Sony started off their press conference by addressing the PlayStation Network outage, first by apologizing, then saying they’ll show us in the next 90 minutes why it’s worth coming back to if you’ve left. And they did a good job of convincing, with a slew of new titles and PSN exclusives announced.
First up for games is Uncharted 3 with a new gameplay demo that showed off the action and cinematics we’ve come to expect from the series. It ended with a screen giving a release date of 11-1-11.
Next up was Resistance 3 from Insomniac with another gameplay demo. THe war is over and the Chimaera won. You are the last Sentinel, and you’ll launch a last-ditch attack on the Chimaera across the US.
The God of War PSP Collection(God of War Origins) and the ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection will be released in September with both HD and 3D graphics support.
They plan on lowering the price of admission to 3D gaming later this year, with a 24″ PlayStation branded 3D TV that also allows for same screen, full screen ‘split screen multiplayer’. The TV will be sold in a bundle with Resistance 3,an HDMI cord, and a pair of 3D glasses for $499. Additional glasses will be $69.99
NBA 2K12 revealed Move support in NBA: On the Move mode. Kobe Bryant came out to attempt to show how easy it was to use, and ended up failing miserably. BA 2K12 will come out on October 4, 2011.
Next up was Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest, a Move exclusive fantasy swordplay/archery game. It will be out some time this fall.
InFamous 2 made a quick appearance, reminding everyone about the user-generated content aspect of it.
StarHawk got a trailer as well, showing off some of its ground and space combat aspects. No new information was presented on it, though we’ll probably learn more about it throughout the week.
Then, Surprise! Sly Cooper is finally coming back! Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will be coming out in 2012. We only got a teaser trailer for it, and considering the plethora of other games this year, I doubt we’ll see anything more on it until later in the year.
Sony’s branching out some more in the MMO sphere with Dust, an MMO that will interact with EVE Online somehow, exclusively on the PS3.
Sony also announced a metric ton of exclusives for the PS3 on a number of high-profile multiplatform releases. Saints Row the Third will have some exclusive content, Need for Speed: The Run will have exclusive cars on the PS3, SSX and Battlefield 3 will have some exclusives, while Star Trek and Bioshock Infinite will both come with exclusive games. Star Trek will have an exclusive prequel to the game only available on PSN, while Bioshock Infinite purchasers will get a free copy of the first Bioshock game if they buy it on the PS3.
Speaking of Bioshock Infinite, it got a new trailer next, followed by Ken Levine talking about the possibility of Move support. He then offhandedly mentioned that a new Bioshock spinoff will be coming out on the NGP eventually.
Oh right, the NGP. Well, it’s no longer called that. It is officially the PlayStation Vita. The PSV will use AT&T exclusively for its 3G connectivity and AT&T customers will get free access to all their Wifi hotspots. Also, cross-game chat will finally be available, but only on the PSV. No firm dates were given for its release other than holiday 2011, but we got some prices for the two versions of the hardware. The Wifi only model will be a suprising $250, while the 3G version will be $300. We here at Snackbar Games are somewhat surprised by the prices, and wonder how Nintendo will counter with the 3DS.
As for PSV games, we got an Uncharted: Golden Abyss demo showing off the touch controls. While they do seem to work fine, most of us are concerned about say, blocking the screen during a firefight or getting fingerprints all over its spiffy OLED screen.
The next PSV title shown off is Ruin, a dungeon crawler. It supports cloud saving, allowing you to play on either the PS3 or the PSV, save your game, and continue it on the other system.
A new ModNation Racers is coming to the PSV as well. They stressed that it won’t be a port, it’s an entirely new game built with the strengths of the PSV in mind. It’s track creation does seem to work fairly well with the dual touch screens, and despite it being an entirely new game, it will have access to all already created content from the PS3 and PSP versions of the game.
Wipeout 2048 will have PS3/PSV crossplay, allowing 8 player MP with both PS3 and PSV players.
Finally, the PSV will be getting a version of the highly anticipated fighting game crossover, Street Fighter X Tekken, and of LittleBigPlanet.
That’s the conference! They showed off a lot of stuff, what did they show that you are most excited about?
Just Dance 3
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
God of War: Origins
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
DUST 514
Overstrike
Carnival Island
Resistance 3
Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection
Starhawk
inFAMOUS 2