E3 09: Sony Conference

Sony must have something to surprise with this yeay, no? I mean there must be something huge to show off after the leaked PSP Go, which I bet was going to be a big deal for them. Let's see where Sony takes us this year!

The show opened up with a montage of footage for Playstation 2, PS3, PSP and PSN titles; trying to make a point that Sony has the most platforms on the market now, I guess. Funny thing, afterwards Jack Tretton made remarks regarding the press leaks, and thank everyone for still showing up.

Playstation 2
- Getting 100 new titles this year

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Multiplayer beta starts tonight
- Gameplay is intense

MAG
- Live footage of 256 online game shown
- Available this Fall

PSP Go
- Yes, the same one that was leaked.
- Will run alongside PSP-3000 and UMD media
- Has no UMD slot, 50% smaller, 40% lighter than original PSP
- 16GB of internal Flash memory
- Memory Stick micro-media port (M2)
- Media Go, new version of Media Manager
- Sense Me, music recognition (think Genius in iTunes)
- All PSP content will be UMD/Downloadable released
- $249 on October 1st, 2009
- PS Video Store available on PSP as well now

Gran Turismo PSP
- Shown running on PSP Go
- 800 cars, 35 tracks
- Many features for competitive play and content sharing
- Releases October 1st, 2009 along side PSP Go launch

Oh, snap, Hideo Kojima is back!

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- For PSP
- 10 years after Metal Gear Solid 3
- Kojima is producing and writing the game's story
- Takes place in Costa Rica
- Trailer shows 4 Snakes(?!)
- Coming 2010

Resident Evil Portable is mentioned, then a PSP Montage Trailer.

Playstation Network
- Over 50 PSone games coming this year
- Final Fantasy VII available today

PS3 Montage Trailer shown.

Agent
- From Rockstar North
- PS3 exclusive
- Takes place in late 1970s

Assassin's Creed II
- Takes place right after the first game
- In a new time period, the Italian Renaissance
- Use items made by Da Vinci
- Connects to Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines on PSP to unlock new weapons
- Available this Holiday

Final Fantasy XIII
- Coming Spring 2010
- New trailer shown, CG and actual gameplay

Final Fantasy XIV
- Yes, already, and it's PS3 exclusive
- An online title, successor to Final Fantasy XI

PS3 Motion controller
- Still in prototype phase, uses PSEye to work
- Creates virtual objects onto real footage
- Many different tech demos shown including shooting, drawing, building, etc.
- Second tech demo showing sword/shield gameplay, star throwing, and archery

LittleBigPlanet
- Disney content coming later this year
- Included Pirates of the Caribian, Cinderalla,

ModNation Racers
- Follows LBP's "Play. Create. Share" motto
- Create custom characters, karts, and tracks; share them online
- Pretty awesome track editor, with really neat terrain tools
- Coming 2010

The Last Guardian (formerly Project TRICO)
- Brand new trailer, based on the leaked one
- Still insanely beautiful, designs are more refined from the leak

Gran Turismo 5
- Trailer shown
- includes World Rally, NASCAR, as well as commercial cars

God of War III
- Final part of the trilogy, i.e. don't expect GoWIV
- Game demoed live, brutally awesome
- Coming March 2010

The show ended there.

Honestly, wow. I mean, the show was so-so at the start, and $250 for the PSP Go is a real kicker. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has me pretty pumped, though I was surprised that despite Kojima being there, there was no mention of Metal Gear Solid: Rising on PS3. Was really surprised to hear about Final Fantasy XIV already, but when it turned out to be a new online title I lost interest.

As for the Sony's attemp at motion, it seems like a cross between Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus and Microsoft's "Natal"; but like Natal it's still in an early phase and doesn't seem to be intended for release anytime soon. ModNation Racers looks surprisingly cool, and lastly, The Last Guardian had already won me over with the leaked trailer, this finalized version just makes it so much sweeter.

I think Microsoft won the show for me in terms of technology, but I think Sony really won in terms of game content... as for Nintendo, hey, they did better than last year at least.