Playstation Gamer UK

It’s that time of the year again, E3’s just over a week away. If you’re a gamer then there’s a very good chance you’re anxiously waiting to see what big news Sony has up it’s sleeve this year. What’s more, this year marks the return to old for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Gone is the small, crappy convention of the past few years and back is the swag, booths, massive game demos and (most importantly) the booth babes (pictured below and after the break) are back! Most websites have already put their E3 preview articles up because most sites got to see some early previews but me having no connections what so ever I really am just pulling stuff out of my ass here. But that said, I’m usually right so my opinions matter, gosh darn it! So, an actual preview, my predictions and more (ie. booth babes) after the break.

Right, so… what was I talking about? Oh right, E3. Well, Microsoft and Sony are both promising to change the way you think about life, but, since this is a PlayStation website I am, of course, going to stick to Sony. However, I am going to dedicate this next little bit to what I expect Microsoft to show.

Alright, first off I expect some bullshit at the press conference. I expect to see them either steal another Sony franchise, not sure what, or for them to show the trailer for Half-lie 2: Episode 3 in a way that implies that it’s an exclusive. Other than that, I don’t expect very much from old Moneysoft. There will be a new game or two, but nothing huge. There will of course be Mass Effect 2 footage, and some new Halo ODST footage. Probably other stuff like Alan Wake and… I don’t really know what else Microsoft has. Of course, the big thing here is the new motion controller rumors. I believe they will probably have some motion controller and they’ll play it up like the next best thing but I suspect it will end up not being used just like the PS3’s sixaxis. Anyway, that’s all for Microsoft, I don’t expect much from them. I’m not giving Nintendo their own paragraph because I expect nothing that anyone cares about from them.

And so we come to the main part of this. Sony, Sony, Sony, I’m expecting a lot from Sony. Starting off I’m expecting two hardware announcements. The first will be the announcement of the PSP Go! (possibly under another name). These rumours have been going around for a long time and they get more and more detailed every time. At this point I’ll be absolutely shocked if they don’t announce the PSP Go! The other hardware centered announcement is a PS3 price drop. But not a $100 price drop, I expect Sony to drop the price of the PS3 $50 and announce a whole shit load of new bundles. As far as the PS3 Slim rumours go I don’t believe they’re true. I’ll be surprised if they announce one because, really, what can they pull out of it? There’s not much in there that isn’t necessary so I can’t think of anything they can pull out of it, plus, have you seen those pictures? It looks like a knock off.

Right, so what else do I expect from Sony? Well, I see a lot of games on the horizon. Firstly, I expect some new footage of Team Ico’s new game “Project Trico”. The word on the street is that that leaked footage is actually pretty old, so the new footage should be good. I’m also expecting new footage and new details about the upcoming God of War III and Uncharted 2: Among Theives, the latter possibly even in playable form.

I’m also expecting some kind of announcement regarding Home and the XMB. Perhaps the third largest complaint about the PS3 (behind the PSN not being as good as XBLA and the price point) is definitely the layout of the XMB. While I love having everything at my finger tips and find the XMB (cross media bar) very intuitive certain other people believe that there’s too much there and that it’s intimidating for new comers. So I expect Sony to announce a remake of the XMB (only on PS3 though, the PSP doesn’t need it as much). I also expect this new interface to feature more in-depth Home integration. Since Sony is obviously committed to making Home work and not just abandoning it I think they’re going to have some stuff to announce about that. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony even went as far as to announce that for all future PS3 games past a certain point in the future that Home game launching is mandatory. But that one I just pulled out of my ass, there is really no reason for me to believe that.

Of course, there will be Kojima’s new game. I don’t know what it is, there are hints that point at a new Metal Gear game but I believe it will be something else. I hope for a new Zone of the Enders game but I doubt it. I think there’s also a chance that this won’t be a PS3 exclusive. Since Microsoft lives off stealing other companies ideas and properties it wouldn’t surprise me if they have Kojima as part of their press conference.

That’s it for most of the major stuff. I expect to see a lot of games there. Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, MAG, Heavy Rain and other PS3 exclusives, as well as PSN titles like the new PixelJunk game and, of course, multi-platform games. As well, I expect a lot of new PSP games to go along with the PSP Go! announcement. Of course, there will also be new games to be announced but I don’t know what they are. Oh, and I almost forgot, I expect a release date for Gran Turismo 5 to be announced (the date to be this winter) and the game to be there in playable form.

So that’s it for my preview of E3. I’m hoping for a lot from Sony this year. This week’s edition of The Real Word will be going up tomorrow, since some of my questions are about E3 and I wanted to get this up first. Also, an update on my damaged PS3. I got it back a few days ago, played it a little and then guess what happened? It crapped out again. I’m currently waiting for the box to arrive so I can send it back again. Luckily, there’s a 90 day warranty on their repaired parts so it should be free. Now I just have to edit this damn thing then it’ll go up. God, I need an editor.