And now we come to the final press conference of the Big Three. Sony had some shockers (Final Fantasy 14?!) and snoozers (do we really need to learn more about Home?). Check out what our editors had to think about the event below.
Shoe:
Best Bits: With Final Fantasy 13 still several months away, Sony summons a Final Fantasy 14 trailer to wow the crowd. Ah…big whoop. Where’s Final Fantasy 15?
Also wow: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Assassin’s Creed 2. The former’s a bit more colorful and the latter has more “living, breathing city” to it, but both are gorgeous games with an unbelievable amount of visible detail at far draw distances.
Worst Bits: Both times Sony brought up Hannah Montana (and her pink PSP bundle), the crowd cheered and applauded. Loudly. We really couldn’t tell if it was ironic or not.
Best Quotes: “We consider ourselves industry leaders, and press leaks are no exception. We won’t be outdone there.” – SCEA President and CEO Jack Tretton having fun with the PSP Go leaks hitting last week, ahead of Sony’s press conference reveal.
“First, we call it the ‘Worst Kept Secret of E3.'” – SCEA President of Networked Products and Services Group Kaz Hirai on PSP Go’s name.
Most Ironic Moment? Or Was It…? The mention of the Hannah Montana bundle (with pink PSP) drew one of the biggest rounds of cheers and applause from the crowd.
Biggest Shocker (besides FF14): Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, one of Kojima Production’s highly speculated secret games, is a portable one. This ought to very much not calm down those angry anti-360 fanboys.
Not as Shocking But Still Impressive: Sony’s future motion controller, combined with the camera, gives precise tracking in 3D space. The tech demos impress, but obviously, we need to see these in real games. How about God of War 4 with the two sticks controlling Kratos’ chain-blades?
Demian:
Best Bit: Uncharted 2, God of War 3, and Assassin’s Creed 2 live demos. Nothing’s better than seeing a game played right in front of you, and these three showed very well, with plenty of impressive moments that wow’d the crowd.
Worst Bit: Talking up PS3 market penetration in Latin America. Maybe that’d be more interesting at the Latin American E3, but probably not even then. Gamers want to see games.
Crime Against History: Assassin’s Creed 2 turns Leonardo da Vinci into the Renaissance version of James Bond’s Q.
ZOMG: Hannah Montana bundle with a lilac old-style PSP! Donahoe is there on day one.
Not Dead Yet!: Polyphony Digital’s Kazunori Yamauchi showed a video of his ADD car collector simulator, Gran Turismo — the long-dormant PSP version. Although it was really more a video of PSP Go!s flying through space, with glimpses of cars occasionally flitting across their screens. Better get crackin’, this thing’s supposed to be out for October 1; is five-plus years of development time enough? GT PSP will have four-player ad hoc racing, car trading, and 400 models, all of them variations on the Civic.
Learn to Aim Award: Helicopter gunner in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, who can’t seem to hit shit, much less Nathan Drake.
Biggest Tease: The announcement of Agent, by Rockstar North. You’re an agent, and the game’s set in the ’70s. That is not sufficient information for my needs
Greg:
Best Bit: What can I say? I’m can be such a sucker for the big productions. Uncharted 2 and God of War 3 both blew me away and were exactly what I wanted to see: demos of these anticipated games in action.
Worst Bit: Any time spent on Home. I find it hard to get excited about this service or the fact that it has 6.5 million users, 85% return rate, blah blah…or that you can dress up as Chun-Li and dance around a pool table. This segment mustered only polite applause from the indifferent audience. Sony, feel free to cut this bit next time, eh.
Game I Need to Learn More About: Gravity Crash: a game featuring vector graphics (think Asteroids with a 1080p paint job) and twin-stick shooting mechanics that takes place in space and under the sea — when gravity pulls you that way. It was briefly flashed in the PSN montage video…as were some other goodies that Sony criminally didn’t spend any time explaining.
Best Tauntaun-style Execution: God of War 3’s Kratos slicing open the belly of a centaur, with its entrails then pouring out.
Best Motion-Control One-upmanship: Wii Sports Resort’s archery minigame looked fun — hold the Wii Remote vertically, then pull back the Nunchuk and release. Too bad Sony outdid it with its motion controller’s bow-and-arrow tech demo, which looked more responsive and had an added oomph as the arrows pierced through enemies’ helmets and armor with ease.
Michael:
Best Bit: The PS3 may not have as many exclusives to tout as the 360, but God of War 3 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves are definitely two I cannot wait to play.
Worst Bit: The fake, infomercial-like banter between the two developers showing off ModNation Racers. “Can you put a tree in the game?” Yes. “Can you put in a hill in the game?” Yes. “Can you tell this cheesy dialogue is obviously rehearsed?” Oh, yes.
Self-deprecating Humor Award: Jack Tretton. The president and CEO of Sony started the press conference joking about his company’s problem with leaks. I have a solution: Depends.
Random Cheering Award: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Developer Naughty Dog’s eye-pleasing sequel looked so good that it elicited tons of random hoots and hollers. Normally such obnoxious displays of jackassery are done ironically (see below), but I think Uncharted 2 is actually impressive enough to justify the seemingly random excitement.
Gonna-need-more-friends Award: MAG. The 256-player first-person shooter from the guys who made SOCOM makes me feel like a total loser. Hell, I have a hard enough time getting someone to play Resident Evil 5 with me. Hopefully there’s one-man Rambo mode.
Ironic Cheer Award: Hanna Montana PSP bundle. Either the folks watching the press conference are hardcore Hanna Montana fans or I was hearing the loud cheers of irony. Actually, what I am saying? Hanna Montana is soooooo cool!
The Exclusive for Now Award: Final Fantasy 14. We still have to wait a year for Final Fantasy 13, and Square Enix is already announcing another Final Fantasy. We can’t wait to play exclusively on the PS3 (or at least until it gets announced for the 360 a year before it’s released) in two to three years. Actually, make that five to six years.