E3: the biggest cock waving event of the gaming calendar. On Monday Microsoft waved their Kinect about, yesterday morning Miyamoto struggled to get his four year old Wiimote to work and yesterday afternoon, Sony got their glowing end out. It was glorious. Before that however, Sony – who are celebrating the 15th anniversary of the classic Playstation and 10th anniversary of arguably the greatest console of all time, the Playstation 2 – revealed in game footage of Killzone 3.

Pop your 3D glasses on folks. Oh wait, you’re not there watching it. Set in the Helgan equivalent of the North Pole, Killzone 3 appears to contain more of the same Helghast murdering action as Killzone 2 did. The graphics look great, but there’s not been any major change; the levels all seem to have the same shades of brown already seen in Killzone 2, only this time they have a sprinkling of snow on them. Oh and there are jet packs. That’s right another game to add jet packs. The biggest point of interest in Killzone 3 however is that it supports full 3D, which segues nicely into the next 15 minutes of the conference where Jack Tretton reveals a list of games that are being designed to work with Playstation 3’s 3D capabilities including Motorstorm: Apocalypse, Gran Turismo 5, Sly Collection, Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, Shaun White Snowboarding and Ghost Recon. Now I want a 3D TV even more.

Next on Sony’s agenda is Move. In the motion sensing fight to the death (or for better sales, whatever), Move certainly appears to be standing tall, pissing on Kinect’s face. In the opening speech for Move, the usual “revolutionary gaming” spiel is passed around along with the words we’ve all heard before; aimed at casual and core gamers. The only difference is Sony aren’t lying. Games such as Killzone 3 will feature Move technology but that’s not all. If waving your arms around in your living room while playing a game isn’t your idea of fun, you’ll be glad to know that almost all Move utilising game discs will contain a Move and “standard” version of the game, making Move an entirely optional device. Along with this news, Sony also announced three new, Move exclusive games aimed at core gamers:

• Sorcery is a 3rd person action adventure that looks a little like a cross between Harry Potter and Fable. Move controls seem to work much better than Nintendo’s wiimote. Flick at the screen to fire magic. Press a button to change spells. Lift the controller to your mouth to drink potions. No set release date was announced but it is due in spring 2011.
• Tiger Woods ’11 is typical golfing fare, only without the stupid plus fours. The Move controller is impressively responsive; in fact the swings were perfect. Even tiny movements such as a slight turn of the club were shown in game. A very impressive demonstration of the Move controller
• Although there wasn’t much shown of Ratchet and Clank: Heroes on the Move (working title) the game seems to be a crossover of various other cartoon like Playstation characters including Jak, Daxter and Sly Cooper. It does seem to be more like a collection of mini games but hopefully more info will be released soon.

Puncturing Jack Tretton’s monotonous droning is an appearance by the walking ball of charisma that is Kevin Butler opening with a sly dig at Kinects ‘renaming ceremony’. After an epic speech about how “we are all gamers”, Butler demands that Playstation 3 truly does everything. I’m pretty sure it can’t clean my living room but whatever.

Playstation move is out on 15th September and 19th September in America at $49.99(approx £35) for the Move controller, $29.99 (approx £20) for the navigation controller and $99.99 (approx £65)for both controllers and Sports Championship with 15 launch games plus the likes of Heavy Rain and RE5 getting Move updates.

Now on to the next section of Sony’s Conference: the PSP. There’s not really anything new to report other than a new God of War game that had already been announced, an augmented reality game call InviZimals and the announcement that over 70 new PSP games will be released by December. What wasn’t announced was that 60 of them will probably be terrible. Oh and there’s also a new PSP ad campaign starring Bobb’e J. Thompson of Role Models fame. I guess Sony enjoy being accused of racial stereotyping.

The Playstation Network also touched upon with the announcement that Home is still shit; I mean Home has a full replica of Sony’s E3 booth featuring video previews of the games shown and some free items. Sony also announced a pricing structure, name and details for their new premium service set to run as an expansion to the current, free PSN. Playstation Plus, which is due to launch later this month, will feature exclusive features and content such as early releases of demos, access to exclusive beta tests, free DLC and automatic downloads for any items related to your interests. All this can be yours for $18 (around £12) for three months or $50 (around £35) per year with three months free. Next up is the section you’ve all been waiting for; the games;

LittleBigPlanet 2
Boy, Media Molecule have been busy. Along with the few things that had already been revealed such as sackbots and the ability to make any type of game, Media Molecule’s demo featured a lot of shiny new tools and mechanics such as grappling hooks, competitive scoring, sixaxis controller button mapping, AI characters, a fancy new emitter hat for sackboy and a bunch of other cool stuff. Media Molecule also played a video featuring a 24 hour developer challenge in which a group of devs were given a copy of LittleBigPlanet 2, no instructions and 24 hours to make something awesome. The results were outstanding, it turns out that even fully working Real Time Strategy game can be made. Amazing doesn’t begin to describe this game.

Portal 2
Yes you read that correctly, Valve have apologised for their Playstation bashing and are releasing Portal 2 on the Playstation 3. Not only that but it will be the only version to include Steamworks. The trailer shown by Valve shows the Aperture Laboratories Enrichment Centre after the events of the original Portal along with a voice over by GLaDOS.

Gran Turismo 5
Finally, after years of waiting Gran Turismo has a confirmed US release date of 2nd November and by god does it look pretty, although I can’t help thinking “This better be fucking good or Polyphony Digital are getting a brick through their window, along with my copy of Gran Turismo”.

Twisted Metal
Announced by the medium of teaser trailer and backed up by a fat man in an ice-cream truck dressed as Sweet Tooth, Twisted Metal has finally made it to the Playstation 3. Featuring flying vehicles for the first time along with a new team focused multiplayer mode called Nuke, in which teams have to catch the opposing faction’s leader and sacrifice them to a missile launcher in order to blow up a metal effigy of them. Makes perfect sense doesn’t it… Either way, Twisted Metal is shaping up to be a very fun, very crazy action driving game and an excellent announcement to end Sony’s conference with.

Also announced were a few things which, let’s be honest, were neither a surprise or worthy of their own bold typed heading. First up was EA with an announcement that the Playstation 3 version Medal of Honour would feature unlockable beards, and a free HD remake of MoH: Frontline when it’s released on 12th October. Also, the Playstation 3 special edition of Dead Space 2 will feature a Playstation Move port of Dead Space: Extraction, previously released for the Nintendo Wii. More exclusive, non EA, content for Playstation owners will also come in the shape of exclusive Mafia II and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood DLC as well as a PSN only multiplayer beta for the new Assassin’s Creed. Next up was a trailer for Final Fantasy XIV, the second Final Fantasy MMORPG to be made. The trailer looks very nice and shows a return to the classic swords and magic style as opposed to XIII’s futuristic setting. And finally, a trailer for inFAMOUS 2 reveals new powers – specifically ice.

Well that’s all folks. Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony’s conferences are all over and we can carry on with our lives safe in the knowledge that the future of gaming seems to involve waving our arms around like twats.

Last five articles by Iain

• Star Wars: The Old Republic - Hands On Preview
• BRINK - Review
• A New Beginning Preview
• The 'F' Word
• Working Class Hero