Sony E3 2010 press conference roundup: Twisted Metal, Killzone 3, Portal 2, Gran Turismo 5 dated, Infamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2, New Move games like Sorcery, Heroes on the Move, Time Crisis, PlayStation Plus subscription

E3 Expo 2010 logo
The Sony E3 2010 press conference was held today and showed off a ton of new footage and some new game announcements.

Here’s a list of the keynotes:

  • Killzone 3 is shown in 3D. Audience asked to where glasses. Graphics look INCREDIBLE even in 2D. The way the gameplay is shown is like the enemies are coming towards you. Must look amazing in 3D. After taking out the enemies jetpack gameplay is shown as he flies to an iceburg. Almost looks like a platformer in first person! Could this be the best fps-platforming since Metroid Prime? Jetpack really opens up gameplay as he uses it to boost up to higher platforms for better shots, over enemies, and more! Looks insanely awesome. Graphics are like a CG film. Bridge collapses as he uses jetpack to make it to the other side before plummeting below with the bridge. Flies to the top of metal platforms and aims at enemies from holes on the structure above.
  • Second part is a vehicle section. Looks like it’s on rails as you take out enemies. As before very cinematic with incredible graphics. Viewpoint is realistic as if you are in the cockpit shooting the dropships as the vehicle flies through the wintery area. Release date: February 2011. Fully compatible with Move at launch and fully 3D!
  • Kaz Hirai says 3D games like Killzone will be the Avatar for the videogame industry. Moving people to buy the system for the 3D. PS3 is the only platform with native 3D gaming. Biggest titles like Motorstorm: Apocalypse, Killzone 3, Grand Turismo 5 and Sly Cooper Collection in 3D.
  • A video is shown that gives us glimpses of games like: Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Shaun White Skateboarding, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Tron: Evolution, NBA 2K11.
  • Games that will pair 3D with Move include: The Fight: Lights Out, Eyepet, Tumble, and MLB: The Show. “Closest thing ever to experience being in the game.”
  • Then Jack Tretton comes on stage. Discusses how the old game system life-cycles have changed. Now it’s not how long you can be relevant but how you can continue to be relevant. Talks about the 15th anniversary of PlayStation and the 10th anniversary of the PlayStation 2. Says PS2 was the 2nd most played console last year. PS2 continues to provide value. Expect another strong year for PS2 in America and for the market to grow even bigger in Latin America.
  • PlayStation Network now has 3400 movies and 20,000 TV episodes available. You can stream Netflix, listen to music, browse the Internet and use wi-fi to link to your computer and access their media. This drives people to PS3, not just because they’re more tech savvy but they appreciate all the ways it connects and adds values to their lives thanks to lots of media and easy ways to access it.
  • Now it’s on to the PlayStation Move. Sony will provide “realism” with their PlayStation Move and hopes it will add a new dimension to “motion gameplay” than what other consoles offer. How the motion happens in your hand with the Move is how it happens on-screen. They say PS Move is “future-proof” and makes the PS3 even better of a package when combined with 3D capabilities.
  • He then discusses how the Move works. It’s a combination of PlayStation Eye and Move controllers. Move has 3 censors to provide motion and pointing sensory. The Light Bulb on the end of the Move is tracked by the PlayStation Eye camera in real time to provide exact location of controller in 3D space.
  • There are 40 developers working on Move games.
  • Sony shows what could arguably be the Move Killer-App: A new game called Sorcery. This is a 3rd person action adventure game using Move. As a sorcerer’s apprentice you must stop a growing evil. You use the Move as a wand to literally shoot different spell beams at enemies as you make your way through the environments as if you were Harry Potter (on crack!). You use the Move to literally “toss” the wand’s spells violently at enemies (by making the proper motion), and you even actually have to shake the Move to shake and mix up a potion. Drinking the potion turns him into a Rat that allows you to explore a small tunnel and access areas that were previously inaccessible. Other creatures will also be in the game. Some spells you’ll even have to spin your arm around above your head to make your character shoot it. In the demo he creates a Fire Wall with a Fire Spell by swinging it on the ground in front of him. Also uses a Whirl Wind attack followed by another fire spell. Which is this time controllable. Area of effect spells that are huge and damaging also available although they take a lot of power that you must store in order to use. Near the end of the demo he repairs a bridge by using a Mending Spell. Think Harry Potter but YOU are Harry. He fights a Goblin boss with all kinds of awesome powers as the demo ends. Release date is spring 2011.
