Sony Pre-E3 conference

[L.S.D]

E3 2006: SCE Conference Reports

The event we've all been waiting for. Continuous reports from the show.

by Nix & IGN PS Team

May 8, 2006 - Sony Computer Entertainment blew people away with its 2005 showing of PlayStation 3 games, but the proof of the power behind the future of the PlayStation brand begins its showing today. In the meantime, PlayStation Portable and even the veteran PlayStation 2 are expecting to have huge titles throughout the rest of the year. The surprises are all wrapped up, and Sony is about to open them in front of us and share with the world what we're all waiting to see.

 

SCE is holding its pre-E3 conference as we type this, and we'll be reporting on details from our show correspondents at the event live throughout the show. Please look for high-res video of the event also to be broadcast as soon as the show closes.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

4PM PST -- Rumors are flying with all of those attending as to what will be shown, but most have yet to enter the building...

 

4:05 -- The event is running late, and everybody is still getting into the event floor. Talk amongst yourselves, as we are doing the same.

 

4:10 -- Everybody is still getting in. Late... Have you guys been browsing the Boards recently? Lots to talk about...

 

4:20 -- Heh, 4:20 y'all...

 

4:21 -- We apologize for making a "4:20" joke. We're... you know, waiting.

 

4:25 -- The event is "officially" running late. It will not begin until everybody is able to get in, and many are still outside the door awaiting seating (if not everybody -- it's difficult to see from the vantage point of our editors how open the doors are. Please stay tuned, as the conference is running a little over half an hour late but will begin in the next few minutes.

 

4:50 -- The event begins. Kaz Hirai takes the stage. PlayStation 3 is more than a generation leap for him, it's a quantum leap for PlayStation. It's freedom. It's the companion device for your years. It's an arsenal of media compatibility. It seamlessly interacts with other PlayStation systems. And it's the best of breed for this gen.

 

4:55 -- A dig at opponents. PlayStation is not interested in gimmicks. PlayStation believes that next-gen does not begin until PS3 arrives.

 

Announces 100 Million PS2 systems shipped. Forecasts 10mil more.

 

Over 1 billion games served.

 

3 million registered uses of online play (between PS2 and PSP.)

 

4:58 -- Promises PlayStation 2 will be around for many years to come, with an amazing line-up of titles.

 

5:00 -- PSP gets a focus. Why did they wait, and why now? The answer is that this was the right time for PlayStation Portable, with all the promise PlayStation offers. Unrivaled portable play rivaling PS2. PSP is the fastest-selling system in Sony's history, with 17mil units out there. Forecasts another 12mil in the global market for this year. 540 games and 47.3 million games shipped.

 

5:01 -- Game reel for PSP. Ape Academy 2, Planet PSP (Interactive travel guide), Killzone: Liberation, B-Boy (Hip-Hop dancing), LocoRoco, Gangs of London, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (already out), World Tour Soccer 2, Talkman, Gangs of London.

 

5:04 -- Greatest Hits announced for PSP. Five games at first: Ape Escape, ATV Offroad, Hot Shots, Twisted Metal, WipeOut Pure. 250 thousand copies sold and 9 months of release qualify you for Greatest Hits status.

 

5:07 -- Times Square video reel of kids on the street talking about PlayStation. Then people from cities all over the world talking about PSP, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3. Some cute Japanese lasses. Some freaky Japanese dudes. It all culmintaes in...

 

5:09 -- PlayStation 3. PlayStation influences the world, and all of the cool goodies of PS3 and its cell will help to change the world. PS3 will include HDD and do true HD and Dolby Surround Sound.

 

Back-catalog compatibility: All PS games promised for backward-compatibility, as well as DVD and other media used on PlayStation systems. PSP will also connect with PS3.

 

5:14 -- Blu-Ray capacity. Sony thinks it's important to have space. 26% of PlayStation 2 games were on DVD when PS2 launched; now, it's 95%.

 

5:15 -- "Every PlayStation 3 will ship with a hard disc drive." Confirmed good news!!

 

5:15 -- No delay, worldwide launch in November 2005.

 

5:16 -- More than 10,000 kits, with final kits rolling out now. "Some" of the PS3 games shown at E3 will be on the final realtime kits. And yes, PS3 will be here at E3 and playable.

 

5:17 -- Phil Harrison of SCE Worldwide takes the stage. Here come the games...

 

Studios who showcases material last year have been working day and night since E3 2005 to make games real.

