Now that the dust is beginning to settle from “The Big Three’s” E3 press conferences, we are left with many exciting announcements from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. This year, Sony amazed us with an incredible slew of software showings, as well as their not so secret PSP Go reveal, and motion controls.

The conference began, as per Sony custom, with an incredible and heart pumping intro, featuring a montage of exclusive and multiplatform titles that will be hitting the PS3 in the future.

REBIRTH

The show kicked off with the rebirth of the PSP – revealing, as Kaz Hirai put it, the “worst secret of E3”. The PSP Go will be launching October 1st, with a hefty price tag of $249.99 (or 249.99 Euro) and will be sold alongside the PSP 3000. The new hardware may be very nice, but the high price put me off as soon as I heard it. There is very little incentive to skip the PSP 3000 and spend the extra money on the Go other than the Bluetooth Capability and 16gb internal hard drive.

The PSP news did not end there, though, as a stream of high quality titles were announced one after another to the delight of the crowd. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, directed by Mr. Kojima, will give of a glimpse of “The missing link of the MGS franchise”. Sony also showed Resident Evil Portable and Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines but without a doubt, the most amazing was Gran Turismo PSP. Boasting an incredible 800 cars and 35 tracks, the game looks spectacular. Seriously, the gameplay footage is utterly amazing and it runs at a smooth 60fps throughout. Expect this beauty to hit stores alongside the PSP Go on October 1^st.

SOFTWARE

Sony showed a wide array of games coming to the PS3, starting with astounding gameplay footage of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Beta’s up, and it rocks!) and the graphics are simply phenomenal. Next Sony showed a full 256 player session of MAG, which had no framerate hiccups or lag despite the amount of player shooting each other simultaneously.

In accordance with LittleBigPlanet’s Play, Create, Share mantra, Sony unveiled ModNation Racers, a Mario Kart style racer that features full customization: this includes the player’s avatar, car, and even tracks! The demo showed an incredibly solid editing tool that two of the developers used to quickly and seamlessly craft a new racing track, and then proceeded to race each other in what looks to be a very promising and fun racer.

Sony also showed us footage of Team Ico’s new project: The Last Guardian. It turned out to be the leaked footage we had seen a few weeks earlier, but a tad longer and more refined. In keeping with innovative gameplay mechanics, The Last Guardian seems to place a lot of emphasis in the child protagonist’s relationship with the huge creature. He seems to be able to scale it, ride it, and use its size to climb otherwise inaccessible areas of the world. The game appears to have the same foggy, mysterious aura that surrounds Ico and SoTC.

To close the conference, Mr. Tretton ushered unto the stage the creator of God of War 3 to demo a short segment taking place in what is probably Olympus. They were quick to display Krato’s new moves, such as picking up enemies and bull-rushing towards other baddies, hanging unto harpies (nasty harpy boobs, btw) while continually stabbing their crotches, as well as the new moves with the lion fists. The game looks incredible, and gorier than ever, however, the rumors of a 2009 release were shot to the ground when Jack Tretton announced it would hit store shelves in March 2010.

MEGATONS

Two announcements stood out from the rest for being completely unexpected. First off, Rockstar North, makers of the GTA series, are working on a PS3 exclusive new IP called Agent. Not much info was revealed except that it would take place in the late seventies and would have the player “travelling around the world”. Now here’s my idea: how awesome would a Cold War espionage game be? It’s a time in history that has seldom been visited in video games given its “cold” nature; plus a suave, dark, extremely professional CIA agent would make a great protagonist if you ask me.

The other megaton announcement was that FFXIV Online (Yes, as in 14) is not only in development, but it’s being released in 2010 as a PlayStation 3 and PC exclusive. A video showed a back to dragons/medieval Final Fantasy, but with its fair share of explosive technology. Many gamers were put off by the online part of the game, especially because of the not yet confirmed but probable monthly fees. We will have to wait to see if we are going to have to pay monthly subscription or if ads and micro transactions will be enough.

Square-Enix announced since then that they will be considering every system possible for a FFXIV launch, hmmm…

MOTION

Finally, in order to keep up with the shift in the video game industry, Sony announced its own motion controllers, which would use the PS EYE and two rod-like controllers. The presentation started off a little slow, especially since the speaker appeared very nervous. It only got worse when the other guy in charge of the controllers kept swinging and missing the balls that were thrown at him. However, as soon as they showed the part with the shield and sword, the presentation gained momentum. What was amazing about the new peripherals is that the motion is incredibly accurate, almost 1:1, regardless of how violent or sudden the movements might be. We saw the demoer slash an orc dummy with incredible precision, his swipes in the screen mimicking his actions in real life exactly. The bow and arrow was also pretty amazing, and despite one short hiccup, he was very accurate in headshotting (or crotchshotting) the incoming orcs. Despite not being as revolutionary and brand new as Microsoft’s Project Natal, it was a very polished and almost perfected version of motion controls that would be a welcome addition in many games.

All in all, it was a very solid outing. Sony once again showed that it is a leading player in quality and innovation, and that it is ready for the future. The games looked spectacular (seriously, check out that Uncharted 2 trailer), the new PSP, albeit expensive, was given new life and the motion controls seem promising. Despite a few absences from the presentation (Insomniac Games, Quantic Dream, the long awaited price drop) I was not disappointed.