My Take: Sony E3 Conference

[Dave Gray]

For those of you that aren't in the know, E3 is the largest video game show in the world.  It's where most new games and secrets are unveiled.  This year, the big 3 (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) all have big things to show off.  I watched the first press conference from Sony today, and here are my impressions.

I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been a fan of the PS or PS2, but that I did my best to be completely fair in evaluating what they had.

Sony's big thing this year is the PS3.  We knew a lot about it, but there was a lot more we didn't know (controller, price), and we hadn't seen any games in action.  As always, they start the show off slow, talking about specs and financial data, then move on to their new gimmicky stuff, and then hit you with the games and secrets revealed at the end.  Here's the main stuff talked about with the PS3:

1) PS3 to PSP connectivity
They were vague as to how this would actually work with games, but they used lots of buzz words like "exciting" and "innovative".  They had a demo of Gran Turismo playing on the PS3 with the PSP acting as a rear view mirror.  It was interesting technology but didn't prove too useful from what they showed.  Gamecube and Gameboy Advance had similar connectivity last generation, and I never found it useful.

2) Some kind of Jukebox download thing
I can't remember the name of it.  Basically, you can use your PS3 to buy songs and have them play - I imagine in games and stuff.  It was basically a shopping system via PS3 for games, downloads, etc.

3) An online lobby, similar to XBOX Live
They touched on it, and it sounds like it will be free.  Last generation, Sony let individual companies run their own servers, and it resulted in sketchy stuff - mods, cracks, cheats, etc.  So, I think they're going to try to bring it in-house.

4) The games:
They showed a few playable games, and many, many others in CGI form only. 
- A new Gran Turismo was there, that looked exactly like the old one with better textures.
- Heavenly Sword - a brawler-type third person in a medieval setting with monsters.  Lots of characters on the screen at once and impressive visuals.
- Eight Days - The best looking game, in my opinion.  They showed a gunfight in a modern day desert at a gas station.  The character movements were realistic and didn't look repetative.  Diving in and out of windows looked really well done.
- Untitiled game from "Naughty Dog" - sort of a pitfall/tomb raider style game, where you are a t-shirt and jeans guy, with a big gun, shooting dudes and platforming around.  It looked very sharp.
- Resistance: Fall of Man - Set in an alternate 50s, where aliens are invading.  It looked like Call of Duty, except shooting spider-aliens.  Gritty, but the aliens looked kind of lame.  Not enough to tell too much at this point.

The other big games: a slew of Final Fantasy titles and Metal Gear Solid 4 were just CG movies, and you couldn't really tell much about the actual games from them.

Third party stuff -- they showed a bunch of videos of 3rd party games that will be available on other systems as well as PS3.  I lost my connection when they showed the EA games, which I heard looked very good.

5) The big secret - The controller
Apparently, PS3 took a page out of the new Nintendo's playbook and incorporated a motion sensor into their controller.  It can "feel" X, Y, X, pitch, roll, yaw just by moving it around, without normal sensors.  The controller itself looks exactly like the Dual Shock 2 from PS2.  I thought it looked pretty cool, though they didn't have much to say how they were going to use it.  It kind of felt like a last minute add-on.  There was a demo of a guy flying a plane without using buttons, and it looked nice.  Without playing it, though, you can't tell how responsive it is.

6) Price/Release
We knew that it was going to be costly -- more than XBOX360 or Nintendo Wii, but damn!   The PS3 with a 20Gig HD will be $499 and with a 60Gig HD, it will be $599.

Overall -- I was very unimpressed.  I don't really know what I was expecting, but most of their innovation seems gimmicky, they didn't have that much to show in playable form, and the price is even more than I expected.  I liked the controller reveal, and there were 2 games that I would be interested in finding more about, but that's about it.  Only after tommorow, when MS and Nintendo have their shows, will we be able to fairly compare.   

