What's What with the PlayStation 3
The system, the games, the specs, and the lofty hopes we have for Sony's latest powerhouse.
Published: July 1, 2005
While we might not be technically correct by calling these hi-res clips and tech demos actually games, it's safe to say that calling these confirmed PS3 titles wouldn't exactly be absurd. From anticipated (though perhaps expected) sequels to new projects out of the blue, the line-up of next-gen titles was certainly something worth getting excited over. We've taken the liberty of breaking down the "games" that Sony assembled conference, and based off first impressions, have thrown in our own two cents about how each looks and the hopes we have for 'em. Take a read-through, won't you?
Fight Night Round 3
EA Chicago
What It Is: The latest in EA's accredited boxing franchise (the third Fight Night, yes, but the previously-named Knockout Kings series has been around for years). As it seems, realism and graphic detail are being tweaked out big-time by the team at EA Chicago.
What We Thought: The demonstration of Round 3, which was apparently "all running live, in real-time, on Renderware, on the PS3," was built entirely around a single match, about twenty seconds in length, with two guys basically beating the crap out of each other. EA Chicago's Kudo Tsonoda specifically mentioned the team's intentions to bringing out the realism of a fight, and that we saw plenty of, in the form of dazed looks and ripple-like shockwave across a fighter's face after enduring a devastating, hard right. Facial expressions were also emphasized and will apparently serve as an indicator of the boxer's status. Could this mean goodbye health bars? We'll have to see.
What We're Hoping For: While realistic-looking boxers and life-like animations are always nice, we're just hoping that the gameplay aspect is up to meet the challenge. Seeing as the first two Fight Nights have been all-around solid, though, we probably don't have too much to worry about.
Final Fantasy VII Tech Demo
Square Enix
What It Is: Unfortunately, it's just that: a technical demo of Final Fantasy VII's memorable opening scene simply intended to demonstrate what the PlayStation 3's processing capabilities. Squenix claims to have no plans for remaking the classic, but being in such high demand as it is and taking into account the time no doubt required for the team to whip together just the game's CGI intro, one has to wonder.
What We Saw: Anyone who's played Final Fantasy VII (and honestly, if you haven't, what the hell's wrong with you?) is no doubt familiar with this scene: Aeris strolls through the streets of Midgar, the camera zooms out until the encircling Mako reactors come into view, then cut to a train roaring into the station and out hops spikey-haired Cloud Strife, big-ass Buster Sword in hand and all. Now take that and imagine what it would look being rendered by a GPU like the PS3's RSX , and you'll likely get an idea for what we saw. Though blocky character models were an unmistakable touch to FF7, it was really something to see Aeris and Cloud digitally remastered and looking like actual people.
What We're Hoping For: Hm, how 'bout an actual full-blown remake of one of our dearest RPGs? Square Enix, you're a tease alright, but give the people what they want!
Formula One
LiverPool Studio
What It Is: A formula racer right out of the UK that certainly looks to capture the sights and sounds of the sport.
What We Saw: The clip started off through the eyes of a driver in the pit moments before the race, but eventually turned its attention towards the line of cars roaring at the starting line. One dimmed light later, they were off, and the camera took the liberty of providing several dramatic angles as the engines screeched and tires burned the track. Crowd reactions were on par too, as one shot of the stands in particular showed "the wave" in all its glory. The race featured one nasty crash in particular, which actually resulted in cockeyed tires and a busted ride. Let's hope we see that kind of realistic damage in the game!
What We're Hoping For: Formula racing has never been too much of a hit here in the states, but he's to hoping SCEE decides to bring this one to our shores. After all, someone's gotta compete with Gran Turismo.
Devil May Cry 4
Capcom
What It Is: Dante, how good it is to see you again. Yep, this would be the fourth installment in the demon-juggling, dual handgun-brandishing series that is Devil May Cry. But is it a sequel? Prequel? At this time, it's anyone's guess.
What We Saw: Half of the footage consisted of the text "We are born... the innocent suffer... legends are made... evil is punished..." amidst black and white clips of previous DMC games. Just like that, cut to a snow-covered hill topped by a lone, gargantuan castle, and our man Dante, who does a bit of sole swordwork before holding the camera at a gunpoint, and bam, the end.
What We're Hoping For: It's too early to draw any conclusions from DMC4's brief video, but in the long run, we can hope the game corrects its predecessor's (and by that we mean DMC3) difficulty issue and hopefully nail the perfection of the original.
