Sony’s E3 Press Conference

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Gaming Bolt is proud to bring you a live feed of Sony’s E3 Press Conference! If you’re at work or unable to watch the press conference live, check here for live commentary on the announcements being made today. The conference begins Tuesday at 11:00 AM PDT.

9:49 AM – Just over an hour left before the show starts. The anticipation builds….

11:00 AM – Looks like the show will be starting a little late. Let’s hope the wait is worth it!

11:10 AM – Still…. waiting….

11:11 AM – Triangle, square, circle, X. We’re live!!

11:12 AM – Opening video shows clips of previous and future hits on the PS3 system shown to Queen’s “One Mission”.

11:14 AM – Jack Tretton takes the stage. He makes a joke about the PSP Go leak. He mentions the 360+ games coming out for the PS3 this year. “You’ll see why 2009 will be our best year ever.”

11:16 AM – PS2 sales numbers. Yada yada yada….. Tretton touches on the 10 year life cycle and mentions that PS2 support will not cease after it’s 10th year. 100+ new games for the PS2 this year.

11:18 AM – PS3 sales numbers. Sony met their sales goals as planned. Yawwwwwn…..

11:19 AM – 24 million PSN accounts to date, but let’s get to the point – GOOD GAMES.

11:20 AM – Evan Wells takes the stage to show us Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The multi-player beta will go live tonight at midnight!! Now a live demo of the game. Drake scales the side of a building leading to a beautiful view of an abandoned city. He zip lines with his female partner to a lower building. He shimmies across a metal beam only to be assaulted by a helicopter. The demo yields to a hectic battle between our hero and waves of enemies, all-the-while being assaulted by the attack chopper. The cover system comes in handy. Both enemy and hero dialogue occur in the middle of action. The helicopter blows out a wall of the building Drake is hiding in and the building begins to collapse. They survive the wreckage. Non-stop action. The game looks amazing.

11:25 AM – Tretton returns to introduce the first ever live gameplay of the 256 player game MAG. The demo actually has 256 players playing live!! How awesome is that?! The battle objectives are outlined for a squad. We’re shown a map of all the players and their positions. The player being shown calls in a UAV to scout the enemies’ locations. The timer on the game is set for an entire hour. The player’s team attacks a well-defended bunker, gaining XP for each kill and action he performs. After taking the bunker, his team attempts to take out the enemy’s anti-air turret. A helicopter flies in and is controlled by actual players. The helicopter also serves as a spawn point for downed players. A cluster bomb is called in to attack the enemy. The game will be available on the show floor for 256 player action for the remainder of E3. Awesome!!

11:33 AM – Tretton returns to address the PSP. He talks about the features that have been added to the platform over the years and the games that the PSP touts. The install base for the PSP is 50 million units. A lilac pink Hannah Montana PSP bundle is announced.

11:34 AM – Kaz Hirai takes the stage. He introduces the “next step in the evolution of the PSP” — the new PSP Go. The PSP Go will be offered side by side with the other PSP systems. All the features shown are the same as shown in the leaked video earlier last week – 16 GB of memory, wi-fi, integrated blue tooth, etc.

11:38 AM – Kaz announces Media Go. A new media distribution system. He also announces “Sense Me”, a program that monitors your music and chooses music based on mood.

11:40 AM – New games will all be available via both UMD and digital download. The PSP will be available for $249.99 on October 1st.

11:41 AM – Kaz talks about the PSN’s video delivery service. The service will now be available directly on the PSP. A PC or PS3 will no longer be necessary to access the video store on the PSP. He outlines several new televisions networks supporting shows on the PSP.

11:44 AM – Kazunouri Yamauchi comes on stage to announce Gran Turismo for the PSP! The game runs at 60 FPS. The games contains 800 cars, 35 tracks, and 60 variations of those tracks. Single player contains several modes. This is a full game, not a shrunken down version of the original series. Ad-hoc mode allows up to four players to race each other at once. Trading and sharing of cars between players is allowed, making it easier to gather all 800 cars that are available in the game. The game will be on display on the show floor today. Now we’ll see a video of Gran Turismo PSP. The video showcases the PSP Go’s sleak design and the plethora of cars available in this game. Very cool. The game will be available October 1st!!

11:51 AM – A Metal Gear Solid announcement. Here comes Hideo Kojima. Snake is coming back to the PSP. He announces Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The setting is 10 years after MGS3, during the 1970’s. A sequel to Snake Eater. He will write and produce this title. The team from MGS4 will participate in the making of this game as well. Now a trailer of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. we’re shown a muchroom cloud of a nuclear explosion, shown several quotes by philosophers and past American Presidents. In-game footage of the game shows Big Boss leading his troops called “Militaires Sans Frontieres”, which is said to later become Outer Haven. Big Boss’ soldiers are clones of himself. A new flying metal gear enemy is shown. “They believed they were creating a paradise.”

11:58 AM – Kaz returns to wrap up the PSP portion of the show. Wait, check that… Tretton comes on stage to announce that Resident Evil will make an entrance into the PSP world next year. He rattles off a few more PSP titles coming soon – LittleBIgPlanet, Motorstorm, Socom, etc.

