E3 2009 Thread

21:08 And we’re done! Having filled the quota and then some, that presentation was overly lengthy, stuffed with pointless trailers and had a lot of shine, but at least we got some good titles in the mix. Probably still the best one yet; it’s fighting tooth and nail with Microsoft, though. Thanks for joining me/reading this later on. Toodles…

21:03 Very impressive. The graphics seem a little lacking after the previous two titles, but the scale and combat are pretty epic/brutal. Those bastards at E3 get 20 mins of extra gameplay, though. Sad face.

2059 GOD OF WAR 3, PEOPLE. Several minutes of demo footage coming up…

20:56 Gran Turismo 5 trailer. They haven’t let up on the trailers, but I think I can bear this one. Just looks scarily realistic; NASCAR can fuck off, though.

20:54 Yet another trailer here, for The Last Guardian, from the Japanese guys that bought us one of the best and most beautiful games ever in Shadow of the Colossus. I’m told this trailer has been shown already, or at least part of it, but this is nonetheless stunning. May buy a PS3 just for that.

20:48 Demo showing now of a Mario Kart clone by the LittleBigPlanet team - ModNation Racers. Fully customisable characters and tracks, scenery (mountains, lakes, trees, houses) and tiny details included, and it looks great. This has been going on for ages though. Due in 2010, of course.

20:39 Well, maybe I was a little hasty. This is basically NATAL from yesterday, but with these two wand controllers. It kind of bridges the gap that some people were worried about, and with all the graphics and power of the PS3. Perfect tracking and accuracy and a huge depth of interaction (an archery demo involved the person getting an arrow from their quiver and firing it like real life, all displayed in his hands on the screen). That said, you wouldn’t get all the grabbing, swiping interaction. It will be interesting to see if these two technologies fight it out, almost like the blu-ray/hd-dvd war (hopefully a bit closer, though.) This is coming out spring 2010.

20:35 This is the big announcement. The very nervous inventor of the Eyetoy demonstrates some kind of wand with a changing light on the end, which is picked up by the PS Eye. I don’t care if it’s true 1-to-1 tracking, for fuck’s sake. I do like the idea of wielding virtual weapons and implements, though. The guy just picked up a fan and spread it in front of his face on screen, then changed to a dart gun and shot at the screen; following demonstrating a variety of things in his hands on screen (lightsaber, baseball bat etc) they show him walking round a virtual world shooting objects with these wands. You can reach into the virtual world with these things and interact differently to MS and Ninty’s offerings. Drawing and writing with extreme accuracy, fighting each other in a virtual arena with a sword and shield in either hand…like I say, with perfect precision this is different to both the other big companies. More info coming…

20:25 Final Fantasy 14 is a PS3 exclusive, is scheduled for 2010 release, is online, and is being previewed now. That’s a world première, folks. Cannot describe how good this looks, even better than FF13; and naturally, lots of big beasties.

20:22 Guess what? Another trailer! This one is for Final Fantasy 13, which whilst cool and incredibly gorgeous, is not what I wanted to see. Oh, shit voice-acting btw. If jap + subs is an option, take them.

20:17 Main character is Eziel, an ancestor of our old friend. Started off looking a lot like Prince of Persia, and we’re now shown inventions made for the character by Leonardo Da Vinci that let him fly around the city. What the fuck. Still, the same impressive graphics and scale, and more assassination techniques, but your character doesn’t start out as an assassin. Also a new AI type that alerts guards to his presence in the shadows, and smoke bombs. I’m kind of guessing they weren’t in number one.

20:14 Finally over. Now it’s Rockstar’s turn, and this is a big one - a new game called Agent. A PS3 exclusive from the GTA studio, set in the 70’s. More info when I get it. For now, it’s Assassin’s Creed 2.

20:12 I must say, this has been a lot of style but no substance so far. I’m still waiting on at least one big announcement, if not two.

20:09 ..and again. I can’t bear this. It’s another lengthy trailer summary, this time for all the PS3 games that we already know about .

