Now it was time to see if SONY could continue their good work at their Event in February. Also, did they have a good answer to Microsoft stepping up their game earlier that day.
After a rockin’ musical intro, where through the huge wrap around screen the Conference Hall acted like a good Night Club Jack Tretton strutted on the stage. As with the other events he showed there still life in the current machines (Vita and the PS3). Announcements like of Batman: Arkham Origins, Counterspy, Destiny of Spirits, Killzone Mercenary on Vita and trailers for The Last of Us, Puppeteer, soulful and melancholic looking Rain on PS3. After Rain was another trailer for Beyond Two Souls, which this seems to set up an early part of the story (featuring Willem Defoe). At this time I was looking forward to David Cage’s next title, but this trailer took away a lot of my interest, as Ellen Page was on a CIA covert ops mission. It set up what was a by-the-numbers combat mission, but seeing the demo being shown afterwards showed more of what went on before. It was Page, Homeless, probably after escaping the police station in the first trailer, warming up with other bums around a fire, made in an old petrol drum. Lets just hope it’s more Heavy Rain than Mercenaries. After that it was time for another Racing game, this time Gran Turismo 6. I have my fingers crossed that Polyphony learnt something form the criticism of GT5, and have proper, good racing. Then it was Batman: Arkham Origins time, which I have no doubt will be as good as the first two games, with added bonus Skin of 60’s Batman. Closing the PS3 segment was Tretton not only announcing GTAV, but an GTAV PS3 bundle, with an exclusive Headset. When I think of GTA I don’t automatically think ‘I must wear my headset,’ but I believe GTAV as expanded it multiplayer from IV, so I guess I will be online more often.
Kicking off the PS4 section Jack introduced Andrew House (who did of the heavy lifting in February. To kick it off, as the promo video a few weeks earlier let out, he showed the machine. I don’t know about the two colour Black/Grey scheme but it’s split Rhomboid shape is striking. And it’s as small, not PS3 Slim small, but thinner than the original Fat PS3 and the Xbox One.
Then the show went downhill, with a lengthy talk on the integration of it’s music and movie services. Yes the first part about the Vita and PS3 was a little dull, but necessary to remind people that it’s not being left behind because the PS4 is in town. Andrew introduced Michael Lynton, head of Sony Pictures, to bore us for a while, talking about dedicated programming for the PS4. Then there was similar TV and Sport services that Microsoft got out of the way in their event in May. Zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Mmmmzzzzz uh.....ah......what’s that Chris?. Oh, I should finish off Part 2 of my E3 blog. It even had dull Award Show music (although the annoying kind from the SEGA Vintage games).
After a rockin’ musical intro, where through the huge wrap around screen the Conference Hall acted like a good Night Club Jack Tretton strutted on the stage. As with the other events he showed there still life in the current machines (Vita and the PS3). Announcements like of Batman: Arkham Origins, Counterspy, Destiny of Spirits, Killzone Mercenary on Vita and trailers for The Last of Us, Puppeteer, soulful and melancholic looking Rain on PS3. After Rain was another trailer for Beyond Two Souls, which this seems to set up an early part of the story (featuring Willem Defoe). At this time I was looking forward to David Cage’s next title, but this trailer took away a lot of my interest, as Ellen Page was on a CIA covert ops mission. It set up what was a by-the-numbers combat mission, but seeing the demo being shown afterwards showed more of what went on before. It was Page, Homeless, probably after escaping the police station in the first trailer, warming up with other bums around a fire, made in an old petrol drum. Lets just hope it’s more Heavy Rain than Mercenaries. After that it was time for another Racing game, this time Gran Turismo 6. I have my fingers crossed that Polyphony learnt something form the criticism of GT5, and have proper, good racing. Then it was Batman: Arkham Origins time, which I have no doubt will be as good as the first two games, with added bonus Skin of 60’s Batman. Closing the PS3 segment was Tretton not only announcing GTAV, but an GTAV PS3 bundle, with an exclusive Headset. When I think of GTA I don’t automatically think ‘I must wear my headset,’ but I believe GTAV as expanded it multiplayer from IV, so I guess I will be online more often.
Kicking off the PS4 section Jack introduced Andrew House (who did of the heavy lifting in February. To kick it off, as the promo video a few weeks earlier let out, he showed the machine. I don’t know about the two colour Black/Grey scheme but it’s split Rhomboid shape is striking. And it’s as small, not PS3 Slim small, but thinner than the original Fat PS3 and the Xbox One.
Then the show went downhill, with a lengthy talk on the integration of it’s music and movie services. Yes the first part about the Vita and PS3 was a little dull, but necessary to remind people that it’s not being left behind because the PS4 is in town. Andrew introduced Michael Lynton, head of Sony Pictures, to bore us for a while, talking about dedicated programming for the PS4. Then there was similar TV and Sport services that Microsoft got out of the way in their event in May. Zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Mmmmzzzzz uh.....ah......what’s that Chris?. Oh, I should finish off Part 2 of my E3 blog. It even had dull Award Show music (although the annoying kind from the SEGA Vintage games).
