THREE SPEECH @ 3ROOMS - REVIEW
Rather than Three Speech reviewing this week’s event down at 3Rooms, we thought we’d ask some of those that attended to give us there impression of the night. Here’s what Azz from www.gamesey.com had to say (special thanks to Ricky Hodgson for providing the pics):
I was one of the lucky few who got to go to Three Speech’s Three Rooms event on Tuesday, and this is my personal account of the event. Before I begin I should highlight that this was my first time at a Three Rooms event, and probably more importantly, my first hands-on with a PS3!
I met up with three other members of Gamesey at our hotel and we headed down to London’s Shoreditch area, where the Three Rooms event was being hosted. You’ve probably seen pictures of the white building with a graffiti exterior… When we got there, we were let in by two doormen, and greeted by a charming young lady with a mysterious in-the-know look on her face, very Justin-Timberlake-music-video-esque. She checked to see we were on the list then directed us to the bar upstairs. Already, everything felt exclusive and we felt like total VIPs!
The bar had a huge ‘This is Living’ art piece on the wall, designer furniture dotted around, and lots of ambient lighting. We got ourselves some drinks and sat down in one of the corners - but unfortunately for the two of us who sat nearest the left hand partition we could hear the Three Speech team in the next room setting up LittleBigPlanet, agony… we so wanted to get to it!
Very quickly the bar area was packed and more members of Gamesey met up with us. We were then called into another room where the man himself Phil Harrison was all set up ready to give us a talk on Home and LBP. As soon as everyone was settled Phil gave us the demonstration and took some questions. He pretty much covered everything that was said at the GDC, however, here is a summary of some new info that we hadn’t previously heard:
* PS2 backwards compatibility is now up to 1200 titles
* As our PS3’s were shipped about four weeks ago, we’ll need to update firmware to the latest version (to make use of latest BC title count etc)
* PSP remote play from wireless hotspots will be included in the 1.6 update!
* Eyetoy HD… coming “soon”!
Phil is an excellent spokesperson and one of the very few people I’ve seen who can take ad-hoc questions and always make the answer sound interesting and relevant, yet not accidentally tell us anything he shouldn’t (too good, in fact!). Although most of what we heard we’d already seen in GDC footage, Phil made sure the presentation was enjoyable to watch.
Home
Most of you will have already read up about Home or seen the GDC footage, so I’ll skip the technical details and stick to my own personal thoughts. One thing’s for sure - it looks great in high def!
I really was expecting Home to be lo-fi, considering everything that could potentially be going on simultaneously, so was very pleasantly surprised indeed. There seems to be so much potential with Home, and I think we’re all going to love having our own spaces, kitted out to our own tastes and style. I’ve always appreciated the potential of socialising online, and Home seems to be taking us into a new direction. I think it will prove very popular.
All the little touches and features add up, from the ease of use, to the power of sharing
LittleBigPlanet.
What can I say? It’s beyond cute! The graphics are extremely crisp and as Phil Harrison said himself, it’s one of the few games which is almost as enjoyable to watch as it is to play… in fact I think those of us watching the demo laughed more than those playing! Being highly physics-based, the game really pushes the realism - you get a strong sense of it being more than ‘just a game’. I can’t really quantify that statement in words - it’s something that I guess you’ll feel when you see it for yourself, in all it’s High Def glory.
The PS3.
As mentioned earlier, this was my first hands on experience with a living, breathing PS3, and one single word very easily surmises: Wow. Whether you look at it from the outside, or think about what it can do on the inside, it really does have the wow factor. Let me just re-cap… it can/has:
Cell processor.
RSX Graphics.
Up to 50 GB game-data storage (disk).
60 GB Hard Disk drive, which you can easily upgrade yourself with a standard laptop hard drive.
Almost limitless storage of media on removable USB hard drives.
Network/broadband connectivity.
Memory card connectivity (digital cameras).
Sixaxis - motion censor enabled controllers.
Wireless (bluetooth) controllers.
Bluetooth headset compatibility.
Can play high definition Blu Ray movies.
Can install Linux, turning it into a desktop computer.
Has PSP connectivity and as of firmware version 1.6 you’ll be able to access media stored on your PS3 on your PSP via a wifi hot spot!
