Conference Reaction: Sony Has Plenty Of Games And Small Surprises

Sony's E3 presentation put the games front and center, revealing a handful of new projects and going in-depth with several games that we've been waiting to hear more about.

This is the second of our conference reactions columns (the first was based on Microsoft's presentation), and it's more of an immediate gut reaction than a thorough or detailed analysis.

As someone who has been to many Sony press conferences, I was happy to see that the company avoided a statistics-driven presentation that touted a bunch of sales figures and percentages (something it has been infamous for in the past). Instead, Sony focused on the games that we'll be playing through this year and into the next. Not even a whisper of next-generation hardware was spoken on the stage, which was just as much of a disappointment here as it was at Microsoft's press conference earlier in the day. 

Also, as with any press conference, there were stretches of several minutes where I just didn't care about what anyone was saying. Here are the highs and lows from my point of view.

Beyond Revealed
It wasn't actually a surprise, but the unveiling of Quantic Dream's new game is exciting. Even when news leaks out beforehand, announcements of brand new games are the kind of thing that gets people excited at E3, and Sony didn't disappoint with Beyond: Two Souls. From the amazing graphics to the intriguing premise, the game's impressive showing at Sony's show will undoubtedly have many eyes focused on the project for the future, undoubtedly aided by the casting of famous actress Ellen Page in the lead role (and the fact that the American characters didn't seem to speak with French accents like in Heavy Rain). Given the prominence of run-and-gun shooters at all of today's press conferences, this more narrative-driven experience was a refreshing change.

Little Surprises
Beyond wasn't the only new announcement. The reveal of a Vita-exclusive Assassin's Creed title, Assassin's Creed: Liberation, is a great way to get people interested in the handheld. Of course, that one is a bit on the horizon (releasing October 30), so it doesn't do much to address the current dearth of compelling content on the handheld. 

Another distant promise for the Vita is Call of Duty: Black Ops – Declassified. The Call of Duty name goes a long way, and the idea of handheld multiplayer that delivers console-caliber action is hard to resist. The last big Vita news was the announcement of some DLC for LittleBigPlanet 2 that would turn the Vita into an augmented controller for the PS3 game. What struck me as strange in this segment is Sony's failure to mention LittleBigPlanet Vita, which was playable at last year's E3. It's supposed to come out later this year, but instead Sony talks about using the Vita to tweak the PS3 game? That doesn't seem like a great sign. 

Other little announcements included the reveal of Nathan Drake as a character in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (which anyone could have seen coming), along with a Big Daddy. The Big Daddy is the puzzling one, considering that he's far from a PS3-exclusive character (in fact, BioShock hit PS3 over a year after the 360 version). Does this mean we'll start to see other multiplatform heroes, like Commander Shepard or Ezio, appearing in Sony's brawler? Only time will tell. 

Seen It!
Assassin's Creed III and Far Cry 3 were both at Ubisoft's press conference immediately before Sony's, but each title had some unique content for PS3. For Assassin's, we got to see some ship-to-ship battles that showed off some amazing graphics, with crashing waves, sinking ships, and cinematic cannon fire. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be like the tower defense stuff from AC: Revelations, forcing players to slog through sequences that are drastic deviations from the bread-and-butter gameplay. For Far Cry, Sony revealed a four-player co-op mode and exclusive DLC. It's a neat idea, but exclusive content for Far Cry 3 isn't going to make waves like exclusive content for GTA V – which, incidentally, was not mentioned at all in any press conference today. My impressions of Assassin's Creed and Far Cry could have something to do with the fact that they were both at another press conference, since some of the impact is lost when it's the second demo of a game you've seen in just a few hours. Their role in the press conference aside, both games look like a lot of fun.

"Reinvention Of The Storybook"
If there's one thing that's getting old, it's beautiful illustrations and carefully crafted prose. Okay, not really, but Sony seems to believe that judging from the reveal of Wonderbook. The announcement of J.K. Rowling's participation in creating a story for this gimmicky, interactive Move experience wasn't enough to make it seem like a good idea. It doesn't matter who you have creating content if your basic delivery mechanism is flawed.

It felt like Sony spent more time on Wonderbook than either Last of Us or Beyond, which is kind of frustrating given my (and presumably most core gamers who actually attend/watch press conferences) proportionate level of interest. The situation got even worst when the motion detection for one spell failed several consecutive times during the demo, creating an awkward moment for everyone involved. Considering that spotty motion detection is one of the chief complaints of this new era of motion-driven gameplay, the inability of an apparently major title to function in a public demonstration does little to inspire confidence. 

Going Deeper
God of War: Ascension and The Last of Us aren't brand new announcements, but they're two of the most promising Sony-exclusive titles. Sony did a good job exploiting that, using its presentation as an excuse to show extended gameplay sessions with each game. 

God of War: Ascension finally showed some single-player stuff (we'd already seen the multiplayer), and it looked like the same breed of gory, brutal action that has defined the series up to the point. Kratos has a few new magical abilities (like reversing time), but I couldn't shake the sense that it just looks like more God of War. I can't really say that's a bad thing, since it's one of my favorite series out there today, but I didn't see anything demonstrating that the team at Sony Santa Monica was really upping the ante, which each previous installment has done.

As for The Last of Us, the demo was a chilling window into the game's emphasis on survival. It did a good job conveying the desperation and brutality of people who have nothing left to lose, and the presence of a young girl amid all the violence (who, despite how she looks, isn't actually played by Ellen Page. Sorry, Naughty Dog. Quantic Dream got there first.) helps drive the point home. I was already pumped for The Last of Us, but this demo is making the wait even harder.

Gut Check:
I appreciate the fact that Sony appears to recognize that E3 is a great platform for getting people excited about your games. Beyond, The Last of Us, God of War, and Assassin's Creed III in particular looked great. However, that's the only area I feel like Sony has a leg up on Microsoft this year. Both companies spent a lot of time talking about things that most hardcore gamers don't care about (Kinect, Wonderbook), trying to convince us that these are bigger deals than they seem to be. While the games scheduled for 2012 and early 2013 are impressive, the impending next generation of hardware seems like an elephant in the room that no one is talking about. I certainly didn't expect companies to build their press conferences around new tech yet, but pretending it doesn't exist seems like a bad move when faced with an audience that desperately wants to hear something new. With a brand new consoles and (presumably) some new announcements tomorrow morning, Nintendo has a good shot at walking away with the crown at this year's E3.