Next up on the list at E3 is Sony. Right out of the gate Sony does a great job at really dropping a bomb on the world with the announcement the makers of Heavy Rain are developing a new title. Not much is known about this title other than the trailer released at E3, but with Quantic Dream making this project it will sure to be nothing other than a smash hit. With Beyond: Two Souls you will play as Jodie Holmes and go through points in her life spanning 15yrs. But there is something very special about Jodie; she is surrounded by an invisible and powerful unknown presence that she talks to. In the video we see her sitting at a local police station not saying a word to a jabbering officer trying to help. The officer later becomes frightened when the coffee mug he placed on the table is lifted off and thrown against the wall, and chooses to leave Jodie. Left alone she starts to interact with this supernatural being stating that she knew that SWAT was coming for her. Right after SWAT members start to storm the building and position themselves to try to capture Jodie. The door to where she is opens than the video than cuts to an amazing montage of what else is in store for the game. The video alone was enough to give me goose bumps.
Continuing with the momentum created by Beyond Sony took this time to introduce a game that everyone knew was going to be at E3: Playstation All-Star Battle Royal. This game is a Super Smash Bros type game that allows you to either play on the PS3 or on the Vita against people in an all-out arcade style battle. The Vita was announced that it would have cross play capabilities to challenge anyone on the PS3 as well as the Vita. The objective of this game is to beat up the other players in an attempt to fill up a gauge which will allow you to use a super attack, and if correctly landed will kill other players, and whoever has the most kills by the end of the match will win. The Super attack has 3 levels of strength each level giving that character a better super attack that can get more kills. You can choose to unleash it or save it and go for the next level. The characters chosen for this battle was Kratos, Fat Princess, Sweet Tooth, and Sly Cooper. Now this might be the Super Smash Bros fan in me but I am not a fan of what I saw. I like the idea and the concept but I don’t really care for the objective. Battling just to try to earn some super move just to put myself on the board doesn’t sound enjoyable. I hope there are other modes than just that one otherwise it probably won’t come close to dethroning Super Smash. Two new characters were also announced at E3 one of which is the great Nathan Drake and the very non-Playstation exclusive Big Daddy which confused me a bit. This game is looking to drop on PS3 and Vita this Holiday.
Next Sony talks stats, nothing really but small talk. PS Plus members like myself saw a great value this month where I got about $100-$120 worth of titles and arcade games free a total of 12 games are released. If there is one month to start becoming a PS Plus member and reap the value this would be the perfect month to start. Also everyone who went to the conference got 1yr of PS Plus for free. However what those innocent people didn’t know is that this comes at a cost that I will get to later on. We are also reminded that the PS has many options for music and movie entertainment
Thought you couldn’t get enough Assassin’s Creed? Well you’re in for a treat as Assassin’s Creed: Liberation will be coming to the PS Vita on October 30th. Owning both Liberation as well as AC3 will unlock bonuses for your game like Conner’s Tomahawk, an extra skin, a multiplayer character, and a complete upgrade of ammo pouches. There will also be a Vita Holiday bundle that will include a new Crystal White colored Vita along with Assassin’s Creed: Liberation and a 4GB memory card. No price was announced for this system yet. So this also means that there will not be a Vita price drop at this year’s E3. I still suspect that if the system continues to sell as it is now that we will see a price drop before the next E3.
Assassin’s Creed 3 gets a new element shown that has never been in an AC game yet in the form of naval control. In this new gameplay footage you are sailing against the British using tactics to out maneuver your opponents and fire cannon balls to take down the ships. Ubisoft really seems to be thinking outside the box to provide players with new experiences that have never been there before. This battle looks difficult, intense, and very impressive as well. Once all the ships have been destroyed the last remaining ship gets ambushed by you and your crew and the trailer ends.
