SCEA Gamers' Day 2007

The PS3 is going through some of the toughest growing pains of any of Sony's consoles -- not so much because it's moving slower than previous systems (though in terms of sales, it is), but because people expected it to start selling at least as well as the PS2 is these days with a software lineup on par. A six and a pair of zeroes, and the fact that no PlayStation console has an especially strong launch, however, are keeping that from happening. Can what was being shown at the event fix that? Well, it's one hell of a start...

[ Conan ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
In the brutal, bloody days of yore, one long-haired, muscle-bound late night talk show host would stride through the gates of hell with the head of Leno on his pik--wha? Oh, oh wait, wrong Conan. This one's the barbarian, and it concerns itself only with only having to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, to hear the lamentation of their women. Yes, it's a game of sunshine and rainbows and gumdrops -- if by sunshine we mean severed limbs, rainbows we mean ribbons of misty blood and gumdrops we mean huge breasts on Frazetta-inspired women folk.

[ Dark Sector ]
[ Screens ]
Digital Extremes' action thriller has gone through a number of changes, first being a sci-fi epic before crashing down to earth to be grounded (however slightly) in the reality of the present. That doesn't mean we don't want to see how black-ops agent Hayden Tenno and his accident that's slowly turning him into a superhuman is coming along. Alas, it was not at the show.

[ Devil May Cry 4 ]
[ Preview | Screens | Movies ]
The build on hand at Gamers' Day was identical to the one we saw just a few weeks before at Capcom's Gamer's Day, but when something looks that damned pretty, it's hard not to get all wide-eyed and excited. Read our initial impressions for the full skinny.

[ Dynasty Warriors: Gundam ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
Forget for a moment about how painful Gundam: Crossfire was and realize that combining the insanely addictive gameplay of the Dynasty Warriors games with the lore of the Gundam universe is like the geek mash-up of the century. We played around with a localized build of the game and that familiar feeling of "just one more battle" started to creep in.

[ Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer ]
[ Screens ]
We're going to get a peek at F4 in just a few days, so we held off on extended play sessions, but what scared us a little was how surprisingly solid and true to the comics the game was; there are tag-team attacks and moves galore, lots of physics-based gameplay and it actually looks visually kinda... good? We'll have more in a bit.

[ Folklore ]
[ Preview | Screens | Movies ]
The surprise of the show, not because it wasn't known about, but just because of how well it exploited the SIXAXIS controls, how tight the mechanic of insta-summoning creatures you'd captured was, and how damned pretty and surreal it all was. Running around a Technicolor dreamscape as either dainty, ponytailed Ellen or trenchcoated, bespectacled Keats just felt great, and using a variety of souls to battle specific enemy weaknesses felt even better.

[ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ]
[ Screens ]
After an Xbox 360 appearance at an EA event last week, we were surprised to see Harry and friends already being shown off on the PS3. Unfortunately with all the madness of the show, we never got a chance to sit in with the game and really dig into the experience. That's okay, though, it doesn't matter; there's always someone else out there to do it.

[ Heavenly Sword ]
[ Preview[/preview] | [url=http://totalplaystation.com/ps3/Heavenly-Sword/images/]Screens | Movies ]
Arguably the game with the most sought after details next to Metal Gear Solid 4, Ninja Theory's mix of action and cinematic events was little more than a tease, but at least it was a new tease, and in the short five minutes or so that the demo lasted, we got a taste of the improved combat system and gushed over the game's insane visuals -- or at least will when we update with a proper preview.

[ Hellboy ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
It's perhaps fitting that we just finished watching Hellboy the movie on the plane ride down to the event, so with that fresh in our minds, we decided to take a peek at the first PS3 showing of the game, and like the 360 version of the game Konami debuted earlier in the year, it's looking like Krome's little next-gen beat-'em-up might actually end up doing justice to the comics and movie -- even if the game was a little rough...

[ Lair ]
[ Preview | Screens | Movies ]
At the other end of the spectrum is Lair, a game where a fair amount of info has been released and the title that Sony hopes captures the core bits of the PS3's tech; fluid (if a little laggy) SIXAXIS control, massive, sprawling levels with both air and ground combat, and all of it running at 1080p. Will it end up being a smooth technology showcase or something else? You know how to find out by now...

