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Sony Displays New PSP, Polished Games At E3
Sony had a lot to prove coming into this event, and kicked off on a high note. The PlayStation 2 is still selling units, and the PSP's numbers are apparently up as well. They followed that with the news of a new version of the PlayStation Portable. It's slimmer, lighter, has a longer battery life, and the ability to connect directly to your television to display video and games. There was a good deal of discussion about upcoming PSP titles, some of which are connected to a PSP bundle. Pushing out the PS3, they show several PlayStation Store titles, included the fascinating-looking Echochrome . Moving onto the Home service they discussed cellphone and website tie-ins to the Home service, as well as the ability to launch games from directly within the Home environment. Referencing the price cut, they reveal sales have already gone up. NCSoft, Epic, and Ubisoft are all referenced as heavy backers of the PlayStation, with a tantalizing statement suggesting that user-created mods for Unreal Tournament will be coming to the console via the Playstation Network. A lengthy Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer and a statement that the game is only for the PS3 (still to be determined), due early in 2008, cap off the third-party section. First-party titles show all of the highlights of Sony's portfolio with the LittleBigPlanet trailer emphasizing creation rather than play, and their Heavenly Sword highlight showcasing the game's story for the first time. A new sandbox title with a morality component was announced, InFamous, as was a new chapter in the Gran Turismo series. The press conference wrapped with a gripping trailer for Killzone 2, completely running in real-time.
I am highly pissed that Crush is only available for the PSP. We finally get an imaginative, mind stretching game, and it's for that thing.
Technoli
Is it just me, or does it look like Sony is grasping as straws to maintain their market share by pushing the PS2 more than PS3. If you listen closely, you can hear Sony's console division dieing a slow death.
I hope it's running in real real-time and not just real time like the previous trailer at last year's E3. Because as real as time was at the time, the demo wasn't very real, just based on what they believed would be real.. at the time.
The utterly insane Killzone footage.
The exclusive for PS3 MGS4.
The amazing MGS4 trailer with live gameplay coming up soon.
Home is looking more and more like the ultimate online system for gamers with the custom spaces for game comapanies, the streaming video, the elegant graphics, the very cool matchmaking and clan stuff.
Ratchet and Clank, Lair, Little Big Planet, Folklore, Warhawk, Infamous, SOCOM
Absolutely insane lineup. Absolutely insane level of graphics power in the PS3.
One of the best E3 conferences ever.
Everything I've seen has been FMV trailers, and though they DO look great... So did the FMV in Final Fantasy VII...
The new slim PSP is awesome. The bundle with the new PSP + 1 GB memory stick + a game + several UMD movies in an extraordinary value. Additional features on PSP are cool, basically TV out on your PSP. They said the new PSP is something like 33% lighter and 25% thinner, unfortunately it will be 100% less hackable too. Not too excited about the 80GB PS3, I think the 60 GB PS3 priced at $499 is a better value.
Home looks great, everything I hoped it would be. It's a full-featured virtual MMO world with tons of new social networking features. I predict home will replace the normal "launch game" interface of the PS3, launching your games in a 3D virtual world is so much cooler than just using a menu.
PS3 -- GAMES, GAMES and MORE GAMES. That phrase was repeated twice, and it's true. FIFTEEN first-party exclusives coming out for PS3 before the end of the fiscal year and more third party exclusives. 150 Blu-Ray games out for PS3 by the end of the year in North America. Obviously we're going to see a large number of titles launch in the next five months. All the games presented looked good, some looked AMAZING. Gran Turismo - WOW. It was like watching a real car race. MGS4 - the LAST game of the Metal Gear series. Also looks awesome. Little Big Planet is something we've never seen from a video game before. And don't forget KILLZONE 2. Just AMAZING. Graphics were off the chart. I can't describe how awesome Killzone 2 looked, you have to see for yourself. Wow just wow.
Overall it was an awesome presentation by Sony. They presented what I wanted to see which was GAMES. Way better than the boring Nintendo presentation with spreadsheets and graphs and NO GAMES. I especially liked the Kaz "Riiiiidge Racer" joke, shows these guys have a sense of humor. Congrats on a great E3 Sony.
Gastric bypass successful? Is he still a lard hog?