Home (social networking, PS3 style - coming soon).
Can browse the internet with it’s own multi tab/window enabled browser.
Can play over 1200 PS2 games and almost all PS1 games
Some awesome PS3-exclusive games (not forgetting the smaller downloadable ‘mini’ games!)
Built to the usual high Sony standards
And to top it all off, has a sexy sleek design to boot!
So first impressions were very good! So good that I think I found myself behaving like a kid in a sweet shop and lost my senses for a while. I even (along with fellow Gamesey member Mekon) cornered Phil Harrison before he could leave and babbled on like a gibbering wreck! “I’ve got to shake your hand Phil, you do a tremendous Job”, “Have you heard of Gamesey Phil?” - he really must have wondered which lunatic asylum I’d escaped from, especially when I accidentally whacked him on the arm – oops, it was meant to be a friendly tap! (Sorry Phil!) He was great though and was happy to talk to us guys and stuck around quite a while after his speech. He seemed to be genuinely interested in us, as we were in him. Oh, and yes, he’s HUGE!
3 Rooms, games and more.
Anyway back to the PS3, and the rest of 3 rooms. So after regaining decorum I wondered off to check out everything that was on show. All the games look great, and although you get a good idea of what they’re like by watching HD trailers, a few in particular you really need to _see_ for yourself to fully appreciate. F1 looks incredibly realistic, and a huge part of that is the physics in the game, the rain particles, the bumps, the crashes etc. Same goes for Resistance - seeing a bunch of people play it, split screen on a HUGE TV really does show off how fun it is. Similarly, there are some games you really need to _play_ for yourself…
Super Rub’a'Dub - I am addicted already!!!! It’s just so easy to pick up and get into that you may find all the family will be fighting you for the controller! The controls are really intuitive, when you move the controller to the left/right/back/forward the ‘panel/tub’ tilts to the left/right/back/forward, and by ‘flicking’ the controller upwards, you flick the panel, shooting little ducky in the air (think pancakes!). It really was heaps of fun and I’m really surprised at how these ‘mini games’ grabbed me. Would I buy Super Rub’a'Dub? Definitely!
Flow - it looks like an art piece, albeit a moving one. Although it’s not really a game, there is something compelling about it that makes it hard to put the controller down. Would I buy it? Yes, as a graphical show piece and a little something to play with when it took my fancy or needed to de-stress. It’s very relaxing.
GripShift - another little game I really liked, nice and easy to get into and heaps of fun. Again, I like the relatively simple gameplay coupled with high definition visuals. Would I buy it? Definitely!
You know what? Who said the games industry was getting stale or gameplay stagnating? These mini games really are refreshing, not just because of the gameplay but how you actually play them too (sixaxis). They’re easily suited to heavy game sessions or gap fillers, depending on what you want at the time. I know I am going to be playing them a lot during work, ideal to give me several breaks in my long 14 hour days (just someone remind me to put the joypad down after 15 minutes!!).
I don’t think I need to talk about the other games as most of you are probably already familiar with them, especially the big titles. Unfortunately we didn’t get any new games to look at, but the ones we did see all looked gorgeous, from the shiny tarmac in GTHD to the stunning clarity of LittleBigPlanet (evident in lemmings too!!). Loved the arcade style, wipeout-frantic-ness of MotorStorm and the mayhem in Resistance. Virtua Fighter also looked amazing! I really don’t think there was a single game there that I wouldn’t like to own.
3 Rooms itself was a spectacular space, it echoed Sony’s Home concept a little too, stylised, designer furniture everywhere, open plan here, closed quarters there, spaces within spaces, and lots of Sony Bravias! Well done to the Three Speech team for organising it all - I think it’s safe to say everyone who attended had a great time.
All in all I had a fantastic day and left very impressed with what Sony has to offer, and what they plan to offer. They seem to be more ambitious about the PS3 than the PS2 and PS1 put together.. and then some! Yet we still don’t even know what else they have up their sleeve…
I for one, can’t wait for March 23rd!
Thanks to Three Speech for having us - wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again. Must also mention and thank fellow Gamesey members who helped make it such a blast too: Smak, Captn Smak, Sean1504, Mekon, Ringo_Smith, AG Systems, ColinMac and TonyNibbles.
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