Mobile Suit Gundam
Bandai
What It Is: Gigantic robots battling it out across city streets, leaving no mercy on the edifices and structures that fall victim to the destruction? Yep, this would be a Gundam game for the PlayStation 3.
What We Saw: So, ok, this quite frankly looked quite awesome in PS3-fashion. A number of recognizable Gundam characters were seen gunning in out on the streets, with gatling and machine guns, and heck, rocket launchers at their disposal, it seemed. Defeat looked to be taken quite harshly as well, as one bot could be seen losing his arm before falling to a bed of debris and pavement.
What We're Hoping For: If the scale and absolute destruction of the game holds true, this could be like War of the Monsters, Gundam style. Or just Gundam done right, for that matter.
Tekken
Namco
What It Is: Assuming Namco sticks to the number system, this would be the sixth installment in its famed fighting series Tekken, and the third platform it's appeared on.
What We Saw: The clip consisted of nothing more than multiple shots of a hardened Jin Kazama, before parting on the phrase, "A new reality waits." Seeing as Tekken has never been a series to disappoint visually, the detail present on ol' Jin (down to the drop of sweat, folks) was certainly worth gawking over.
What We're Hoping For: Ok Namco, so we know you're more than capable of giving us the prettiest fighting game we've ever seen, but how about some tweaks to the gameplay formula? "A new reality awaits?" We sure hope so.
Red Dead Revolver 2
Rockstar Games
What It Is: Well, this certainly came as a surprise, as Rockstar showed off what looked to be a follow-up to its Western shooter, Red Dead Revolver. Seeing as the demo lacked any and all titles, though, we could be mistaken.
What We Saw: In what we saw to be the old West, a sun makes its ascent over a humble town surrounded by mountains. Meanwhile, a cowboy on horseback trots through the streets of sand as we see their shadow cast along the porch of a nearby house. We finally catch a glimpse of this lone rider, but not before the camera cuts to a shot of another cowboy, shotgun to his shoulder and coat flapping in the wind, overlooking the town below. Like something right out of a Western, right?
What We're Hoping For: We're all for games with a movie feel (and the orchestrated music for the clip certainly didn't hurt), and thus far, Rockstar's latest Western (we still kind of hesitate to call it Red Dead Revolver 2, but it seems only logical, right?) looks to have just that. Solid gameplay can hopefully go hand-in-hand with the dramatic CGI scenes.
Killzone
Guerilla Games
What It Was: Ah, here was our showstopper. While the heated debate of whether or not the demo was in real-time or not, this is for sure the sequel to Guerilla Games' could-have-been-Halo-killer, Killzone.
What We Saw: A camera slowly glides across the clouds (just wait for it... the Simppppsons!) until soon enough, a comrade's mug comes into view and he quickly commences to barking orders. Turns out you're aboard one of many airships on their descent into enemy territory and the risk down below becomes evident soon enough, as you witness a fellow ship bear a direct missile hit and ultimately collide into a building and explode. Your own cruiser doesn't have the same misfortune and luckily makes a "safe" landing, only to be greeted by the gunfire of glowy-eyed enemies from a bridge overhead. A group of your cohorts thrash in agony as a flamethrower feasts on their bodies. After gunning down an enemy yourself (who most realistically hangs for his life before plummeting to his imminent doom), you make it to the top of the bridge yourself to find multiple comrades on the offensive. A fellow soldier steadies his aim with a cannon, fires, and hits his target, an enemy truck further down the bridge. Without delay, though, a handful of your men shake hands with death as a gunship fires from overhead. It's about to make a second pass back and you've just been handed a rocket launcher. Click. Boom. A direct hit, as the gunship explodes on contact and collides into the bridge before recklessly toppling to the ground below.
What We're Hoping For: Phew! Powerful stuff, no? Screw trying to rival Halo - we honestly hope Killzone PS3 goes above and beyond with deliver the most intense, visceral shooter to date. We've got our fingers crossed for you, Guerilla.
Vision Gran Turismo
Polyphony Digital
What It Is: The most realistic racer to date just got... MORE realistic!
What We Saw: As impressive as it is, we've seen this type of footage before: batches of licensed cars, digitally rendered to a tee, cruising past scenic coasts and rounding turns with massive canyons as their backdrop. And tell me you haven't heard this before: it looks GOOD. Even on-screen, we're reassured the series is going from "partial reality to complete reality."
