E3 2011: Sony Press Conference Review

Can Sony turn things around this year? Find out what went down!

I’ll be honest. I wanted Sony to do well this year. While Microsoft didn’t have the best conference, it still provided a few nice surprises, but in a way, we already knew they were coming. And surprisingly, the conference wasn’t 5 hours long. That was just some quality internet journalism rumors. Anyway, let’s get into the big news and demos.

Uncharted 3 Demo

Before the demo, Jack Tretton was nice enough to come on-stage and apologize for the PSN outage, which was great of him. However, Uncharted 3 was a show stopper. Naughty Dog really knows how to put a demo together, and by GOD does this game look sexy. Showing off new water gameplay, the demo took place on a giant ship sailing through the middle of the ocean. Our star Nathan Drake sneaks down into the belly of the beast and gets into a bit of trouble; blowing a hole in the side of the ship, causing it to fill up with water and flipping it on it’s side. All in real-time. Of course. They were also pressing 3D a lot, showing a separate 3D trailer after the Demo. Anyway, enough talk. Just watch the sexy-ass demo.

Resistance 3 Demo

Big day for insomniac. Announcing their new IP was pretty big news, but that doesn’t mean they are forgetting about Resistance. I will admit, the onstage demo they showed wasn’t amazing, and the dude playing it was a little awkward (he made some really bad jokes) but that game really does look stunning. The demo wasn’t the only thing shown either. There was also an announcement that there would be a new bundle announced, which includes Resistance 3, a Move controller and navigation controller as well and a Sharpshooter attachment for 150 USD, which seems like a pretty decent deal to get into Move. I personally still want to play a shooter on Move to see what everyone is on about, but for now I’ll stick with the standard controller. Check out the demo!

Remastered Announcements

Continuing in Sony fashion, two new HD remakes were announced. Surprisingly, the remakes are the critically acclaimed God of War games for the PSP, God of War:  Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta will both be coming to PS3 in HD and 3D this September. Both the games will be on one Blu-ray disc and both with PSN trophies. The game will be called God of War: Origin Collections, check out the trailer!

And that’s not the only remake announced. Sony finally announced a release date for the highly anticipated HD and 3D remakes of the wonderful ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. The games will come out September this year on PS3, running at a solid 30fps in 3D with full trophy support. If you’ve never played these games, I HIGHLY recommend you check them out!

3D Deal

If you haven’t noticed already, Sony is pushing 3D a lot and in my personal opinion, that’s a good thing. Sure, it sucks for the people who can’t see 3D, but it’s good for me. Because I can see 3D. In any case, Sony announced a brand new bundle with which they hope to boost 3D gaming. A 26’ 3D monitor, Resistance 3, a 6 foot HDMI 1.4 cable and a pair of rechargeable 3D glasses all of the damn low price of $499. At that price, I’m jumping on-board the 3D train. What is interesting about this TV is not only is it a monitor only (meaning, you can’t hook it up to watch TV which is why it’s so cheap) it also supports something called ‘Split Screen 3D’ or ‘3D Screen-Sharing’ which I’m incredibly excited about.

Playstation Move

Surprisingly, Sony pushed the Playstation Move a lot. They announced that new NBA 2K12 will support Playstation Move and even had Kobe Bryant come out on-stage and demo the game. They also announced that inFamous 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2 will have great Move functionality later in the year. Sony also showed a demo for an upcoming Move game Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest, which, to be honest, doesn’t look all that awesome. It does however use the Move in interesting new ways, so it will be interesting to see how they incorporate this into the core games. Check below for the inFamous 2 and Medieval Moves trailer and demo.

Speaking of the core Move games, two surprise announcements were made. The shooter teased long ago named DUST 514 was announced to be a PS3 exclusive and support PSMove. DUST 514 is interesting because it’s part of the Eve Online universe and it affects the MMO as you pay it. The game will also have NGP integration, which we’ll hear about at a later date. The second shock announcement was that Bioshock: Infinite will support the Move. Ken Levine appeared on stage to talk about the game and how he’s becoming a believer of the Move. Check out the trailers for both games below!

Star Trek, Sly 4 and Starhawk

Sucker Punch had been teasing Sly 4 for a damn long time. They hinted at it back in the first inFamous, again at the end of the Sly Cooper Collection and again in inFamous 2 this year. Finally, officially announced with a trailer at the conference and we’ll see the first gameplay sometime during E3’s second day. Another new announcement was Star Trek, a new game by Paramount studios based on, well, Star Trek? It take heavily from the J. J Abrams reboot (which was awesome) so expect some badass set pieces. The game is out 2012 and will also support Move. Finally, a new Starhawk trailer was shown. If you’re not familiar, Starhawk is the spiritual successor to Warhawk, one of the PS3’s premier PSN titles. Made by Light Box studios the game is out 2012 and features epic space battles, hover jet skis and the main dude has a keffiyeh. Check the trailers out down below!

 

 

NGP Becomes Vita

And the moment you’ve al been waiting for. Kazuo Hirai made his way on-stage to finally announce that the NGP is now the Playstation Vita. The handheld boasts two thumbsticks, two touch pads (one on the back, and the screen is also touch sensitive), an OLED 5’ screen, two camera (front and back) as well as wi-fi and 3G models. What is unfortunate is that in the US of A, Sony have partnered with AT&T for the 3G service and there will be more details on that in the future. But what games have they got?