[cyan]

Kutaragi made a point of saying that the GTHD footage was just a demo using the GT4 engine, and the final version would be 3 times the resolution of the demo version. not to mention, i assume, the final game will use a new game engine entirely.

i'm hoping gamestop will be opening up reservations on the system in the next few days so i can put my name on one. the PS3 only ended up costing $100 more than the 360 did, that's not bad at all, especially considering the first run of blu-ray standalone players retail for $999 starting in july/august. if the PS3 launched at $999, techincally it would be a great deal, the same price as a standalone, plus it includes a hard drive and a game system. the fact that it's HALF that price is exciting.

my question is this:
if the standalone BRD players are launching in august for $999...who in their right mind would buy one when they could just wait 2 months and get one for $500 that also plays games? it seems the standalone BRD players are going to flop considerably.

[Dave Gray]

the PS3 only ended up costing $100 more than the 360 did

I count $200.

The XBOX 360 had two packages:
The standard was $299 which was console only.
The premium featured a hard drive, and ran $399.

The PS3:
Standard w/ 20 gig HD (no wi-fi cabability, no memory slots, and no means to upgrade) - $499
Upgraded w/ 60 gig and wi-fi, memory, etc. - $599

[Jeno]

Looks pretty good i hafta say lads, so do yiz think this'll be able to compete with the Xbox 360?

I'm asking honestly, not being a smart ass!

[Dave Gray]

Looks pretty good i hafta say lads, so do yiz think this'll be able to compete with the Xbox 360?

I'm asking honestly, not being a smart ass!

Honestly, I don't know.  The general word is that Sony's cost is going to drive away customers.  With a rumored XBOX price drop in November, we're looking at a $300 difference between the two systems.  That means that you can get both an XBOX360 and a Nintendo Wii for less than the price of a PS3.  And in the nerd video game circles, people were expecting much more from their dollar.

Sony is gambling a lot on this Blu-Ray DVD technology.  This might be a case like the SEGA-CD or Dreamcast, where a system is ahead of its time, and the advanced hardware is demanding too much money.

[Brian Fein]

I just read this article about the systems.  I have a feeling the Wii is going to be so revolutionary its going to fail miserably.

ARTICLE

[Dave Gray]

I just read this article about the systems. I have a feeling the Wii is going to be so revolutionary its going to fail miserably.

I don't see how it can fail.  I don't see how it can "win" either.

The Wii will be cheap.  They aren't pushing the graphics envelope like the other two.  It's so different, that many people will own either the PS3 or XBOX360 and a Wii as well.

Nintendo is huge in Japan.
Their big franchises are huge successes.
They still have the young gamer market, with Pokemon and games like that.

But, also because of their limitations, I don't see them running away with it.  It looks like Nintendo is not targeting the same people that XBOX360 and Sony are, and it looks to be a good move.

[myami54]

No way Sony pulls off online service from day one w/o major hiccups. I cant see how its going to be free either.

[jtex316]

No chance in bloody hell I will ever buy this for 500, ever.  Not only does it have ZERO games i'm interested in....it's FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS for a fucking video game console!!

Can anyone say "Neo Geo"??  F That.  Nintendo Wii for 1/2 the price and 5 times the better games is where it's at.

[myami54]

Yeah, and how can it play blu-ray w/o HDMI. The 500 dollar one doesnt have HDMI. Ithought you had to have that to play high def dvds.

[jtex316]

I don't even know what the hell that is, and to be honest, you would be a fool if you'd buy it because of some tech term associated with it (I know a lot of geeks will be like "OoOoO....Blu-Ray DVR, i've been waiting for this for 9 years!". 

F that.  How about stop with the hardware nonsense and technical specifications and actually make a good GAME ?

[myami54]

Sony is hoping to use this as a trojan horse to get blu-ray formatted dvd player into households like the ps2 did with regular dvds. They not only want you to play their games but also their movies. They want control of your living room.

[Brian Fein]

I will likely buy a seperate Blu-Ray DVD player if it ever becomes mainstream enough, so PS3 and all the fanciness is worthless to me.

Just like I'd never buy PS2 to use as a DVD player, I'd never buy PS3 for a blu-ray player...