12:04 PM – Tretton comes on stage to discuss the Playstation Network. Final Fantasy VII will be made available as a PSone classic today on the PSN!!!

12:05 PM – Tretton talks about Home and the new content and publishers dedicated to Home. We’re shown a video of Home and the features available today. The video shows real life people walking around in their lives, then the same people walking around in Home.

12:08 PM – Now a video showing “what’s on tap for the Playstation 3”. Uncharted, Infamous, Madden, Final Fantasy, MAG, Batman, Brutal Legend, White Knight, Dirt, Ghost Busters, Ninja Gaiden, Mafia 2, Buzz, Saw, Street Fighter, Ice Age, Tekken, Red Faction, Tiger Woods, Guitar Hero, NCAA Football, Sing Star, Heavy Rain, Battlefield, Fat Princess, DC Universe, Motorstorm, LittleBigPlanet, The Sabateur, Bioshock 2, Ratchet and Clank, Fight Night, and several others.

12:13 PM – Agent. A new PS3 exclusive from Rockstar. A game about espionage in the late 1970’s.

12:16 PM – Now we get to see a demo of Assassin’s Creed II. Desmond from Assassin’s Creed II takes control of Ezio in Venice during the Renaissance. The video shows Ezio scaling across the city during a festival in Venice. Ezio climbs to the top of a building and takes control of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machines. Very cool. He flies across the city avoiding arrow fire. Ezio drops down on his prey from above. He attacks two enemies at once stabbing them both with his wrist spikes. There will be over 30 weapons available, with 6 more available if you play the Assassin’s Creed PSP game. Ezio kills his target then uses a smoke bomb to escape the guards and dive into the water to swim away. Both Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed: Blood Line will be available this holiday.

12:23 PM – Tretton introduces a new Final Fantasy XIII video. The video shows cut scenes that reveal some of the story matter of the game. Several batttles. A couple new characters. The main characters seem to be on the run from everyone else on the planet Cocoon. We see a couple summons – Shiva and Odin. Fun action sequences.

12:25 PM – Now we see the first footage of FInal Fantasy XIV!!!!! That’s right, 14!!!! AND it’s a Playstation 3 EXCLUSIVE!!!! The game looks beautiful. Not a futuristic game. More of a medieval feel. It looks to be an ONLINE game. Short trailer, but very intriguing.

12:28 PM – Tretton begins talking about motion-sensing controllers. We get a demo of a new motion sensing controller. The controller looks much like a Wii controller but with a glowing ball on the end. Like a magic wand. The Playstation Eye is used to track the controller. The sensor is able to track his motions in 1:1 ratios. Very sensitive. He demos holding a tennis racket, a baseball bat, a sword, a mace, a fan, a flashlight, a dart gun, and a gold Desert Eagle pistol. The video then moves to first person mode, and the demo becomes a first person shooter. A lightsaber whip? Something. He then uses the wand to draw his name. Very precisely. He gets a virtual can of paint, shakes it up with the wand, and draws with it. He lays out dominos and knocks them over. He uses the wand like a mouse pointer and directs troops on a real-time strategy like demo. He then moves into first person shooter mode of one of his troops. Now he’s controlling a man with a sword and a shield. The precision is quite impressive. Now his character is throwing ninja stars. Now he has a bow and arrow that works quite like a …. bow and arrow. All of these actions were performed using the motion controller, or in many cases two controllers. Very interesting. Spring 2010 launch.

12:41 PM – LittleBigPlanet will be receiving plenty of new content. Also a LBP game for the PSP. “Play. Create. Share. Not a tagline. A beginning of a new genre.”

12:42 PM – ModNation Racers. A new PS3 exclusive in the “Play. Create. Share.” genre. This looks to be a game where you can design your driver and your car in an unlimited amount of ways. The character models look similar to Sackboys. Completely customizable cart racing game, complete with crazy weapons. The game has a “track studio”, where you can design your own tracks seemingly pretty easily. The track studio is reminiscent of the old Sim City games where you can create the world and the terrain to your liking. The scenery seems very easy to make as well. In the course of five minutes the speakers were able to create a very impressive track. Very cool. Brief but intriguing demo. Let’s make that “Race. Create. Share.”

12:56 PM – PS3 exclusive Team ICO Project!!!! Last Guardian!!! We’re shown a video of a well. The well has a giant shrouded creature standing over it. Possibly a griffin. A small boy is seen running away from it. Yes, a griffin. Who ends up saving the boy instead of harming him. The boy climbs aboard the griffin, as we see the skyline of an abandoned city. The griffin appears to be the boys companion, much like a pet dog. A giant griffin pet. There’s a scene of the boy riding the griffin underwater. The boy is shown sneaking past and fighting guards. The video ends with the boy and the griffin sleeping in a meadow. Applause follows.

1:01 PM – A video of Gran Turismo 5. A red Acura NSX, a white Toyota Supra, a Skyline…. beatiful scenery. What’s this? World Rally Championship… NASCAR!?!?!! These are real life racing leagues from around the world. Very intriguing. No release date.

1:10 PM – The show concludes. That’s it folks!!!

What are your thoughts!?!?!

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