So I’m pumped at this point and so is the crowd. Sony up to this point has an awesome E3 conference. So what does Sony do at this point? They **** all over it. Next up was Dan Hay to talk about Farcry 3. He attempted to drop a bomb on the crowd but I think the target missed. He explained that when they were making Farcry 3 that they weren’t making 1 game but they were making 2 games. I than sat and looked puzzled as Dan and others hopped on a PS3 and started to play co-op on Farcry 3. What unfolded next can only be described as a disaster of 4 uncoordinated gamers yelling at one another. This was boring, this was annoying, and this still doesn’t explain what Dan meant when he said there were 2 games made. Playing Farcry 3 co-op doesn’t make it a separate game. These people couldn’t have done a worse job at making this game look so unappealing.
So remember earlier when I said getting a free year of PS Plus was going to come at a price? Well that price was about to be paid for with the lackluster Move presentation. Let’s face facts the PS Move is a piece of junk and Sony should just admit defeat and move on. But instead Sony decided to dedicate 15mins of the worst live performance demo at E3. The big new thing for PS Move is Wonderbook. Wonderbook will be released as a series of books that uses the PS Move and the Playstation Eye to read the books and bring them to life on the screen. The first Wonderbook comes from the mind of J. K. Rowling. The book will act like your spell book and the Move controller like your wand. This demo could have been shown off in a matter of minutes on the screen using something that was filmed prior to E3, but instead they got 4 live actors to come onto the stage and demo the game. That would have been a great idea but instead most of the demo the game was not responding correctly. This demo was dead time, boring, and nobody gave a ****. Most of the stuff I read online about Sony’s conference was not all the cool stuff that was demoed but, “WTF was that Wonderbook crap all about?” But don’t take my word for it watch the video and see for yourself.
Sony also wants to get into the smartphone and tablet market, but in a much different way. The Playstation experience will be brought in the form of games that will be played on the smartphone and tablets. Playstation Suite was now renamed Playstation Mobile and HTC will be the first partner in this step.
Asleep yet? Well wake the **** up because next us is some exciting new gameplay from God of War Ascension. If you like the world’s most angry and vengeful Spartan that you are in for a real treat with this new installment. The gameplay shown will come as no surprise to fans of the series but there is one new and interesting thing that caught by eye. Kratos now seems to have the ability to manipulate time adding a whole new dimension to the fighting mechanics. Once a wooden platform was destroyed now becomes a platform once again with Kratos’ new power. During some of the combat you also see him levitate enemies just like a Jedi might do and keeps them as placeholders while focusing on the one moving enemy. We also see Kratos picking up enemy weapons and using them for a brief time before going back to the standard chain blades of destruction. This video ends with Kratos taking on what appears to be a kraken, which also brought back memories of Jack Sparrow as well.
Sony saved the biggest and best gun for last with gameplay from The Last of Us. The new hit game from Naughty Dog that sets a post-apocalyptic with a main male character and a teenage girl surviving together. This gameplay footage has the two sneaking through a building trying to get to the bridge in the far off distance. They eventually come to a building that is filled with people and must rely on stealth as a 1st option. Let me start out by saying that this game looks gorgeous and I expect nothing but the visual qualities that Uncharted 3 had. When **** hits the fan and the fighting begins is where the game really shines. This game gives off a great vibe of survival, you have very few bullets and each encounter needs to be thought out and calculated or you may find yourself in trouble. Everything about this game feels real; you are not controlling a walking gun factory and get into huge shootouts with regenerating health. You run out of ammo and the guy recognizes this and comes after you, and in dire straits and your companion may throw an object at your enemy to give you an opening. When using one of the guys as a hostage he wasn’t just a dead weight, the guy you are holding onto will resist and do everything he can to throw off your aim and try to get away. This game blew me away and I can’t wait for this game to hit shelves.
So that concludes The Gamer’s Abstract coverage of Sony’s E3 press conference. Overall it had a great start and a great end, but really dragged on in the middle. Better time could have been spent allocating to other things in the middle, and where was The Last Guardian, Kingdom Hearts 3, or Final Fantasy Versus XIII? We are reaching the end of the life for PS3 and it doesn’t seem like any of these titles will grace the PS3.
Want to watch the whole Sony conference? Than watch the video below.
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