 

5:18 -- Kazunori Yamauchi from Polyphony Digital takes the stage. Shows a Gran Turismo prototype: Gran Turismo HD. It's assets from GT4 boosted to PS3-quality, including 1080p -- and yes, GT HD for PS3 is targeting 1080p for the final game as well.

 

Shows a selection of cars from the game, including bikes and scooters. A mix of race cars and consumer cars. Gameplay is shown, looking very much like GT4 in hi-def. Has some very cool sound effect technology, but it doesn't look to be that new content is included in any way. HD seems to be the big thing -- 3 times the detail is in this image than what's on most people's home TV screens.

 

Kazunori talks about loadtimes. Nice news -- GT HD uses the hard disc for optimized loadtimes, with running gameplay in a matter of a few seconds. More gameplay, with hood cams and 60fps motion, but again, no cool new stuff like an in-the-car view to rival that of PGR3. This is purely GT4, and GT HD for PS3 will be getting a lot more work in on it.

 

A joke reel. They show the difference between GT1 and GT4 (at regular resolutions, a tiny standar-definition square taking up a quarter of the screen), then back to GT HD. Even without the new features of GT HD that we're expecting, the difference in resolution is phenomenal when you put it in those terms.

 

GT HD again, this time with the Grand Canyon level. Lighting and reflections and detail really show off here in the replay sequences as the camera gets up close. The 3D crowds are also done with more people and 3D elements than PS2 was capable of, although this build is still clearly very early in the works.

 

5:30 -- GT HD showing concludes. Kazunori promises online features for the game, and also much improved quality over what was shown in this early demo. GT HD is hoped to be released not too far after the launch (GT3 was over a year after launch, considering the Japanese PS2 launch.)

 

5:33 -- Phil Harrison takes the stage again, reminds people that GT HD was just the start.

 

5:34 -- Richard Marx, the creator of EyeToy comes up, and shows Eye of Judgment. Created by SCE in Japan. You use an EyeToy for card combination techniques, moving your hands to move the cards and also activate actions with real cards. The PS3 ducky makes a cameo, then gets iced away by Marx's cards.

 

5:36 -- Kaz takes the stage to talk about the network strategy. Online is considered to SCE as air conditioning is to a car. Account manager, ranking systems, voice rankings and more -- a virtual society -- are all part of this basic service. And yes, it's all provided free of charge.

 

5:38 -- Talks about PSP E-Distribution. Has a PS1 game already downloaded to Memory Stick for PSP and plays it right in front of our eyes. It's Ridge Racer 1 for PS1 running now on PSP. Screen is letterboxed instead of stretched for the screen, but you can also change the screen size to fit.

 

5:42 -- Micro-transactions are talked about. A variety of payment systems are possible, and gamers can also buy PlayStation cards for their kids or as a gift in stores so they don't have to sign up.

 

5:43 -- Phil Harrison takes the stage again. The PS3's interface is shown, including E-Distribution features.

 

5:44 -- SingStar PS3 is shown. Blu-Ray allows them hundreds of songs, as well as BluRay videos of band music. Loadtimes (at least in this version... not sure what it's running on) is blazingly fast, for what it's worth with a debug unit. You can also browse an online catalog of songs and buy any number of tunes. This is also the general PlayStation 3 pricing structure for buying online content (new levels, new characters, etc.) for all PS3 games. There's also a new "MySingStar" feature that allows people to add new content and skins to your version, as well as add personal Singstar performances to the SingStar download section.

 

5:46 -- Genji 2 shown. Stages of the game are based on ancient history in Japan. There will be stages of fighting on horseback, massive sea battles, and more. Played with a PS2 pad. You can change weapons or characters at any time, and battle through hundreds of enemies. Gameplay looks like a combination of Genji 1 and Dynasty Warriors, with not the millions of foes of Heavenly Sword but some of the cool details and effects of the previous Genji in hi-res. The game promises some unique ways of battling bosses -- a crab monster is shown, and to flip him to get at him, you have to use the one bruiser character then switch to your swordsman.

 

5:51 -- Formula One for PS3 shown. Has this unique system where the PSP is used as a "wing mirror" to see behind you while playing the PS3 game, in realtime.

 

5:53 -- Heavenly Sword is shown. At last, something SUPER-cool!! It looks sharp, with tons of enemies in the crowd, great detail on the lead character and enemies, a smooth framerate, and some bad-assed attack moves! No words are said until the end of the gameplay battle sequence, except that Phil says that it uses a "phenomenal" system merging animation and AI. The game will be playable on the E3 show floor.

 

Lead character uses a disk to Slice up enemies, and also God of War-style chainblade attacks to swing enemies into other enemies. There's also combat in the air (or at least CG footage in the air.) The crowd goes wild for the first time in the show.

