Impresiones TGS in situ (principalmente PS3)

En inglés, de un forero de GAF que está en japón:

Wow, what a day. Great show. Here are my impressions, in the order I played them.

Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)

I came out with mixed feelings from this one. Gameplay was fun, with cool fighting mechanics and lots to do. However, the controls felt a bit floaty to me - I haven't played DMC's before, I might add. The demo was really easy, and was basically set in a tunnel, so there was no way to assess depth or challenge this game might provide.

Then the graphics. On the other hand, the environments look really beautiful, with lots of geometry and beautfiful lighting. Then on the other hand, the game had a lot more aliasing than I would have prefered - much more than Lair, Genji or Heavenly Sword.


Motorstorm (PS3)

Really excited to finally play this game. Although it looks nowhere like the E3 2005 trailer, the graphics are impressive, with so much going on all the time. Buggies crashing, bikes flying, flames - super intense.

Track design on the track on display was very solid and offered good variation and challenge (apart from that one ****ing annoying ledge where I'd fall out on every lap - fix it!). The pacing of the race was great and standings constantly. Like DMC, the controls felt again a bit floaty to me - could it be the PS3 controller?

Overall, I was impressed, even with the graphics downgrade.

PS. Fix the framerate!


Resistance: Fall of Man

Just like DMC4, this game suffered from bad aliasing - to a level of almost distracting. I played the single player mission, which was lot of fun. The enemies seem to behave in an intelligent way and the combat has a nice rhythm - I would have prefered to have gun in the R2 trigger, however. The environments are really rich and varied.

Oddly enough, I liked more the E3 build of this game. I'm almost sure that the aliasing issue was not there then, and the mission I played that time was more intense.


Warhawk

This game is all sorts of awesome. The demo was a multiplayer game with 10 or so people playing on two sides. After we were forced to watch an utterly pointless, 10 minute long, low resolution introductory video (in japanese), we got to play.

You start the game on foot and can then grab a plane to fly or jeep to drive. There are different types of planes, and seems the number of a certain type of an aircraft is limited - I'd usually get the bulky and slow plane.

Air combat is definitely where it's at, and most people were flying all the time. It's hardly a surprise, since the motion control works fantastically well, makinging the game lots of fun to control. I'm starting to think that the controller may have some value, after all.

The match went on for 10 minutes, followed by a breakdown of kills per team and person. Although the graphics of this game are horrible (looks like a PS2 port to me), because of the super fun gameplay, everything is forgiven. I admit I'm surprised how well this turned out.


Flow (PS3)

Hands down the big positive surprise of the show - a stylish game that utilizes the motion sensing capabilities of the PS3 controller. Think Electroplankton meets Snake. Not much more to say, apart from the fact that it seems to be a downloadable game. Innovative and fun!


Parappa the Rapper (PSP)

This game made me scratch my head. It's a carbon copy of the PSOne original, which I love with passion. "Jump, kick, it's all in the mind!". Even the loading screens are identical. But why release it on PSP, instead of the PSOne emulator, which essentially is exactly the same thing. Sony must have thought that "hey, we could charge more for this, let's do it."


Virtua Fighter 5

I got to play a japanese dude with the arcade stick. The game looks absolutely hot, with really smooth graphics, great detail in characters and beautiful environments and great lighting. It had absolutely none of the aliasing issues that bothered me in DMC. Played on a big Bravia X-series and with an arcade stick, it's truly an arcade experience in home. Very, very cool. And yes, I kicked his ass.


Dead or Alive jetski thingy (Xbox 360)

Uhhh... tits and shallow gameplay.


Non-gameplay impressions:

Lair (PS3)
Game was playable and looked really good. Graphics were beautiful, with a huge amount of detail and no aliasing issues whatsoever. Great lighting and fantastic effects. Really rich environments, and gameplay seemed varied and exciting.

Heavenly Sword (PS3)
Looked same as in E3. Same small arenas, same solid graphics. Couldn't be bothered to wait to play it again.

Gran Turismo HD
There is one thing that impresses me with this: they manage to release it already in December. That's smart. Apart from that, nothing else impresses me at all. Cheap, although great for business no doubt.

Genji
What a turnaround! This game looked *bad* in E3 - dull and boring, with last-gen graphics. In TGS, the game re-emerged with fantastic lighting models and post processing and really rich environments. To me this looked even better than Devil May Cry - which is a lot said.

Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon
Yeah, great call Microsoft. Since you are doing so well in Japan, it's a great idea to hide the hardest hitters in theatre. Luckily, the queues were loooooong. Couldn't be bothered to wait, unfortunately. Still very excited to see the games.

Ridge Racer 7
Looks fantastic. 60 fps, lots of detail, good antialiasing. Definitely above RR6, by far.

Softbank next generation mobile games
Finally - mobile games with landscape screen, good 3D and stellar frame rates. Lot's of games from Taiko no Tatsujin to Star Wars Racer. Approaching DS and PSP in quality. Shame on you, DoCoMo, for having nothing comparable.

Bottomline
PS3 was impressive. They have a very strong launch lineup and a stellar first year catalog of games. However, currently there is no real must-have to me. Only Blu-Ray is a key selling point to me. Graphics-wise I couldn't see any difference at all to Xbox 360. They seem to be very much on the same level.

That's it, I'm off to eat and drink!