Liveblog: Sony E3 Conference 2012

Hey guys and girls, earlier we blogged the Microsoft Conference, and now it’s Sony’s turn. We have a livestream of the conference here, which kicks off at 11am. I genuinely think Sony has a chance to steal the show in terms of exclusives, so I’m looking forward to this!


10.45
Welcome everyone. I’m feeling just a little bit groggy. I’m halfway through the above chuck of chocolate, and I’ve ran out of Pepsi Max. The nearby shop doesn’t have Pepsi Max and I’ve had to — gasp — buy Coke Zero. Urgh, my stomach.

While we’re waiting — what are you guys hoping to see? What are you expecting? The conference kicks off in 15 mins, so we have a bit of time!

10.49
Ah Pachter on the stream. Make some predictions wizard man! He says not to expect much.

10.50
Keighley’s Keys? Oh gawd! Hahahaha!

But I do agree — the PS Vita’s issues have to be addressed. I really think Sony is going to be all about the games this year. I think it would make a lot of sense for them at this point.

10.53
For the record, I thought the Microsoft conference was pretty lacklustre. The Sony conference is make or break — is E3 of less importance? Does the industry still care? If Sony’s conference is lacking, this might be an industry trend. We’re almost there now, so we’ll find out soon enough.

10.55
Keighley’s tie — thoughts?

10.56
Molyneux wants more The Last Of Us. Sessler saying they should focus on games. I JUST SAID THAT SESSLER! GET YOUR OWN IDEAS FOR ONCE!

10.59
Jokes aside — Sessler is actually the most interesting person on the panel at the moment.

11.00
And here we go…

DUBSTEP. ABOUT TIME WE HAD DUBSTEP! RIGHT GUYS?

11.03
Even early on it looks like Sony is focusing on games. Makes sense. This is a games conference.

This is a long intro — showing lots of games, The Last of Us, PlayStation All-Stars, etc, etc.

11.05
Do the moonwalk Tretton!

Why are people whooping? URGH. I’d be giving folks death stares if I was there now.

11.07
I like Tretton though. Cheap pops and all, he’s good on stage. He’s now talking about how awesome gamers are. Yeah, we’re alright Jack. We’re alright.

11.08
DO THE MOONWALK KAZ! DO IT!

This feels a lot more relaxed than the Microsoft conference so far. But let’s get on with it!

AND HE’S KICKING IT OFF! With new Quantic Dream game! MOONWALK IT DAVID CAGE!

(Alright, I’ll lay off the caps lock now)

11.10
Take a drink every time Cage says ’emotional’. You are already dead.

This game seems to be about what’s beyond… (the game is called Beyond).

11.12
Oh wow. Ellen Page is playing the main character in beyond. That’s brilliant. Now we know why Naughty Dog changed The Last of Us!

11.15
Amazing performance from Ellen Page. SHE IS SITTING REALLY REALLY STILL.

Crap jokes aside, this looks good. Wouldn’t mind seeing some actual interaction though.

11.18
Bizarrely I was really disappointed when the SWAT guys came in. I was just like, oh — this is a video game. Was hoping it would do things a little differently. Still, Beyond looks top notch.

11.20
WHOOOOO! A GAME. Like that other game. Game journalism.

11.21
All-Stars will be on the Vita and cross compatible with the PS3. Nice. To be honest, I actually had fun with this game. Obviously… Smash Bros. But still — it’s fun. Has a little bit of a different balance and feel as well.

Probably also worth noting that the team is, crap pun intended, a real All-Stars group of folks who’ve built some of the best fighters in the business.

11.24
Dan Chiappini — “Can’t believe they brought The Wiggles in for the Sony conference!”

Hahaha!

11.25
All Stars has this kinda cool thing where it’s all about building up supers to score points. Hard to explain, but it is a mild point of difference.

11.27
Looks like the leak was right — Nathan Drake and Big Daddy officially revealed. I think that sort of sets the tone — hopefully we’ll see some more cool third party characters.

