Sony Press Conference E3 2011 – Breakdown – Part 13 – the PlayStation Vita, features and games
After revealing the PlayStation Vita to the audience at Sony’s E3 press conference, Sony’s Executive Vice President, Kazuo Hirai shared the specifications as well as the two different types of models on offer. Yet he seemed to be stalling, revealing features
rather than games.
The first feature he revealed was the Party Feature, which allowed players to voice-chat regardless of where they were and what they were playing. While this feature was already in place on PlayStation 3 consoles via the Voice Chat feature, it seemed to
have been built upon and improved as players could now chat across different games.
Along with the Party Feature came the announcement of the social connection tool, Near. The feature would allow gamers to connect and play, compare trophies and would have in it a host of social networking tools to keep gamers in-touch with each other.
That was all Hirai had to offer on those two features and to be honest, they seemed more like teasers instead of official announcements, but were nice to hear all the same.
Hirai left the stage after announcing that social networking was one of the main crucial aspects Sony wanted to implement with their PlayStation Vita. To take his place on the show room floor was the Senior Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment America’s
Worldwide Studios, Scott Rohde.
Rohde showcased some of the games that the PSVita would be offering gamers and explained that if they believe the hype, they should make their way back stage and see it for themselves.
First up was a title developed by the same studio that brought PlayStation Portable megahits, Resistance: Retribution, and the critically acclaimed Syphon Filter series, Sony Bend Studios. Their latest title was Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which Chris Reese
and John Garvin, both of whom were from Bend Studios, made their way onto the stage to treat the audience to a live demo.
The pair demoed a short section dubbed 'the ruins' and it had to be said that the graphics the PSVita was able to render and generate were amazing. Uncharted: Golden Abyss looked strikingly close to its PlayStation 3 counterpart and was even able to pull
off the clothing getting wet after Nathan Drake rolled in a puddle of water.
The shadow rendering and water effects were highlighted as some of the technical aspects the handheld device could generate, that previous portable gaming devices could not.
Hand-to-hand combat also used the touch screen feature where players could either touch the screen at various points to pull off moves or slide their hand across the screen. There was plenty more in the demo and details can be found in the next part of the
article Sony Press Conference E3 2011 – Breakdown – Part 14 – the PlayStation Vita, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Ruin
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