E3 2008 coverage - Sony Media Brief
And here I am again after the Sony Media Brief with all you need to know and probably a lot stuff you don’t care about, but still it’s important!
It started off with a short retrospective on how far the Sony Computer Entertainment has come with its PlayStation brand. 15 years of gaming with Sony, which established some games which have been very popular in Japan over here in the west. Although games like Final Fantasy have been touched in accordance to the past we have gotten any updates to what we are about to receive. In fact the whole show was very much shooter driven with the odd exception here and there.
Resistance 2 was the first game that has been shown as we see a gigantic monster roam the streets, while you are running up a tower trying to find a spot to attack the monster… alien… thing. In the end all it comes down to is that the alien grabs you, miles above the ground that is, and you’ll have to literally ‘feed’ it with your RPG. It then slams you through several buildings which is presented in bullet time… although fancy, not really ground breaking!
Little Big Planet has finally gotten some updates and as we are anticipating its October release, we are just as much thrilled to witness all the user generated content that will follow its lead. Jack Tretton and LBP COMPANY created a level that served as a presentation for Sonys accomplishments over the last year, now imagine a presentation you’d have in Powerpoint or Keynote presented as a level which you manipulate as you like, sounds like a fun meeting for me once the game’s out. Apart from that nothing new really has been shown for Little Big Planet. As said before though, we can’t wait for the game to be shipped.
Nintendo being the market leader, rightfully so, and Microsoft might do… well whatever they are doing, Sony is the only company having three very successful platforms at the same time, which of course are PlayStation 3, PSP and yes the PS2 is still very much alive with as announced over 130 games being released for the PS2 in 2008.
PSN is coming in now with a lot of features which it definitely needs. Real games, non of that 2nd tier stuff like Pixel Junk, but games like Ratchet & Clank Future Quest for Booty which will be available for $14.99 within the PSN store. Other games which will be within the same price line that are new but at least look like real games are for example Crash Commando which looks very much like a classic Contra game but with neat graphics, fat princess a very cutsey game that seems to be quite brutal at the same time, Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic which looks a bit like a Smash Bros clone, of course not exactly but as much as Onimusha Blade Warriors is a Smash Bros clone. Now the one game that really stood out of this range was Siren Blood Curse which looked quite stunning - what it plays like is of course a completely different story and still needs to be seen.
Gran Turismo TV has been introduced which will offer HD feeds of real Motorsport to watched on your PlayStation 3 from around the world.
Now one of the bigger announcements was how the PS3 PSN store turns into iTunes… or is it the other way around with iTunes now selling games for my iPhone? The PSN store will deliver HD movie purchases AND rentals directly to your PS3. Now if you’ve seen the Microsoft Media Brief this might sound familiar, BUT Microsoft does not have FOX, MGM, Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures & Lionsgate under their broken laggy Vista $2,000 e-mail machines, or so a Microsoft executive described Vista himself. Who again has the same film companies under it’s license oh yes it’s Apple… so yes PSN… iTunes… all the same, I wish they would migrate somehow though. Oh it doesn’t end there, remember how you can rent or purchase a movie and pull it over to your iPhone or iPod touch? Exactly you can do that with your PSP as well now. The PSP may not be as versatile in regards to how you handle it, but the screen resolution makes more than up for that! Same as with iTunes you have progressive download, so you can start watching straight after you hit the download button (give 2 - 3 minutes of downloading to start). New titles will be added each week to keep the library which is huge already fresh and up to date. Oh and… been saying that a lot in this paragraph now, it goes live TONIGHT (July 15th 2008).
Here a list of what awaits us for the PSP:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Madden 09
Loco Roco 2
NBA 09
Super Stardust Portable
Lego Batman
Patapon 2
Buzz Master Quiz
Valkyria Chronicles
The next thing that has been talked about is the cooperation with Google and how to migrate the Sony PS3 with YouTube in which users can upload their videos have it rated by the community and just live within the community which will come by the end of this month (JULY 2008). This is going to be called LIVE WITH PLAYSTATION.
Sony Online Entertainment has announced DC Universe Online, which up to this point looks very interesting but also very static and very very beta. The idea to be your own hero or villain and to cooperate with Superman or maybe even the Joker to conspire against Batman sounds amazing, but so far it only ’sounds’ amazing.
And one last thing… YES! GOD OF WAR III will be coming to the PlayStation 3!
