E3 2009: Sony Press Conference

Sony kicked things off showing in game footage of their upcoming massive shooter, MAG which is short for Massive Action Game. MAG can supposedly support 256 players in one game. The game is broken down like the Battlefield series, each team is broken down into squads led by squad leaders which answer to the battlefield commander who sets objectives and way points. Players will get extra experience fore listening to the orders handed down such as defending or capturing a point. MAG will be released fourth quarter of this year.

Sony went on to show off their previously leaked PSP Go. Which will be retailing at $249.99 and hitting the States on October 1^st. The PSP Go is quite a marvel of engineering, it features a slide up screen, with the control buttons hidden underneath. With this new design they removed the dreaded UMD drive, which was the cause of the first PSP's horrible battery life and replaced it with a 16 gigs of flash memory. Sony has promised that all games from this point forward will also be distributed digitally. This will hopefully give the PSP more umph in the battery department. Along with the new PSP comes a new Metal Gear Solid game, MGS: Peacewalker which takes place 10 years after MGS3 in Costa Rico. This is not a side story or spin off, it is a true sequel to MGS3 and will be written by Kojima. Sony also announced they will be releasing a Gran Turismo which will supposedly be running at 60 fps. Playstation Home was mentioned like it has been for the past two years, Sony continues to promise what was promised back when it was first announced. Unfortunately we have yet to see anything other than a buggy and laggy multi-player version of the sims.

Sony then went on to show some in game footage of Assassins Creed 2 which for some reason wasn't shown at the Ubi press conference. The PS3 will also be reciprocating six exclusive weapons, take that Xbox and your exclusive map pack for COD Modern Warfare 2. pulled a fast one, they started off by showing off a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII showing some new footage with both FMV, cut scenes rendered by the in-game engine and some in battle footage. FFXIII is coming out Spring 2010. After this orgy of visuals we were given a trailer for wait for it.... Final Fantasy XIV, yes not only have they already started on XIV but its coming out in 2010. The down side? Its a new MMO but it is a PS3 exclusive.

With such an impressive act put on by Microsoft and Natal Sony introduced their own new Motion Controller. But Chris Sony already has the six-axis don't they? The six-axis barely holds a candle to their new system. It is based around wands and the Eyetoy (Cue Nintendo fanboys) with orbs on the ends that work as reference points for the camera. Now this is just speculation but the controllers probably work via a mix of accelerometers and motion capture via the orbs and camera. Whats nice about this system is that unlike the Wiimote, Sony's system actually knows where the wand is located in a 3d space. They then showed what has to be one the most polished tech demos I've seen. It started off with some proof of concepts, swords, bats, rackets, stop signs all the typical motion sensing items but then they produced a gun. With the gun he was able to go into first person mode and duck and dodge around the screen like a more involved Time Crisis. They then showed writing with the Motion Controller which according to Sony is accurate within millimeters. The writing was quite amazing, I mean hell its hard enough to write with a mouse but being able to do that with an interactive controller is impressive. We were then taken to a Colosseum with a humanoid model with a sword and shield facing off against skeletons while using two remotes one for the sword and the other for the shield. He then swapped the sword and shield for throwing stars and with flicks of his wrist he threw them into the skeletons. ModNation was then announced, a mix between Little Big Planet and Mario Kart, all the character and cars are customizable and there is real time physics. The Drivers look like those Mighty Mugs they have in-stores, they are made out of vinyl and look so damn cute. What is also neat is how you can make your own racetrack. Basically you drive around an empty canvas which lays down the road and from there you can add scenery and what not to your hearts content ModNation is coming out in 2010. Announced next was Last Guardian a sequel to Ico and seems like a mix between Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and its keeping with the same art style.

Sony's final event was real time game play of God of War III. GOW III has improved on II with more brutal kills and more impressive visuals, at one point Kratos disembowels a creature and it just lays on screen with its guts pouring out. Kratos still has his signature swords but now it will be much easier to change weapons, you can now use the d-pad rather than going into the menu and swapping out weapons mid fight.