Engadget has the photos. It doesn't look that much thinner to me.
Be it exclusive or timed exclusive, those are some pretty big titles.
I was extremely disappointed that the hot chicks from the square never came over to have the turkey burgers.
I've been to many E3s and watched coverage of everyone since the first. Never has there been this big of a leap in graphics from one console company as Sony just showed with the PS3.
Sony's first party stuff is just mindboggling good.
Microsoft looked absolutely pathetic with the same old last gen looking Halo stuff. EARTH TO BUNGIE! NO ONE IS IMPRESSED WITH BRIGHT LIGHTS ON SHINY METAL ANYMORE! Other than a couple of crossplatform titles with Call of Duty 4 and Assasin's Creed, Microsoft is forcing 360 owners to sound like Wii owners with talk about "we don't care about graphics, just gameplay"
...as long as you're interested in FPSs, FPSs, and more FPSs (with some racing!)
Will it blend?
1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
Why doesn't the PSP have a HDD??
Why doesn't the PSP have a much higher res screen by now (at least 800 px wide)?
Why don't their mid to high end HDTV's come with the PS3 and DVR capability integrated?
Sony can't innovate.
Given the Sony rootkit(tm) I will never again willingly give them a dime. So can somebody please explain why this is supposed to be a: interesting and b: relevant?
Thank you.
I think that this year's E3 was exactly what Sony needed last year. Overall I think they showed off plenty of eye candy and a few exclusives that should help to drive sales in the coming months. The only problem is that many of these key games (MGS4 in particular) won't be coming until after the holiday season. A lot of the media and public opinion is that Sony is failing and a big holiday season for them would help to dispell some of those doubts.
What I liked most about their conference is that they focused on showcasing the games coming out on their system instead of talking about sales figures and statistics (After watching the first fifteen minutes of the Nintendo conference, I was about ready for a nap). I suppose most of that stems from not having a lot of good news on that front. I don't mind a little bit of business, but I'm really more interested in seeing the games.
Depending on how things turn out over the next few months and other games that Sony manages to add to the PS3, I might almost consider buying one now that they've dropped the price a little bit. Hopefully I'll get to learn a little more about some of the games being released before the holidays to see if it's worth purchasing one of them. It also seems as though they've done a lot to revitalize the PSP, which is also a lot more appealing.
Overall I think that they should've given me a more compelling reason to puchase one of these during the holiday season or right now, but I think with the recent price drop and some of the good news from E3 that sales should pick up a little in the following weeks. If nothing else at least Sony has managed to pull its head out of its ass and get back on the right track. They still might end up like Nintendo during the GameCube era where they didn't receive a lot of support. They've still got a lot of leg work to prove to the rest of the world that they're a major contender.
After reading for whole year about the PS3 and 360 on places like beyond3d I was under the impression that the two systems were about equal in graphics power. After this E3 all that talk turned out to be nothing but fanboy bullshit. Unless Microsoft has some hidden gems they have yet to reveal it's obvious that the PS3 completely destroys the 360 in graphics.
Can anyone explain how the PS3 is this powerful?
Did anyone else notice that everything that looked amazing had 2008 attached to it? And everything that looked with par with the 360 had 2007 attached to it?
I mean its great they finally showed off some potential but slapping 2008 on it all doesn't give me much confidence to go out and buy the console today or even this holiday season.
Actually I think it's a great idea, however the link in the parent article does say how they do it. The linked Article says:
"It will also come with the ability to output high-quality video by pressing the display button. This means that movies, games, photos, and all other PSP applications can be output to a TV screen."
So does this mean there are TV out ports (or a proprietary connector) to the PSP that connects to a TV VIA Composite, component, S-Video... or does it stream content to a PS3 and play on the screen?
You can have mouthsecks or boobsecks with a. With b you get poopsecks and regularsecks, and an ugly mouth.
choose
I didn't get the special Sony rootkit software they were offering, but I've had plenty of problems with their products and support (.. if it's still under warranty, why do I have to pay for repairs?)
I also have no plans to give Sony any money either, what's the opposite of a Sony fanboy?
-- I'll be back before you can say antidisestablishmentarianism...
