Game Tapes 02: The Power of the Cell

Lair was wretched, but I think it had enough potential to have a sequel that could have thrown out a lot of deadwood and made it good. The second or third mission where you fly over a huge battlefield, raining fire onto battalions of soldiers and occasionally landing and absolutely wrecking shop was pretty rad.

Flower was definitely a good use of Sixaxis controls. I agree, most games using sixaxis felt forced but I like how natural flying around felt in Flower.

I bought a launch PS3, 50% for the games and 50% for the blu ray capability, but there was no way on God's green earth I was paying £425+ for the thing.

Fortunately I had a friend working out in Hong Kong and on a trip over there bought a 60GB for around £225. Region-free games, oh yes!

That model also had the hardware PS2 emulation compared to the software emulation UK models shipped with, but that ended up meaning next to nothing for me because the PS2 stuff was region locked.

As a games machine it was fine, although it had the Japanese 'O for accept, X for cancel' controller stuff, but steadily more and more BD movies got region coded and I ended up with a standalone blu ray player as well, which pushed the total price not far off what I would have paid for a UK spec PS3.

It ended up getting accidentally dropped on a concrete floor (and making a dent in the floor) and I had to buy a Slim...

Woof, Brad. XIII's combat, fun? Too each their own I suppose. It was a much restricted version of the stuff XII did, with some of its own neat twists that didn't quite make up for the shortcomings. I super can't stand the limitations on dictating what your party members do to just knowing their behavior priority in any given role when the previous game in the series let you basically program your party to function the way you want it to.

Maybe I'm a minority in XIII's combat being the thing that put me off it though.

Great series aside though, these first two videos are a good mix of enlightening and hilarious.

Amazing feature! I love everything about this, brought back so many memories. That was right around the time I started watching the E3 press conferences (at terrible framerates and resolution because bandwidth was terrible back then lol) after reading so much about these legendary events. I do remember thinking this press conference was a shit show even back then though, I literally bought a 360 a few weeks after watching it. In hindsight it is very impressive how they managed to turn the PS3 around, but I feel like it took several years before they could undo the damage, and really it wasn't until the PS4 that they fully corrected their mistakes. Great piece of videogame history.

Game tapes is one of the best new features in a long time

Drewnal Dantasy when?

Kazuo Hirai in 2006, making unsettling "woop" noises presenting the Sony E3 Press Conference. Now President and CEO of the entire Sony corporation.

This was certainly more boring than I remembered but still fascinating. I want to see J Allard sitting on a stage next!

I miss tennis games too, Jeff.

It's Ridge Racer. RIIIIIIIIIDDDDGGGGGEEEE RAAAAACCCCCCEEEERRRRR!

Kaz just talks to the camera. These days Sony talks to the audience.

I like to come here for info on games for purchasing advice and decisions, but I can only roll my eyes when they talk shit about other people's video content. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Alright, this is what I hoped this feature would eventually become. A "classic."

Interesting stuff.

PS3 was definitely my preferred platform last generation. I think I got my 60GB (which is still running, still hooked up under my PS4) when MGS4 released? Specifically for Gran Turismo HD Concept (which I still have installed on it) and MGS4. GT HD looked so damn good. I feel like I remember hearing later on that GT HD Concept did actually run at 1080p 60 but GT5 etc did not? To this day you can still see how smooth that "demo" runs and looks.

I'm of the opinion that the consoles had reversed positions toward the end of that generation. I found the exclusives to be much more interesting on the Sony platform and developers were still getting a grasp on the hardware so the later games started to edge out the 360 stuff. I'm sure people will disagree :P

It looks like I have 119 games on PS3 (physical and digital) compared to 33 on the Xbox 360 (22 of those X360 games appear to be exclusives). I always thought that each console had their pros and cons, and multiplayer stuff was the big one for the 360, and I am not really into multiplayer stuff. I also loved all the features (backwards compatibility mostly) of the 60GB model, and it seems to be the most sought after model of the generation today.

Other Notes:

• I love that little developer rolling list there at the end and the "From Software" name just there.. Not really meaning much at the time? Even the guys didn't comment on it. Who knew FS would come out of no where and release a game that'd have an effect on the industry as a whole.
• This conference feels soooo flat compared to the current stuff. It's crazy to think that even with them removing most of that extra garbage from the most recent presentations, I still feel like there are so many games that don't get enough screen time. There are so many interesting games these days!
• I remember the Blu-Ray drive being an easy justification for that price back then, if you were into that. It may have seemed expensive for a gaming console, but was cheap for a Blu-Ray player. If you looked at it that way, the price was easier to shrug off.
• I don't know what kind of drugs Brad is on talking about FF13's combat being good... Man that game was disappointing.
• I remember thinking that Eye of Judgement thing was incredible. Never did play it though.

Man, looking back the seventh generation consoles had some pretty rough launch lineups.

