After the 2-hour early media access ended, getting your mitts on a PlayStation 3 demo kiosk became harder than getting a booth babe's phone number. I covered my early impressions of PlayStation 3 software in part one, but I hit up the Sony booth for more time with the vibrationless rich man's console on days two and three.

Gran Turismo HD was shown both in looping "attract mode" form and playabye on a handful of stations to the ambivalence of those on the floor. Similar the dull showing at Sony's press con, the floor demo failed to impress. This was simply GT4 running at ultra-high res. Lighting was the same, textures were the same... but the loading times. They were just delicious!

Gundam: Mobile Suit was also available for... "play". "Suffering" might be a more appropriate word. Yes, the game was super early, but it failed to deliver on the graphical promises at last year's E3. Control was more tortuous than a stay at Abu Ghraib prison, but the mech models were top notch. Maybe this is how all Gundam games play, but this seems more like Bandai filler than a true game.

EA's Madden 07 also had a playable in the PlayStation 3 booth, but it failed to impress. Graphically, the game looked very very early, so early that it looked inferior to its Xbox 360 counterpart. Since I'm not a Madden guy, I deferred to my new friend Kelsey's expertise, who seemed to overwhelmingly enjoy the game.

I didn't actually get to spend time with Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword, but the people in front of me looked like they were having the time of their lives. The graphics truly scream next-gen, but the gameplay looks like 2005's God of War.

Upstairs, Sony had both Heavy Rain: Casting Call and WarDevil: Enigma on display for our viewing pleasure. Neither was playable, but were both a graphical treat to behold. The former let attendees futz around with the rendering style, running from sepia toned visuals to black and white to hyper-saturated, showing off the lighting and high-poly capabilities of the system. The latter simply let those on-hand rewind and fast forward through the demo to ensure that the thing was rendered in real-time. It was. And it was spectacular looking.

LIke I said in my previous set of impressions, graphically some neat stuff is going on, but as with most first generation titles, gameplay and art direction fails to inspire. Still nothing to go gaga over.

E306: PS3 Hands-On Impressions, Part 1

Send an email to Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com.