Sony @ E3 - Games, Specs, Prices, Dates
Posted by inpheaux on May 9th, 2006 at 1:03 am
I've got a plane to catch in about six hours, so lets make this quick. Sony's incredibly long press conference ended a few hours ago, and in between the long long long segments of clip after clip of drones explaining how the PS3 is going to "COMPLETELY CHANGE YOUR WORLD, MAN", Sony managed to squeeze out some pretty massive stuff. Here's everything you need to know:
PSP
- People care about the PSP? Apparently some do. We feel sorry for those people.
- All the crazy stuff that was announced at GDC 2006 and Sony's Press thing in March is totally still coming. Most notable of which is the PSX-on-PSP emulation.
GAMES
- The PS2 is far from dead. Unlike, say, the Xbox vs. 360, PS2 games will reportedly still be coming out years from now. The new games will continue to not suck. This is largely due to strong backwards compatibility on the PS3.
- All kinds of big games were on display. God of War 2, the PS3 Gundam game, All manner of Killzone games, a whole slew of new offerings from EA Sports, etc. There'll be more on these later as time allows.
- Special Focus #1: Gran Turismo HD. You know how in GT4 you could take those Glamour-shots and download them to a thumbdrive? This is like that but all the time. What's best is that it isn't even remotely a full game yet, they just took uncompressed stuff from GT4, slapped them in an engine and had it pipe out at 1080p. Yes, p. In case you aren't up to speed on the 4 billion kinds of HD, 1080p is higher resolution than just about anything out there. Such high resolution that there aren't even many TV's that can display it right now.
- Special Focus #2: Final Fantasy XIII. Yes. 12 isn't even out yet in North America, but 13 has been announced. It looks pretty, but it's being directed by the same director as FFX-2 and that . . worries me. A lot.
- Special Focus #3: Metal Gear Solid 4. Snake is old. The video shown was more like an action movie trailer than a game preview, but . . that's how Kojima rolls. Hopefully there'll be more on this during the week.
PS3 [here comes the fun part!]
- Official Release Dates: Japan - 11 NOV 2006, North America / Europe / Rest-of-World - 17 NOV 2006.
- Two Versions: Announced as the 20 and 60 gb editions, indicating the size of their equipped drives.
- What they didn't tell you: Whoops, that 20gb edition doesn't just have 40 less gigs of space, it also lacks a multi-format card reader, a wireless network card, and an HDMI output.
- Prices: Crippled Edition - $499.99. Extra-Beefy Edition - $599.99. These prices are real. This makes it the most expensive modern console I know of. To find something more expensive, you have to go digging deep, into 3DO territory. And we all know how well that worked for them.
- Controller: Completely redesigned, as we've been told. Cosmetically, it looks exactly like a DualShock 2. Good news: uses Bluetooth instead of a cable. Bad news: Rumble has been replaced by a new 6-degree gyroscopic control, so you can influence stuff by tilting the controller around. Sounds like even though Nintendo held off on releasing details on the controller, they STILL got copied. Luckily, this seems like a one-trick gimmick rather than the versatile Wii controller. But really, I think it's going to take hands-on experience to see if this is going to be worthwhile or if it's going to be something we all ignore like the "ANALOG" button in the middle of the DualShock 2.
So that's Sony. There's still a lot of stuff to digest in there, but then, E3 isn't about digesting. It's about engorging yourself with gaming nerd stuff until you explode. Nintendo's conference recap will be up tomorrow afternoon, and tomorrow night we'll have Microsoft's offering. And then, the main event.
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