E3 - showfloor day one

Going to your first E3 is exciting and after the announcement of PS4 and Xbox One is EXTREMELY exciting, from a gamer's perspective.

PLAYSTATION 4
Of course I had watched the live conferences on monday and my first stop was at the Playstation area.
I wanted to take a close look at the PS4 and I have to say that's really slick. My first impression, during the live conference, was (and it was shared by other people) that it looks like a modernized PS2. Looking at it up close it seemed much less so.
The design is very modern but in an essential, elegant way. Playstation has always been more on the elegant side of design, whether it comes to hardware rather than crossbar style and layout.
The PS4 chassis definitely looks like the most elegant and grown-up of the Playstation series and it inspires an idea of self-confidence.
Personally I wish Sony would turn a bit crazy and create some bold color combinations in the future (using the matte and shiny parts in an original way), but they've never been too daring on that side of things, which is a pity!
What impressed me most, design-wise though is the new Playstation eye: it really looks like a cool accessory with this cubes-concept that render it both essential and sophisticated. definitely among the best looking camera on the market!

DRIVECLUB + PS4 DUALSHOCK
After looking at the PS4, it was ready to try her out!
I immediately looked for something to play and queued for DriveClub.
Hands-on on drive club also meant having the new Sixaxis in my hands and it felt good!
Compared to the current PS3 pad you really feel much more in control, it has a great grab and it feels like it's never going to slip away, thanks to the new design and materials.
Because of the touchpad the layout is lightly different, but all the controls and the sticks are easily reachable and feel very natural, just as they are now. Only the share and options buttons are a little out of the way and will take a little more time for getting used to.
The new back triggers (L2 and R2) do feel quite different: they are solid and offer good feedback, definitely improved! Thumbs up for the new pad!

Well, back on the game. The first great piece of news (albeit predictable) is that you can drive using the motion sensor of the Sixaxis to steer (it's something I love as it feels much more natural and more alike to driving with a wheel than a pad).
The game itself drives very smoothly, or course the experience on the showfloor is very limited, but I really liked how there's a series of records can be set on the track (not just the global time, but also things like longest drift and so on) and one is supposed to beat them. It makes the experience richer by giving you objectives along the way while also trying (of course) to set the best time.

TRANSISTOR
Near the DriveClub booth there's the TRANSISTOR one, I loved the idea when I saw it during the Sony conference and absolutely wanted to try it out. This game is by Supergiant Games, the developers of acclaimed Bastion.
The graphic is beautiful and I don't just mean what you see on the screen, but the art direction, it has a unique and unified vision that sucks you into the world. The setting is very futuristic but with a warm though given by both the palette and the melody and voice that accompany you.
Red, the character you play, is being chased by 5 assassins, but she has a formidable weapon with her, a weapon that cointains the voices (soul?) of other people and that grant her powerful moves.
At the core this is a strategy game, where you can enter a "planning" mode to layout your moves (you have a set number of points and each move costs a different amount depending on their effect / effectiveness) and then execute them.
The game, the tactic part, it's easy to grasp and the difficulty increases as you progress, it plays very smooth and it's addictive. I played through a level and absolutely wanted to go on. What really sets it apart though, it's the mood. The sword voice feels so intimate, it really speaks to your heart (I'd say better play this with an headset) and the music sets both the mood and pace. Red is an heroine you immediately feel attuned to.
Greg Kasavin, creative director of the team, is at the booth and you can really perceive his passion and when he thanks you for playing and listed to your comments and feelings about the game!
Definitely a game to look forward to, I'm already in love with it.

ASSASSIN'S CREED 4
After that I moved to the South all to see what was available around and I was magnetically drawn to Ubisoft's area and the Assassin's Creed 4 multiplayer booth. While I was waiting I asked a few questions about how it differs from the previous assassin's. The guy there explained that the biggest news is that there's an editor where you can create your own game modes, there are several different modes that can be created and that will render the game more dynamic, diverse and intriguing. Yesterday they were featuring the Wanted mode, which seems to be a favourite among hard-core Assassin's Creed players (it's not my favourite though, I really love to fine-tune and use the skills). They guy, in fact, mentioned that they had been listening to the fans feedback to fine-tune the multiplayer.
I also asked about the costumes and character customization and he mentioned there will be a great variety, more like Revelation's mutiplayer customization than AC3, which is personally something I'm happy about, because customizing the look of your character was also part of the fun and that's something I had really missed on AC3.
The game was playing on PS4 and the graphic looked absolutely sharp and detailed at that resolution (that's definitely the graphic / quality step forward we can look forward to with the new generation: higher resolution and therefore more sharpen graphics).
As for the game, it plays like Assassin we're used to, same pace, same moves, I didn't notice anything new. The pirate-inspired costumes are really reach and detailed, the textures pop out of the screen with all their different materials and layers and stitches, really a great work on those, but it's not something new for the series!

KILLZONE: SHADOWFALL
My last visit was again to the Playstation area, it was pretty late already but I managed to get in queue for Killzone: ShadowFall. A guy from Guerrilla played through a stage of the main campaign for us, showing the new gear you get. There's a flying bot that comes with you and it's a very useful fellow: it draws the enemies attention and fire and also creates ropes on the fly for you to go over distanced in a heartbeat.
I have to say the weapon design is absolutely amazing, I mentioned it to the guy and he agreed, saying that the designers is crazy about weapon designs and had spent months nailing it down. I can really imagine that giving its complexity and peculiarity.
It's difficult to say something about Killzone, it looks marvelous, with great pace and a smooth gameplay, however I'd really need to get hands-on to experience the shooting feeling, the weight of the weapon and character, a trademark of the series.

Well, there were more things I saw, but these were the most interesting and worth sharing. There's a fairly large area for PSVita at the Playstation booth, so perhaps in the next couple of days I'll spend sometimes there and show that there IS LOVE for the beautiful handheld!

Now it's already time to get ready for the second day!
Take care and game on
Ivy

:)