Direct from E3: The Sony press conference

Sorry we couldn’t liveblog this, boys and girls, but there wasn’t any wifi in the Los Angeles Memorial Arena. Better late than never, eh?

We’re here with the drunks and the fanboys – it’s the Sony E3 press conference!

SCEE of America head Jack Tretton takes the stage.  “Every announcement and everything that is said will be scrutinised.” Here’s hoping that Sony is a tad more exciting than Microsoft this morning.

Beyond : Two Souls

• New IP from developers Quantic Dream, who made Heavy Rain.
• Jodie Holmes main character, and you play through a story that follows her over 15 years of her life. “You’ll go through happy and difficult times,” says the Quantic Dream representative.
• Jodie is played by Ellen Page (and no, we’re not confusing this with The Last of Us).
• I personally found the statement of, “only Ellen Page can play this role,” when we get treated to a character who’s mute for 99% of the trailer we’re shown.

PS All-Stars Battle Royale

• The game will also be available on Vita. The PS3 and Vita copies are both cross-play and cross-save compatible.
• Gameplay is shown. Each character has levels of special attacks; 3 seems to be the highest. As you fight, you build energy for a special attack that is stronger with each level.
• The arenas that you fight in have interactive designs; we saw the Hydra from GoW, plus electric fences and travelators that propelled you into danger.
• Two new characters are revealed: Nathan Drake and Big Daddy.
• Available Christmas 2012.

PlayStation Plus

• North Americans get 12 more games this month.
• PSone Classics coming to Vita – Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VII and more.

Call of Duty: Declassified

• Call of Duty: Declassified coming to PS Vita for Christmas.

Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation

• Liberation built from the ground up for PS Vita.
• “First EVER female Assassin.”
• You’ll be able to unlock items in Liberation using your ACIII save.
• New bundle pack will be available with a Crystal-White PS Vita and 4GB of memory, plus Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation.

Assassin’s Creed III

• You’ll control a ship on the high seas.
• Connor, as captain of the vessel, controls navigation and cannons of the ship.
• A bundle pack with a copy of ACIII, the game, and DLC exclusive to PS3.

Far Cry 3

• Four -player co-op has now been confirmed for Far Cry 3.
• A map editor will also be included in the title.
• Free exclusive DLC  for the PS3 will be attached to Far Cry 3.

Wonderbook

• It’s like a choose your own adventure AR book, basically.
• The book peripheral gets an  augmented reality layer placed over its TV image.
• Diggs Nightcrawler one of the first titles for Wonderbook.
• Book of Spells is the first Wonderbook, and by J K Rowling
• You’ll use the Move wand as your magic wand as you read.
• It doesn’t seem to work extremely well; the live demo had far more hiccups than expected.
• Wonderbook is coming in Q3.

PlayStation Suite

• As outlined in the past, available for Android smartphones and tablets.
• HTC has become the first partner in the PlayStation Certified program.
• Their first Certified phone is called HTC one.
• Officially, the PlayStation Suite has been renamed PlayStation Mobile.

God of War Ascension

• We’re treated to some brutal gameplay. Kratos is as polished as ever.
• Release date 12 March 2013.

The Last of Us

• The gameplay we see is beautiful.
• Can’t help but feel that the presentation of the game was extremely scripted. The player purposefully put himself in dire situations and wasted ammo in order to create scripted responses from other characters.

That’s it from Sony! Thanks for joining us!