[ LittleBigPlanet ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
The darling of the Game Developers Conference has returned, complemented by an all new character customization video and -- gasp -- it was playable! Curious what we thought of one of the most ambitious social interaction games ever created? Good, cause we're just dying to tell you.

[ MLB 07: The Show ]
[ Review | Movies ]
Though MLB saw release a day before the Gamers' Day event actually kicked off, Sony was still proud of its little baseball hit, and wanted to show it off at the place where it was born, not only because development was done in San Diego, but because so much time went into the sound design, as we found out after a little tour around the facilities.

[ NBA '08 ]
[ Preview | Screens | Movies ]
Another year, another basketball game with roster upd-whaa? It would appear Sony's San Diego studio is more interested in really squeezing some juice out of their NBA franchise, to the point where they've bumped up the visuals with new shaders and lighting, improved the courts, captured new animations, included more SIXAXIS control and refined the sense of momentum when players bump into each other. But our favorite new addition? RPG-like elements that allow you to gain experience and level up specific attributes about a player just by playing. Oh, and it still all runs at 1080p/60fps.

[ Ninja Gaiden Sigma ]
[ Screens ]
The king of the twitch action genre is finally coming to the PS3, and though the demo has been entertaining PS3 owners for a few weeks now, actually digging into the full experience by jumping headlong into the rest of the game was... humbling. Still, we found out that we'll have a full, meaty preview build of the game complete with all the new levels, bosses and playable Rachel that we can handle.

[ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ]
[ Screens | Movies ]
One of the biggest movies of the summer just so happens to be getting a rather eye-pleasing next-gen video game so as to pump as much money out of consumer hands as humanly possible. But hey, with a decent combat system and the change to be Captain Jack Sparrow, how can anyone resist? We tried, as the final version of the game should be in stores in just a few days and we'll review it then.

[ Ratatouille ]
[ Preview ]
There is no more sure a video game tie-in than that of a Pixar animated film. The two just go together like high movie prices and next-gen game sticker shock. Luckily, we're a sucker for pretty things, and leading man (sorry, mouse) Remy, looked all kinds o' sexy with his fancy fur shaders. Not surprisingly, the game is aimed at kids (though what kid actually has a $600 video game console, we want to know), but still played surprisingly well. Did we mention it's purdy?

[ Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
Insomniac's "second generation PlayStation 3 game" was unavoidable at the Gamers' Day, which is fine by us; we didn't want to avoid it, we just wanted to bask in the glow of hi-res Ratchet. Despite wowing the crap out of everyone at the show, we were a little taken aback by just how much like Ratchet it was, only now in HD. Luckily the overall visuals -- particularly the animation -- were just as upgraded as the resolution, and we got a peek at one of the first levels in the game.

[ SEGA Rally Revo ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
Another in an increasingly long list of games that made recent appearances elsewhere, it actually looks like SEGA's internally developed rally racer is using the PS3 as the lead SKU, as it's been the only version shown so far. Just as at the SEGA event a week prior, the game is looking plenty good, but this time we actually had time to take it all in before getting pushed along to the next game.

[ SingStar ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
For some reason, people seem to forget that Sony has the single best karaoke experience on any console just waiting to be released, but if the night of booze and off-key tuned spent by many liquid courage-fueled game editors and SCEA staff are any indication, the only thing people will be wanting to forget is their performance, captured and shared with other PS3 users on the internets.

[ SOCOM Confrontation ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
No, it's not a proper SOCOM sequel, but it is an online-only killer app for the PlayStation Network (and yes, it'll be released on Blu-ray too). With nebulous support of the SIXAXIS and actual environment destruction, the game seems to be a bigger, badder, slightly prettier version of the game you've come to know and love (to hear yourself being called "nigger" and "faggot" by 11 year-olds) on the PlayStation 2. Oh, and did we mention Zipper Interactive is not making it?

[ Spider-Man 3 ]
[ Review | Collector's Ed. Review | Movies ]
Yes, this is the same Spider-Man 3 that hit with the movie about a week ago. Why it's on show here, we're not quite sure, but if nothing else it'll give us a chance to link to all the swanky videos and screenshots we've collected over the past couple months. Oh, and if you're interested, a review too.

[ Stranglehold ]
[ Preview | Screens | Movies ]
To complement the news that Midway was releasing a Blu-ray-only Collector's Edition of Stranglehold, they had the first playable PS3 build of the game on hand. We fired it up, checked out all the groooovy gunplay, and managed to write up some basic impressions of things. At some point, we were typing so fast doves appeared from nowhere an--ew, we can't even finish that lame John Woo reference. Sorry.

