E3: Sony booth tour, PlayStation 3 bets on 3-D and Move motion control
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
For the PlayStation 3, Sony is taking a page from Hollywood’s playbook and another from Nintendo’s.
A look around Sony’s booth at the E3 video game expo highlights two trends: three-dimensional viewing and motion-controlled gaming.
Sony’s interests in 3-D gaming appear to align with its movie business -- not to mention the fact that it began selling 3-D television sets last week. The Japanese company announced that a few of its blockbuster games will be playable in 3-D in addition to regular-old 2-D. Gamers will need a new TV designed for 3-D and a pair of a glasses for everyone in the room not content with looking at a blurry screen.
The games look great in 3-D. Of course, they look pretty darn good the standard way too. Killzone 3, Sony’s shooting game set in a dystopian future, attracted the longest line, followed closely by Gran Turismo 5, the hyper-real racer that seems to have been in the works forever and is finally scheduled for Nov. 2.
Other 3-D games include two shooters (Crysis 2 and Ghost Recon), another entry in the Wipeout hover-car racing series, Tron: Evolution and MLB 10: The Show for baseball fanatics.
In the other dimension, there’s Twisted Metal’s vehicular combat, LittleBigPlanet 2’s adorable effigies and, surprise, more war games: SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy Seals and Medal of Honor.
On the opposite end of the exhibit, the PlayStation Move was failing to draw much of an audience. Maybe that’s because Sony was attempting to sell industry watchers on a concept that Nintendo pioneered at E3 2006.
Whereas Microsoft cut the controller out of the equation and added some voice commands with Kinect for Xbox 360, the Move is, no joke, a slightly more precise version of Nintendo’s Wii motion controller. The slogan ‘This Changes Everything’ plastered around the Los Angeles Convention Center is almost insultingly bombastic.
The Move games Sony is showing are mostly lackluster -- pretty, sure, but shallow overall.
Sorcery is a magic game using the controller as a wand. Heroes on the Move will incorporate Sony’s less obscure mascots. There’s also a fighting game; dancing game; and EyePet, the prerequisite kids-love-animals product that interfaces with the camera accessory. SOCOM and LittleBigPlanet 2 will also optionally support the Move.
Each controller costs $50 and will be available in September.
Gamers looking for a VIP pass into the online PlayStation Network will be able to sign up for a $50-per-year plan (or $18 for three months). Called PlayStation Plus, subscribers get early access to demo games, and some full-length game downloads are also included.
Check out the video at the top to watch as we move around Sony’s booth.
-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian
Video: Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times