What We're Hoping For: Polyphony has never seemed to have a problem giving us the most visually impressive, full-fledged racing games on the market, and Vision GT will likely be just that.
I-8
Insomniac Games
What It Is: It was nice to see Insomniac returning to their Disruptor roots with the painfully short snippet of I-8, a mélange of World War II-style visuals with alien monsters that can only be described as... Insomniac-esque. It has the general feel of dirty, gritty, immersive shooter with dark, almost post-apocalyptic color palettes and WWII fatigues on the soldiers.
What We Saw: Though way too short and far too choppy to get an idea of what the final product would be like, the short little bits where we saw some of the multi-eyed monsters and literally dozens of fellow soldiers charging into the fray on the screen at the same time was genuinely awe-inspiring -- and that was before the massive three story tall spider-like monster charged onto a dirt road and then charged at the audience.
What We're Hoping For: We're praying that the level of immersion and tense fighting we've seen in some of the better WWII first-person shooters mixes well with a truly frightening alien monster movie bent. The increase in horsepower will mean bigger environments and more stuff on the screen at once, sure, but nothing will sell the whole experience better than getting the emotional connection of fellow comrades heading into battle, a deep, interactive storyline and some really, really cool reveals of these monsters. Oh, and there's nothing wrong with some really cool scripted events that really milk some physics elements and killer AI either.
Ni-OH
Koei
What It Is: By now familiar territory to Koei, Ni-OH looks to be set in the heat of rivaling kingdoms at war. From the looks of things, you happen to be the sword-wielding chap who's capable of slaughtering an entire army in style.
What We Saw: In the midst of two clashing armies, the spotlight through all this mess was set one samurai in particular, decked out in silver armor and with blond locks that would make even Fabio jealous. He made sure to dispose of enemies with ease, as flashy swordplay, jumps and kicks seemed to be his forte.
What We're Hoping For: Kicking the crap out of an entire army? Hey, sounds good to us! Let's just hope those stylish moves are as fun to pull off as they are to witness.
Eyedentify
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
What It Is: Apparently, an interactive game that lets a sap like you, through a headset video chat (via EyeToy, we'd assume), asset a couple of buxom babes on super secret missions, we're sure.
What We Saw: We're not quite sure the level of interactivity here, but the footage featured the home player at one point laughing it up with one of the two in-game chicks at a joke we're certain would leave us in tears if we had heard it. Nonetheless, the two ladies seemed to embrace him (you) as actually an essential asset to pulling of their objectives, which included them ascending a moving vehicle and heading into another location with handguns locked and loaded.
What We're Hoping For: Something more than a gimmick? No word yet on the likelihood of "Kiss each other" or "Get naked" as available commands.
Fifth Phantom Saga
Sonic Team
What It Is: Seemingly a first person shooter, 'cept it looks like you have PK control over the creature floating in front of you at all times.
What We Saw: Pretty much a handful of clips that involved your character gunning away ruthlessly in the first person, and the creature hovering in front of you rocking a blue aura and offering a helping hand.
What We're Hoping For: Seems like an interesting twist to the FPS concept, but hopefully having control over two characters simultaneously (since we're assuming that's what it is) isn't too complicated.
Heavenly Sword
Ninja Theory
What It Is: Unless our eyes deceived us, a God of War-esque action game with a female protagonist who has the means to tear through an entire army.
What We Saw: There was plenty of merciless ass-kicking to go around here, as the red-haired star of the show disposed of enemies left and right with her chain blades, as they looked to be. Seeing one too many goons get hurled into wooden tables and barrels led us to believe that the environments here are up there on the level of interactivity. Just to top things off, though, the clip ended with our vixen cocking a huge cannon before unleashing a set of missiles into an oncoming army, that is, before she ran in for herself to slice through hoards of soldiers like it was her job. Oh wait, it probably is.
What We're Hoping For: Ninja Theory definitely has a challenge trying to deliver an action game as brutal as God of War, but we'll still keep an eye out for this one.
Warhawk
Incognito Studios
What It Is: A sequel to the PlayStation game from way, way back, though this one looks to include both first-person shooter and aerial-based elements.
