PS3 Exclusives
What does Sony have in store for the coming months?
So far this month we’ve seen the release of three of Sony’s much-touted PS3 exclusives, Lair, Warhawk and Heavenly Sword. Unfortunately, reviews for these games have ranged from “nearly great” (Heavenly Sword) and “pretty good” (Warhawk), on down to “just awful” (Lair).
Heavenly Sword: Like God of War, only with more tits and less personality.
If Sony is going to have a chance of making a comeback in the current console market, they are going to have to have the kind of exclusives that blow the competition out of the water. It’s going to take the next GTA or Metal Gear to justify the added expense of a PS3, and I’m not talking about a sequel. I mean a new intellectual property that will have widespread, worldwide appeal.
PS3 is in desperate need of another pop culture phenomenon like it had in the golden days of GTA: Vice City
It certainly doesn’t help matters that Sony has lost exclusivity for such high profile titles as Beautiful Katamari, GTA IV, Virtua Fighter 3 and Assassin’s Creed. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a sliver lining out there for PS3 owners and Sony stockholders. Dozens of hotly anticipated exclusive titles are scheduled for release on PS3 over the course of the coming year.
Oh no! Sony fails to retain exclusivity of Beautiful Katamari, now set to come out only on XBOX 360!
First let’s start with the obvious ones. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. If any two games are going to get PS2 owners to make the jump to next-gen, it’ll be these. Strangely though, there are surprisingly few RPGs in development for the PS3 other than FFXIII and Folklore (formerly known as Monster Kingdom). Let’s hope that this core Playstation user base is not overlooked, as RPGs have always been one of Sony’s strong suits.
FFXIII finally ditches the effeminate male lead in exchange for an ACTUAL FEMALE, seen here wielding a reasonably sized sword.
A few other familiar franchises will be making a return as well, with Ratchet & Clank, Devil May Cry, Tekken, Wipeout and even God Of War making return appearances. Anybody that played the previous God Of War games would probably tell you that they were among the best they’ve ever played. Just imagine that experience accelerated by the PS3’s accelerated processing power, and it’s pretty easy to see why someone might be excited about that.
Is Kratos the new Mario for a bloodthirsty, sadistic generation of murder-crazed children?
Sports and racing fans will have something to look forward to as well. Grand Turismo and Ridge Racer will have new installments coming exclusively to the PS3. NBA 08 and MLB 08: The Big Show will also be exclusive. Sports fans make up another core audience of Playstation players, so it will benefit Sony greatly if these titles become the definitive sports games of the year.
Actual, honest to goodness gameplay pic from Grand Turismo 5. I SHIT YOU NOT.
What about shooters? Sony is going to have its work cut out for it facing off against Microsoft’s Halo 3. Sony is prepared with the latest installments of SOCOM, Killzone and Time Crisis (complete with a newly redesigned lightgun!), as well as a new property designed by Sony called The Agency, which is something like an MMO, only with assassins and gunplay instead of elves and magic.
Sony promises that The Agency will be at least this bitchin’, if not more so.
Sony may even have a few tricks up their sleeve that could potentially shake up the industry with a few of their upcoming, brand new exclusives. One of our favorites is Little Big Planet, which allows users to easily create their own platformers and play them online with friends in a sort of online gaming community. Infamous challenges players to take on the role of a budding superhero (think: Unbreakable), deciding whether or not to use their powers for good or for personal gain. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune also looks good with it’s action packed take on the exploration-heavy Tomb Raider formula. Finally, there’s Afrika, a safari sim and The Eye Of Judgment, a camera based game that has you physically acting out your attacks.
How badly do you want to stomp on those little buggers? Not at all? Just me? Okay, suit yourself.
Will any of these exclusives help Sony to take back its long-held throne in the battle for console supremacy? Only time will tell. And if not, hey, at least we’ll be able to play most of ‘em on our XBOX 360s six to eight months later!