[ Surf's Up ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
Oh, look a licensed game based on a CG flick of the same name! Featuring penguins... that... surf. Okay, since technically surfing games were the demonstration of then-next-gen power in the PS2 days (remember Surfing H3O? TransWorld SURF?), we had to see how far things have come along... by checking out a licensed game, yes. Shut up.

[ The BIGS ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
Baseball games are, as a rule, not something that non-baseball fans can really get into. The sim nature of them ensures that the pacing is a little too slow for most action gamers. Which is why The BIGS was created. If the idea of holding a home run derby in Times Square where you can actually hit the New Year's Ball... well, then this might be worth a closer look.

[ The Darkness ]
[ Screens | Movies ]
Like Fantastic 4, we're going to have chance to check this out in a few days, so we didn't really spend much time with the game. Instead, we just gawked at what developer Starbreeze (they of the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay pedigree) is trying to do with keeping the game in first-person during some insane scenes -- like, say, speeding through a New York tunnel while avoiding cars and trading gunfire. God, we can't wait to play this game.

[ The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion ]
[ Review | Screens ]
What, what? Was this really the same game that has been out for weeks now? What was it doing at Sony's event? Maybe it was just that Bethesda wasn't quite ready to reveal the PS3 goodness that is Fallout 3 yet. Or maybe they just really, really want people to play their epic RPG. No problem there; we played it then gushed at length.

[ The Eye of Judgment ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
What began as a tech demo at Sony's pre-E3 Press Conference a few years ago has morphed into it own collectable card game RPG with a camera and online play. If it sounds a little weird, don't worry, it definitely is, and though the issue of rampant cheating came up, we were still intrigued by the basic concept. That, and we're suckers for technology like a camera reading a code on a card and generating a 3D monster based on that. And hey, at least the game looks pretty, right?

[ TimeShift ]
[ Preview | Screens | Movies ]
Whoa, what? With nary a whisper as to its existence, Vivendi Games discreetly revealed that TimeShift was indeed coming to the PS3 in addition to the already announced 360 and PC versions -- by having it shown off as one of the marquee titles at Gamers' Day. 1080p, the newest Havok physics engine and lots and lots of time distortion/manipulation powers meant that, yes, we had to give it a peek.

[ Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 ]
[ Screens ]
Oh, hey, that's right GRAW2 is coming to the PlayStation 3. Despite the fact that the PS3 is playing catch-up on a lot of multi-platform releases, it seems like Ubisoft is sticking to their... uh, you know where we're going with this. It's the 360 version but with some SIXAXIS vehicle/troop controls. If only we'd been able to actually play more of the game. Hopefully we can fix that shortly.

[ Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas ]
[ Screens ]
Oh, hey, a game that was announced for PS3 before even GRAW2! Yep, it was there too, offering the same tactical combat seen on other platforms, but arriving fashionably late. Very fashionably late, as it was originally going to be a launch title and the game still doesn't have a locked-down release date at this time. What's contributing to the delay? Given that we never did get a chance to ask, we now have something to bug the Ubi guys about next week.

[ Transformers: The Game ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
Yet another game that was shown in name only, apparently (we certainly didn't see it). This is to be expected, however as Activision and Traveller's Tales are probably cranking extra hard on seeing the go-any-where-in-our-smallish-levels polished and ready to go around the same time as the movie. Hey, doesn't mean you can't enjoy a first look preview, right? Riiiiight.

[ Uncharted: Drake's Fortune ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
If there was one game at the show that demonstrated just how powerful a first-gen development effort could be, it was Naughty Dog's Uncharted. Finally ditching the cartoony days of Crash Bandicoot on the PS one and Jak and Daxter on the PS2, their vision of an everyman thrust into Indiana Jones-level danger and action is pulled off with the kind of presentation and animated flair that only they can do. And. It. Was. Awesome.

[ Warhawk ]
[ Preview | Screens ]
Our addiction given video game form; we've played less than an hour total of the various builds of the game over the past few months, and yet we can't get enough. Each and every moment of the Battlefield-inspired online-only shooter has the game digging its hooked in that much more. So what happens when the info that a public beta and an updated build of the game we've been played drop minutes after one another? We play, friends, we play like there's no tomorrow, and then bring you updated impressions.