I always said that if they added a tv out i would probably pick one up, the 5g ipod had tv out and was released at the same time. The only argument against a tv out was that it might impact ps2 sales (since a lot of psp games are ps2 ports) but if you have a tv out the psp becomes a fairly high spec portable media machine, thats how most people will use it I think.
Can anyone explain how the PS3 is this powerful?
Fanboy Goggles. Once you take them off you'll see it differently.
Does the new PSP still use the orwellian-named Universal Media Disc", that is compatible with nothing but the original PSP? The UMD for which there is no way for anyone but Sony to burn a disc? Or maybe they've got a miniBlu-Ray, which would be a lot cooler.
--
make install -not war
LOL, Gotta love these Xbots!!
"I am 100% right and anyone who disagrees with me is a paid shill."
I can hear the 360 brigade and MS fan boys warming up on this thread. whooosh.
I have a PS3, I got it on day one, I love it, Resistance is a fabulous game.
Yes there are not as many games, yes it costs more - but for fucks sake it's a blu-ray player! not some piddly DVD player. At the time I got the PS3 I could not get a blu-ray player for that money. I like the machine, the geek in me admires the Cell technology. And I feel that strongly that Sony are getting a rough ride from a bunch a script kiddies and annoying teenagers. There I said it.
Sony are trying to run a business, not gain a foothold with massive loss making subsidies and oppressive leverage. I'm not saying that what MS is doing is wrong after all they are trying to run a business - but that does not mean I admire them for their business tactics.
-------
Having said that, in a few months I'll be getting a 360 for Halo 3, which looks to be a fabulous game!
Sales are up after a price drop!
So. The real question is this: How much higher will they be a month or so AFTER the price drop?
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Title says all, unless you don't know what operator != means.
The thing that excites me as a gamer, is that Sony seems to have embraced the idea of user generated content - from the ability to use user created levels in UT, to being able to create an share user generated levels in Little Big Planet, basically a cushy physics simulator.
In the link that led to talking about user generated content being less certain on the 360, that's because it would have to go through Live and Microsoft still has not worked out what they want to do there. They may yet also allow substantial user content, they just haven't done so to date with the fervor Sony has.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Right...
And you've got the evidence to prove the Xbox 360's power:
* PGR bogus 'photomode pics'
* Forza bogus 'photomode pics'
* Gears of War bogus 'in game renderings'
* Mass Effect bogus 'in game renderings'
Right fanboy?
The 360 is a fucking graphical disaster.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exK-gV7yaE oh my. oh my.
.. And I thought Resistance looked good. Dribble.
This is just retarded, who is modding this guy flamebait and troll? Talk about abusing your mod points >_>;
From reading the announcement it LOOKS like the answer is TV out, unless there is an extra PS3 he's not mentioning:
11:49AM PDT - "You can control what you're seeing, I'll pause it, get rid of the menu, etc. If you want the video back on your PSP, push the display button again and it's back on your PSP. You can play games, videos, show photos, all of that on a tv screen or your PSP. With DLNA, you can also access the files on your PC at home via your PSP. This sparks the imagination, and encourages developers and players alike to think beyond the norm." We envision a bizarre future world where we stream computer video to the PS3 to the PSP over RemotePlay and then video output to a friend's HDTV. Sure, we'll only use this feature once
I Wonder, why is NCsoft a "heavy backer" for the PS3? So far they've mostly released MMORPGs for the PC...
Seriously why is this modded down as troll? This really is Nintendot isn't it.
I must admit, when I saw the CGI trailer last year I was very skeptical about whether or not they could get anywhere near it.
It's very rare that I'll watch a trailer for something with my mouth half open. The Transformers trailer and the Killzone 2 trailer had this effect on me.
I think I've watched it 5 times now and I still don't believe it's realtime, even though it is*
*it is realtime, isn't it?
Summation 2
It's a different meaning of "universal". It's not "universal" as in "every device ever made will read and write it", but "universal" as in "we can store games _and_ movies on it and god knows what other digital stuff we'll think about later."
Not saying you should necessarily get one, just clarifying why the name.
And, no, there's nothing Orwellian about it. Some words simply have more than one meaning, surprising as that may seem. Same, if you will, as F/OSS fans will write all over the place about the difference between "free as in beer" and "free as in speech". That's another word whose meanings aren't even vaguely related to each other.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Sony impressed me and also failed to impress me.
