Last night the staff gathered again on Skype, this time to discuss Sony’s press conference. Firstly, you might notice a few names missing. Whilst both Alex and Michael were heavily involved in the commentary of Microsoft’s conference they actually decided to go and do something important (like posting stories) during the conference, whilst the rest of us messed about on Skype. As we discovered they were missing there was a flash of light, a choir of angels and we welcomed the newest member of TSA’s staff – Blair Inglis. We were still short so we found the cupboard that David Howard, former TSAer and current editor over at MediaKick, is currently living in and invited him to join us.
Of course the show kicked off with Jack Tretton, to general cries of ‘We love you Jack’ and ‘I wish Jack was my dad’ from the staff, and then we were thrown into a demo of Killzone 3. Here’s our thoughts on the pre-alpha code we were shown.
Thomas: Killzone 3
Colin: Looks beautiful already
David: SO PRETTY!
Kris: This is kinda insane for pre-alpha
Lorcan: SEE! THIS is the kind of pre-alpha code you can release *Stares at Bodycount*
Chris: I think the pre-alpha labelling is just to add to the hype
Colin: Guns sound fantastic
Kris: Jetpacks are better than the ones in Reach
Thomas: wow, love that setting, nice water, much more colour than KZ2
Peter: there’s no way that jetpack would fit through those doors.
Greg Aldridge: Obligatory on-rails vehicle bit…
Thomas: This looks visually much more interesting than the gears 3 demo
The game got an incredibly positive response from all of us, and it was a great way to kick off the conference with a bang. Given that we already knew Killzone 3 was coming it made sense to get it out of the way immediately, providing a great base to build upon. We then had Jack waxing lyrical about 3D, and one of Sony’s many montages. To keep this relatively short we’ll move on past 3D, past the Move intro and onto the Sorcery demo.
David: 3rd person action advernture game
Lorcan: So cheesy
Colin: I am getting that haircut
David: ooo you have a wand. Is this what the harry potter game should have been?
Rob: That arm was not moving with the character
Kris: Is it a little bit laggy? Just a tiny bit?
David: a tad yeah
Rob: ball changes colour!
Naval: Core gamer… sure.
Lee: WALL OF FLAAAAME!
Blair: Have to admit, it’s pretty sweet.
Lorcan: I feel bad for judging this so early
Kris: Combining spells is cool
David: Spring 2011. I’d buy that for sure
Peter: So far everything “Move” has been “Spring 2011”
So two games down, and we’re fairly impressed so far. There did seem to be a little lag in the demo, but it can be hard to judge in the circumstances. More of Move next with Tiger Woods.
David: Tiger woods will sell a PS3 to dads worldwide!
Chris: oh god, don’t play it… we get it you move your arm like a golf club… next please!
David: HIT THE DAMN BALL!
Peter: oh, golf really is a pointless game isn’t it? Apart from the drinks afterwards, obviously
There’s a lot more we said about Tiger Woods, but it basically boiled down to variations of the four lines above for the next 500 words, so we’ll leave it there. So with us all disappointed what was the next thing to really get us going? Only the man himself, KEVIN BUTLER.
Peter: BUTLER!
David: TOLD YOU!
Lee: You knew that was coming
Rob: “I love gaming!”
Lee: This is cheesy … I like cheese though
David: Sony have KB and Tretton…MS and Ninty combined cant bet that
Lorcan: There is NOTHING better than this right now!
Lee: He’s losing it. Oh yeah .. .he’s gone
There’s an awful lot more that was said about Butler, but almost all of it contains swearing due to the levels of coolness he emitted. This was possibly the best received bit of any conference that we watched, and Sony got it almost spot on. As Lee noted he did seem to lose it a little at the end, but overall it was a fantastic segment. With Kevin Butler finished there was just the release details left for Move and that section of the show was done with. This seems like a good place to take a break, roughly halfway through our commentary. We’ll have have part two for you this afternoon.
Carl
Butler was the highpoint of E3 so far ;)
Danza Di Fuoco
10/10
Dr_mohannad
it was super funny, he’s talented
gurglesletch
He is very talented.
bunimomike
Sounds great but part II definitely required.
Regarding the golfing game. It’s obviously for fans of the game as oppose to the gaming masses (and potentially most hardcore gamers) but the ability for Move to accurately reflect the torsion of the club as you swing is superb! The slightest rotation to close or open the face. I know it’s boring as hell to non-golf fans but I promise you, golf fans will be thinking “oh good god. That sounds superb!”. Move’s accuracy was always going to suit this down to the ground. Hell, even I might want to play/buy it. The best thing is that I can invite a hooker over for the evening then beat her silly with the Move controller and it’ll get every shot just right.
Raen
Don’t worry, part 2 is coming. Just don’t want to give you too much to digest at once.
bunimomike
Mate. I’d be happy for you to record the Skype chat and play it back! I can take the colourful language and obscure references. Podcast!!! :-P
Raen
It’s all just text, if we’d done this as voice it’d be a horrible mess of noise. And swearing. So much swearing.
Bilbo_bobbins
thanks Raen, I read that, liking it a bit shorter :) BUTLEEEER!
Apnomis
It would be great if you did one of those live blog things instead, even if it was hosted on a separate site to maintain the integrrity of TheSixthAxis. I’d have happily had it running side by side with the live stream…
Raen
@Bilbo Part 2 is a bit longer, but it’s still pretty good.
Charmed_Fanatic
Sorcery looks great!
bunimomike
I have to agree. Completely caught me off-guard and Move looked perfect for it. I think Move is going to do very well with 3rd person adventure games. Hack n Slash, Magic and Mystery, etc.
I know it’s on the Xbox but the likes of Alan Wake would work well, I think.
retro_
MOVE + Demon’s Souls 2 ?
Kreisash
I was disappointed that Sorcery didn’t employ more of the Move functions into the game (who needs menus to select a spell if you can use your free hand/nunchuck to gesture what spell you want next?) Granted that it is still in early development and has a lot of potential.
In saying that they could easily shift it by the country load if they snagged a Harry Potter license for it (not necessairly HP himself, but the setting).
bunimomike
I’m sure the makers of Harry Potter games are paying very, very close attention to Move.
kivi95
Think i will get move for christmas but i dont no i realy want to try it when it comes out in september.
Pete_UK
The conference went from great to brilliant imo – Butler appearing on-stage went better than I hoped it would (he’s an advertising creation after all), and from there it went from strength to strength. Being brutal, it could perhaps have done without the Tiger Woods nonsense, and if they’d swapped the Portal 2 / Twisted Metal announcements around it would have ended a little better (when Gabe walked onto the stage I blurted out ‘KILL IT WITH FIRE!’ at my monitor), but that’s just me being picky.
The fact a number of titles were missing is a bit sad, but there’s plenty of conferences left in the year yet, and Sony will always want to hold something back for TGS. The fact they still managed to provide roughly 1 1/2 hours of awesome without these titles demonstrates just how strong Sony is at the moment imo. I’m hoping the 3D support in the PS3 is compatible with 3D PC monitors, as you can pick those up for around £300.
Nintys conference was great, a bit less fat around the meat (and some tasty cuts they were too – DONKEY KONG!), but Sony wins on a personal level for me for pushing more buttons than I could have hoped for.
PEW! PEW! PEW!
mynameisblair
Exciting =)
Anth1888
Amazon UK have the Move Controller price at £38.88 rather than £44.99