I got home from my doctor's appointment just a few minutes after the Sony press conference started, so I turned on the TV, sat back, and looked at what Sony had to offer.

I started watching at the beginning of a very short demonstration of Resistance 2 where they showed off the Leviathan, a huge 300 foot tall monster that they had teased about in pre-E3 demonstrations. The demo starts off with the Leviathan slowly approaching Nathan Hale and crew, swatting an approaching airplane out of the sky on the way over. The monster then proceeds to pick Hale up, only to be greeted by a rocket to the mouth. The monster recoils a bit, then throws him onto the balcony of a nearby building. Hale runs up a few flights of stairs to the roof of the building, and starts running across a very unstable looking makeshift bridge. The Leviathan hits the bridge, but of course it doesn't break. When Hale reaches the other end of the bridge the monster hits it again and destroys it.

Hale then runs down multiple flights of stairs while the monster hits the building repeatedly. He then jumps out a window and runs around the side of the building, only to be picked up by the monster again. Another rocket to the face, and he gets tossed at least a few hundred feet. He hits the ground and immediately gets up. And by immediately I mean he is standing up again literally two seconds later. After all, being thrown 500 feet is no big deal, right? Hale is told through radio that there have been explosive charges planted on a bridge, and it's his job to lure it under a bridge so the demolitions team can detonate it. The demonstration then comes to an end.

All in all, it looks pretty cool, though for a demonstration of a shooter there really wasn't much shooting involved. It was just a lot of running. Still, the Leviathan is a damn scary creature, and it really showed off how good this game looks. The Leviathan is highly detailed despite its huge size, and everything just pretty much looks great, except that it looks a little... fake when Nathan Hale moves. I think it may be that there's not enough camera bob. Compared with how phenomenal the rest of the game looks, it just seems a little off.

After the demo Ted Price talked about the game for a little bit and then Jack Tretton came back on stage and moved onto LittleBigPlanet. This part was pretty clever. Sony had Media Molecule create a level in the game to act as a slideshow while Jack Tretton talked business and numbers. For example, SackBoy pulled on a lever that brought down a sign showing how many units the PlayStation 3 had sold this year to date. The sign then bumped into a ball, the ball rolled and fell into a cup, and acted as a weight and pulled the cup downwards, which pulled up a sign showing how many units of PSPs they sold. The business parts of the E3 press conferences is always the most boring part for consumers, but Sony managed to make it relatively entertaining by cleverly incorporating LittleBigPlanet into their presentation. It really demonstrates what you can do with the game, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting it whenever I get my PS3.

Jack then talked about how great support for the PS2 still was and played a reel showing many of the games coming out for PS2 this year. Of course, most of them will be available on next-gen consoles or just aren't all that good looking, but I guess the point is that people are still making games for this thing. And that's a pretty big feat.

After they were done talking about the PS2, they moved to PSN. They announced that very soon PSN would have a single sign-in ID for every platform. You'll also be able to login to your account on the web and see your friends list and messages and the like. Good news for when I get my PS3.

They then announced a new title coming to PSN this summer. Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty. It's a bite-sized Ratchet & Clank game for a cheaper price ($15). I'm a huge fan of the series, so this would have been an amazing surprise for me--if I didn't already know about it. Back in April, a list of PSN titles being released in the following few months was leaked. Quest for Booty was on that list. Over the coming months, the list proved to be pretty accurate, so Quest for Booty seemed pretty likely to exist. Then when various rating boards started giving the title ratings, it was pretty much confirmed to exist. Anyway, gameplay-wise, it's similar to Tools of Destruction but with a heavier focus on platforming and puzzle-solving. One of the new additions to gameplay is that Ratchet's wrench can now manipulate certain objects in the environment. Definitely going to mooch off my friend's PS3 to play it, and probably buy it when I get my own PS3.

Next they showed off a bit more of Home. Tretton promises that when it's finally made publicly available, our patience will be rewarded. Home never really interested me that much, and it still doesn't. It's a cool concept, but I just prefer a 2D interface without all the avatars and whatnot.

