Sony E3 Game Highlights (With No Montages!)

Sony attempted to follow through on the "saving the best for last" mantra, following Microsoft's presentation on Monday and Nintendo's earlier in the day Tuesday.

So how did they do? Well, the presentation itself was rather lengthy (clocking in at over 2 hours), and contained more videogame montages than I care to watch.  I'd rather see individual game demos (even in they are just trailers) than mashups showing clips of dozens of games.

Luckily, there were plenty of those as well.

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
To say that Uncharted 2 is anticipated would be an understatement - it's probably right behind God of War 3 on PS3 owners "Must Have" lists.

And the gameplay footage shown by Naughty Dog did not dissappoint in the least. Just the detail of the landscape and town at :45 of the video below is breathtaking, and the action sequence that follows is something Uncharted: Drake's Fortune player's come to expect in a sequel.


Comment: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was a solid game that became a must-have title shortly after it was released, and undoubtably helped push some PS3 sales. Uncharted 2 looks like it will trump it by multitudes, incorporating  some adventuring, a dash of platforming, tons of action, and a ridiculous amount of attention to detail.
Rating: A

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MAG
MAG is known in gaming circles as an extremely ambitious project that incorporates up to 256(!!!) players simulataneously in one environment.  And unfortunately, this seems to be all it's known for.

That is, until now. This gameplay demo shows how the squads are broken out in platoons as they attempt to infiltrate an enemy base. The option to have multiple airstrike types is a nice alternative to Call of Duty's one-airstrike-for-all-scenarios methodology.


Comment: It's tough enough getting collaboration amongst 6+ squad members in Call of Duty, Halo, or Killzone - 128 (256/2 teams) sounds like a mighty big nightmare.  That said, the developers surely know this will be a huge problem and had to implement enough measures to make sure that collaboration is not only pivotal but a requirement for all players. Will they succeed?  And then there's the question of the bandwidth requirements necessary to track all action online smoothly enough to make the game enjoyable. It's one thing to show gameplay in a closed environment, it's another to see it in action when it's released into the wild.

We'll see how this one turns out, but for now we're still plenty skeptical.
Rating: C+

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ModNation Racers
So, what happens when you mix the racing of, say, Mario Kart with the tools for creative user-generated content such as those found in Little Big Planet? Why, you have ModNation Racers!

This demo is a nice gameplay/tech hybrid - watch as the karts zoom around a track that was created from scratch just seconds earlier.


Comment: It's a kart racer at its core, but the possibilities are endless with the user generated content.  The fact that the tools were able to create a decent, usable (if not a little bland) track in minutes is testament to the simplicity of the utilities, however from the demo it's obvious that there's plenty available to those looking to dive into more sophisticated endeavors. This title is definitely one to watch.
Rating: B+

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Motion Sensor Prototype
Not to be outdone by Nintendo (WiiMote Plus) and Microsoft (Project Natal), Sony unveiled their own motion-sensor peripheral.

Lacking a catchy name and looking like a large glowing lollipop, the "motion sensor prototype" was announced and demo'd at E3.


Comment: It appears to essentially be Wii-Mote 2, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but doesn't appear to be very revolutionary, either - a nice, solid step forward. Being able to use 2 at one time (as shown in the archery portion of the demo) is pretty cool and will definitely have its place in games (Oblivion comes to mind). But how are they going to implement in-game movement? It's one thing to stand still in a virtual livingroom and shoot darts, it's another to be able to charge through a battlefield and do the same.

And then there's the other aspect that we worry about - the road to failure is littered with post-launch peripherals that never succeeded. Wii's motion sensing technology is in its DNA, which leads to an inherent advantage.
Rating: B-

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The Last Guardian
Anyone who has ever played Ico or Shadow of the Collossus (even if they didn't like them) can attest to the sheer emotion and feeling that the environments draw out of the players. The landscapes, the characters, the music, and the environment sounds create a world where the gamer, much like the antagonist they are playing, truly feels alone.

Team Ico is back with what is presumed to be the last title in the "Ico Trilogy".


Comment: Everything that made the first two games so endearing seems to have made the transition to the PS3. The game appears to have a much more grandiose and movie-like feel to it, most likely due to the insane amount of resources the PS3 provides the development team compared to the PS2. We absolutely cannot wait for this one.
Rating: A

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Gran Turismo 5
Gran Turismo or Forza... an epic battle of two solid racing titles, each representing their base console well.

GT5's demo was released at E3, and it appears to be technologically leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessors.


Comment: GT5 looks absolutely gorgeous. It's getting really difficult to tell the difference between live television with these racers. While the demo didn't appear to have much gameplay footage, what was there looked spectacular, but we've seen this dog and pony show before... It'll be interesting to see what user-generated content extras are included that will make GT5 stand apart from Forza when it's finally released.
Rating: B

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God of War 3
Really, do we need any introduction to this behemoth of a game (franchise)?


Comment: Kratos looks better than ever, and the attention to detail looks stunning. The violence factor has been ramped up a few notches - there's nothing quite like gutting your enemies and their intestines spilling out onto the floor - and the action looks better than ever. If there's one knock on the franchise, it's that it really hasn't strayed much from the first GoW, but considering the original was done so well it's no wonder they haven't messed with the formula.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Rating: A