Ezio plz.

Also Jack is now talking about cross play online. I think this is actually pretty awesome. But still, not many Vitas out there. This is the problem.

11.30
Journey is the PSN’s biggest selling game of all time? Well deserved. Very well deserved. Sony has done great things with PSN.

11.32
Jack doing the hard sell on PS+. Giving every Journo in the audience a membership for PS+. They’re whooping. Really? ‘Our way of saying thank you,’ says Jack. That’s a crock. I don’t like this to be honest.

11.34
This is getting a little bit talky. Not really as busy on the games front as I expected it would be. ‘Center of your living room, blah blah blah’.

11.37
Another leak looks to be true — PS Vita exclusive Assassin’s Creed with a female assassin. That’s interesting. You’ll have to convince me it’s not half-arsed though. CONVINCE ME PEOPLE!

11.39
Hello Australian Assassin’s Creed man! Beguile me with your accent my good man!

Ooh, weird ameri-aussie!

11.41
Wow. Connor sails a goddamn boat? Man, this looks pretty incredible. Visually this game is… wow. Absolutely loving the waves and weather effects. The scope of this game seems massive — hope it can remain focused and fun. It be a shame if the game’s core got too bloated.

God damn. This feels next level.

11.44
Assassin’s Creed 3 will launch with a new hardware bundle. Man, that demo looked pretty stellar I have to say. Ubisoft are killing it this year.

11.47
Far Cry 3 looks good, but I’m disappointed that we’re not really getting to see what the Lead Writer spoke to me about — the idea that it’s a game about violence — not just another shooter with violence. Not seeing that from anything shown today, or at the Ubisoft conference.

11.49
Are Ubisoft just playing the bullet-point game with Far Cry 3?

11.51
This guy has the worst facial hair.

11.53
I guess this PlayStation Eye/Move stuff had to come eventually. AR is interesting though. I just know that people are not using the PlayStation Eye. Not in my experience at least.

Also books are books. I like books, and I like reading. Reading is fun without this stuff. Kids are reading more than ever!

11.57
You know what though — while this isn’t for us, it is intriguing and an interesting connection to make.

Also — some motherfucker has to put The Never Ending Story on this thing.

12.00
As interesting an idea as this is. It’s time to wrap it up! Come on! This is valuable The Last Guardian time! #wishfulthinking

12.03
Alright finish up son. Someone start playing the Oscar theme music!

12.05
Thanks for the text message JK! Clearly you could not care less!

12.06
Well, my prediction that this would be focused on games seems to be completely wrong. This is painful at the moment. Very painful.

12.08
Okay, looks like God of War is about to be shown. People are whooping again. I was a bit flat on the multiplayer… would love to see something spectacular here. Part of me wonders if this series is going to get a little stagnant. They’ve already gone as big as possible. What’s next?

Still I love the weight and feel of God of War — it’s always had that perfectly balanced.

12.12
Oh interesting! I take it back — pretty interesting time shift mechanic here!

Also — love that Elephant design. So strange and otherworldly. I like it.

12.16
I have to say — feels like this is God of War by numbers. Just a little bit.

12.18
Oh, The Last of Us gameplay. Finally. So far so Uncharted-ey. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Part of me was hoping you’d play as the little girl. Otherwise, this might just be another third person action game. No matter how polished it looks and plays.

Oh wow, that stealth kill was brutal. It almost felt like violence with consequence. This is supposed to be a video game! This is new!

Looks like The Last of Us has some sort of hoarding mechanic. That’s interesting and makes complete sense. I like it.

That last part really sent chills up my spine. The violence feels different. It has to. Very dark and interesting demo.

12.25
Wow. That’s it. Absolutely no surprises. No real new games. No The Last Guardian. Another flat conference. What gives?

Thanks again for watching with me everyone. See you all for the Nintendo conference tonight!


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