Day Two of the Electronic Entertainment Expo is in full swing. Today saw Nintendo and Sony hold their annual E3 Press Conferences, and it was a big day for both companies. There were some huge game announcements, new footage from hotly anticipated games and new hardware unveiled by both Nintendo and Sony. Read Dork Shelf’s full roundup of Day Two at E3 after the jump.
Although Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. and a new Metroid game were all announced for the Wii, Nintendo’s press conference left many disappointed. Nintendo contiues to show off the DSi, Wii-Motion Plus was demonstrated again, and the Wii-Vitality sensor was shown off; essentially a heart rate monitor that plugs into the Wii-Mote. While their games continue to innovate, Nintendo continues to rehash all of its old franchises. I love Nintendo but how about some new IP, Miyamoto-san?
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Sony’s press conference was a little more interesting and entertaining. The event kicked off with the band Queen and a game montage filled with explosions, a good way to start anything. Developers from Naughty Dog took the stage and showed off Uncharted 2: Among Thieves which looked absolutely incredible, it one-ups the original Uncharted game in every way. Sony then showed off some gameplay from MAG, or Massive Action Game: a 256 player squad based first person shooter for the Playstation 3. I’m an avid fan of the Battlefield series so I’m really looking forward to MAG, the game looks like the similar to the Battlefield games but with 256 players at playing together at once!
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
After some talk about the Playstation 2 and the new PSP GO, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Gran Turismo were both unveiled for the PSP. Both games are probably the best looking games I’ve ever seen for the Playstation Portable, I may have to buy a PSP now.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Then the real meat of the presentation began, as they switched back to talking about the Playstation 3. Rockstar announced a new game exclusively for the PS3, Agent; an espionage game set in the 1970’s. No footage though. Ubisoft developers came out to finally show off some gameplay from Assassin’s Creed 2, after last nights amazing cinematic trailer for the game. The game is set in Renaissance Italy this time around and looks to be shaping up well—what would assassin’s do without strategically placed straw carts though?
Assassin’s Creed 2
Square-Enix showed off some beautiful cinematic and gameplay footage from Final Fantasy XIII, and surprised everyone by revealing Final Fantasy XIV Online. The last online massively multiplayer game from Square-Enix, Final Fantasy XI was a lot of fun. However, the game lacked the central story driven elements that made the other Final Fantasy games so great. Hopefully, Final Fantasy XIV can rectify that.
Final Fantasy XIV Online
Other game announcements of note were the Mario Kart-meets-Little Big Planet racing game ModNation Racers and Fumio Ueda‘s sequel to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus: The Last Guardian. Ueda’s new game looks absolutely gorgeous and appears to tell the story of a young boy and his giant companion; a dog/dragon like creature. Sony finished the conference off by showing off some new footage from Gran Turismo 5 and God of War 2, though it was not as impressive as people expected.
The Last Guardian
Microsoft wasn’t alone in unveiling a Wii-Killing peripheral: Sony unveiled a very early prototype of their motion controller. While still early in development, the PS3 motion controller seems to be far more precise than the Wii’s remotes. The motion controller seems to be a hybrid of the Wii’s controllers and Microsofts ambitious Natal control interface. Only time will tell which controller will prove to be the most intuitive.
PS3 Motion Controller
Dork Shelf live-blogged the Microsoft and Sony E3 Events on our Twitter Page, and we’ll be keeping you up to date with all the latest E3 developments and adding our own insightful commentary as the week goes on. Dork Shelf @ Twitter
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