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Sony wasn't just showing off their new PS3 at this year's E3, but also several first party games designed to use the system and its various capabilities to its fullest.
Genji 2 takes place three years after the events of the first title and follows Genkuro Yoshitsune as he continues his fight against the Heishi Clan. Genji 2 doubles the amount of playtime in the first game giving you over 15 hours of action. Genji 2 appears to be a traditional hack-n-slash game, but with the power of the PS3, the swordplay and fights come off even clearer than before. With the ability to switch between any of the four characters on a whim, players will be able to change tactics easier than ever and this ability could very well lend itself to a whole new style of gameplay. The game's backdrops range from the naval battle of Dannoura to horseback encounters at Ichinotani, all of which come straight out of Japan's history.
Heavenly Sword is another sword-action game where you play as Nariko, the last remaining guardian of the legendary blade for which this game is named after. The Heavenly Sword once belonged to a god and if any mortal tries to wield its power, their life force will be drained. So when an invading ruler, King Botan, destroys the guardians of the Heavenly Sword, our hero takes the weapon and goes after the King in hopes of exacting her vengeance before the sword kills her. Nariko's weapon has the ability to switch between different stances allowing players to create massive and dynamic combos. The demo that was on the showroom floor placed our heroine in an arena with a non-stop flow of villains. With this scenario, it was easy to see how the combat system let you either focus on one or two enemies or take them all on as a group. Andy Sirkis (the voice of both Gollum in the LOTR movies and Kong in King Kong) not only voices the villainous king, but he also had a large hand in developing the different characters and their personalities.
Sony's other action-oriented, first-party game is Insomniac's Resistance: Fall of Man. Resistance takes place during the 1940's in Europe. Wait, wait, I know what your thinking, "Oh no another WWII shooter." Well you are only partially right. Fall of Man takes place in a world where WWII never happened, and that's because instead, an alien force known as the Chimera invaded and now all of humanity has banded together to fight the menace. You play U.S. Army Ranger Sgt. Nathan in his attempt to wipe out the creatures and their horrible virus that converts any life form into a Chimera. As the Americans and Brits work to retake Europe and Asia, you will fight through detailed, diverse environments and face off against an equally diverse group of monsters. Resistance: Fall of Man also has a wide range of multiplayer capabilities. Gamers can either try out two-player co-op, four-player split-screen or massive 32 player online games. This FPS looks like it will use not only a lot of the graphical capabilities of the system, but also its sheer power to control dozens of characters at once.
One of Sony's biggest racing franchises is back and will look better than ever on the PlayStation 3. Formula One '06 will have tons of real-world cars, racers and their teams. These teams include Scuderia Torro Rosso, Super Aguri F1 Team and Midland F1 Racing. In this all new racing challenge, you will have to keep your mind on the road like never before, because, unlike most track-based racing games, the other racers could end up in accidents that could block your path or leave you in the middle of a pileup. Not only does this game look almost real, but the added ability to tap into your PSP and use it as a real-time, rear-view mirror is a feature that is bound to have a lot of racing fans thinking about where to set up their portable so that they can see the little screen easier. Formula One also adds a Safety Car feature to the mix allowing for players to consider various strategies like going in for an early pit-stop or waiting through the traffic in order to get going again as soon as possible. Currently there is no information avaliable concerning on or offline multiplayer capabilities, but hopefully there will be plenty of options when the game gets released.
Sony's last title is the only one yet to officially support the system's newly announced tilt-sensing feature. Warhawk is a air-fighting game and shooter that puts you behind the yoke of the advanced jet-fighter known as Warhawk. Instead of using the analog sticks to modify the pitch and yaw of your vehicle (like most air-combat games to date), you use the controller itself as the steering wheel. Basically, in order to bank left, you tilt the controller to the left as if you actually had your hands on the jets controls. Tilting forward puts you into a dive, while pulling back starts a climb. When I first picked up the controller, I found myself wanting to use the analog sticks, but after a few minutes of retraining my hands, I was able to get the bird into the thick of the combat and start downing some enemy fighters.
You and your highly advanced planes are charged with protecting your homeland from the invading Chernovan armada. When out of your plane, players can continue the fight on land with a wide assortment of guns and weaponry. Not much has really been revealed about many of the mechanics of this game. The only aspect of it that was playable at E3 was an air-combat mission, but expect to see a lot of ground vehicles and weaponry to not only destroy, but also use. |