Sony showed demos of Uncharted: Golden Abyss (which looks incredible for a handheld game), Ruin (a new Diablo style dungeon crawler), a new Modnation Racers (which will also be able to download and play every single exists Modnation Racers map created on the PS3) and it was also announced that Street Fighter x Tekken will be making its way to the Vita with an exclusive character, Cole McGrath from inFamous. All of the games looked amazing on the OLED screen and rather super smoothly. Check out all the gameplay and trailers below.

But really, you’re here for the price. Which by the way, is amazing. Sony announced that the Playstation Vita would retail for 249 USD and go on sale THIS holiday season. The Wi-Fi only version will run for 249 USD while the 3G version will go for 299 USD. The boasted that they had nearly every third-party developer on board including such names as EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, THQ and Activision. Sony also stressed their big focus on their crossplay function and being able to play games on Vita, then using the Playstation Cloud service, continue playing the game on PS3.

But What Does it All Mean?

Like I said at the beginning of this, I wanted Sony to do well and I really think they hit the Vita play out of the park. With the 3DS having a terrible launch (and at 250 USD) people were worried with how expensive the Vita would be. I mean, two touch screens? Two thumbsticks? OLED? That’s crazy! It’s painfully obvious that Sony WILL be losing money on every Vita sold, but I think if they support it enough and pump out enough big franchises people want to see, I think the Vita will easily beat out the 3DS. While the launch games could be better, they are easily better than the titles Nintendo put out for the 3DS release.

I was also incredibly surprised that Sony continued to push Move. While Microsoft pushed Kinect with the casual market, there were very few hardcore titles that made full use of the Kinect. Sony on the other hand seems to be pushing Move towards the hardcore market with full support for games like Resistance 3, DUST 514 and also Bioshock: Infinite. While not everyone will use the Move controls for the game, it’s still another way to play the game.

My only complaint was that Sony didn’t announce enough PS3 software. I understand that the show was mostly about the Vita, but that doesn’t mean they should completely ignore the PS3. Sure, DUST and Sly 4 were the big ones, but it was nothing that made me lose my footing and yell ‘DAYUM!’ at my TV. That and I’m still waiting for Jak 4. I’m glad that Sony focused most of their time of the Vita and showed of a great range of game footage, tech and explained a lot about the system, answering peoples questions and such. A very strong line up.

Did Sony Beat Microsoft?

In my opinion, I think they did. Halo 4 was inevitable. So was the Halo CE remake. Kinect was always going to happen. MW is stale. We knew the Vita was going to happen, but the way Sony handled it all was very professional. With the Nintendo Conference just rounding up, will Sony be able to steal this years E3?

Check out Jrow’s review of the Microsoft Conference and stay tuned for Overcooled’s review of Nintendo’s Conference!

About

I'm Hato, born and raised in glorious New Zealand and a self-proclaimed awesome person. I started writing here in July and I'm loving it so far! I'm Metanorn's go-to Moe Man (lol) and the games guru, so don't be shy to say hello!
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10 Responses to “E3 2011: Sony Press Conference Review”

  1. bakuhasu says:

    Sony wins all that is all… Completely killed everybody with the Vita priced at $250 and that godly 24 inch display priced at $500.

  2. Junko says:

    I don’t know anything about games but the Vita looks fun as hell.

    No, I’m not buying you one

  3. Overcooled says:

    Sony WINS. I’ll be picking up Uncharted, those HD remakes and most likely a Vita. I love Insomniac’s work so I’ll probably pick up their game too. It was so much more exciting than the Microsoft conference.

    I’m gonna be broke soon D:

  4. Alynn says:

    Just loving all the beautiful graphics.
    Uncharted 3 looks amazing!
    Ughh I want to get Vita. Too bad I’m poor.

  5. Jrow says:

    Sony’s exclusive lineup is just way too much for Microsoft. The quantity and quality are just so plentiful as you scroll up and down this post.

    The 3D TV is certainly nice, but I think that maybe… just maybe… Uncharted 3 will make me buy a new 3D TV this fall, and I want a 40-something incher.
    Seeing the Vita now makes me glad I declined on the iPad 2 back in March. I love the lineup so far (Uncharted, Super Stardust Delta, etc.), and that’s a great price to compete with the 3DS. I just wonder if game prices will increase from PSP to Vita.

    …and that Move demo of NBA 2K12 was awful. The action on screen wasn’t matching the marketing pitch at all. I don’t think a basketball sim is right for Move.

  6. Kyokai says:

    So getting that Vita.

  7. Tofu says:

    I expected the Vita to be way more expensive O__O To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect yet I was rooting for Sony all the way. Heard of most, haven’t played any which really tells me that I’m very old fashioned and that I need to get updated on present things! xD

    What happened to Racket and Clank? I was looking forward to that…

  8. Yvoon says:

    ignoring the fact that i didn’t understand half of all the jargon just the graphics and demos itself were enough to make me wanna hole myself in my room and play those games. XD

  9. MikADo says:

    Sony really pushes Move hard :3 but right now im just too excited at Sly back in business XD

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