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This year's show did a particularly impressive job of bringing back the day one crowds for a second look, with the early hours of day two being very busy. So, in an attempt to get away from non-moving queues and hoards of people standing in hallways chatting, we darted into the PlayStation Experience to check out the majority of upcoming PS2 titles. Sony had done an impressive job of kitting out the hall with hundreds of PS2 pods and everything was coloured in the traditional PS2 dark-blue colour. The centre stage was used as a general area, where announcements were made and bands came on and played (if a bit too loudly), while the Eye-Toy stage showed off the new digital camera peripheral, which tracks your movements and uses them to interact with special games, such as the window-cleaning mini-game at the show where waving yellow sponges in the air wiped an on-screen window clean.
Every publisher had been given their own area, with ten PS2 pods each with which they could show off their upcoming games. Codemasters had a good stand, where both Colin McRae Rally 3 and TOCA Race Driver looking impressively smooth, containing very detailed tracks and cars to give the two titles a good amount of realism. However, in the graphical stakes, Sony's own World Rally Championship (WRC) 2 won hands down, with tracks more akin to those found in Rallisport Challenge on the Xbox as opposed to anything previously seen on the PS2. Continuing the racing theme, Capcom had a good number of pods showing off Auto Modellista, where the cel-shaded graphics were impressing onlookers, and the link-up play also proved very entertaining.
Sony's much vaunted GTA3 killer, The Getaway, made a substantial appearance at the show in its own alcove, with some very impressive graphics recreating London down to the tiniest detail. However, while it certainly was looking the part, many noticed that the streets were suprisingly devoid of pedestrians; hopefully a problem that will be addressed before the title's release. Other titles such as Eidos' Tomb Raider and Ubi Soft's XIII were also looking very promising in terms of graphics, but were very, very early versions that still contained a few obvious bugs.
Electronic Arts' stand was taken up mostly showing off their RPG/hack-and-slash mix, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which was looking very good with many nice effects such as rain and realistic fog creating a nice sense of atmosphere. The character models also bore a good resemblance to their film counterparts, although it remains to be seen whether the gameplay can offer more than repetative battling. On the other side of the hall, Rage was displaying Lamborghini, which looked on-par with the Xbox version, and graphically a challenger to GT3's throne.
Overall, the PlayStation Experience was a very good event, and it was great to see Sony focussing their attentions on Europe again. From the games on offer, it's safe to say that the PlayStation 2 still has a rosy future, despite the launches of both Xbox and GameCube earlier this year. However, people we spoke to at the show were left wondering "where's Microsoft?", and indeed it seems that no-one knows what is in store for Xbox later this year and the next. With Xbox Live supposedly in the pipeline, we were convinced that the company would be rolling out their marketing artillery around ECTS time in preparation for a big battle, but with the PS2 still selling twice as many units, and Sony having a highly successful consumer/trade show under their belt, it's beginning to look like the war has already been won. Meanwhile, we patiently wait to see what Microsoft's next move is.
Marc Hull
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