BW’s E3 Week: Sony’s Press Conference

Sony had one major problem to overcome going into E3 this year, and it didn’t come from their competitors. Last month a hack attack led to their PlayStation Network being shut down, making online games like DC Universe Online and multiplayer FPSs a bit difficult to play. They’ve also made the mistake of trying to fight Nintendo’s dominance in the handheld market, and the result was similar to when the WCW challenged WWE, only Nintendo didn’t buy Sony. While the PlayStation 3 has been credited for the success of Blu-Ray over HD-DVDs in the video format wars they haven’t done much else.

If you saw Sunday’s strip, you have an idea as to how I came out of this conference thinking. Now we have a chance to go into further detail as we look at the Sony Press Conference.

One problem I really had with this conference watching it on TV was the need of the camera to focus on players and sometimes even their hands on the controllers rather than on the game. At least Microsoft chose an angle where you could still see the game. If you saw me live-Twittering about this you pretty much saw me yell at these guys whenever they did it. Had it been a drinking game, your liver would be very sorry. Also, in the opening they were too pleased with the little circular monitors on the side. Kind of killed any chance at watching on 3D at home if you had a 3D TV. (Or pulfrich 3D glasses on a normal TV, like I do. If the colors are bright enough I swear it works.)

• Interesting shout-out to G4, the official broadcaster of E3.
• I don’t have a PS3 so I’m not on the Network. Anyone who is, was this considered a proper apology?
• I like how they got the non-video game stuff out of the way to focus the rest of the conference on the games and peripherals. That’s a step up from Microsoft’s yesterday.
• I have to tip my hat to Uncharted. The first game had a fair response, but the sequel has gotten much praise and 3 looks like a good game. Of course, I’m more interested in the story.
• Speaking of story, there are parts of Resistance 3 is interesting, what with an alternate history where aliens take over the earth in the past, but it’s all too dark and bloody for me.

• Hey, Move does have its own gun peripheral.
• God of War in 3D. Two things I don’t care about in one package.
• I don’t care about sports but is the Move actually serving NBA 2K12 by not being first-person perspective? That’s not putting you into the action.
• This is what I was talking about when it comes to showing off the player rather than the game when you’re trying to show off the 3D. One word, Sony: inset.
• Every conference had at least one game that made me interested in getting the system. For PS3 it is Infamous 2 and maybe Uncharted 3.
• Starhawk doesn’t impress me personally, but it has the makings of an interesting sci-fi western, if done right.
• Sly Cooper definitely has a strong fanbase, so this may be one of the best moves (no pun intended) they could make.
• Combining Dust with Eve Online will either be a good idea or a waste of time. And that’s not based on whether or not the game is any good.
• Bioshock: Infinite comes from a franchise I didn’t care about before but now it’s the game I’m really anticipating. It will be on PC and I will be getting it. Eventually.

• Abrams’ Star Trek meets Dead Space. Pass.
• Maybe Jack and Barry Allen can get together and talk about ties. Yeah, I felt the need to take a swipe at DC Comics in a E3 rant.
• Last year one of the big deals was that Steam was finally working with Sony and PlayStation. This year is that PlayStation is imitating them.
• For all its upgrades (some of which, like dual sticks, should have been in the last one anyway), new PS handheld, the Vita, is the still behind 3Ds. Also, it sounds like a sandwich dressing or type of bread. As for AT&T I don’t have a problem with it, but I hear it doesn’t work as well in other areas. That may not end well. The only advantage it has are graphics, and we all know how well that’s worked in the past.

• Sorry, Ruin, it’s not a good sign when you demo a game and spend your time talking about social interactivity.
• Modnation Racers and Little Big Planet are probably the only games that seemed to be something that is more interesting on Vita than on another system. This included the Vita Uncharted game.
• Also, to be cynical, considering their recent hacker incident are gamers ready to trust them with “cloud” storage? I don’t trust anyone with it.
• So is Street Fighter X Tekken going to do the same thing Soul Calibur does and give every system an exclusive character?

So that’s the PlayStation and Vita. Some cool stuff, if you have the right TV and WiFi service. Tomorrow we go after the final console maker and see what Nintendo is giving us.

Related articles

• BW’s E3 Week: Microsoft’s press conference (bwmedia.wordpress.com)