What We Saw: Brief overall, the footage began with a few armed soldiers investigating a cavern, but was quick to cut to an outside shot, where thousands of fighter planes and a few massive airships stormed across the sky like birds migrating for the winter.
What We're Hoping For: We can't draw too many conclusions from what we say, but a fresh mix of shooting scenarios and air combat objectives couldn't hurt.
Killing Day
Ubisoft
What It Is: A first person shooter starring a Max Payne wanna-be protagonist... at least from the looks of things.
What We Saw: While the thirty seconds of the main character capping enemies left and right isn't something we haven't seen before, a few elements of environmental interactive sparked our interest. Early on, we saw our main man taking refuge behind a globe-hoisting statue, and later on strategically take out a pair of baddies from above by shooting out the glass bridge supporting them. Weapon choice seems to be open to customization as well, as throughout the trailer, he fired away with a handgun in one hand and a machine gun in the other (though both oddly resembled handguns).
What We're Hoping For: A meaty FPS with plenty of weapon choice and a involving story to back it couldn't hurt. But please, no bullettime!
MotorStorm
Evolution Studios
What It Is: A down and dirty backroad racer with vehicles galore, from ATVs, dirtbikes and dune buggies to standard racing cars that look like they're right out of Gran Turismo!
What We Saw: The no-holds-barred racing took place on desert roads, with plenty of dust clouds and mud slinging to spare, with some truly intense competition going on. Drivers were quite merciless with one another, as cars were being flipped left and right. One car in particular got nailed in the tail by a competitor and was sent plummeting into a tree, and unless our eyes deceived us, one unfortunate motorcycle rider went careening into a nearby cabin roof!
What We're Hoping For: This kind of heated racing is something we'd love to see more of, and especially with the vehicle variety present, we can't imagine what kind of sick takedowns and spills will be possible!
Metal Gear Solid 4
Kojima Productions
What It Is: Why, it's the next installment in the hailed action stealth series, of course!
What We Saw: Though this one was MIA from the Sony conference, a humorous trailer at Konami's E3 booth assured us that Hideo Kojima, the man himself, would be reclaiming his place as the game's designer, producer and director, and fan-favorite Solid Snake would be returning to the main character role, after (quite comically) going toe-to-toe with part-time playable character, full-time pretty boy Raiden of MGS2 in the clip. Konami has also confirmed Hal Otacon, Meryl Silverburgh and the magnum-slinger Revolver Ocelot as returning characters, with a handful of new faces coming to the forefront.
What We're Hoping For: C'mon, it's Kojima! Do you really think he's going to let us down?
Fight Night Round 3
EA Chicago
What It Is: The latest in EA's accredited boxing franchise (the third Fight Night, yes, but the previously-named Knockout Kings series has been around for years). As it seems, realism and graphic detail are being tweaked out big-time by the team at EA Chicago.
What We Thought: The demonstration of Round 3, which was apparently "all running live, in real-time, on Renderware, on the PS3," was built entirely around a single match, about twenty seconds in length, with two guys basically beating the crap out of each other. EA Chicago's Kudo Tsonoda specifically mentioned the team's intentions to bringing out the realism of a fight, and that we saw plenty of, in the form of dazed looks and ripple-like shockwave across a fighter's face after enduring a devastating, hard right. Facial expressions were also emphasized and will apparently serve as an indicator of the boxer's status. Could this mean goodbye health bars? We'll have to see.
What We're Hoping For: While realistic-looking boxers and life-like animations are always nice, we're just hoping that the gameplay aspect is up to meet the challenge. Seeing as the first two Fight Nights have been all-around solid, though, we probably don't have too much to worry about.
Final Fantasy VII Tech Demo
Square Enix
What It Is: Unfortunately, it's just that: a technical demo of Final Fantasy VII's memorable opening scene simply intended to demonstrate what the PlayStation 3's processing capabilities. Squenix claims to have no plans for remaking the classic, but being in such high demand as it is and taking into account the time no doubt required for the team to whip together just the game's CGI intro, one has to wonder.
What We Saw: Anyone who's played Final Fantasy VII (and honestly, if you haven't, what the hell's wrong with you?) is no doubt familiar with this scene: Aeris strolls through the streets of Midgar, the camera zooms out until the encircling Mako reactors come into view, then cut to a train roaring into the station and out hops spikey-haired Cloud Strife, big-ass Buster Sword in hand and all. Now take that and imagine what it would look being rendered by a GPU like the PS3's RSX , and you'll likely get an idea for what we saw. Though blocky character models were an unmistakable touch to FF7, it was really something to see Aeris and Cloud digitally remastered and looking like actual people.