Got my ps 3 pretty late, and plugged in an ssd into it, the whole thing was less than 150 new, the 60gb ssd drive was 60€ I really enjoyed playing trough all the exclusives of ps3 like getting last of us and all of the uncharted games for literally 10€ they were awesome.

i think these guys streaming this are really missing how many gamers are still on ps3 for example metal gear solid 5 phantom pain was still released on ps3 and is fine, not great, but fine.

"Now that's what I call a duck!" t-shirts coming soon to the GB apparel store

@belowstupid: Yeah I'm sure Sony are whiping away the tears with dollar bills right now. Someone should stop these cyberbullies.

Seriously they didn't even "talk shit" about anything in this video, just commented on things at that time and what is different now. They even played down the meme stuff that came out of this as overblown.

I rewatched this about a couple of years ago. Boy, have the times changed They don't make 'em like they used to!

Cool to see the Bomb crew's input.

God, that end song. I feel like I used to hear it everywhere, now for the life of me can't remember what it was called.

In any case this was amazing, I would be really curious to see the Nintendo Wii reveal E3 conference or perhaps a return to the Ubisoft Mr Caffeine man. Loving these videos!

Man I loved Heavenly Sword. Ninja Theory is such an amazing company that gets like no respect.

Brad: "What are the odds that a Zippo would stay lit if you threw it like that?"

Me: "Get the Mythbusters on it...Oh wait, right. T_T"

@connall: Galvanise by The Chemical Brothers. ;)

@redking56: I don't care about anybody's feelings but they love to make fun of other stuff they can't even do as well themselves, GB video production is a step above YouTube stuff at best.

I love it anytime side-talking comes up on Giant Bomb!

Also, thanks Drew for mentioning the B-Boy Quick Look. I missed that one. It's gold!

Thanks GB for these. It's been a pleasure to get your take on these old events and footage years later.

Brad, you did not just say what you said about XIII.

I remember people being dissapointed about the length of Heavenly Sword. The actual gameplay seemed to be well received though.

Now that's what I call a duck

Final Fantasy XIII was fun and Lightning is hella cool. Eff the haters.

@jesushammer: MASSIVE DAMAGE

I do wish more games would explore the concept of heroes becoming old and run-down. As much as I disliked MGS4 and a lot of its themes and delivery, the way the mechanics enforced the fact that Snake was basically rotting away was really great. Bodily pains, coughing fits, his voice going from gravelly to nearly impossible to understand, it was awesome.

Max Payne 3 touched on some of the same things, but it never affected the gameplay. He talked big game about being fat and drunk, but he was spry as a professional athlete.

I like how when the MGS 4 trailer starts up Drew smiles like a proud dad.

I know of exactly ONE good use of Six Axis: The install screen of Binary Domain

This press conference has it's moments, but they're subtle ones (besides the giant enemy crab). It's more things in retrospect that you look at now and just shake your head at. In general, it's not that bad of a presentation, but it seemed to define Sony during this generation of consoles: completely oblivious and unreasonably self-assured. Remember the Sony quotes about how you won't need a PC anymore?

That said, I honestly would take this over Mr. Caffeine any day.

14 minutes in and no applause breaks: I like it.

This was amazing in more ways than I can think of.

BLADESTORM REPRESENT

It is pretty funny hearing their promises for their online features knowing how ass all of that was on PS3.

God, I remember paying the £425 launch price. I have zero memories of any fucking games released prior to MGS4. but I remember handing over that cash. Goddamn.

That was at the point when £1 was worth $2 exactly, too, to rub salt in the wound.

And I got a yellow light of death within about 18 months. The PS3 pretty much single-handedly put me off consoles entirely.

Now that's what I call a, "duck".

Sean Paul... I think my child was conceived to "We be burning." She's turning 10 in May. Where the hell has the time gone?

Man, Sony was just so goddamn cocky in this. Kaz just swaggering his way across the stage like all this shit is a done deal and they've already won the generation. How very wrong they were.

The PSP was alright for some wierd small NA games and excellent for RPGs that never came out beyond Japan. :P

Ah, Gears of War and Resistance: Your BrownGray PS360 Future

Lightning: remember when mentioning of her name and seeing her face didn't elicit groans born of blase over-exposure? Remember when she was cool?

Ah, Krazy Ken you krazy bastard, you Don Mattrick before Don Mattrick, you shining krazy diamond.

"And now, a large list of Japanese developers fucked sideways for investing in our boondoggle console early."

The way dude parked the aircraft is the perfect metaphor for that Sony conference.

I'd forgotten how much that guy gesticulated while he was doing that bit. Remember how you'd be playing NES as a kid, and one of your friends who didn't play games wanted to have a shot at it? Remember how they'd move the controller around like it'd somehow influence what was going on onscreen? That's exactly what Warhawk guy looked like.

Also, YO SONY DID YOU KNOW AUSTRALIA DOESN'T USE EURO AS ITS CURRENCY

Folklore is a totally okay game.

This is my new favourite thing on the site. Not only is it typically humorous, but I also like the history lessons(reminders).