E3 2009: Sony - My Thoughts

I feel a bit sorry for Sony, one of their major announcements - the PSP Go - was leaked a week ahead of E3. But, Jack Tretton actually laughed up that fact on several occasions throughout the presentation, and the leak didn't really detract from the power of this press conference overall. Sony has some solid games and exclusives coming out in the next year or so, and that's something to definitely look forward to for PS3/PSP owners.

They started off with a couple heavy hitters - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and MAG. MAG actually looks really cool, if you're into that sort of thing, which I am not. I'd get lost so fast on a map like they showed, its not even funny.

They talked quite a bit about their PSP system, and announced some titles and packages for that, including the thought-to-be-dead Gran Turismo PSP, with 800 cars (?!), 35 tracks and 60 different track variations. They even dropped the release date of 10/1/2009, to coincide with the release of their new PSP Go.

Also announced was Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Resident Evil, Little Big Planet and Monster Hunter for the PSP.

As I mentioned in my post dedicated to the subject, I do think the price of the PSP Go is a bit high, but if that's the direction the individual gamer feels he wants to take his handheld gaming, I'm sure he wouldn't mind laying down the cash for it. Myself, I don't feel its worth it, especially considering all the content available for the PSP Go is going to be the same that is available for the PSP-3000.

All that being said, the lineup for the PSP looks amazing for the next year. Why didn't they do this at the start, it would have given them a lot more leverage in the handheld market than they have now. Imagine a Gran Turismo or MGS game being announced earlier in the PSP's life, that would have been awesome. But, no doubt these games will still spur sales, even more so now with the PSP Go just a few months away.

And yet, as exciting as all the PSP announcements were, nothing could prepare me for what was to come.

Assassin's Creed 2 looks outstanding. In fact, now I want to play the first game again in preparation for the second game to come out later this year.

Of course, the one game on every Final Fantasy fan's mind was FFXIII, which was showcased with an amazing trailer at this event. That trailer graced us with some new shots and also quite a few more English voices than the Microsoft announcement of the same game did. I am so looking forward to this game I can hardly contain my excitement. I'm such a Final Fantasy fanboy.

That fact made the next announcement even more exciting - who was expecting Square-Enix to bring out the big guns and announce Final Fantasy XIV? No one, that's who. I was an avid player of FFXI, their first MMO, for a couple years after it came out here in North America. When I moved over to WoW, I missed the heavy story focus of the game and its nice to see that its coming back in full force in the form of this new MMO.

I realize I was all about Microsoft's "Project Natal" the other day, but after seeing all three company's motion control technology, I have to say that Sony's got me the most excited. I could just imagine playing a Final Fantasy game with a sword and board like they showed off in one of their tech demos. I also thought it was quite interesting that they made the point to bring out that they would use it for more than casual-type games, which Nintendo seems content with. I'm all for that. Nintendo hasn't quite realized my RPG fantasy I just mentioned above.

ModNation Racers is also another title I'm quite interested in, as I pointed out in my post a few days ago, so I won't discuss it much here.

Also, thumbs way up for The Last Guardian and Gran Turismo 5!

After seeing all three press events, I think Microsoft and Sony are neck-and-neck, but I have to say, I think Sony is bringing it more than Microsoft with the games coming to their powerful system in the next year. I guess its a good thing I held onto my PS3. ;)