PS3: Impressive. I'm glad to see they're able to showcase a lot of high class games as well as a number that are reaching out to a broader crowd. Things may take off for this system yet, though I doubt its possible for it to gain enough momentum to dominate this generation. It would at least break previous precidents if it did.
PSP: Unimpressive. I feel like Sony is trying to copy the DS Lite without understanding why the DS Lite did well. The DS Phat's key dimensional problem was its depth. There were a number of pockets incapable of holding one, and to boot it was relatively heavy. The DS Lite improved on all of these, while looking simultaneously much sleeker. The new PSP is hard to distinguish from its predecessor, which was sleek to begin with. I'll be very surprised is this causes any long-term changes in PSP sales.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
Recently, I've found that the real value of the PSP is in its non-UMD power.... namely, being able to emulate the NES, the Playstation and everything inbetween :P
The movie thing is cool too, I guess... but emulating actually good games makes up for the lack of such titles in UMD format.
Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
The first and more important fact is that the hardware is powerful enough on both the 360 and the PS3 that you can get more payback for good artistic direction and heavy technical investment than ever before. The 360 and the PS3 will both respond very nicely to extravagantly expensive development budgets, and the skill of the developers and artists working on the average game will probably make much more difference in the quality of the results than any differences between the hardware will.
That said, and while the 360's graphics chip is probably superior to the PS3's, the PS3 was designed to have the Cell and RSX working together in a very close fashion. Killzone 2 is being developed with a deferred renderer, in which the Cell can overlay lighting calculations on top of the rendered polygons, rather than having all of that be always done with the RSX. Lair is using the Cell to do dynamic winnowing down of the in-game geometry to present only the essential data to RSX, while continuing to animate everything with high fidelity. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is using Cell to do very ambitious dynamic animation blending on the main characters.
Between Cell and RSX, you can do awful lot on PS3, but you have to develop the games for it, and the kind of distributed programming required to harness 8 distributed processing cores (1 PPU, 6 SPU, 1 RSX) takes a lot of time and money to do, and straightforward ports from 360-style DirectX games won't necessarily show what the PS3 can really do to best advantage.
The PS3 has another advantage with the Blu-Ray disc, as it has over 5 times more on-disc storage than the 360 has (though at the cost of a reduced maximum transfer speed). That can help allow for more extravagant level budgets, especially in titles that support streaming audio and graphics loading.
The bottom line is, we've not begun to see the best of what either the 360 or the PS3 will be capable of. The good news is that Sony is making a big enough push that they might get enough purchasers of their console that the budgets will have a chance to continue to be there to make these amazing games.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
They still haven't shown me any games that compel me to purchase one. There's a bunch of "well that looks cool, if I owned a PS3" but nothing to motivate me to go out and spend $500+tax on one. Maybe, like the 360, one of my roommates will be compelled to pick one up. Even Metal Gear I can wait on the system hitting $300 and the game going budget/cross platform for.
I will own a PS3 eventually(only console of a generation I *haven't* owned is an original XBox), and I plan on picking up the titles that fit that criteria as I see them, but... meh.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
Sure the big hitters (and PS3 exclusives) MGS4 and Killzone2 are 2008, but there are big hitters were not shown, that will be the bread and butter until then.
Unreal Tournement (PS3 timed Exclusive till late 2008)
Haze (PS3 exclusive)
Ratchet And Clank Tools Of Destruction(PS3 exclusive)
Warhawk(PS3 exclusive)
Drakes Fortune(PS3 exclusive)
Lair(PS3 exclusive)
GT5 Prologue(PS3 exclusive)
In addition, you have GTA IV to keep you happy until then..
I'm sure there are plenty more that I forgot, either way, that list is releases between now and Xmas..
you should actually try gears of war on a 360. If you call it a fucking graphical disaster, you need an eye exam.
Sony somehow figured out how to make their portable device suck even more, right?
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Sony has designs on making money, and consumers sure as hell aren't stupid enough to buy the same machine with no compatibility with all the games already out for the platform. Presumably anyone capable of working a keyboard ought to be able to apprehend these blindingly obvious concepts, but apparently not.
