes with WiFi and 3G + WiFi models as previously thought.

Pricing and carriers for other non-US territories will be announced soon.

There is a ‘Party’ feature for PSVita that functions a lot like the Xbox Live Lobby, allowing users to voice chat with other users regardless of what games they are playing.

Another feature, ‘Near’ allows players to compare trophies and other social aspects.

Time for some PSVita demo love.

We get a demo of Uncharted: Golden Abyss for PSVita. Wow, that looks incredible.

The game appears to boast many of the exact same visual assets that it’s older PS3 brother does and just looks incredible.

And the best thing, is it all runs so smoothly.

We get to see how the ‘Touch melee’ system works, which basically allows the player to use swiping touch motions on the screen in lieu of actual button presses.

Luckily, it’s entirely optional.

I can’t get over how impressive this looks.

This truly looks like PS3 visuals in the palm of your hand.

Yay! We get to see the dual analogue sticks in motion and it looks like it performs as intended; no more fudging the face buttons and d-pad anymore!

That was one awesome demo.

Next up for PSVita is a ‘Social Action RPG’. It’s a game called ‘Ruin’. Apparently it’ll have multiple classes, tons of loot, tons of quests and great combat. The game looks very Torchlike/Diablo esque indeed. Perhaps not the greatest showcase of the Vita’s grunt, but it looks intriguing nonetheless.

The idea of the game is to attack other players dungeons to defeat them. The dungeons are bigger based on whatever level you are. Ruin will also have a PS3 SKU that will work with PSVita, allowing you to seamlessly transfer your progress from one to the other.

Seems quite interesting actually, but it needs more hands-on time perhaps to really ascertain it’s quality.

ModNation Racers for PSVita is now up and is apparently been built from the ground up for the new portable. They are creating tracks using the new control methods; specifically the touch screen controls to manipulate the tools needed to create them.

Nothing terribly crazy good at the minute, but it remains an effective (if somewhat understated) use of the various control systems that PSVita offers.

Like previous ModNation games, you can change pretty much everything from the hills and troughs, bends and chicanes all the way through to the trackside environment and the sun in the sky.

ModNation Racers on PSVita can download use any and all tracks created on the PS3 version of Modnation Racers. Cool.

A big deal is being made of the cross-functionality between PS3 and PSVita. WipEout 2048 is confirmed as a launch title for PSVita. PSvita also quite cleverly has access to Cloud based save storage.

Little Big Planet on PSVita is now being shown.

Again a similar level of creativity to what was seen in LBP2 on PS3, but just with the added interaction possibilities of the various PSVita controller inputs. A strong launch title then.

Capcom are here to talk about Street Fighter X Tekken on PSVita!

FUCK!

Yoshori Ono from Capcom Japan is here to talk about the game. He confirms that Street Fighter X Tekken will arrive on PSVita. That is one helluva fighting game to have on your portable. Apparently, Cole from Infamous will be in Street Fighter X Tekken on PSVita.

Now we get to see what the Infamous bad boy can do running on the PSVita in real-time. Fuck, that looks sharp! Lots of lightning attacks, ranged attacks and flying dives. Interestingly, the touch screen functionality allows casual fans to interact with the game easier by one-press motions to trigger special moves. That looked pretty awesome.

Ono-san also confirmed that the PS3 version was present at the show.

Nice little demonstration there.

We get a montage video of PSVita content next, showing a mixture of it’s social functionality and forthcoming titles such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, WipEout 2048, Little Deviants and what appears to be a Tenchu title of some sort.

Kazzy is back on stage now.

He has announced that PSVita is available in the Holiday season this year for $249 for the WiFi only model and $299 for the Wifi + 3G enabled SKU of the console.

And off he goes and on comes Jack T.

He closes out the keynote and no trace of the rumoured God of War title announcement.

A very solid and strong conference with the right amount of focus where it needed to be.