Sony Showstoppers At E3 2009

Continuing with Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) thoughts from last week, Sony had a basketful of goodies to share with the world. The main highlights were some PlayStation 3 (PS3) exclusives: God of War III, Unchartered 2 and a new concept called MAG (Massive Action Game). On top of that, a new PSP (PSPgo) was announced.

The most anticipated game at E3 this year was the action-adventure, single-player God of War III. This is the final installment to the hugely popular God of War series, and you again play as Kratos, the angry ex-Spartan warrior seeking his revenge against Zeus and the gods of Mt. Olympus. The graphics are spectacular and the action is nonstop. You can now ride some of the mythological creatures to transport you around, and new weapons such as the Cestus allow Kratos to learn new ruthless techniques. The game’s trademark detailed gore and violence are enhanced on the PS3 - definitely not for the keiki. God of War III comes out in March 2010 (Rating: RP for Rating Pending).

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the fresh single-player, action-adventure shooter follow-up to last year’s hit - Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. You are Nathan Drake, a fortune hunter with a shady reputation and an even shadier past who is lured back into the treacherous world of thieves and mercenary treasure-seekers. The game’s backdrop keeps it varied with locations ranging from lush green swamps to dense urban environments to ice and snow of the Himalayas.

he added unrestricted combat allows you to take an aggressive or stealthy approach to combat with traversal gunplay, free-climbing mechanics and variety of enemy types with advanced AI routines. The launch date is slated for late this year (Rating: RP).

MAG is a first-person shooter game that is played exclusively online, and the next evolution in gaming. It lets you experience battles with up to 256 real people across a global battlefield. MAG is able to manage a large amount of players by breaking them into squads of eight. You climb your way up the chain of command to take control of your eight-person squad, then 32-person platoon and ultimately your 128-person army.

The game takes place in a dark future 2025 where food shortages spark riots, currencies plummet, fuel reserves are dwindling and oil-producing nations ration what remains. A MAG beta is available to download, but the official release will be late this year (Rating: RP).

Last but not least, the PSPgo is for those who prefer to not carry around the typical PSP disc-based content. The PSPgo replaced the UMD drive with 16GB of flash memory to download and store a variety of digital entertainment content using the PlayStation Store. It’s a flip-style system that will come in white or black, and features Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a smaller lightweight design that will fit into your purse or pocket. The regular PSP will continue to be sold alongside the PSPgo, which will retail for $249 starting Nov. 1.

Want Konami's PS3-Exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 for $30?

Lop half off the original $60 price tag of Konami's PS3-Exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and you've got its newer, friendlier "Greatest Hits" sales pitch. That's right, $30 now gets you my pick for best PS3 game of 2008, and easily one of my top two or three overall.
Not that you need to take my word for it. Designer Hideo Kojima's uber-crypto-sneaker launched around this time last year to nearly universal critical acclaim (not that universal acclaim can explain my allergy to the new Star Trek movie). To be fair, it torqued off a few contrarians, who then undermined their own polemic by trying to sound smart dissing the pseudo-philosophy before half-heartedly ripping the gameplay to shreds.

Did you give it a pass when the game came out? Or maybe you just picked up a PS3? Now's a great time to remedy the gaping hole in your "gi-normous gaming milestones" collection, and yes, that's an "I will pimp for MGS4" sign hanging around my neck. I loved it. I wasn't dolling out scores when I spot-reviewed it last year, but had I been, it would've clocked an easy one-double-aught.

I'll admit that's as much due to my appreciation for the story, directing, and editing, as the sneak-and-cover gameplay itself, but that's how I've always rolled. If I want pure gameplay, I'll play Tetris, or Tic-Tac-Toe (though even those games contain ineluctable narratives). The least interesting moments in BioShock for me involved tinkering with the plasmids and hunting Little Sisters and playing peekaboo with the easily snookered artificial intelligence. I kept playing that game because I wanted to know how the generally well written story ended, not because I cared about flinging extra-super-powerful lightning bolts at the pathetically executed endgame villain.

Occasionally someone tries to foist the notion that games aren't (or shouldn't be) narratives on players. It's a wrongheaded notion, as well as a naive one. Games can be many things. Not-narratives will never be one of them. Metal Gear Solid 4 is an interactive story, and, as it happens, one of the most trenchant ever created. With its dark science-fantasy allegory of warlord-like private military contractors and chess-piece WMDs and wars fought by proxy groups without ideological liabilities to manipulate world economies, it took bigger political risks than its peers...because it took measured aim at much more than just a fantasy world.