E3: Sony Press Conference

I watched about half of the Sony Conference before my internet decided to stop interneting, but from what I can tell the first half was the more eventful part anyways.   The Conference opened with Sony Entertainment of America's CEO (who seems like a complete tool) apologizing for the PSN outage.  His apology seemed sincere but as long as the Network functions reliably from now on, people will start to forget.  Here are some highlights:

Uncharted 3

You probably won't want to watch a 6-minute video, so I'll summarize:  Uncharted 3 will be awesome and this time they've added cool water-effects.  Uncharted 2 is one of my favorite games of the last few years and it doesn't look like the third installment will do much to change the winning formula.  The game will feature large set-pieces (such as a boat sinking) and fun third-person combat.  The combat looks to be slightly improved, with the addition of a few nifty mechanics such as pulling the pin out of a grenade on an enemy soldier's belt then pushing him away so he explodes (it happens at 4:08 in the video).  Looks like Drake will be fighting another army of evil mercenaries, which is surprising because at the rate he's been killing them over the last two games you'd think there wouldn't be any left.  Uncharted 3 is my most anticipated game of 2011, look for it on November 1st, 2011 in North America, November 4th, 2011 in Europe, and on an undetermined date in the 4th Quarter of 2011 in Australia (sorry Australia).

Resistance 3


I played the first Resistance last winter and hated it but the game was extremely dated by that point so I'm willing to give the third installment a chance. It certainly has the potential to be a great game.  The storyline seems strong, the scale of the enemies is impressive, and the unique weapons make Resistance different than your average shooter. Also, this has nothing to do with the actual game, but the box art is pretty cool.  Resistance 3 will hit shelves in North America on the 6th of September, then Europe and Australia on the 20th of  September

Sony 3D TV

The only reason I'm taking the time to talk about a TV is because its 3D technology will eliminate screen-splitting for multiplayer.  Each player will be able to view the entire screen, AWESOME.  I've been pretty uninterested in 3D technology but this has definitely caught my interest.  I had never considered that 3D TV's could eliminate screen-sharing.  The  24-inch TV will release in the Fall along with a pair of 3D glasses, an hdmi cable, and a copy of Resistance 3 for $500; still out of my price range, but consider me interested.

Other Highlights of the show included the announcement of an ICO/Shadow of the Colossus remake (Spring 2011), Sony's new handheld now called the Playstation Vita (to be released on December 31, 2011,  a very odd release date because it just barely misses Christmas), and Kobe Bryant playing NBA 2K12 with the Playstation Move.  Just thinking about Kobe Bryant in a room with 6,000 video game developers and media makes me laugh, I wonder if he's more athletic than all of them combined.