Live from the Sony Press Conference – (UPDATE# 24)
Our man Chris G is in the heart of the Sony Press Conference, and we’ll be updating this blog post with his up to the minute accounts of just what’s going down over there. The conference started quite a bit later than it was supposed to (10 minutes late), but rest assured it won’t be long till you get the answers you crave.
This post will stay on top to give you quick access to news as it breaks. For other E3 news, please scroll further down.
Click “Full Article” for breaking news!
Our man Chris G is in the heart of the Sony Press Conference, and we’ll be updating this blog post with his up to the minute accounts of just what’s going down over there. The conference started quite a bit later than it was supposed to (10 minutes late), but rest assured it won’t be long till you get the answers you crave.
This post will stay on top to give you quick access to news as it breaks. For other E3 news, please scroll further down.
UPDATE 1: Five PSP titles have just reached Greatest Hits status, they are Ape Escape, ATV offroad, Hot Shots, Twisted Metal, WipeOut Pure. (I’ll take me some cheapo Wipeout thanks!)
UPDATE 2: Confirmation that the GPS and Camera accessories for the PSP are indeed on the way and will be here soon. Does anyone care? The camera could be pretty neat though.
UPDATE 3: ALL PS3’s to ship with a Hard Drive… YAY! Two different configurations. One with a 20GB HDD retailing for $500, and the second configuration with a 60GB HDD for $600. Start saving guys.
UPDATE 4: Next Gran Turismo shown in High Definition
UPDATE 5: PS3 will be playable on show floor, with some of the games running on final realtime dev kits.
UPDATE 6: Gran Turismo is targeting 1080p, it uses the HDD to lower loading times to just a few seconds… 2-3 seconds actually. BOOYAA!
UPDATE 7: Turns out the Gran Turismo demo is really just GT:4 running at 12 times the resolution, it looks amazing but not head and shoulders above PGR:3. Still, it’s just a demo.
UPDATE 8: Kaz Hirai demo’s the PSP’s PSone emulator, playing Ridge Racer 1 in letterbox widescreen. I want to have his children.
UPDATE 9: PS3’s basic networking service will be free and include voice messaging, text messaging, player profiles, account management, video chat, and access to the latest info… whatever that last part means.
UPDATE 10: Phil Harrison demo’s the PS3 interface, purchases a few songs and game specific content, levels, characters etc.
UPDATE 11: Heavenly Sword is demo’d using a PS2 Dual Shock. The red haired protagonist takes on hordes of bad guys in a sun soaked arena. The animation’s fantastic. CRAZY Badass areial combat as well! Looks just about as good as last year’s E3 demo save for some jaggies.
UPDATE 12: Lair is shown, there’s no way this real time… it looks too good! Huge dragons, fluid animation and some breathtaking action as a character leaps off his ride, flying through the air before landing on his enemies beast, stabbing it in the wing as he does so.
UPDATE 13: The Getaway is also shown, it also looks too good to be true. I think everyone’s in denial at this point. The camera pans across a busy London street as people walk by and cars zoom past the screen. it continues to pull into a dark alleyway showing us the hardened face of a man, his arm outstretched. The camera travels down his arm till it reaches the tip of a smoking gun, continuing its lazy movement it finally comes to rest by the side of a slumped body.
UPDATE 14: Sweet MOSES! Naughty Dog’s new game is shown, not title yet but it looks amazing. Think young Indiana Jones. A young man in a white t-shirt and jeans jumps gaps, avoids traps and trades bullets and punches in a jungle environment that’s part Tomb Raider part Temple of Doom.
UPDATE 15: Resistance: Fall of Man has gone leaps and bounds ahead of when we last saw it. The 360 is going to have to pull something really special to match the visual fidelity on display so far. 32 player online multiplayer and it’s going to be playable on the show floor. Look forward to our impressions.
UPDATE 16: Tekken’s underwhelming. Nowhere near as good as the CG demo last year. Maybe the gameplay’s been altered? Next please.
UPDATE 17: Amazing footage shown of a game called Eight Days. Looks to be set in Phoenix, there’s a car chase through the desert some guys lean out of their ride to take pot shots at the car in the lead, there’s tumbling and exploding as the car is torn apart. Cut to a roadblock in the middle of the desert, a firefight breaks out which spills into a nearby diner. The animation and physics are off the hook. No way this all realtime gameplay.
UPDATE 18: Coded arms is coming to the PS3… because you loved it so much on the PSP.
UPDATE 19: NBA Live 07….spooky. They move just like human beings. Emphasis on “footplanting”. No more sliding around the floor here.
UPDATE 20: Tiger Woods PS3 demo of facial expressions and animation. Swear it looks real… real I tell you.
UPDATE 21: An extended Final Fantasy 13 video is shown… it looks even better than the Final Fantasy 7 tech video shown last year.
UPDATE 22: Sony’s controller is a Wiimote. Microsoft am cry. Nintendo huffs off in an angry rage.
UPDATE 23: Warhawk is demo’d using the new PS3 Dual Shock /Wiimote capabilities. The player tilts the controller like a plane, banking left, right up and down to control the aircraft. Looks pretty cool but the player looks like a ninny. Gamers everywhere am cry.
UPDATE 24: North American release date is Nov 17th. Two launch configurations.
20GB HD version – $500
60GB HD version – $600