What We're Hoping For: Hm, how 'bout an actual full-blown remake of one of our dearest RPGs? Square Enix, you're a tease alright, but give the people what they want!
Formula One
LiverPool Studio
What It Is: A formula racer right out of the UK that certainly looks to capture the sights and sounds of the sport.
What We Saw: The clip started off through the eyes of a driver in the pit moments before the race, but eventually turned its attention towards the line of cars roaring at the starting line. One dimmed light later, they were off, and the camera took the liberty of providing several dramatic angles as the engines screeched and tires burned the track. Crowd reactions were on par too, as one shot of the stands in particular showed "the wave" in all its glory. The race featured one nasty crash in particular, which actually resulted in cockeyed tires and a busted ride. Let's hope we see that kind of realistic damage in the game!
What We're Hoping For: Formula racing has never been too much of a hit here in the states, but he's to hoping SCEE decides to bring this one to our shores. After all, someone's gotta compete with Gran Turismo.
Devil May Cry 4
Capcom
What It Is: Dante, how good it is to see you again. Yep, this would be the fourth installment in the demon-juggling, dual handgun-brandishing series that is Devil May Cry. But is it a sequel? Prequel? At this time, it's anyone's guess.
What We Saw: Half of the footage consisted of the text "We are born... the innocent suffer... legends are made... evil is punished..." amidst black and white clips of previous DMC games. Just like that, cut to a snow-covered hill topped by a lone, gargantuan castle, and our man Dante, who does a bit of sole swordwork before holding the camera at a gunpoint, and bam, the end.
What We're Hoping For: It's too early to draw any conclusions from DMC4's brief video, but in the long run, we can hope the game corrects its predecessor's (and by that we mean DMC3) difficulty issue and hopefully nail the perfection of the original.
Mobile Suit Gundam
Bandai
What It Is: Gigantic robots battling it out across city streets, leaving no mercy on the edifices and structures that fall victim to the destruction? Yep, this would be a Gundam game for the PlayStation 3.
What We Saw: So, ok, this quite frankly looked quite awesome in PS3-fashion. A number of recognizable Gundam characters were seen gunning in out on the streets, with gatling and machine guns, and heck, rocket launchers at their disposal, it seemed. Defeat looked to be taken quite harshly as well, as one bot could be seen losing his arm before falling to a bed of debris and pavement.
What We're Hoping For: If the scale and absolute destruction of the game holds true, this could be like War of the Monsters, Gundam style. Or just Gundam done right, for that matter.
Tekken
Namco
What It Is: Assuming Namco sticks to the number system, this would be the sixth installment in its famed fighting series Tekken, and the third platform it's appeared on.
What We Saw: The clip consisted of nothing more than multiple shots of a hardened Jin Kazama, before parting on the phrase, "A new reality waits." Seeing as Tekken has never been a series to disappoint visually, the detail present on ol' Jin (down to the drop of sweat, folks) was certainly worth gawking over.
What We're Hoping For: Ok Namco, so we know you're more than capable of giving us the prettiest fighting game we've ever seen, but how about some tweaks to the gameplay formula? "A new reality awaits?" We sure hope so.
Red Dead Revolver 2
Rockstar Games
What It Is: Well, this certainly came as a surprise, as Rockstar showed off what looked to be a follow-up to its Western shooter, Red Dead Revolver. Seeing as the demo lacked any and all titles, though, we could be mistaken.
What We Saw: In what we saw to be the old West, a sun makes its ascent over a humble town surrounded by mountains. Meanwhile, a cowboy on horseback trots through the streets of sand as we see their shadow cast along the porch of a nearby house. We finally catch a glimpse of this lone rider, but not before the camera cuts to a shot of another cowboy, shotgun to his shoulder and coat flapping in the wind, overlooking the town below. Like something right out of a Western, right?
What We're Hoping For: We're all for games with a movie feel (and the orchestrated music for the clip certainly didn't hurt), and thus far, Rockstar's latest Western (we still kind of hesitate to call it Red Dead Revolver 2, but it seems only logical, right?) looks to have just that. Solid gameplay can hopefully go hand-in-hand with the dramatic CGI scenes.