 I’ll clear this blasted Mist, with something called Electricity, fired from this here boomstick. |  I’ll open the hearts of gamers with this. |
Finally the PS4 games, introduced by Andrew, President of SONY Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studio – Shu Yoshida started it off. A lovely, genial fella did well in speaking to thousands in a language other than Japanese. Kicking it off is a fantastic, fascinating Victorian, Steampunk fantasy game by Santa Monica Studios – The Order 1886. In foggy old Lahndon Town (Cockney for London) a group of people step out of a horse-drawn carriage, armed to the teeth to fight some unseen hellish creatures. Even though it was just a trailer, but made with in-game graphics, the premise of it does hold interest of an alternate history fantasy fan like myself. Jack the Ripper as a hellish demon, hopefully <fingers crossed>.
After showing some update footage of Killzone: Shadowfall, Driveclub, Infamous: Second Son, and Knack that we saw in the February Event. Which they all look fine and dandy, especially through word-of-mouth of those who played it, Infamous. Next to excite the crowd, and those insomniac of us who stayed up to 2am when this started, was a graphical demo by David Cage. Expanded from the face demo from February, the old man is an actor in sword and sorcery game (The Dark Sorcerer) shot on green screen. Yoshida then passed the presenting duties to Adam Boyes (cue young guy, urban accent ‘alright bouy’).
Not only was Adam the V.P for Third Party Relations for SONY Computer Entertainment America, but along with Shu Yoshida, he was star of the Video of E3. More on that later. He announced the first signs of SONY’s relationship with Indie Game Makers, with showcasing a few on stage. Transistor by Spupergiant Games, Clay Entertainment with a game I’ve been dying to play – Don’t Starve, Tribute Games (Scott Pilgrim vs The World) with Mercenary Kings. Also there, was Young Horse with Octodad, Switchbalde Monkeys with Secret Ponchos, Ragtag Studios with Ray’s Ded, Red Barrel with Outlast, and Oddworld Inhabitants with a HD remake of an old PSOne fave Oddworld Oddysee (renamed Oddworld Young and Tasty). also there, was 17-bit Games with Galaxy. Most of those games I’m looking forward to playing them, and is one side of the PS4 that intrigues me.
After showing some update footage of Killzone: Shadowfall, Driveclub, Infamous: Second Son, and Knack that we saw in the February Event. Which they all look fine and dandy, especially through word-of-mouth of those who played it, Infamous. Next to excite the crowd, and those insomniac of us who stayed up to 2am when this started, was a graphical demo by David Cage. Expanded from the face demo from February, the old man is an actor in sword and sorcery game (The Dark Sorcerer) shot on green screen. Yoshida then passed the presenting duties to Adam Boyes (cue young guy, urban accent ‘alright bouy’).
Not only was Adam the V.P for Third Party Relations for SONY Computer Entertainment America, but along with Shu Yoshida, he was star of the Video of E3. More on that later. He announced the first signs of SONY’s relationship with Indie Game Makers, with showcasing a few on stage. Transistor by Spupergiant Games, Clay Entertainment with a game I’ve been dying to play – Don’t Starve, Tribute Games (Scott Pilgrim vs The World) with Mercenary Kings. Also there, was Young Horse with Octodad, Switchbalde Monkeys with Secret Ponchos, Ragtag Studios with Ray’s Ded, Red Barrel with Outlast, and Oddworld Inhabitants with a HD remake of an old PSOne fave Oddworld Oddysee (renamed Oddworld Young and Tasty). also there, was 17-bit Games with Galaxy. Most of those games I’m looking forward to playing them, and is one side of the PS4 that intrigues me.
 The PS4 is not Starving of Indie love |  Ah to hell with hacking, I’m just going cave your head in. |
After showcasing them it was time for the blockbuster games. First up, and introduced via video by creator Tetsuya Nomura, is Final Fantasy versus XIII (now rebranded Final Fantasy XV). Not only that, and to the delight of the crowd, he introduce Kingdom Hearts 3, the Keypad never looked more unwieldy lol.
Then it was time for more Pirate impersonation ( which Adam joined in on)s as Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag was shown. It was a more integrated demo, showing map and era, cut scene, then the running stalking, and fighting, to a ship battle, which ended abruptly. Despite that hitch a very impressive game, and like I said in the Ubisoft demo, one I hope restores the quality of the series. Then another big game from Ubisoft – Watchdogs. This has still the hacking techniques we come to love, but the running and gunning is sneaking into the demos. Lets hope that been-there-done-that action moves play a small part of the game. Because Watchdogs is still very, very impressive when it doesn’t resort to cover shooting.
