E3 2012: PlayStation Keynote Liveblog(?!)

Good morning. I wanted to try something different. Sony is minutes away from kicking off their keynote media presser at E3. I’m tuned to their crazy elaborate live feed over at their live-streaming page. I’m gonna try to keep up with what’s being shown on screen. Enjoy the show.

8.59am – All ready to go!

9.01am – PlayStation IPs flashing on screen. LBP, Journey, PS Move, PS Vita… Hardly a Halo 4 demo…

9.03am – Oh Sony Smash Bros. Brawl. That should be kicking today.

9.06am – PS CEO Jack Tretton goes on stage. Addresses the gaming nation. Honours the gamer. “Never Stop Gaming”.

9.08am – Kaz Hirai is introduced by Jack. He loves him. Awww…

9.10am – Quantic Dream’s David Cage takes the stage, introduces next project, “Beyond: Two Souls”.

9.12am – Protagonist of Beyond will be played by Ellen Page, star of Juno. David rolls real-time gameplay demo.

9.14am – The coffee mug is shaking!! This is some crazy Sixth Sense thing!

9.15am – Still no idea where she’s from. Not surprising. Ooh, a voice. “they’re coming”. SWAT TEAM. They want the girl!

9.16am – End of segment. So is she in the room or did she escape? Ooh, rain. She’s dangerous. Beyond: Two Souls.

9.18am – Beyond will appear to have choice-making like Heavy Rain… or was that just a play on words?

9.19am – Back to Jack. Looks like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

9.20am – A team of six enters the stage. FIGHT.

9.21am – PSASBR will be cross-playable on PS Vita… no wait. AT THE SAME TIME!?

9.22am – Summary of what he’s saying: The different characters will have different styles of fighting. Everything is going so fast.

9.25am – No visible trouble or lag between PS3 and PS Vita controls there. Pretty cool.

9.26am – Unveiling two new characters for PSASBR. Uncharted Theme plays. NATE. Ooh, Bioshock’s Big Daddy.

9.28am – PSASBR: PS3 and PS Vita Cross-play and Cross-save features.

9.29am – Jack announces Cross-play Cross-controller for LBP2, adding PS Vita gyro to the LBP control mix.

9.30am – PlayStation Plus to be amplified with Free Games. Does not define “free”. Free games will be available from tomorrow (i.e. later today).

9.32am – In-house audience gets a year’s free PS Plus membership. MAN.

9.35am – Hulu Plus and Crackle TV coming to Vita… not for us, of course.

9.36am – Call of Duty on PS Vita. Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified coming this holiday.

9.37am – Assassin’s Creed? Assassin’s Creed! PS Vita! As rumoured! It’s a female protagonist. Assassin’s Creed: Liberation.

9.38am – Linking AC3 and ACL will offer exclusive content unlocks. Crystal White ACL bundle announced.

9.39am – AC3 gameplay demo. NAVAL BATTLES. It’s naval battles!

9.42am – There. No more secrets. Chain cannons and rough seas! Assassins by sea! Ubisoft must love PlayStation to reveal this here!

9.44am – AC3 PS3 Hardware bundle with exclusive DLC announced.

9.45am – Far Cry 3 now. Sticking to Ubisoft. Ooh, 4-player co-op gameplay demo.

9.49am – More PS Exclusive DLC for PS Fans, this time on Far cry 3.

9.50am – Jack moves to PS Move now (get it?).

9.51am – Andrew House takes the stage for the future of PS Move.

9.52am – Looks like a book with Augmented Reality for the PS Move. “Wonderbook” for PS3.

9.53am – They authors on hand for books, including Moonbot Studios and… AND. J.K. Rowling. “Book of Spells”.

9.55am – Book of Spells will feature spell-casting using the PS Move controller as a wand.

9.57am – Dragon sets your book alight. Pat the fire away using your hands!

9.58am – “Paper” story-telling theatre pop-ups on the Wonderbook. Great way to tell a story.

9.59am – Proper spells now. Alohomora. Incendio. PS Move gestures casts the spell, much like the HP Spells app on iOS.

10.01am – Burning paper bugs and enchanted paper butterflies now. Remember we learnt Incendio?

10.03am – “Book of Spells” does not seem to be related to Pottermore at this point, but Sony’s collaboration with JKR did help.

10.05am – PlayStation Suite for Mobile now. HTC to be first outside of Sony’s first-party mobile devices to have PS Suite.

10.07am –  PlayStation Suite also renamed to PlayStation Mobile.

10.08am – Jack Tretton appears to be wrapping up…No, wait. Hold the phone.

10.09am – God of War 4. What you’ve been waiting for, yeah?

10.10am – Brutal. Who want’s ram’s head stew?

10.11am – Camera pans out to show there is a guy playing the gameplay demo. Quick-timed event!

10.12am – A kraken appears in the distance. Kratos has LEGO reassembly temporal powers now.

10.13am – Kratos stabs the Kraken. A statue comes alive! FINISH HIM.

10.14am – Could Kratos always scale walls like that, or has he been talking to Nathan Drake?

10.15am – Fighting an elephant beast now. More brutality. Animal rights groups will not like that.

10.16am – “God of War: Ascension, March 12, 2013”

10.18am – “The Last of Us” now, of course. Girl looks like Ellen Page. Is everything Ellen Page tonight?

10.19am – The hotel’s in bad shape. I love exploring. Oh, bad guys!

10.20am – Guns at the ready. Stealth takeout! Oh, not so stealthy anymore.

10.21am – Health bar does not appear to regenerate. You can hold enemies as a human shield!

10.22am – AI interaction! The girl will help you out!

10.23am – You can create makeshift molotovs with what you have in your backpack, it appears.

10.24am – The whole thing is very cinematic. Does that mean PS wins best of showfloor?

10.25am – Jack closes. For reals this time. “Never Stop Playing”.

10.26am – That wraps-up the keynote. Stay tuned for the conference roundup and then at midnight for the Nintendo Presser. Thanks for tuning in!