Sony took the stage after the rough announcement that Final Fantasy XIII, their highest-profile remaining exclusive was heading to the Xbox 360. But that didn’t stop them from making a killing during the rest of the show. [/quote]
– Sony’s conference, in terms of what was actually said, was well out there as the best conference of the three. It detailed what you would see in the conference at the very beginning (you know, an introduction), and talked about where the PS3 was going.
– A very accurate, thought provoking point was made in the introduction. Two years into the PS1’s life, it had Tekken III and Crash Bandicoot (just like how the PS3 has Warhawk and MGS4), but Final Fantasy VII, Gran Turismo, were a year away, and Tony Hawk was a long distance from coming out. Listening to the speech was like a Red Sox fan watching a documentary about Yankee Stadium. Despite all the hate (though, I don’t hate Sony), a lot of impressive stuff has happened with Sony.
– Anyway, let’s talk about the games now; Sony’s first game they showed off was, appropriately, Resistance 2 (as Resistance 1 was the first good PS3 game) and it looks very impressive, and showed off a ridiculously large monster (like, Godzilla-sized). Resistance 2 also has a staggering sixty (as in six-zero) player multiplayer mode, and eight player co-op mode.
– They then showed off LittleBigPlanet, and stressed its big emphasis on user-created content, and made sure to point out that it’s exclusive. They proceeded to show off a character made with “Boston flavor” (it wore a Celtics Jersey) and actually used it in their presentation, rather than the silly transitions we saw in the Microsoft conference, and the stupid ones we saw with Nintendo.
– They then discussed how they’re going to begin marketing the PS3 in Latin America. Just going to have to see how that works out.
– They announced the “Greatest Hits” line for the PS3 (still using the LittleBigPlanet), which will kick off later this year, and will include Resistance 1, Warhawk, MotorStorm, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night Round 3, Need for Speed: Carbon, Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Oblivion and Ninja Gaiden Sigma selling for $29.99 USD.
– They stopped showing off LittleBigPlanet, and went on to discuss the PS2, which has an eyebrow-raising one-hundred thirty titles coming, and showed off a montage of upcoming titles including Yakuza 2, all the EA Sports titles for 2009, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Warriors Orochi 2, Singstar Pop, Vol. 2 and Mercenaries 2 (nothing from SNK? Lame.).
– They talked about Sony’s Buzz! quiz game series, which will hit the PS3 and PSP, and some more Singstar stuff is on the way.
– More importantly, another new PS2 bundle is coming out, which contains the slim PS2, Lego Batman and the DVD for the animated movie Justice League: New Frontier for $149.
– They then busted out the PS3 again to talk about the PSN, and started talking about how it will have a browser-enabled connection system, a la xbox.com where you can talk to your PS3 buddies from your PC.
– 180 million things have been downloaded off the PSN since launch (now I’m wondering how much was sold on Xbox Live).
– They went on to announce the new Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty which looks like the Tools of Destruction title, but will be available over the PSN and will be more puzzle-intensive.
– Much like Microsoft, they emphasized the quality downloadable titles they’ll have available in the short future, aside from Quest for Booty, this includes Crash Commando, Fat Princess, Pixel Junk, Pain Amusement Park, Flower, Siren Blood Curse, and Ragdoll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic, all of which look graphically impressive for a downloadable title (mayhap it’s time Microsoft gets rid of the size restrictions for Live Arcade titles?).
– Next up was Gran Turismo 5, where they talked about Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s Gran Turismo TV and showed off all the HD racing shows that made up GTTV.
– Then, they showed off the HOME stuff, which is looking to outdo both Microsoft’s Avatars in terms of customizability and Nintendo’s Miis in terms of being able to actually do stuff with them. Oh, and your actual house that you can build? You can fill it with mini-games and paraphernalia from PS3 games (they showed off tubes filled with Resistance monsters being used as decorations and futuristic Warhawk-themed houses).
– The PSN is going to have a Microsoft-style download-movies-and-TV-shows service. Unlike the 360, though, you can download those things to your PSP and take it with you. THAT is quite impressive. You’ll be able to get the content to your PSP either through the PS3 or downloading it from the newly PC-enabled PSN. You can actually check all this stuff out right now, as it was launched during E3.
– Sony says “PSP is way better than any other crappy handheld you’ve got.”
– They also showed off several PSP bundles, including the “Sports” pack which will come with a PSP, memory stick and Madden 2009, as well as the “Family-Friendly” bundle which will include a PSP, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, a 1 GB memory stick and a voucher to get Echochrome from the PSN.
– Resistance: Retribution was announced, which looks to be GRAW-meets-Resistance, and will zoom in on what’s been happening in Europe since the world went to Hell, and is slated for Spring 2009.
– Other titles shown off for the PSP include Force Unleashed, Madden 09, Loco Roco 2, NBA 09: The Inside, Super Stardust: Portable, Lego Batman, Patapon 2, Buzz! Master Quiz and Valkyria Chronicles.
– A slick PS3 feature was announced and will allow people to directly load their game videos onto Youtube, just one part of an upcoming partnership with Google.
– Jim Lee (the comic book artist) then showed off a trailer for DC Universe Online, an MMO based on the comic book company.
– Next, they announced the new 80GB PS3 bundle, which will cost $399.99.
– Another montage showed off the remaining exclusives for the PS3, and some EA Sports games, SOCOM, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm and Killzone 2. More importantly, God of War III was announced right after.
– They showed off a new game, Infamous, which shows off a decaying world where you’ve got to pull everyone together or finish them off.
– Last, but not least, was Zipper’s MAG, which will allow 256-player full-on-warfare, in land and air, and makes a point of kicking every other game’s ass. Definitely keep an eye on this one.
And there you have it. I could detail what happened afterwards, but I’m not going to. Most of the other stuff was centered around other multiplatform titles, which you can check out in upcoming previews…or the Microsoft E3 Cliff’s Notes.