E3 2012 Round 4 Sony

 I've always favoured the original Playstation logo honestly.

 

Sony, the big hitter, you'd expect them to come up with a lot of nice titles to wow us with seeing as they're something of a powerhouse in the industry - although not financially if you've been following the latest news. It's been an interesting conference...

Assassin's Creed 3: Ahoy Edition and Assassin's Creed: Feminist Pirate

Y'arr, this doesn't look good.

They really love AC3 in this E3, so much so that they decided to showcase a bit more of the gameplay. This time Conner is the captain of a ship and commandeering it against enemy ships. It seemed standard Assassin's Creed affair when it comes to the vehicle sections, simple controls but probably very annoying to attain the 100% synchronization (I'm looking at you, AC:Brotherhood Tank mission). The demo showed Conner firing cannons at enemies while being bashed about the stormy ocean, apparently the weather is dynamically changing and can really mess up your sea faring missions - also likely to make you lose your lunch. From the ship combat, they moved in for close combat which I assume will play out much like the rest of the game only in a much more unstable environment but no less satisfying when you execute that perfect combination kill.

                                         Wait, no one is steering this thing?

                                    Make sure you get his insurance details.

                                                 See you in, Oct. 2012.

Also shown was the Playstation Vita spin-off title: Assassin's Creed Liberation featuring a mysterious female assassin. I'd feign interest but after the Brotherhood and Revelation 'spin-off' titles I'm reluctant to put my neck out for anything that isn't a simple numbered title in the franchise. I'll reserve judgement till I can get a hands-on.

Wonderbook: Book of Spells

A curious game spawned from the depths of Hell. Utilising the Playstation Eye camera and the Playstation Move and a specially made book device players can use augmented reality to  create 3D models come to life from the world of the book. Children reading books and seeing their characters come to life - sound idea on paper. You would be able to purchase different books and then use them in the Wonderbook.

                                                That is a HUGE wand. 

                    Now you can wash your dishes with these Dragon Pimp gloves. 

The horror of what they had created came to life following the embarrassing live demonstration of the Book of Spells. Co-created with J. K. Rowling, Book of Spells allows players to learn and cast spells from the popular series Harry Potter. While I'm sure many people's inner child threatened to leap out and take control, this will have soon been quelled upon seeing the demonstration: wild waving of the Move wand and gestures failing to conjure the appropriate spell - the awkward smiling from the operators said it all.

If you squint you'll see an embarrassed woman.

No matter how hard Sony push this idea, Augmented Reality is a pure gimmick and won't be a large part of the future of gaming - at least not yet. While it would be amusing to bust this book out and have your children read and watch the magic unfold on the screen I find it hard to imagine anyone would have the level of patience required to work the 'game'.

Cute.

God of War: Ascension

Seems like everyone is doing it nowadays. They've ended the story so there's nothing to do now but to go back and do a prequel! Featuring a younger Kratos this is more of the same God of War affair. More blood, more dismemberment and more mythical beasts for you to brutalise.

Same beautiful vistas.

Same firey-sword-on-chains.

                                           Of course the return of the QTE.

Time Warp in action.

In this installment we see Kratos show off the power of Time Rewind (must've borrowed it from The Prince of Persia), fight all manner of goat beast, an elephant man, a suit of armour with a giant flaming hammer and then dive into the maws of a Kraken - all in a days work for Kratos.

                                                The Kraken bench press.

                                            Oh yeah? Well, mine's bigger.

The gameplay seems more refined than ever before but the same awkward rolling and dodging is still there. Hopefully this time around the combat will be more polished than ever before and we'll definitely be getting some new toys to play with.

The Money Shot

The Last Of Us

                                      Nathan Drake and his side-kick Ellen Page.

No, this isn't Uncharted again, this is Escort Mission: The Game. You work together with a 14-year-old girl in a post-apocolyptic world where your only goal is to survive. I can already tell it's going to be a heart-wrenching tale where we're made to care for the little scamp and there's going to be a kidnapping and a whole lot of screaming.

                       A ghoul was kind enough to demonstrate the game for us.

The gameplay itself is interesting thus far, the environments seem vast and present us with the question of whether we'll be taking part in any crazy climbing exercises or if we're going to be more rooted to the ground.

 We all get nervous meeting new people.

The game demonstration showed the protagonist, Joel fighting in a new and interesting way. The usual rigmarole of using guns is present as in many third-person-games but the grappling element intrigues me. Joel is able to grab guns from enemies and also grab them and either smother them or choose to rearrange their generic faces all over the nearest piece of furniture. 

The combat somehow seems more brutal I'm not sure if it's the excessive force or if it's the close-ups but it definitely sends home the message that someone is being badly injured; the mixed emotions that you feel afterwards are sure to linger as you progress through the story.

                                       Joel never gets that second date.

All in all a fairly decent, if extremely drawn out conference. Highlights being: Last of Us and the end of the Wonderbook demonstration.

See you, E3 Day 2!