PlayStation 3

Platform: PlayStation 3
Publisher: Sony
Review Type: Looky
Version: Press Conference

At the tail end of a marathon press conference, Sony announced PlayStation 3 launch date (11/17) and pricing. Like Microsoft, they're offering two flavors of the console -- both with a built-in harddrive. The cheaper option announced today costs $499 with a 20 gigabyte harddrive. The $599 model delivers a larger 60 gigabyte drive. What they didn't mention at the press conference are the other differences between the consoles. The technical specs found in this pdf (thanks, NeoGaf) seem to imply that the cheaper version won't support wifi, HDMI and memory sticks. That's a way bigger difference than the Core and Premium Xbox 360s who's differences were entirely periferal-based.

The other big news is the PlayStation controller undesign. Last year they unveiled a banana shaped controller that didn't win many fans. Today, they presented a controller that is nearly identical to the Dual Shock -- except that it's silver, wireless and has Wii-esque tilt control.

Tons of games were shown most of which, I suspect, were dressed up with aiming reticles and ammo counts to simulate gameplay. I have serious doubts that much of what we saw was genuine gameplay. Still there were some interesting moments to be found in the myriad clips. Here are some quick impressions.

• Grand Turismo HD: They game is a port of GT4 that supports 1080p. It looked nice, but not that much better than Project Gotham Racing 3.
• Lair: A dragon-riding game. Also a dragon killing game.
  
• Getaway: Another British crime game. I'm still not convinced they have crime there.
• Afrika: Easily the most intriguing concept of the night, mostly because the trailer showed only wild animals living on the Savannah. Not a gun in sight.
• Monster Kingdom: A bit of a blur. I remember a cool looking Jabberwocky ghost. I don't think he was royalty.
• Eight Days: Trailer consisted of car crashes, a big gunfight and a guy walking away from an explosion. I'm not convinced this one was gameplay.
• Untitled Naughty Dog Game: Imagine The Rundown starring a fratboy, rather than The Rock. There's something about the game's slightly stylized realistic look that I found appealing.
• Resistance: Fall of Man: Halo + WWII. I was hoping for so much more.
• Assasin's Creed: Midevil violence with a Prince of Persia flavor. I'm reading Neal Stevenson's Baroque Cycle. My interest is purely theoretical.
  
• Gundam: Big robots. Crappy explosions.
  
• Coded Arms: One of the lines in the trailer was "Commence Hacking" something Sony only encourages in your fantasy life.
• Ridge Racer: More cars.
• Brothers in Arms: More war.
• Tekken 6: More fighting.
• Sonic: More hopes dashed across lovingly detailed rocks.
• Virtua Tennis 3: Ugly faces.
• Stanglehold: A John Woo game. Can't be any worse than his last five movies.
• Fatal Inertia: Launch Game! Wipeout, but not.
• Bladestorm: Launch Game! Dynasty Warriors, but not.
• Armored Core 4: Fighting robots, with impressionistic lighting.
• Army of Two: We saw two seconds of fighting.
• Final Fantasy XIII: Set in a techno-future, similar to FFVII. Female protagonist. Difficult to determine playstyle. I'm listening.
• Metal Gear Solid IV: Dark. The game's politics seem fairly hopeless. Endless war. Shades of insurgency. Snake samples the flavor of a gun barrel and likes what he tastes. Kojima's cry for help finally heard?