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[UPDATE]Sony Debuts Xperia In U.S. At GDC And We Go Hands-On
Sony's long rumored "PSP Phone" is finally getting a U.S. showing and we're here to report all the announcements and give the device a full hands-on treatment.
Original story: March 1, 6:33PM
To start things off, Sony announced that the Xperia is the official mobile handset of Major League Gaming. MLG's Sundance DiGiovanni explained that Xperias will be demoed across the country at many MLG events this year.
Reps from gaming engine Unity announced that its 3.3 kit will feature compatibility with Xperia's controller on Android. Unity will soon announce a development contest for its community of developers.
Reps for Havok were also here and revealed that Xperia is the first time Havok will be featured on the Android platform. Hopefully, this will spread to the rest of Android devices. soon.
That's it for the press conference. Now off to play some games!
[UPDATE]
We got a one on one demo of the Xperia from MLG Halo champ David "Walshy" Walsh who was on hand to promote the Xperia/MLG partnership. The system itself feels solid and it's not too heavy or too light. The d-pad and face buttons have a nice shallow click feel. The shoulder buttons around back slightly swivel down like a miniature version of the Ps3's Dualshock triggers. The most drastic change to the interface world is the new touch surface simulated analog sticks. It took a minute or two to get used to the third-person action controls in Dungeon Defenders: Second Wave, but soon we were running around and swiveling the camera like champs. The dots in the center definitely help when your
thumbs are trying to get back to the default position.Speaking of Dungeon Defenders, it's an interesting blend of tower defense and third-person action. You run around as a knight, wizard, or some other traditional class and attack waves of enemies to protect your crystal. Once you earn enough points you can set up traps that will do the work for you. We couldn't really get too in depth with the game, but it definitely looks promising.
The other game we tried was Asphalt Adrenaline 6, which is an arcade racer with blurry nitro boosts and crazy crashes. Driving felt nice with the d-pad and face buttons, but we really enjoyed steering with the left analog pad. The control felt strangely tight as we were weaving around cars and drifting around corners. Oddly, the right analog pad could not control acceleration and braking like you'd see in Gran Turismo, but it was fun to flick it to swoop in and out of a full car camera angle and the in-cockpit view.
That's all we've got for now, but look for more Xperia coverage as we get closer to the gaming phone's spring release.
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