Harrison kicked things off however with a short bit on digital distribution and the PSP. Echoing what Sony big cheese Ken Kutaragi stated at last week's Tokyo press conference, Harrison confirmed that, from this October, PSP owners would be able to download PSone games, as well as original content. We were also informed that the PSP will be able to view PS3 content, presumably in the form of video (game demos will no doubt quickly prove to be a favourite with publishers).
Next up though was the PS3 itself, and a slew of technical demos for the console. They were all real-time, Harrison assured us, before introducing the first demo of the evening, a piece from Sony themselves that depicted thousands of fish mulling about underwater in a most convincing fashion, along with some of the loveliest videogame water and lighting effects we've seen in a while. Whilst this was playing, Harrison helpfully informed us that there'll also be full 1080p resolutions for those in both NTSC and PAL regions.
Following the fish demo, another demo shortly followed, this time featuring soldiers getting blown to smithereens, complete with some nice-looking ragdoll physics. Meanwhile, the SCEE London team also donated a demo of a meticulously detailed car being shot to pieces. Harrison bragged about the bullet holes even having realistically flaking paint, and asked the crowd to pay special attention to how the windows shattered and parts of the car fell off as their bolts are shot out.
After this, we were treated to a video presentation of Warhawk, a military-themed game from developer Incognito and one of the first PS3 games to be publicly shown off by Sony in real-time. A relatively short video of the game was displayed, and featured hundreds of ships and missiles on screen at once (incidentally, Warhawk was actually shown in pre-rendered form at E3 last year).
Almost as soon as the Warhawk demo was done with, we were shown more of MotorStorm, one of the demos from E3 last year that generated the most debate in internet forums. That said, the demo shown here was every bit as detailed as that seen at E3, with mud and dust being slung about in considerable quantities, and all without a technical hitch in sight. We were also given a running commentary on this video by Harrison, who pointed out that the wheels of vehicles leave wet mud trails which are persistent; in other words, as these trails harden, the terrain changes and your suspension is affected accordingly. Clever stuff.
Finally, we finished off with a real-time video from Insomniac Games, a first-person shooter called Resistance: Fall of Man, though during the speech there was also a sighting of what appeared to be PlayStation 3 versions of Ratchet & Clank and Singstar, the latter offering downloadable songs, and a GUI that would allow users to share videos and photos.
And, just as we were wondering whether Sony had forgotten they were also responsible for that PlayStation 2 thing, we even got a demo of the PS2-bound God of War 2, a game that will be in PAL regions by Q1 2007.
Anyhow, we'll have more as we get it in the next few hours, hopefully including a few images. Stay tuned.
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