20:06 Lots of big developers announced for downloadable content, and some more stats on Home and specific title-dlc. Bear with me while I struggle through another ridiculous trailer, for Home this time.

20:04 It’s been a while since they dished out some stats, so they’ve taken a break to tell us about the 24 million downloads and other successes of the Playstation Network. They’re also adding 50 new PS1 titles for download, including the classic Final Fantasy 7.

20:00 Sorry, that was a huge gap for a huge trailer. We’re now on one for all the upcoming but already-announced PSP titles, like LBP, Motorstorm, Jak and Daxter, Star Wars, Hannah Montana (win!), some fighting and sports games etc. It’s a bonafide trailer-fest tonight. Also, there’s a proper Resi title coming for the PSP, but nothing much given away as yet.

19:59 70’s Costa Rica without an army is taken by an unknown group, and thank God, Snake and co are there to help out. That is, multiple Snakes. I assume it’s co-op campaign, but there were six of him, a massive plane/spaceship thing, and the classic box trick. Graphics typically average, but still. Sweet joy.

19:51 Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear fame, having shown off a 360 title yesterday, brings MGS: Peace Walker along as a †˜true sequel’ for the PSP. Trailer coming up.

19:49 Trailer is very sexy, it looks beyond PS2 graphics. By the way, it will have 800 new cars and 5 new tracks. Seriously.

19:45 Full, 60 fps Gran Turismo being shown on the PSP Go! right now. Hundreds of bits of various new content, obviously cars and tracks, along with new modes. Trading and sharing cars, and naturally wireless battling, are included especially.

19:43 Lots of new movie and video content apparently, with a load of new partners for it. Next up - the founder of Gran Turismo. Might be a bit delayed as I can’t speak Japanese (yet), and the translation takes twice the time to get across obviously.

19:42 Lots of talk about extra connectivity, extra downloadable content and new music playlist support among other features. Innovation and connectivity are the talk of the town this year…PSP Go! will be available at $249 in November.

19:37 Confirmation of the PSP Go! 50% smaller and 40% lighter, for the †˜digital consumer’ apparently. 16gb internal storage, PS Network media downloads with the wifi, bluetooth, M2 port for extra memory. I still don’t see how it will compete with the annoying layout and lack of UMD, though. Prove me wrong, Sony.

19:34 A Hannah Montana PSP bundle gets a whole lot of audience whooping, taken in it’s stride with a joke by Mr CEO. Smooth.

19:32 Strategy map, multiple platoons completing objectives like taking out AA, and then someone ordering in air strikes etc and assaulting a base. The title list trying to persuade me to buy a PS3 is growing.

19:29 I’m remembering this game now, looked like a brilliant team-based objective fps, with all the strategy elements of a good rts. Reminds me a bit of ET: Quake Wars, but it’s basically a standard war campaign turned massive-multiplayer. Nice graphics too, of course.

19:26 Live demo of MAG coming up, announced a year today (well, give or take). They’re milking the crowd and the games for all they’re worth, by the way. Annoying but effective.

19:22 Finished off the †˜big-up Sony’ session with a piece about Infamous. Now showing a trailer for Uncharted 2; I heard good things about the first and better ones for this second, and it certainly lives up to the hype on the graphics, action and ridiculous-scale side. The physics and environment interaction also look typically impressive. A bit ridiculous all-round, though.

19:18 Lots of boasting about the PS2 sales and 100 new titles on the way. An overrated but perfectly marketed console if ever there was one.

19:13 Big guns with the CEO straight out, a good audience, a flashy intro, a joke that got laughs and a cool voice-over guy. This is set to be the best presentation, even if I don’t like Sony.

19:10 Here we go. Queue flashy intro…looking forward to some big announcements to crank E3 up a notch.

19:06 The streams finally start, but nothing from Sony yet. Rumours of a reasonable delay drifting around, no more than half an hour I reckon. I’ll keep you up-to-date though.