The Mog Blog

Sony brought a a lot to the table at E3 this year. Summarizing this mammoth of a conference is rather difficult, so let’s skip straight to dinner.

Beyond Two Souls

Quantic Dream, responsible for Heavy Rain, brought us the first in-depth look into this new title for the PlayStation 3. What was shown would be one of the first scenes in the game, where an officer attempts to converse with main focus Jodie Holmes. Providing silence to every inquiry, Jodie remained as mysterious as she was quiet. Well, up until the officer leaves the room and the SWAT team appears, looking for her. When you think the suspense was built up enough, the video blew it all away with rapid scenes of game play, ending with Jodie showing a completely polar opposite personality.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

The guys at SuperBot took the stage and showed us not only a game match, but announced that the title would be heading to the PlayStation Vita as well as be cross-compatible with the PS3 version. This was demonstrated in the match, with two people on the PS3 version and two people on the Vita version.

Sony also confirmed Nathan Drake from Uncharted and Big Daddy from Bioshock to be playable characters and would be playable on the show floor. Makes me wish I was there.

LittleBigPlanet

For fans of the highly popular “Play, Create, Share” title will be happy to know that there will be a Cross-Controller DLC release for LBP2. This DLC allows the Vita to interact directly with the PS3 version of LBP2, functioning in-game and as a controller peripheral.

Digital

There are plans for 200 digital titles to show up on the PlayStation Network over the next 12 months. That’s at least 16 titles a month. Sony was pushing digital content rather firmly but it got even better with the next piece they went over…

…That being PlayStation Plus. For attendees, they received a voucher for a full year of PlayStation Plus. However, for those who wish to take advantage of this immediately, it was announced that there will be 12 full games offered for free this month. Confirmed so far, we have inFamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2, and Saints Row 2 (that’s a lot of 2′s @_@). Up to this date, it was said that PS Plus members have received 63 PS3 titles for free. I’m surprised that they are throwing 12 PS3 games out there for free this month. That’s the largest number of PS3 games released for a Plus update.

PlayStation Vita

Sony announced that YouTube, Hulu, and Crackle will be making their way to the handheld. Also announced was the compatibility of PSOne Classics. Since this announcement was made at this time, it’s safe to assume that this update will come sooner than later. Perhaps this month or next month maybe?

PlayStation Move

Announced for the Move was Wonderbook, a blank book that interacts with the EyeToy to create beautiful worlds that can be played with the controller or the Move. Sony’s working with well-known authors to develop content for Wonderbook, one such author being J.K. Rowling. You may be familiar with her, she wrote Harry Potter. Lending her talents to Wonderbook, we get Book of Spells. Book of Spells is a content piece for Wonderbook starring a wizard who must learn magic through books. This was demonstrated using the Move as a magic wand.

Moon Studio is also confirmed to be contributing a piece for Wonderbook called Diggs Nightcrawler.

Sports Champions 2 was also announced.

PlayStation Suite, renamed to PlayStation Mobile

Sony announced that they are opening up the platform source to developers in order to bring the PlayStation experience to Android, Tablets, and Smartphones. Initially revealed as PlayStation Suite last year, it will now be called PlayStation Mobile. The first non-Sony partner confirmed to be getting in on the PS Mobile experience is HTC. Handy if you fancy HTC phones or have been eyeing them.

First-party

Sony displayed some game play of God of War: Ascension. The title journeys to a time before the first God of War game began. We got to see some new abilities as well as a more…”people person” side of Kratos. The man hasn’t exactly shown a lick of regard for anyone and who can blame him? At least we now know he used to kind of care. Ascension will be released March 12, 2013.

The next major game up from Naughty Dog is The Last of Us. While we’ve been aware of the title, we finally get our first look at in-depth game play. I was reminded of Uncharted, and the game seemed to take some cues from the series. However, this game had a darker tone and atmosphere than the usual adventures we used to see from Uncharted. We don’t have Indiana Jones Nathan Drake finding lost treasure while bedding brunettes and blondes. Shown was a man and a girl trying to escape and survive while being chased by some mean-looking guys who would rather see them dead than alive and out of town.

Third-party

Sony mentioned the new Call of Duty title that is coming to the Vita. It will be called Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified. Nothing else is currently known about the title.

Far Cry 3 game play was shown, this time with some four player cooperative play.

Assassin’s Creed III was shown, giving us a different look at the game and some more game play elements. Sony announced that there will be a PS3 bundle that includes the system, game, and exclusive DLC.

We also got our first look at Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, a title for the Vita starring a female Assassin named Aveline. Liberation will have connectivity with Assassin’s Creed III, unlocking new content for the former when both are connected. Unlocked will be “an in-game version of Connor’s tomahawk, an exclusive character skin, a multiplayer character and a complete upgrade of all ammunition pouches.”

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation will also release with a bundle including the game, a 4GB Memory Stick, and the new Crystal White-colored Vita.

Assassin’s Creed III and Assassin’s Creed: Liberation will be released October 30 of this year.

I’d say we have much to look forward to for the PlayStation brand. Be sure to be on the lookout for some “crazy good offerings” for PS Plus tomorrow.