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is shown. Highly realistic and accurate. Think Wii but way more realistic. All enhanced by using the Move to play golf. Since it’s move it can capture authentic sports motions 1:1. Move support will be added as a download for the game in the near future. Also will be available on the Move Demo Disc.
  • Heroes On the Move is new game from developer Nihilist. Ratchet, Jak, Sly Cooper, Bently, Clay, Daxter, 6 Sony heroes join together for one action adventure with the Move. You use the Move to literally throw, punch and battle your way through the game. “Six Heroes, 1 epic showdown.”
  • Coca Cola products will help get the word out on PS3 and Move. And allow players to win products in 130 million packages of Sprite, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and regular Coke. One of the biggest marketing pushes ever.
  • Kevin Butlar then comes on stage to uproarious applause and discusses gaming to hilarious effect.
    He gives an awesome, epic motivational speech! Also takes pot shots at Nintendo and Microsoft. Very, very nice and clever. Great of Sony to actually have him come on stage
  • The PlayStation Move is officially dated! Releases in Europe on September 15th, in America on September 19th and in Japan on October 21. Move will be sold separately for $50, with the Navigational Controller costing $30. A $100 Move Bundle with Sports Champions, the Move set and a PlayStation Eye Camera (required for Move) will also be available. As will a Move PS3 System Bundle for $400 that includes Sports Champions and the Move Set.
  • Move games will cost a more “budget-friendly” price of $40. Move will launch with 15 games available on day one and 40 by year end. Games include: Socom 4, Time Crisis: Razing Storm, NBA 2K11, Ruse, Killzone 3, SingStar Dance, Echochrome 2, Eye Pet and a variety of current or already released titles such as Toy Story 3, Tiger Woods, Heavy Rain, RE5: Gold, etc. They will get updates that add Move functionality.
  • A trailer is then shown with a lot of other Move games like: Start the Party (a family party game), TV Superstars (ditto), The Shoot, Tron: Evolution and The Lord of the Rings: Aragon’s Quest.
  • Now the focus shifts to PSP. Rather than announce a PSP2 as had been speculated, Sony instead announces an all-new PSP ad campaign that is meant to make the system “cool” again. Called the “Step Up Your Game Up” marketing campaign. It features an outspoken African American kid named “Marcus” singing the praises of the PSP. He even spars with Kevin Butler in an ad called “Marcus Goes to Work”.
  • They briefly show off some new PSP games like Invizimals which uses a PSP camera acessory to find things in your real environment (Or something like that). Other PSP games shown include: God of War: Chains of Olympus, Tron Evolution, Ace Combat: Ghost Assault, Parisite Eve title “The 3rd Birthday”, UFC Unleashed 2010, Patapon 3, Tetris, Eyepet, Piyotama, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and a string of RPG titles like Persona Portable (and others), ending with God of War: Ghost of Sparda.
  • Part of the PSP campaign will be educating people on features like the ability to access content on PS3 from the PSP.
  • Then the focus shifts to the PlayStation Network. PSN has 50 million accounts in 58 countries and the PS3 is the most connected console (people getting online).
  • They announce that the Tester PSN TV series got 2.4 million views and thus had a successful first season. Natch, “The Tester: Season 2” is coming with casting calls starting today and filming soon.
  • Sony announces that Canada will get the PSN video service this Fall. They also announce that PlayStation Home has over 100 games ready to play and they will continue to update the service. A Home Sony E3 2010 booth is up already for Home, in fact, so now you can check it out if you weren’t fortunate enough to be at E3 yourself.
  • ModNation Racers half a million creations and is one of the most popular PSN games.