Then in an odd, but fun, trail Basketball giant Lebron James (‘he’s not me, but my cooler, african-amercian, B-Ball playing cousin’) talking to his NBA 2K14 self. After brief clip was The Elder Scrolls Online, which the Beta is first on the PS4. What can I say, it looks, feels, and sounds like Skyrim. As Mark Williams says in The Fast Show – ‘Which is nice.’ After that a brief teaser for a Mad Max game, that no-one knew about. If I was harsh I would add that no-one really cared also, but hey, it was only a teaser, it could be a really good open-world driving action game.
Then it was time for more Pirate impersonation ( which Adam joined in on)s as Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag was shown. It was a more integrated demo, showing map and era, cut scene, then the running stalking, and fighting, to a ship battle, which ended abruptly. Despite that hitch a very impressive game, and like I said in the Ubisoft demo, one I hope restores the quality of the series. Then another big game from Ubisoft – Watchdogs. This has still the hacking techniques we come to love, but the running and gunning is sneaking into the demos. Lets hope that been-there-done-that action moves play a small part of the game. Because Watchdogs is still very, very impressive when it doesn’t resort to cover shooting.
Then in an odd, but fun, trail Basketball giant Lebron James (‘he’s not me, but my cooler, african-amercian, B-Ball playing cousin’) talking to his NBA 2K14 self. After brief clip was The Elder Scrolls Online, which the Beta is first on the PS4. What can I say, it looks, feels, and sounds like Skyrim. As Mark Williams says in The Fast Show – ‘Which is nice.’ After that a brief teaser for a Mad Max game, that no-one knew about. If I was harsh I would add that no-one really cared also, but hey, it was only a teaser, it could be a really good open-world driving action game.
 Here’s how to share a game |  The first step in Jack Tretton getting an Honouree Knightood |
At this time the whole conference has been an itty-bitty affair with the highs - Indies, Kingdom Hearts 3, the ACBF/Watchdog combo almost killed with ‘meh’ announcements – like Mad Ma, The Elder Scrolls Online (as that on XO and PC as well) Final Fantasy XV (that’s multiformat too, as is Kindom Hearts 3, but people didn’t know that that was coming), the 2K and The Dark Sorcerer vids. It was time for Jack Tretton to come back and save the show.
It didn’t look at first he would, as he bragged on how many games were being developed for the machine (but how many of those are developing for the XO too). But then he got Microsoft on the ropes, and like Mohammed Ali, he played some Rop-a-Dope with them. BOOM! No restrictions on used games (culminating in the brief video of Shu Yoshida handing a game to a joyous Adam Boyes, who thanks him). BOOM! There’s no need for disk-based games to be connect to the internet to play them. Then he toyed with them with PSN reminders, and the announcement that your Plus membership carries over to PS4 and there will be a Driveclub Plus Edition. Plus (no pun intended, well alright, it was) part of the Instant Game Collection Outlast, The Secret Ponchos, andthe one I’m excited about – Don’t Starve. Then it was time for the knockout punch. BOOM! $399/£349. A hundred less ($, 80 in £s) than the XO.
Oh there was demo of new game From Bungie demoed – a certain game called Destiny. A gorgeous mesh of Halo and Borderlands 2, a sci-fi shooter, once again meshing single, co-op, and multiplayers games.
So SONY has a huge early lead from Microsoft, by staying as they are. Micosoft have had a huge PR nightmare, and costing an extra $100 won’t help regain supporters. But as always the big winners is us, a great console (maybe two if Microsoft can pick themselves up), a fantastic price, and great games.
Simon James
It didn’t look at first he would, as he bragged on how many games were being developed for the machine (but how many of those are developing for the XO too). But then he got Microsoft on the ropes, and like Mohammed Ali, he played some Rop-a-Dope with them. BOOM! No restrictions on used games (culminating in the brief video of Shu Yoshida handing a game to a joyous Adam Boyes, who thanks him). BOOM! There’s no need for disk-based games to be connect to the internet to play them. Then he toyed with them with PSN reminders, and the announcement that your Plus membership carries over to PS4 and there will be a Driveclub Plus Edition. Plus (no pun intended, well alright, it was) part of the Instant Game Collection Outlast, The Secret Ponchos, andthe one I’m excited about – Don’t Starve. Then it was time for the knockout punch. BOOM! $399/£349. A hundred less ($, 80 in £s) than the XO.
Oh there was demo of new game From Bungie demoed – a certain game called Destiny. A gorgeous mesh of Halo and Borderlands 2, a sci-fi shooter, once again meshing single, co-op, and multiplayers games.
So SONY has a huge early lead from Microsoft, by staying as they are. Micosoft have had a huge PR nightmare, and costing an extra $100 won’t help regain supporters. But as always the big winners is us, a great console (maybe two if Microsoft can pick themselves up), a fantastic price, and great games.
Simon James
 What’s an Xbox? Preorder sorted |  Bungie-jumping to a public game |
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