Thursday April 25, 2024

Sony Keynote - E3 2011

E3 11: Overview of the last and biggest event of the day

Posted by Alex V on June 7, 2011 - 3:10am EST

Closing out the E3 conference day of 2011 was Sony, unlike previous years when the company actually showcased on Tuesday afternoon. A new timeslot, and a lack of a big Activision event, has allowed Sony to take up the whole LA Memorial Coliseum and throw a lavish evening party. Yes, that would be the kind with free and food and drink for the hundreds of attendees. That is, both before and after the actual press conference. It went well, and they didn’t even need Eminem.

Without wasting much time, Sony began their press briefing by making further apologies about the PSN outage, and addressing each of their key relationships (press, consumers, retail) with a message. It was a brief but thoughtful way to address the situation that only concluded mere weeks ago, and the effects of which are still being felt in the industry.

Getting right back to the primetime event, Uncharted 3 was shown with an impressive live demo. Drake, trapped on a sinking ship, had to fight his way through enemies while water invaded the lower decks and even forced the vessel to capsize at one point – transforming the level. There’s really nothing here to complain about – it was classic Uncharted gameplay with much the same style and animation that fans are used to. A trailer that followed revealed both Elena and Chloe as confirmed characters, and the game is still set for November 1st release. A multiplayer beta was confirmed to be on the way for June 20th.

Resistance 3 was the next title to be shown, with a live gameplay demo of an ambush and a later level of carrying a power source with a partner. It was standard FPS fanfare, at the end of which a PSMove bundle was announced for the game, similar to that of SOCOM 4. While it remains a solid entry in the PlayStation library, Resistance has so far failed to impress on the levels that Uncharted has, for example. Having seen the gameplay demo, that doesn’t seem likely to change. The setting seems to have outlived its welcome, and even with an array of unique weapons, the gameplay never really stood out for this series. Here’s to hoping that Resistance 3 will at least take significant steps forward, towards advancing the franchise to greatness.

A lot of focus during the event went towards 3D, as it continues to be a driving component of the PS3 for Sony. More games support native 3D on PS3 than any other playtform, and it’s easy to see that the company is leading the market with this increasingly popular technology. Watching a trailer montage at the conference in 3D, some games (again, Uncharted 3) simply look marvelous in the third dimension, and may force some players to upgrade.

But not to worry, as Sony already thought of that. A new 3D-ready TV was announced, to be bundled with 3D glasses and Resistance 3, aimed to be affordable for users at a $500 price. The TV features the new active shutter technology, allowing two users to see different full screens during play, so there is no more peeking or suffering through split screen.