Okay, now I have a video for the very interesting looking echochrome, and I can save the effort of coming up with a good way to describe it. Check it out in the PSStore Supplements page links to the top right. I believe this game is coming to PS3 and PSP, if I recall correctly. Way to go PS team Japan!

While I’m here, a quick E307 snack that I’m sure at least one person will appreciate.  Silent Hill 5 has been announced for PS3 and Xbox 360.  First screens at IGN.

Sony’s coming up next. They’ve already made a lot of internet splashes recently with the price cut, new 80GB model, and proof that Killzone 2 does look amazing in real time. Let’s see what else they’ve got.

1. Wow. Major improvements to Home. No longer a sort of biosphere type environment, we were just shown an outdoor town square. Kinda like the clock tower square in Back to the Future, in the future time period.
2. Dang, a new PSP. It’s mostly the same, except 33% lighter, 19% thinner, better battery. What’s really cool though is that now it has output to TV capabilities.
3. New game echochrome announced for PS3 and PSP. Amazing puzzle game using perception and point of view. OMG.
4. AHHH!!! Too much NEWS!!!
5. Okay, uh, Metal Gear Solid 4 is PS3 exclusive.
6. New game from Sucker Punch! It’s called Infamous. It’s an open world game, sandbox type, the first from SCEA.  It’ll feature a character that has super powers that can be either used for good or evil!

Well, it’s over.  Sorry about the lack of updates.  I’ll try to summarize some of the most exciting stuff for you that I haven’t mentioned.  By the way, echochrome is near impossible to fully communicate without seeing in motion, so I’ll talk about it later.  First, some exclusive deals, NCSoft, the makers of Guild Wars will be making exclusive online games for PS3.  Unreal Tournament III and Haze will also be exclusive to the PS3 for this year.

Speaking of Unreal, Sony and Epic have agreed to work very closely together to get Unreal Engine 3 optimized for the PS3.  This is really great news, as so many games will be using the engine.  I think that this news sheds light on why Medal of Honor: Airborne is being delayed for PS3.  It’ll give the developers some time to get a better version of Unreal Engine 3 to use on the PS3 so we don’t end up with inferior ports anymore.

Home is going to look and feel significantly better than it does now in the beta, and launching any game from within Home has been confirmed to be available at launch.  Unfortunately, it seems that the launch will be a bit later than hoped, as it was said on stage that the open beta won’t be until the fall.  Whether this was a slip of the tongue or not, I don’t know.  We’ll see.  Another really exciting feature is the ability to send pictures wirelessly from mobile phones to virtual picture frames in Home, while a user is on the go.  In addition, a virtual digital camera in Home will be able to send pictures out of Home to a Home community website for live blogging from within Home.

There’s a lot of games coming out for the network: Pain and GT5: Prologue just to name a few.  LittleBigPlanet, Warhawk, Singstar, SOCOM, etc.  It’s going to be a great year.

MGS4 was shown in cinematic trailer form, with no gameplay, but fear not.  Kojima announced that he’ll be demo-ing the game next week on Tuesday.  All is not good though, as the game has slipped into early 2008.  Awww, but it’s okay since we have way too much to play anyways.

Truthfully, I was expecting Sony to deliver the best show and boy did they deliver.  Well, that’s all from me for the mad E307 blogging.  I’ll be back to talk about stuff as I get time to think about it.  Until then, go out and surf the web.  Cheers.

The Nintendo press conference is just about to start. Time to start munching!

1. The Wii Zapper, gun shaped housing for the Wii-mote and nunchuk was shown. Looks like a lot of arcade type light gun games are going to show up on Wii, but with the ability to move around freely like a first person shooter. It’ll come out this year bundled with a Nintendo made game for only $19.99. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles can’t come out soon enough.
2. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is coming out December 3rd in the US.
3. A new Wii channel called “Check Mii Out” is coming. Looks like a Mii showcase type deal. Also, competitions to see who can make the best Mii’s based off celebrities and such. Interesting.
4. Mario Kart is coming to Wii in the first quarter of 2008. It’ll be online and it’s suggested that it’ll support a lot of players simultaneously. With the game, Nintendo is going to include a steering wheel enclosure for the Wii-mote. Like the one that came with that launch racing game.
5. Super Mario Galaxy’s coming out November 12th of this year!
6. A whole slew of “training” games are coming to the Wii and DS. Among them, a vision trainer called Flash Focus, My Word Coach, My Life Coach, and Wii Fit.
7. On the subject of Wii Fit this game uses a new control device called the Wii Balance Board. It’s basically a pressure sensitive platform that you stand on. The board is able to detect your balance center. Wii Fit will include 40 different types of workouts ranging from step aerobics to yoga. It can also measure your body mass index. It’s like an interactive workout video game. This thing is going to make Nintendo even more super rich. And imagine what else other developers could do with a board like this.

