Having watched E3 a few years now, I can’t help but get the feeling that I’ve seen it all before. Sure, first person shooters are great – I just love’em! Unfortunately, the impression I have is that once a company has a franchise, they will beat it with a stick (or the butt of a gun) until the brand is good and dead. I think good stories have been replaced with inventive ways of killing people AS the story, and something has been lost.
I almost gave up on E3 until I saw the preview of 3EYOND: Two Souls (Beyond) during Sony’s E3 press conference. I don’t know what the actual game will look like or if it will be in 3D, but akin to an honest to goodness Hollywood movie, the trailer opened with a friendly conversation between a local Sheriff and a silent mystery girl. With the only casualty being a hot cup of coffee, it’s clear this girl possesses limitless powers we can only imagine. Sure, there was some explosive stuff at the tail end of the video, but all the tension was built up with good old fashioned dialogue. The video shown in this article is cut differently from what was shown at E3, but you’ll get the idea.
Augmented reality fans will be impressed with a new product called Wonderbook. Using the Move! Eye and combined with a “book” peripheral and controller, the TV shows a rich digital environment coming out of the book itself. We’ve seen this kind of thing before, but with Sony at the helm and enough content backers (e.g. J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame), this could be a sure hit. Of course, stereoscopic 3D support would seal the deal, so we’ll have to wait and see if it will be supported as well.