 

5:56 -- A video reel of games that were not available for realtime demonstration, or at least could not be a part of this event.

 

Lair -- looks pretty wicked, as you ride a dragon and do battle with other dragons -- you can also fall off of your dragon and plummet to the earth

 

The Getaway -- Mean-ass-looking dude smokes somebody while people on the street are unaware.

 

Afrika -- Shows great detail on real animals, including a hippo, a giraffe, zebras, a yak, and more. Looks great, but... uh, what's the gameplay?

 

Hot Shots Golf -- Cartoon golf, with nice (but not super-great) grass effects. Much higher res than PS2 game, with characters that look rendered.

 

Monster Kingdom -- A fantasy-horror game, you may recognize this from the PSP game also out (it's by the makers of Shin Megami Tensei.)

 

6:01 -- Phil is back. And now, he's talking about two world-premier games.

 

The first is a game set out in the desert of Arizona. We now know where the Bullet Car demo and the exploding gas station demos came from. Shows a gas tanker exploding, shows realtime bullet effects and care deformation as the cars get damaged or crash. Lead character has some cool moves, can Dukes of Hazard over the car hood. He is also seen jumping through a window, and inside the station, he is shooting out at enemies. Then the gas rig crashes into the station (with an incredible amount of left-behind chaos -- if this is realtime, it's pretty rad how much "chunks of stuff" was left behind.) And finally, they blow up the gas tank as they drive away. The game is called Eight Days, and what we just witnessed was "Day 2".

 

The second is from Naughty Dog. It shows an amazing-looking forest (if it's realtime), looks like it might be Jak... but then it shows a real-life character (normal-looking fellow) shooting and jumping and fighting. No name for it. It had the look of realtime gameplay, but it was not said exactly what it was. Certainly a departure for Naughty Dog!!

 

6:06 -- Ted Price wraps it up with a look at Resistance: Fall of Man. Ted says that the initial showing of Resistance (when it was "I-8" was just the start, and that the team has since taken a very close look at the system to get at its full capacities. The game is an alternate world, where WWII never happened, and the worst thing ever to happen to man was that aliens have invaded us. Gameplay looks much like Call of Duty, with explosions and bodies everywhere. Horn demons are running about, and you must blast them with WWII-era weapons as well as new weapons. At first, the game looks like a pretty normal next-gen shooter, but as it goes on, the level of chaos and cool weapons and stuff happening just goes through the roof. The game has multiplayer modes, including 32-player online play.

 

6:11 -- Phil takes the stage again. This, he says, wraps up the playable section. He talks a little bit more about tech, then turns it over to Kaz.

 

6:12 -- Third parties reel shown.

 

Assassin's Creed - A short version of the Assassin's trailer is shown. It, of course, looks awesome.

 

Gundam -- Some mechs and tanks are shown rolling in. Stuff explodes. It all looks shiny and nice, with one section that seems pretty clear to be realtime.

 

Coded Arms Assault -- PS3 version of PSP franchise.

 

Ridge Racer 7 -- Short trailer shown. Reiko!! Plus racing action, showing something of a toonshaded style and blurs out the ying-yang.

 

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway -- A very short clip of action as a tank crushes a car.

 

Tekken 6 -- A fight shown. Not E3 2005-quality.

 

Sonic -- Fast action and tons of explosions and stuff happening. Looks like Sonic Adventure. Shadow is in it... hope for the best.

 

Virtua Tennis 3 -- Nice faces and shadows on characters.

 

Virtua Fighter 5 -- Man, SEGA is working overtime. Looks like the arcade game, and looks really cool, with incredible lighting and animation synch.

 

John Woo Presents Stranglehold -- Chow Yun Fat unloads some bullets.

 

Fatal Inertia -- Racing action, looks like the E3 2005 trailer...but is it realtime?

 

Bladestorm: The 100 Years War -- Koei's other game.

 

Armored Core 4 -- The mech action continues.

 

6:20 -- It's EA time. PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 comparison. Shows NBA Live 07. They show one fellow dunking on a court in a slam dunk contest. Confims that yes, it's realtime.

 

Next is a realtime Tiger Woods demo. Again, it's played with a PS2 controller. The cool thing here is that it uses U-Cap technology, capturing character animation better than ever before -- vocal synching, lip movements, and much more.

 

EA has 10 games in the works, including Army of Two, Madden 07, Tiger Woods, Fight Night and more. Madden will be playable on PS3 here at E3.