So that was it for announcements.  Not really too much news, besides Wii Fit which I think is brilliant and really make a killing in the market whenever it comes out.  Nintendo’s show was a very focused on Wii and DS as not just successful gaming consoles but as cultural phenomenons.  They showed a lot of clips from Youtube and mainstream news talking about the Wii.  Truth be told, I was pretty bored during those parts.  I know the people love the Wii.  Bring on the announcements already.

Luckily, I could use those times to run back to my computer and write the blog.  What am I going to do for Sony?  I’m expecting a really good show.  See you in a bit.

It’s officially day 1 and already it’s looking very exciting today. Microsoft kicked E307 off last night with their entertaining, but ultimately unsurprising, press conference, followed by Sony’s Killzone 2 coming out event. Let me first just say, “wow.” Killzone 2 is looking great. Check out the first realtime trailer up top on the right.

The reactions I’ve read so far are mixed. A lot of people are cautiously saying that the trailer does look as good as the original, imfamous, E305 pre-rendered trailer. Possibly because these same people were the ones crying foul the loudest over the past two years saying that the target video was impossible to achieve in realtime. Other people are genuinely impressed. Finally, people who I assume are 360 fans are still saying not impressed, most citing no reasons, others saying that the gameplay is what matters. My how the tables have turned. (see old PS2 vs Xbox arguments)

For me, I think the most impressive part of the E305 video was the animations and how lifelike they were. For the most part, that’s there along with the sheer amount of stuff happeningat any given time, but the facial animations on some of the characters just isn’t there yet. With at least six months left for development though, I think those things will definitely improve. Not bad. It’s a good day for PS3 fans.

Microsoft’s press conference ended a while ago. While we thought they might announce price cuts or another Peter Moore tatoo, we didn’t get any of that. Here’s some things that stuck out.

1. Great show. It was like a rock concert at first, with a fan band playing the Halo 3 theme song live, and Peter Moore playing Rock Band. Peter Moore, respect. That was cool. The conference died out a little at the end with the announcement of a limited edition Halo 3 360, and a strange live action trailer for that game.
2. Gears of War coming to PC. (”Surprise”) It moves so, so, smoothly, but what kind of PC are you going to need? Also, looks like Viva Pinata is coming to PC as well.
3. Speaking of Viva Pinata, a new one called Viva Pinata: Party Animals is coming out. It’s basically a multiplayer, party game, for the little ones. Scene It! also comes to 360. One game, four controllers (new controller, looks like a remote), same $59.99 price. Cool for the casual players, and I think it’s cool too.
4. Downloadable content is getting a boost from all the Walt Disney movie companies, starting tonight. Plus, Marathon’s gonna be on Arcade!
5. Call of Duty 4 looks incredible, and Assassin’s Creed is looking much much better. Can’t wait. They also showed glimpses of Mass Effect, PGR4, Lost Odyssey, Naruto, and Resident Evil 5.
6. Halo 3 single player looks really exciting. Graphically? Some scenes looked amazing. Others, not so much. Guess we’ll have to see.

There were also a bunch of stats on how the 360 is the driving force of growth in the industry. I didn’t pay too much attention to that part since stats can be made to say anything. All in all, a good show, but besides Scene It! and Viva Pinata: Party Animals, not many surprises. In fact, every game mentioned is going to come out this year (except Resident Evil 5, a trailer of which will be on Live starting July 26th.). What’s coming after that? We need something to look forward to.

We also saw the effort Microsoft is putting behind making the console a bit more family friendly, with stuff like Naruto, and some other licensed games.

I also got the feeling that people in the audience didn’t know how to react to another Xbox 360 variant being released so soon after the Elite. Kinda killed the mood at the end, as I’ve said.

So, not too much new, but it was fun. Can’t wait for tomorrow.