The point of the Blu-Ray included in the PS3 isn't so much for the movies (though that's good, too)-- it's about game content. Today's games often fill up a DVD, and now that HD games are coming out, the Blu-Ray disc allows for better textures, larger game levels, and just all-around more content.
PS3 games will be able to take advantage of greater capacity discs, a hard drive for streaming textures (making game levels bigger and better), and so on.
The fact it'll play Blu-Ray movies is almost secondary.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
...and the small ass screen you have to watch it on...
After many years of flying, I have come to realize that a small screen is actually better than a laptop screen.
* How easy is it to use your laptop screen in cramped seating when the front seat goes back?
* How annoying is it to the people sitting next to you, to have a giant glowing screen?
* When you get where you are going, you have to worry about leaving your laptop behind in the hotel room.
I still take my laptop on flights but I don't usually get it out anymore. I just bought an iPhone, and frankly I think that screen size and resolution will be about perfect - but from accounts the PSP probably is also a perfect form factor for airline movie watching as well.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I know they have plans to provide better integration of PSN services, including streaming content from the PS3 to the PSP, but it does not make sense for them to keep the 802.11b chip in the upgraded PSP and elegantly support the integration they/we desire.
Sometimes I wish that posts could get so many mod points that they go above 5...
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Microsoft's extremism in console security trumps any such wish for user-generated content. Microsoft knows that if user-generated content is allowed, it won't be long before someone finds a bug in a game and exploits it to run Linux. After all, this happened repeatedly on Xbox, and on 360's King Kong, even without true user-generated content.
Sony doesn't really have this problem. The system is already hacked, and it ran Linux to begin with. They couldn't keep up with such exploits on PSP.
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
PSP graphics are impressive on a small screen, but will it look good on a TV? I suspect that it wouldn't, but I don't know what Sony is planning here. I seem to recall the Game Boy Advance games looking good on TV's (via Game Boy Player), though all I've seen of that are Internet videos. Does anyone have more info?
MOD PARENT DOWN -1 Troll
I guess you're right.
Oh my god, it's the ps triple guy, on Slashdot!
- have two PSPs... just used the recent Lumines exploit to downgrade one of 'em to 1.50, then upgrade to 3.40-OE... thanks to the hacked firmware, i can now use my PSP to read .PDFs and control my TV using the (commercially useless) iR port! (many PSP hardware features are not available from ANY commercial software, and Sony controls ALL optical media production!!!)
.mp3s from my laptop using RSS
.pdf books using homebrew software
- for those that don't know: Sony has been playing cat-and-mouse upgrades with hackers offering exploits to take advantage of homebrew apps on the PSP... IOW, Sony's official upgrades are nothing more than patches to disable the ability of folks to get more functionality out of the units...
- even more insidious is that Sony now releases 'upgrades' that won't upgrade any PSP recognized to be patched, and all new games REQUIRE upgraded systems!
- talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
- anyhow, i like my PSP... i use it to:
1. watch downloaded movies or DVDs ripped using John the Ripper and Handbrake (google has lots of videos, but you have to sort through the YouTube cruft - what a waste!)
2. listen to
3. watch slide shows of images using RSS
4. read
5. read more than 30,000 books via http using a Gutenberg DVD on my laptop (html)
6. control my TV using the homebrew iRShell application
7. take pictures and movies using the (as-yet non-U.S. marketed) Chotto Shot USB camera attachment (about $60 from any various importers out of Los Angeles)
8. store documents or other important data (backup pics/scans)
9. oh, and play games - many in Flash, but some off the UMD (optical drive)...
looks like my psp is gonna break so i can get one of the new ones.
I think UT for the PS3 only allows you to play PC created mods, not create them on the PS3.
But the PS3 title Little Big Planet has a whole object and level creation component, that you obviously store on the HD (which all PS3 models have) and then can transfer up to the PSN network to share with others. At least, that is what they have said in interviews on the matter. They had a lengthy demo of the creation tools at this years E3.
You can also import any pictures or even video you like to use in the levels you create (so you would edit those components on a PC first, or directly import them from a camera). Since the PS3 has a kind of media import extender, and supports standard USB external storage, it's pretty easy to get stuff into or out of the system.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley