PlayStation Portable

This section, it has to be said, was less convincing. The PSP has been around for a long time now, and recent years haven’t been too kind. Though a fairly solid line of games was presented – most notably God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Eyepet PSP and Valkyria Chronicles, it was hard to shake the feeling that this was Sony treading water while it prepares the much rumoured follow up to the hand-held.

The Rest

Along with a new subscription service – PlayStation Plus – which will offer additional content, access to Betas and automated updates (among other things), the rest of the presentation focussed on some of the big games that will be hitting the PlayStation 3 in the next 12 months and the partnerships that Sony have built. Media Molecule’s Alex Evans presented a short demo of LittleBigPlanet 2, that strangely lacked the charm that we have come to know, love and expect from Sackboy, but that nevertheless conveyed the depth and flexibility of the title’s new set of creation tools. Demoing a block racing puzzle game to a top down sports sumo game via a rocket arena jet pack mini game, the presentation did much to convince that Evans’s claim that LBP 2 will be able to fulfil all your game creation dream (if you’ve got the time and the talent of course!).

As has come to be expected, Sony also emphasised the exclusive third party content that is coming to the PS3. EA announced exclusive content for the PS3 versions of Dead Space 2 and Medal of Honour. That the Dead Space 2 Limited Edition will come with a remastered version of Dead Space Extraction (for Move) is surely something of a first…but is it a sign of things to come? Only time will tell.

The biggest coup of the event was undoubtedly the appearance of Valve’s Gabe Newell. A long time critic of the PlayStation 3, Newell opened by eating a big slice of humble pie (“The PlayStation 3 is going to excel”), before announcing that Portal 2 is coming the PS3, and that it will be the “best version on any console”. Even more interestingly, the title will come with Steam support, including the automatic updates that users of Valve’s service will know and love. We’re interested to see where this relationship heads in the future…..

Unfortunately, we were not treated to any further glimpses of the sumptuous looking The Last Guardian, but the rest of the titles on show were promising all the same. Final Fantasy XIV looked suitably epic, Mafia 2 PS3 will get exclusive content, as will Assassin’s Creed 2: Brotherhood. Unbelievably, Gran Turismo 5 was given a release date (November 2nd 2010), and Infamous 2 made an appearance (Cole looks cleaner and can now manipulate ice – the game looks pretty, and we want to play it!).

The show’s finale was the world premiere of David Jaffe’s Twisted Metal for the PS3. Taking the series’ infamous car-based utlraviolence and expanding it with team-based online play, helicopters and new play modes, this is definitely one to watch.

We say:

Overall, we’d say that the Sony Press Conference was a success. While it lacked some of the showmanship of Microsoft’s presentation, Sony clearly have a solid base of content on the way that should happily keep gamers busy until the next E3. We would have liked to have seen more new Move content, but in fairness the titles that were shown look to be offering a solid enough start for the device, with third party support appearing to be particularly strong. This year, Sony’s conference was all about consolidation, building on their vision and convincing the world that the much mooted 10-year lifespan for the PlayStation 3 is a reality; and this presentation gave us no reason to doubt it.

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