Comments on: E3: Thoughts on Sony’s Briefing

By: Aaron Miller

Aaron Miller — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:36:41 +0000

Though I was more impressed by Natal, Sony excited me more with their motion controller demonstration of fantasy combat. If they make that into an adventure game, many people will buy a PS3 – whatever the cost – just for that. And I’m not talking about just regular gamers. People who haven’t played games in years will buy a PS3 for gameplay like that. It was an excellent demo.

MAG was surprisingly droll. I was expecting to see an epic battle, but the massive number of players was split up so much in the demo that it didn’t look very different from Frontlines. I’m not dissing the game, but the demo was perhaps a poor choice.

Heavy Rain doesn’t impress me. The graphics are great, but the quick-time gameplay does nothing to engage the player. It has the player focusing on an abstract whack-a-mole mini-game instead of on the characters and story. But many gamers might not realize or care what a missed opportunity that is.

Yes, I have the same complaint about the God of War series, but GoW3 and Uncharted 2 looked great.

By: Gustavo

Gustavo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:57:09 +0000

I Think Sony’s press conference is the longest because they show content for PS2, PS3 and PSP.
We are complaining about the lack of SCEE representation, yet the press conference went on for 2 hours.

They couldn’t show everything in there.

And i agree with someone here that the PS3 already have a facebook, twiter, orkut, myspace, youtube, amazon.com etc. It came with a internet browser, allowing everyone who owns a PS3 to have access to this services. So well, what could we expect? I just think they missed the opportunity to explain that.

By: Johnno

Johnno — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:44:21 +0000

Sony’s conference was very enjoyable. Could have been paced better and Yama’s talking about GT Mobile instead of showing it went on too long… It is a good idea that they ought to loop some games in montages before the actual start while everyone’s still getting to their seats and stuff. Anyway I don’t mind the montages, it’s probably the best way to show their huge lineup of games quickly without wasting too much time on them. I can’t think of a better way. The non existence of anything PSN related was disappointing. I was looking forward to them possibly expanding their video service to other places, maybe even vidzone for countries outside of Europe and with the whole positioning of the PSP GO against the iPod/iPhone, they should seriously have a music store added to PSN. I was also looking forward to more major updates for HOME, new spaces and trophy implementation and other things… Also I didn’t like how the GOW3 demo was abruptly interrupted and the show ended, felt like kind of an awkward finish.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:13:23 +0000

Jack Tretton is a fantastic speaker. I’m not a huge fan of Sony products, but I have to give him credit when it’s due. He really does capture your attention.

I was also sorry we didn’t get to see more of Heavy Rain. But, I suppose it’s hard to really show that game in the brief amount of time they’re allotted.

By: asyouburn

asyouburn — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:22:09 +0000

geoff says sony didnt have real games to show with the motion controller, but i thought they showed more gameplay with the RTS demo and sword and shield demo than microsoft with the “soccer balls” and Milo. the only reason i thought it was a better controller than Natal was Sony showed how it can be used right now in games instead of “this is how games WILL be in the future”

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:59:14 +0000

I think Sony is saving their SCEE games for GamesCon, but most of the EU (well they are all in the UK) studios are just working on PSP games, or DLC apart from SCE London who are working on EyePet, but that is a gamescon title

The big question is why was there not more Gran Turismo, apparently a Sony PR man was saying that they are aiming for a 2009 release… well why did they not say that at the Press Conference. My guess is that they are waiting for TGS for a few things

I am quite surprised that so many people were expecting a price cut. It is not a great idea to make one in the Summer, and I think we will see a price cut in August, followed by the introduction of a slim at TGS with GT 5 release announced

By: Segitz

Segitz — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:03:05 +0000

Well… why implement Twitter or Facebook if you have a REAL internet browser? The PS3 essentially already had all those features since “day one” (although the browser didn’t really work in the beginning^^).

And I guess, the SCEE games will be shown at GC Germany. My guess is also, that they’ll announced GT5 there (might be TGS, but GC seems more probable to me).

By: Oibaffus

Oibaffus — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:46:45 +0000

Hi Geoff,

you forgot the GamesCom in Cologne, where Sony will probably show what the European Studios are working on (EyePet inclusive)

By: The_Icon

The_Icon — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:08:01 +0000

I agree, they should have detailed a major PS3 firmware update, even if its way off.

By: LevelHead

LevelHead — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:58:08 +0000

I’m wondering where the rumors of 3D gaming is going to emerge. That was a big omission along with actual gameplay for Gran Turismo 5.

It was a good show but pretty predictable.