Killzone
Guerilla Games
What It Was: Ah, here was our showstopper. While the heated debate of whether or not the demo was in real-time or not, this is for sure the sequel to Guerilla Games' could-have-been-Halo-killer, Killzone.
What We Saw: A camera slowly glides across the clouds (just wait for it... the Simppppsons!) until soon enough, a comrade's mug comes into view and he quickly commences to barking orders. Turns out you're aboard one of many airships on their descent into enemy territory and the risk down below becomes evident soon enough, as you witness a fellow ship bear a direct missile hit and ultimately collide into a building and explode. Your own cruiser doesn't have the same misfortune and luckily makes a "safe" landing, only to be greeted by the gunfire of glowy-eyed enemies from a bridge overhead. A group of your cohorts thrash in agony as a flamethrower feasts on their bodies. After gunning down an enemy yourself (who most realistically hangs for his life before plummeting to his imminent doom), you make it to the top of the bridge yourself to find multiple comrades on the offensive. A fellow soldier steadies his aim with a cannon, fires, and hits his target, an enemy truck further down the bridge. Without delay, though, a handful of your men shake hands with death as a gunship fires from overhead. It's about to make a second pass back and you've just been handed a rocket launcher. Click. Boom. A direct hit, as the gunship explodes on contact and collides into the bridge before recklessly toppling to the ground below.
What We're Hoping For: Phew! Powerful stuff, no? Screw trying to rival Halo - we honestly hope Killzone PS3 goes above and beyond with deliver the most intense, visceral shooter to date. We've got our fingers crossed for you, Guerilla.
Vision Gran Turismo
Polyphony Digital
What It Is: The most realistic racer to date just got... MORE realistic!
What We Saw: As impressive as it is, we've seen this type of footage before: batches of licensed cars, digitally rendered to a tee, cruising past scenic coasts and rounding turns with massive canyons as their backdrop. And tell me you haven't heard this before: it looks GOOD. Even on-screen, we're reassured the series is going from "partial reality to complete reality."
What We're Hoping For: Polyphony has never seemed to have a problem giving us the most visually impressive, full-fledged racing games on the market, and Vision GT will likely be just that.
I-8
Insomniac Games
What It Is: It was nice to see Insomniac returning to their Disruptor roots with the painfully short snippet of I-8, a mélange of World War II-style visuals with alien monsters that can only be described as... Insomniac-esque. It has the general feel of dirty, gritty, immersive shooter with dark, almost post-apocalyptic color palettes and WWII fatigues on the soldiers.
What We Saw: Though way too short and far too choppy to get an idea of what the final product would be like, the short little bits where we saw some of the multi-eyed monsters and literally dozens of fellow soldiers charging into the fray on the screen at the same time was genuinely awe-inspiring -- and that was before the massive three story tall spider-like monster charged onto a dirt road and then charged at the audience.
What We're Hoping For: We're praying that the level of immersion and tense fighting we've seen in some of the better WWII first-person shooters mixes well with a truly frightening alien monster movie bent. The increase in horsepower will mean bigger environments and more stuff on the screen at once, sure, but nothing will sell the whole experience better than getting the emotional connection of fellow comrades heading into battle, a deep, interactive storyline and some really, really cool reveals of these monsters. Oh, and there's nothing wrong with some really cool scripted events that really milk some physics elements and killer AI either.
Ni-OH
Koei
What It Is: By now familiar territory to Koei, Ni-OH looks to be set in the heat of rivaling kingdoms at war. From the looks of things, you happen to be the sword-wielding chap who's capable of slaughtering an entire army in style.
What We Saw: In the midst of two clashing armies, the spotlight through all this mess was set one samurai in particular, decked out in silver armor and with blond locks that would make even Fabio jealous. He made sure to dispose of enemies with ease, as flashy swordplay, jumps and kicks seemed to be his forte.
What We're Hoping For: Kicking the crap out of an entire army? Hey, sounds good to us! Let's just hope those stylish moves are as fun to pull off as they are to witness.
Eyedentify
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
What It Is: Apparently, an interactive game that lets a sap like you, through a headset video chat (via EyeToy, we'd assume), asset a couple of buxom babes on super secret missions, we're sure.
