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Sony Press Conference Recap

Sony just wrapped up their press conference for E3 in Los Angeles an hour ago, and in this write up I will specify the major points that took place. First I will start off with the money machine that still is the Playstation 2.

Jack Tretton announced that by the end of this year, the Playstaion 2 will have 130 new games launched for its growing library. This really is a huge number for such an old console, especially with HD being all the rage today. Games shown included; Madden 09, Yakuza 2, and Mercenaries 2. It was also announced that a new bundle consisting of the new game, Lego Batman, for $149.99.

The PSP had a really strong showing at the press conference, with games as well as PSP/PS3 integration. For game announcements, the huge one was Resistance Retribution, a side story 3rd person shooter which looked great from what was shown. The other games were basically just PS2 ports, like Madden. PSP also has not one, but two bundles for the fall; the Ratchet and Clank/National Treasure 2 bundle, and the Madden 09 Metallic blue bundle for $199.99. The PSN announced that users could buy movies on the PS3 and then put them onto the PSP for portable use, which was the real huge announcement for the PSP, and was quite a good one.

The last thing I will be discussing is the Playstation 3. A great deal of games and a huge PSN update stole this show for Sony. Ted Price came onto the floor within 15 minutes of the start to showcase Resistance 2, with some glorious gameplay footage and an astounding trailer. Really, it was phenomenal. In the gameplay, Nathan Hale is escaping to safety on rooftops from the 300ft monster that was hyped about for a while, and was also glimpsed at on Gametrailers show, GTTV. The monster seemed like he will be a great enemy for players to fend off, and I know I can’t wait to. LittleBigPlanet only had a few glimpses of gameplay footage, and Killzone 2 was nowhere to be found. The heavily hyped God of War 3 had a terrible teaser trailer towards the end of the conference as well. Infamaous had a great new trailer showing more gameplay footage, and looks to be promising. Playstation 3 will also have a lineup of “Greatest Hits” this fall consisting of: Resistance:Fall of Man, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Call of Duty 3, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, and Warhawk. The 80gb model may be the only SKU soon, because its now has a price tag of $399.99.

The real kicker for game was a new title from Zipper Interactive, MAG-Massive Action Game. Say what you want about the title, but 256 player online should be the real draw in. It is pulling a Resistance 2 feature, which is breaking the teams into squads, in this case 8 players. A trailer was shown for the game and it looks to be, as Mel told me, an MMO-War. That does about sum it up for that one…which comes out in 2009.

PSN’s big announcement, as I’ve said before, was the ability to download and rent movies. The price to buy is $14.99, and renting was a little bit lower, but I don’t believe was mentioned. This feature will be available today, June 15th.

I will leave you with this question; what happened to HOME?

Tags: E3, News, playstation

Another Gears of War 2 Update

During Microsoft’s Press Conference today, Fan favorite Cliffy B came out and demoed the higly anticipated Gears of War 2. He presented a 15 minute excerpt from a level where Marcus and Dom are fighting there way to a huge Locust sinkhole. The graphics are improved in tiny areas, especially the characters and shadowing. A few new enemies were featured, like a chain wielding locust and a pyromaniac locust wielding the new flamethrower which was used in the demo. Towards the end of the demo there is a hint at riding a Brumak, with Marcus’ line being, “If they can ride it, so can we…”. This will surely be a huge aspect of gameplay and please all the fans who were upset at Gears PC being able to fight the Brumak, but now they can ride one!!

Tags: 360, E3, gears of war

Rumor Alert: MGO DLC ALREADY?!

A rumor has been starting to spread on the internet about an upcoming DLC pack for the hit PS3 online game, Metal Gear Online. I had previously done impressions on this game saying it was a very great game, just not as stealthy as it could be. Well, one part of the DLC is a new gametype called Team Scanning, where teams are split up into two, the Sneakers and the Defenders; with the Sneaking team able to use stealth camouflage. Now this doesn’t really make the game more stealthy and tactical, but rather cheesy. If your opponent has the camouflage on, they can do what they want with you without retaliation. But lets say they put a blue outline of a person with stealth camouflage on, then that would defeat the purpose of using it in the first place. Either way this seems like a good idea when written on the drawing board, but doesn’t seem like it will be implemented well. Another spin on the gameplay is an optional “head shot” only kill. This is pretty pointless since that’s what most people do anyway, due to body shots are relatively ineffective. There is also a “Survival Mode” which should be a simple one death and you’re out game.

On the character side, female characters are now able to be made for all those female FOX-Hound members out there. I don’t know why this wasn’t added in the first place, but apparently I read Kojima saying something how it wouldn’t have had a good feeling in the game with female characters; that’s just sexist I think. Johnny and Meryl will now be playable characters in the game, I guess somewhere in the Sneaking Mission gametype, but still unsure. As stated above, these are only rumors so nothing is set in stone.

The biggest thing in the rumor is the addition of 3 new maps: Shadow Moses, Mei Ling’s ship and the MGS1 Heliport. All sound completely amazing and I really hope the rumor is true just because of the maps alone. The maps, the characters, and the Survival Mode are said to be released 7/17 in Japan for 1200 yen. And Team Scanning and head shot only kill option is to be released earlier, on 7/4. Let’s hope this rumor is true, and hits stateside soon.

[Via Gametrailers forum via n4g]

Tags: metal gear solid 4 upate dlc rumor

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