 

EA shows a demo reel of 2007 games, including Madden, NBA Live, Tiger Woods, Need for Speed Carbon, Army of Two, Medal of Honor Airborne (which looks awesome if it's realtime... really awesome, even if only about 15 seconds were shown.)

 

6:28 -- Final Fantasy XIII is introduced. Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Versus is shown. Of course, everything but the train is realtime, as mentioned previously.

 

6:29 -- Next is Metal Gear 4. The crowd goes wild!

 

The concept of the game is "sense". Realtime footage of a warzone is shown. There are gigantic mechs walking around, with futuristic trucks and helicopters rolling about. Lighting and enemy numbers are amazing. Snake is seen in a depressed state, watching as action happens all around him. As he runs, Ninja appears and slices up a mech after it crushes a man to gooey bits. Naomi Hunter, Roy Campbell, Meryl, Otacon, and Liquid Snake / Ocelot are shown. Raiden was also shown, and he was shown in the Ninja suit -- for once, he looked bad-assed, with a helmet that snapped away from his face. It's not action-packed, surprisingly... it's very sad. Snake looks older than ever (older than even the TGS trailer), with gray hair and no beard, and wrinkles all over. At the end, he swallows his own gun... And to find out what happens next, we will have to wait until 2007.

 

6:33 -- Kuturagi takes the stage. He introduces the PS3 controlled... and it's the PS3 controller?!? It looks exactly the same, but it has many new function. Most importantly, it has "6 degrees" of motion-sensing movement. (Um, Nintendo, what do you have to say about this?) You can move it up and down, you have pitch and yaw and roll movement, and it's all still wireless and, in fact, lighter than PS2's DualShock.

 

6:39 -- Finally, Phil Harrison and Dylan Jobe shows Warhawk for PS3. This is played live on a PS3 controller. He moves the controller like a flight stick, zooming and flying and turning and steering and going completely crazy, doing barrel rolls and quick turns and all kinds of moves. It's sure to looks silly when you play it, but playing the game, Dylan seems to have complete control over the Warhawk fighter, and is able to get close to capital ships and canyons without crashing. He even lands the ship on a ledge.

 

6:42 -- Kaz takes the stage again. He wraps up everything we've seen -- the best technology, the best graphics, a new controller, and much more. And one more surprise... the PS3 launch details. Two configs -- one with 20 gigs -- $499; One with 60 gigs -- 599

 

- from IGN

 

Take note of the PS3 controller

Edited May 9, 2006 by L.S.D

[Wizard]

For one;

 

PS3 controller, not surprising they went back with the old design after all the complaints.

 

Otherwise, prices are heug leik xbox. I'll be getting one.....in 6 years.

[Gryph]

As I said in the other thread, this conference was boring as hell.

 

Oh yeah, they're removing vibration and replacing it with the sensing thing.

[Diso]

Pretty cool. Like how they made the controller more interactive, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. Well, We'll have to seen.

[L.S.D]

They have open up the door for developers to develop games for Wii and PS3 since both controllers feature almost the same features (Nintendo have less buttons though)

[Gryph]

They have open up the door for developers to develop games for Wii and PS3 since both controllers feature almost the same features (Nintendo have less buttons though)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not really. The Wii controller can do a lot more. It can actually judge distance from the screen which is a huge difference. The PS3 controller also can't act a pointing device. The second part of the nunchaku Wii controller is probably more like the PS3 controller but the main remote is quite different.

[Prican25]

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/060509ae.pdf

 

http://www.scee.presscentre.com/imagelibra...p?NewsAreaID=28

 

enjoy

[Gryph]

I was just about to post that. It seems Wifi is no longer there. Also, for all the 1080p harping their doing it's surprising that there is only HDMI out on the 60 gb version.

[L.S.D]

They have open up the door for developers to develop games for Wii and PS3 since both controllers feature almost the same features (Nintendo have less buttons though)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not really. The Wii controller can do a lot more. It can actually judge distance from the screen which is a huge difference. The PS3 controller also can't act a pointing device. The second part of the nunchaku Wii controller is probably more like the PS3 controller but the main remote is quite different.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I still cannot understand the usage of judging distance in a game.

Oh well, there might be some new creative game from Nintendo on this.

[Prican25]

yea, looks like sony is doing what m$ did for 360; pack for the poor tv's and a pack for the hdtv's but damn $600 bucks

 

[L.S.D]

yea, looks like sony is doing what m$ did for 360; pack for the poor tv's and a pack for the hdtv's but damn $600 bucks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The price would be off limit to most Asians, me think. Or at least, people from my country. 2/3 of my salary, which I could use for better things