Sony E3 Press Conference Impressions.

Well, after this certain announcement I said I didn't need a PS3 anymore but maybe...just maybe....I was wrong. When you present what's sure to be a pretty boring financial rundown using Little Big Planet you know you're on to a winner.

Well...maybe.

To be honest I was a bit bored during most of the press conference, this this may be because they chose to concentrate a lot on other media content for the PS3. They also talked about the PS2 - which was a little surprising but Sony thinks it still has life left in it - and the PSP.

Resistance 2

A gameplay demo was shown with some big ass monster smashing up the building the player was running around in. It looks...well...average. I didn't play the first Resistance so I can't comment on it all that much but it didn't really wow me. The 8 player online co-op and 60 player online multiplayer matches, however, does sound amazingly cool.

Anyone played the original Resistance multiplayer? Let me know if it's any good.

Little Big Planet

As I said earlier Little Big Planet was used to create an interactive graph for the presentation. That very fact just shows how customisable LBP is and if anything would get me to buy a PS3 it would be this.

I can't wait to see some of the creations people make with this game. It's all about user-generated content these days.

Playstation Network (PSN)

PSN now has over 180 million downloads under its belt so there's no question over whether or not people are taking advantage of it. Sony talked a lot about content for PSN and it seems to be a pretty big deal in making the PS3 more of a general media device rather than just a games console.

Like Microsoft they've got deals with some of the big movie studios (such as MGM, Fox and - obviously - Sony Pictures) and the resulting movies should be available right now (in the US anyway). TV shows will be $1.99 per episode while movie rentals will be $2.99-5.99 and $9.99-14.99 for purchases. You don't have to wait for the entire TV show or movie to download as progressive downloading will allow you to watch while you download. Any TV or movie downloads can also be copied over to your PSP so you can watch your content on the move. Sounds good huh? Well I wish Europe would have as much content.

More content comes from Gran Turismo TV which lets you watch content from motoring shows around the world online. Since this includes the excellent Top Gear it's a pretty amazing line-up of content.

Life with Playstation will also be hitting soon, which will deliver real-time news straight to your PS3. I assume this is a little like the Wii News channel.

Finally Ratchett and Clank: Quest for Booty will be released as a downloadble game on PSN. It's going to offer around 3-4 hours of gameplay but apparently have all the humor and action of a normal Ratchett and Clank game.

Some more PSN games:

Crash Commando Fat Princess Flower Pain: Amusement Park Siren: Blood Curse Ragdoll and Kung-fu: Fists of Plastic Pixeljunk Eden

Sony thinks it's going to be the 'ultimate social experience'!

Playstation Home


There wasn't much of Home shown but it will be available to try at E3 so they'll be more information coming out soon. One thing it did show, however, is the unique game spaces in Home that have environments modeled after the settings of each respective game. You can also jump straight into the game from these environments.

Three of the spaces shown were Warhawk, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and Resistance 2.

PSP.

Resistance Retribution (a short of filler between Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2), which is a third-person game, will be coming out for the PSP in Spring 2009. I'd like to say that i looks pretty decent for a PSP games but it's pointless because I know that PSP games can look damn good and this one is no exception. It's by the same guys who did the Syphon Filter games so I high hopes for it.

Other games include Patapon 2, Loco Roco 2, Lego Batman, Super Stardust: Portable, Valkyria Chronicles and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed amongst others.

More More More!

Apparently it's the year of the PS3!

DC Universe (an MMO)
Infamous (looks amazing. An anti-hero/superhero game in which you use electricity in a free roaming city)
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
Quantam of Solace (Bond)
Ghostbusters Soulcalibur IV
God of War 3
The Agency (a spy MMO)
Killzone 2
Buzz Quiz TV
Singstar
Guitar Hero: World Tour
NBA 09: The Inside
Resident Evil 5
Mirror's Edge
Naruto: Ultimate Ninga Storm
Socom: Confrontation

Woah, there's a lot of games in this post.

Finally MAG (Massive Action Game...what an original name!) was unveiled. This game is a bit like Planetside as it allows massive battles of up to 256 players. To avoid massive confusion in these battles the game is squad-based allowing squads of 8 players each. This is combined with character growth (maybe a bit like Battlefield and Call of Duty 4) all taking place in one world.

That's it for the press conferences. I'll be posting more news from E3 in it's remaining two days.