What We Saw: We're not quite sure the level of interactivity here, but the footage featured the home player at one point laughing it up with one of the two in-game chicks at a joke we're certain would leave us in tears if we had heard it. Nonetheless, the two ladies seemed to embrace him (you) as actually an essential asset to pulling of their objectives, which included them ascending a moving vehicle and heading into another location with handguns locked and loaded.
What We're Hoping For: Something more than a gimmick? No word yet on the likelihood of "Kiss each other" or "Get naked" as available commands.
Fifth Phantom Saga
Sonic Team
What It Is: Seemingly a first person shooter, 'cept it looks like you have PK control over the creature floating in front of you at all times.
What We Saw: Pretty much a handful of clips that involved your character gunning away ruthlessly in the first person, and the creature hovering in front of you rocking a blue aura and offering a helping hand.
What We're Hoping For: Seems like an interesting twist to the FPS concept, but hopefully having control over two characters simultaneously (since we're assuming that's what it is) isn't too complicated.
Heavenly Sword
Ninja Theory
What It Is: Unless our eyes deceived us, a God of War-esque action game with a female protagonist who has the means to tear through an entire army.
What We Saw: There was plenty of merciless ass-kicking to go around here, as the red-haired star of the show disposed of enemies left and right with her chain blades, as they looked to be. Seeing one too many goons get hurled into wooden tables and barrels led us to believe that the environments here are up there on the level of interactivity. Just to top things off, though, the clip ended with our vixen cocking a huge cannon before unleashing a set of missiles into an oncoming army, that is, before she ran in for herself to slice through hoards of soldiers like it was her job. Oh wait, it probably is.
What We're Hoping For: Ninja Theory definitely has a challenge trying to deliver an action game as brutal as God of War, but we'll still keep an eye out for this one.
Warhawk
Incognito Studios
What It Is: A sequel to the PlayStation game from way, way back, though this one looks to include both first-person shooter and aerial-based elements.
What We Saw: Brief overall, the footage began with a few armed soldiers investigating a cavern, but was quick to cut to an outside shot, where thousands of fighter planes and a few massive airships stormed across the sky like birds migrating for the winter.
What We're Hoping For: We can't draw too many conclusions from what we say, but a fresh mix of shooting scenarios and air combat objectives couldn't hurt.
Killing Day
Ubisoft
What It Is: A first person shooter starring a Max Payne wanna-be protagonist... at least from the looks of things.
What We Saw: While the thirty seconds of the main character capping enemies left and right isn't something we haven't seen before, a few elements of environmental interactive sparked our interest. Early on, we saw our main man taking refuge behind a globe-hoisting statue, and later on strategically take out a pair of baddies from above by shooting out the glass bridge supporting them. Weapon choice seems to be open to customization as well, as throughout the trailer, he fired away with a handgun in one hand and a machine gun in the other (though both oddly resembled handguns).
What We're Hoping For: A meaty FPS with plenty of weapon choice and a involving story to back it couldn't hurt. But please, no bullettime!
MotorStorm
Evolution Studios
What It Is: A down and dirty backroad racer with vehicles galore, from ATVs, dirtbikes and dune buggies to standard racing cars that look like they're right out of Gran Turismo!
What We Saw: The no-holds-barred racing took place on desert roads, with plenty of dust clouds and mud slinging to spare, with some truly intense competition going on. Drivers were quite merciless with one another, as cars were being flipped left and right. One car in particular got nailed in the tail by a competitor and was sent plummeting into a tree, and unless our eyes deceived us, one unfortunate motorcycle rider went careening into a nearby cabin roof!
What We're Hoping For: This kind of heated racing is something we'd love to see more of, and especially with the vehicle variety present, we can't imagine what kind of sick takedowns and spills will be possible!
Metal Gear Solid 4
Kojima Productions
What It Is: Why, it's the next installment in the hailed action stealth series, of course!
What We Saw: Though this one was MIA from the Sony conference, a humorous trailer at Konami's E3 booth assured us that Hideo Kojima, the man himself, would be reclaiming his place as the game's designer, producer and director, and fan-favorite Solid Snake would be returning to the main character role, after (quite comically) going toe-to-toe with part-time playable character, full-time pretty boy Raiden of MGS2 in the clip. Konami has also confirmed Hal Otacon, Meryl Silverburgh and the magnum-slinger Revolver Ocelot as returning characters, with a handful of new faces coming to the forefront.
What We're Hoping For: C'mon, it's Kojima! Do you really think he's going to let us down?