Then they announced full-length movies and television shows available for rental and purchase on the PlayStation store. It's probably not a feature I would use much. I think I rented a movie once on Xbox Live to get rid of some spare points, but otherwise I don't usually touch this stuff. What I think is pretty neat though is that you can transfer those movies and TV shows to your PSP and watch them on there.

Speaking of the PSP, they announced Resistance: Retribution, an exclusive title for the portable system. It looks alright. They then played another reel showing a bunch of previously announced games for PSP.

Back to the PS3. They announced Life With PlayStation, a news and weather service for the PS3. Okay, sure. Next they showed a trailer and talked a little about DC Universe Online. You create your own character and build your repuutation while fighting alongside famous characters from various DC comics. It looks like an alright game, but I'm not really a big comic buff so I can't imaginemyself picking it up.

Sony then announced an 80GB PS3 Core Package for $399. It has the same functionality as the current 40GB PS3, but the storage has been doubled. I wonder if this means they're dropping the $499 model. An extra $100 doesn't seem worth it for two more USB ports, card readers, and software backward compatibility. Of course the $499 model comes with Metal Gear Solid 4, so I guess that means it's technically only $40 more for the extra stuff. I wish they would just drop the price already, instead of introducing new SKUs with bigger hard drives. The PS3 has been around for almost 2 years, and its cheapest model is still $100 above the initial price of all three consoles last gen. I know consoles go way beyond games nowadays, which is most likely why they're so expensive, but it really takes a toll on my wallet.

After another reel of PS3 games, the conference was about to come to a close. I was pretty disappointed that there were no really big announcements. But wait... they still had a few things up their sleeve. They then announced a new title: God of War III! Awesome! They then showed a trailer, but it was just a pre-rendered teaser trailer, which was a bit of a letdown, but at least we know it exists.

Immediately after God of War III, they showed a trailer for inFamous. Believe it or not, this is the game I was anticipating most at E3. The trailer talked about some of the story and showed many quick flashes of gameplay. I was not disappointed by what I saw.

Afterwards, they had one last game to show off. That game turned out to be Massive Action Game. Yes, it is actually called Massive Action Game. It's a multiplayer shooter, but with a twist. There can be up to 256 players playing at once playing a match. I thought Resistance 2 was impressive with its 60 player multiplayer, but MAG ups the ante with over four times that amount. MAG is squad-based, with 32 squads of eight fighting on a massive map. Your character's skills will grow as you play. They then showed another pre-rendered trailer for the game.

I'm kind of worried that this game won't work. 60 players is a lot, but a 256 player match just seems like it'd be total carnage, as well as extremely laggy. Also, from what I understand, they're also employing a leadership system in the game--that is, some players will be leaders of their squads and get to give their squad orders. Now judging by the experience I've had with most online first-person shooters, nobody really listens to anything a squad leader says. Everyone just does their own thing, and I don't really see this being any different. I just don't think it'll come to be as amazing as it sounds. If they can pull this off, however, this could really be one of the most amazing multiplayer shooters ever. For now, though, I'm doubtful.

After MAG was done, the conference ended. Overall, it was pretty good. They really should have showed more demos though. Microsoft was really good with showing us actual gameplay of their games. They had five live demos, opposed to Sony's measly two. Still, it was better than what Nintendo had to offer. I actually haven't watched Nintendo's, but I read multiple blogs recapping all the announcements and whatnot, and man, what a disappointment. A new Animal Crossing and a Grand Theft Auto game for the DS (which I can't imagine being very good) is all you have to show? Lame, Nintendo, lame. I've been debating between getting either a PS3 or a Wii for the past few months (I've been slightly leaning toward the PS3 side) and Nintendo's conference cemented my decision to definitely get a PS3 over a Wii. Sorry, Nintendo, but if you want my money you really gotta get the ball rolling. Animal Crossing just isn't enough to satisfy me.

Tomorrow I think I'll be doing an impressions blog on all the individual games I've seen demoed here at GameSpot and elsewhere. I have to go back and watch some of them, since I missed a whole bunch. I've been watching GameSpot's live coverage on and off throughout the past few days.