Los Angeles, it appears, has a fair bit of traffic – and most of it seems to always congregate between where I am and where I want to be. Case in point: the Sony E3 conference, which managed to magic up a whole town’s worth of cars and stick them right in front of the slowest, most docile shuttle bus ever to hit tarmac. With barely thirty minutes to go before Tretton’s latest briefing, it was starting to look a little tight and although not attending wouldn’t have been anything like disastrous, I was here, and I wanted to get the most of out it.
As it transpires, looking back, I didn’t really have much to fear – the bus crawled in on time, I managed to turn down enough free Subways to feed more than five thousand and – a quick Corona later – found myself wedged between a few locals in the cheap seats, 3D glasses equipped but with a MiFi 3G connection that, at best, found the strength to ping an LED every now and again. Alienated and unable to see anyone I’d said I’d meet, I sat patiently trying to coax some life into my mobile internet.
By the time Tretton had finished apologising, I was already wanting to see some games. The difference in pacing between Xbox’s all-out relentless barrage of titles against Sony’s plodding, apparently unpracticed effort was astonishing – Sony started slow and never really picked up, any decent new title (I was holding out for Ruin) lost amongst really quite dull ‘exclusives’ and a Vita reveal that was as surprising as jet lag. Even the Uncharted demo failed to really excite, only some clever water effects and plenty of drama providing interest.
I’m not alone, either – there was the odd whoop and cheer but occasionally it all felt a little bit forced. I’ve never really understood the need or desire to clap upon sight of a developer logo (for instance) but several times during the presser certain triggers appeared to ignite half the crowd in an almost Pavlovian display of recognition. The Irrational section was one, the short trailer making way for an uncomfortable looking Ken Levine left to ramble on about shoe-horning in Move support for far too long. Bioshock Infinite’s Move sections might be fab, but they didn’t come across that way to me.
And it’s here that Sony felt a little bit sad – trying to convince an audience that Infinite is best on PS3 because customers will get the original Bioshock might be an interesting bulletpoint but the game’s available for a fiver in most places now anyway, and the thought that any buyers of Infinite won’t have already played and beaten the first is, frankly, bizarre. Same with Saints Row 3 (a weapon) and the smattering of EA offers (an SSX track, new cars for Need For Speed and – yes – a copy of 1943 with each PlayStation 3 version of Battlefield 3).
Insomniac’s demo of Resistance 3 was impressive enough, and the wicked looking 3D TV (with the two player mode) caused a stir, but the whole section dedicated to Move seemed a little off key. Medieval Moves looks far too on-rails (and if it’s not, it was a poor demonstration), the LittleBigPlanet Move patch was glossed over far too quickly and both Starhawk and the new Sly weren’t given nearly enough attention. Likewise, Dust 514 appeared to confuse people, and the mention of NGP support wasn’t backed up with any substance.
Still, at least the latter third hit home. Vita wasn’t a surprise, but it was nice to see it confirmed finally, and although the AT&T deal caused some boos from the attendees the eventual reveal of the price created quite the opposite reaction – $249 is a fantastic price, pitching it directly against the 3DS and pushing it well below the price many were expecting. The Uncharted: Golden Abyss demo didn’t really connect, though, but Ruin showed potential and ModNation Racers, safe as it is, could be exactly what the new system needs.
Naturally, LittleBigPlanet Vita was the star of the show, just as the brand has been in the past, a solid, reliable game that’s surely going to play to the system’s strengths in terms of control. Sony’s press conference might not have caused many fireworks (and at times was actually a little dull) but it was solid enough overall and you can’t complain about more Sackboy, especially given the attractive trailer and promise of PS3 user content crossover. For Sony, the framework’s laid out nicely for the next twelve months – we’d have liked to have seen a little more spark but the fire’s still burning.
Soild_Nat
I think Nintendo will steal this years show with the reveal of a new console bound to make fan boys drool and fantasise about playing Mario via a touch screen device.