  • Finally more focus on games! LittleBigPlanet 2 and Media Molecule’s Alex Evans comes on stage to show off the game. They show off a fun little four-player mini-game where columns of X or O buttons come down and you have to press the right buttons. Highest scorer wins. Crashty Crash mini-game shown where you need to bump the other players out of the circle arena. Boost also added using the button mapping feature. Creat-a-nator lets you basically “shoot” any items, so a mini-game is shown placed in an arena where the players float around and try to shoot each other with rockets. A trailer is then shown highlighting games that were made in less than 24 hours with no tutorial. They were picked from some of the best makers of user-created LBP levels that were highly rated. Almost every genre is represented from psychedelic shooters to fully functioning RTS games!
  • Then Sony announces that although the PSN will remain free, a subscription layer will live on top called “PlayStation Plus”. Plus will add new options like…. preferred early demos, beta invites, free content like full PSN games, Themes and Minis given away to subscribers and more. Subscribers will also get discounted products and other online services like automatic downloads. Cost is $50 for a full year (same as Xbox Live) or $18 for three months. If you get in early you’ll earn three months free (limited time). Sign-ups start this month. And in an extremely crappy and controversial move, you’ll own the content you purchase on Plus only for the duration of your subscription! How or what happens when you’re subscription runs out wasn’t detailed….
  • Now for the deluge of games. Medal of Honor single-player is shown. New character named Deuce shown. Beta starts June 21. The PS3 version will include an HD version of Medal of Honor: Frontline for free for the PS3-exclusive limited edition version!
  • Dead Space 2 gameplay is continued from the EA conference where the show the final parts of the boss fight. Announce a PS3-exclusive deal where the PS3 version of Dead Space 2 will come with a copy of the Wii’s Dead Space: Extraction! Only it has been enhanced and uses the Move!
  • In perhaps the biggest surprise of the show, PS3-hater Gabe Newell (head of Valve) comes on stage and talks about Portal 2! He starts off by talking about how entertainment has changed from a product to a service. Jokes about his outspoken comments he’s made about the PS3 and how he’s glad they didn’t repeatedly punch him in the face when he arrived! Shows a trailer and announces that Portal 2 is coming to PS3! Complete with Steam services like Cloud and auto-updates! Which marks the first time Steam has been integrated into a console title. Gabe says this will make the PS3 version the best version of Portal 2 available on consoles. Portal 2 gameplay is then shown. Releases in 2011.
  • A brief trailer for FFIV is then shown. Afterward Mafia 2 is dated August 24th. Sony announces that day one content for Mafia 2 will be exclusive to the PS3 and available for free. Then new exclusive PS3-only missions for Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is announced. The beta will ALSO be PS3-exclusive!
  • Assassin’s Creed multiplayer trailer also shown for the first time. Shows gameplay footage and is dated November 16, 2010.
  • AT LAST! Gran Turismo 5 is shown in a new trailer and the release date is pegged as November 2, 2010. It will be available fully in 3D!
  • Wrapping things up is Infamous 2, shown in a great new gameplay trailer that seems to reveal that Ice powers are coming!
  • Last but not least, TWISTED METAL! They say that Twisted Metal is the longest running PlayStation franchise in history and a new game, titled simply “Twisted Metal”, is coming in 2011 with many of the same key members who created the classic games onboard of the new one!
  • They show off Twisted Metal gameplay footage after an awesome cinematic reveal of Sweet Tooth (and many Sweet Teeth flaming up in the back!) along with a real Sweet Tooth complete with Ice Cream Truck that drives onto the stage! Twisted Metal Team deathmatch gameplay is shown. Helicopter! Motorcycle! 16-player online and split-screen for four players! Birds-eye view avaialble for first time! Each vehicle has two weapons. New take on objective-based team play. New mode called “Nuke”. Looks insanely fast, furious, fun, crazy and very nice. Did I mention very fast? In multiplayer there are different factions, including: Sweet Tooth Clowns and Dolls (inspired by Doll Face). More factions TBA. They show off a multiplayer game where the goal is to capture the other factions leader (Sweet Tooth or Doll Face). Find them within the enemies base and you’ll drag them behind your car. Each faction has it’s own missile launcher with a yellow circle and you need to get their leader to the circle and defend it. Do so and a giant missile is accessed then launched. You have to bring the enemy faction down with three missile blasts to win the game.
  • And with that, the show ended with a bang!