I spent most of my morning actually playing the PlayStation 3 at Sony's massive booth. Amid the distraction of the looping Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer and the crush of backpacks, I was able to kill a few media types who stood in my way, and pried their cold dead hands from the Dual Shocks. [Except I don't think they're called Dual Shocks anymore, seeing how Sony pulled out the vibration. -Ed.]

I immediately stepped up to Insomniac's 1950's era sci-fi shooter Resistance: Fall of Man. Now, I'm not a huge fan of console FPS control, but I have been drawn to the title since its showing at last year's E3. I wanted to like it. Desperately. And I did. But, from what I saw, there were no real surprises. Standard FPS gameplay, weapons, controls—they were all there.

Sony also had a playable level of Warhawk on the floor, which to my surprise, controlled only with the 6-degrees of freedom gyroscopic wizardry that was revealed at the end of their press conference. Initially very awkward, I soon figured out (1) why the guy in front of me was smashing into every available mountainside and (2) high-def flight combat makes me queasy. Still, after getting a feel for the Wii-inspired control scheme the game was damn fun. The volumetric clouds, the lighting, the great textures made for a very solid, if not spectacular, looking game.

Game Republic's sequel Genji 2 had a brief demo, similar to the one shown at the Sony press con, but with amazing fire-effects and great looking models. Some of the assets looked pretty bad, some looked fantastic. Control was a bit clunky, and I didn't see much in the way of innovation beyond the first Genji title, but the game is still very early.

I spent a few minutes with Sega's aging anthropomorphic hedgehog, who has partnered up with Silver the Hedgehog for his next-gen headache inducing platforming. The lighting in the game looks phenomenal, but the camera issues that have plagued the series since Sonic Adventure are still noticeable and quite painful. Silver the Hedgehog has psychic abilities, included levitation and 2004's console gimmick mechanic—telekinesis.

Finally, I decided to get in a little Virtua Tennis 3. The game remains virtually unchanged from it's Dreamcast, PS2, and PSP counterparts from a gameplay standpoint — but that's a good thing. Graphically, it was a mixed bag. Nice models, nice textures, good lighting, but the bitmapped crowds and the model tearing just screamed last-gen. Actually, seeing Henman's polygonal face transform into some robotic beast during a replay makes Virtua Tennis 3 my clear leader for best horror game of show.

Initial impressions? Looks good, plays the same. I'll be back on the show floor shortly to try out Gundam, Heavenly Sword, Gran Turismo HD, and more.

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