Hardware-wise, there were two things the world wanted from this year's Sony conference at E3: number one, to finally announce a price drop, or cheaper version, of the controversially expensive PS3. Number two, to somehow trump Microsoft's startling Project Natal mo-cap/voice recognition.
On number one, it came up short – rumours of a new, slim PS3 proved, for now, unfounded. Given the Playstation 3 has an unfortunate reputation of being over-sized and over-priced, addressing that could have earned a whole lot of good will.
Still, defaulting instead to what was a pretty classy line-up of upcoming, if familiar, games does suggest the troubled console should have significantly more pride of place in the living room over the next 12 months than it did last year.
The show-stopper, though, was Sony's own motion controller. Though a little hobbled by its resemblance to some sort of nightmare sex toy, and of course by Microsoft's Natal reveal the day before, the stick 'n' ball wand certainly puts Nintendo's Wii controller to shame.
If the on-stage demo is indeed reflective of the wand's abilities, it truly offers the precision the world had originally hoped the Wiimote would.
While all the sword-waving and arrow-shooting was fun, it was the hand-writing demonstration that most aptly demonstrated the potential of this new toy. The accuracy of a mouse, but in true 3D space: RTS and FPS games controlled via motion are finally a realistic possibility.
The use of the Playstation Eye to visually insert the player into the games also offers a sense of egomaniacal immersion that the Wii's simple Mii avatars cannot.
ANTI-NATAL: Sony couldn't resist a few digs at Microsoft's Natal: "there's really no way to do this without a trigger."
Of course, the wand needs good games to back it up, and for now all we've seen is impressive but Spartan, isolated tech demos.
Nintendo still has Wii Sports and Wii Fit as killer apps, and if the PS3 is to lure in some of the casual crowd, it too needs a must-have wavey-arm title.
Precision is a noble goal, and one that will interest hardcore gamers much more than the Wii ever did, but on its own it's very unlikely to win over non-traditional gamers as Nintendo has.
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amit290
June 3rd
1. The Microsoft Nadal video was impressive, however as a product I believe Sony are onto a winner. Where as Nadal had the WOW factor its difficult to imagine using it to play anything other than whats on the Wii. To me it feels like a product designed to compete against the Wii, and to get the casual gamers on board.
The Sony product felt a bit more 'ready' and it could be accepted, and used on today's big titles. You could see your self using it on big FPS and sport games. That could be because of how Sony presented it, but certainly captured my imagination.
I wonder which system will gather most dust in a year, Wii, Nadal, or Sony's :)
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