May 9, 2006 10:20 AM
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Denver, 5:40 AM
Mon Mar 22
18 posts in the last 24 hours
Looks like Kotaku and Microsoft aren't the only ones thoroughly underwhelmed by the Sony press conference. Over at the Guardian Gamesblog, Greg Howson has posted up his thoughts on the PS3 press conference, describing it as a "muddled mess that essentially confirmed widespread rumours of a problematic PS3 launch build-up." Our impression exactly.
Howson dismisses the new Playstation 3 controller almost entirely:
The biggest surprise was the controller. Not the style - which was revealed beforehand to anyone who watched the "hand-cam" shots used to prove the games shown were actually being played - but the motion sensor inclusion that lets you control by tilting the pad. A rather unconvincing demo was shown with the developer of Warhawk playing his game in a style familiar to anyone who has ever handed their pad to their parent. Quite how sensitive and practical this will be remains to be seen. Despite the undoubted technical achievement of putting this all in a traditional sized dualshock pad you couldn't help think Nintendo, even if the controllers use different technologies. There was even an Xbox style button in the middle of the pad. Imitation is the sincerest form etc, but from a company who lead the games industry to such a degree it was surprising to see this amount of respect for their competitors.
But that's just it, isn't it? Sony's lost the edge, letting Microsoft and Nintendo set the tone for the upcoming generational console battle. The Playstation 3 has been a debacle from the beginning... without a clear strategy and with constant production issues, Sony seems to be buckling in to imitate its more innovative competitors, in the hope this generation won't entirely fly by them. With so much half-assed copying of innovative features like Live's online support and Wii's motion-sensitive controller, Sony's claim that the next generation doesn't start until they say it does now sounds just like what it always was — empty boasting.
PS3 Conference Letdown [Guardian Gamesblog]
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