As a Sony gamer I am pleased that the Vita is priced well and wont get a back lash from the gaming press about been over priced. I am also pleased to see the Sony flagship titles getting an outing on the Vita, I am sure Sony have more to reveal as the year goes on, like a Killzone title for Vita and Gran Turismo. We still have a couple of big shows to go and I got the impression that Sony are playing the long game, why give away your whole hand at the fist conference (like MS did imo).
Sony have built up a good bank of quality 1st and 3rd party games and franchises that are evolving and growing as the systems are.
Which ever we look at it, its good news for gamers!
cc_star
Disappointed it didn’t live up to the past 2 years of Sony keynotes.
Following the PSN outage apology, Tretton seemed really downbeat throughout the whole thing & it kind of took me with him. They should definitely bring Kevin Butler back next time around or get Ubisoft’s Mr Caffeine, or something.
Odd to see no Twisted Metal and Starhawk was just glossed over too quickly
PlayStation Move was an absolute shambles, did they really put the awful looking Medieval Moves up against Nintendo’s Project Cafe announcement and Kinect Star Wars, Disneyland, Sesame Street, Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports Season 2 and big EA backing in the form of EA Sports going big on Kinect in Madden & FIFA. It almost seems that Move is relegated to being an optional control method for shooters with little in the way of quality local multiplayer motion gaming, and even on the FPS front Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon looked to have amazing FPS support, it’s almost like Sony have given up with it.
Ruin was the big reveal, but that seemed kind of disappointing after the God Of War 4 rumours
On the plus side the PlayStation branded TV & glasses were great and of course games like Uncharted3 & Res3 were top notch, how could they not be.
And on to PlayStation Vita, it was great, the games were great and the new control methods made a real tangible difference to MNR & LBP and the price is just right, just awesome.
On the whole solid, but not spectacular.
BrendanCalls
Pretty much spot on, sire.
Well played, as I tweeted last night, Move is currently a dust collector and it looks like its going to be staying that way for the foreseeable future.
That Medieval Moves thing look incredibly boring for hardcore gamers, and considering those are the guys who are in the audience and watching the streams from home, it would seem non-sensical to me to include it at all.
God of War Origins collection is exciting for me too, never played them becuase of my lack of enthusiasm for the PSP
quinkill
I was expecting more from Playstation for PS3, though i was very impressed with PSV
dpb135
Meh to ps3 stuff but I’m excited about the Vita for sure :) hope the games are priced nicely
gazzagb
Good read, I didn’t bother watching Sony’s I kinda new it would suck and focus to much on Vita. Nice to know that it has a decent price though.
Winkle
Well the optional firmware 3.65 is live and does bugger all other than change a folder name. Was hoping for something major!
Sympozium, cyclone tornado AGAIN!
???
minerwilly
Just as Roynaldo and myself pointed out on I think Sunday these conferences are nothing but a jolly for journos and devs . There’s nothing announced that we didn’t already expect . Oooh halo 4 , U3 , Gears 3 a new fifa omg ! I love being an old cynic especially when I’m right .
The only thing that vaguely interested me was the Vita price and I didnt need a million dollar conference to tell me that . Just a little tweet will suffice from now on. Thank you kindly.
TSBonyman
Something that interested me and hasn’t been written about was using Move to play the NBA game, unfortunately the guy they brought on stage to demo it didn’t seem to even be trying to play it. I would like to read more about it , i tend not to play sports games as i can never get to grips with the controls and this looked like an interesting new way to play, for people like me anyway! :)
Sympozium, cyclone tornado AGAIN!
Wasn’t the best but there was some neat reveals. Although I think it focused to much on sequels, I’d love to see more stuff on Starhawk but it didn’t happen :/
Vita…. is going to be great but with that new tv its really going to be annoying so hopefully thats 2012 >.<
jimmy-google
I think I might be right in saying that its already possible that someone could have scored a full house on the TSA Bingo. I count at least 9 plus a few others which just need confirming that certain games are playable at e3.
BrendanCalls
Just give me the prize now, no need to for a count